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Captain Marvel (film)

2019 Marvel Studios film

Captain Marvel is a 2019 American superhero film based on Marvel Comics featuring the character Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the 21st film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck from a screenplay they co-wrote with Geneva Robertson-Dworet. It stars Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, alongside Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan, Annette Bening, Clark Gregg, and Jude Law. Set in 1995, the story follows Danvers as she becomes Captain Marvel after Earth is caught in a galactic conflict. Development began by May 2013. The film was officially announced in October 2014 as Marvel Studios' first female-led project. Nicole Perlman and Meg LeFauve were hired to write it the following April after submitting separate takes on the character, and borrowed elements from Roy Thomas's 1971 "Kree–Skrull War" comic book storyline. Larson was announced as Danvers at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con, with Boden and Fleck hired to direct in April 2017. Robertson-Dworet was soon hired to re-write the script, and the rest of the cast were added by the start of filming. Location shooting began in January 2018, with principal photography starting that March in California and concluding in Louisiana in July 2018. Several actors reprise their roles from previous MCU films, including Jackson and Gregg. They were both digitally de-aged in post-production to reflect the film's 1990s setting. Captain Marvel premiered in London on February 27, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on March 8 as part of Phase Three of the MCU. The film grossed over $1.1 billion worldwide, making it the first female-led superhero film to pass the billion-dollar mark. It became the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2019 and was the 23rd-highest-grossing film of all time during its theatrical run. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the performances—particularly Larson's. Audience responses were also positive, although the audience reception section on Rotten Tomatoes was subject to review bombing. A sequel, The Marvels, was released on November 10, 2023. ## Plot In 1995, on the Kree Empire's capital planet of Hala, Starforce member Vers suffers from amnesia and recurring nightmares involving an older woman. Yon-Rogg, her mentor and commander, trains Vers to control her abilities, while the Supreme Intelligence, the artificial intelligence that rules the Kree, urges her to keep her emotions in check. During a mission to rescue an undercover operative infiltrating a group of Skrulls, alien shapeshifters with whom the Kree are at war, Vers is captured by Skrull commander Talos. A probe of Vers' memories leads them to Earth. Vers escapes and crash-lands in Los Angeles. Her presence attracts S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Nick Fury and Phil Coulson, whose investigation is interrupted by a Skrull attack. Vers recovers a crystal containing her extracted memories in the ensuing chase while Fury kills a Skrull impersonating Coulson. Talos, disguised as Fury's boss Keller, orders Fury to work with Vers and keep tabs on her. Using her extracted memories, Vers and Fury go to the Project Pegasus installation at a U.S. Air Force base. They discover that Vers was a pilot presumed to have died in 1989 while testing an experimental light-speed engine designed by Dr. Wendy Lawson, whom Vers recognizes as the woman from her nightmares. Fury informs S.H.I.E.L.D. of their location and a team arrives. Fury realizes that Keller is Talos and helps Vers escape in a jet with Lawson's stowaway cat, Goose. They fly to Louisiana to meet former pilot Maria Rambeau, the last person to see Vers and Lawson alive. Rambeau and her daughter Monica reveal that Vers is Carol Danvers, who was once like family to them. Talos, arriving unarmed, explains that the Skrulls are refugees searching for a new home and that Lawson was Mar-Vell, a renegade Kree scientist helping them. Talos plays a recovered blackbox recording from Lawson's jet, prompting Danvers to remember the crash: Yon-Rogg killed Mar-Vell to prevent her from destroying the engine before the Kree could recover it. Destroying the engine herself, Danvers absorbed the energy from the ensuing explosion, gaining powers but losing her memory. Danvers, Talos, Fury, and Rambeau locate Lawson's cloaked laboratory orbiting Earth, where Lawson hid several Skrulls, including Talos' family, and the Tesseract, the power source of Lawson's engine. There, Danvers is captured by Starforce and interfaces with the Supreme Intelligence. Danvers removes the Kree implant that suppressed her powers during their encounter, allowing her to reach her full potential. In the subsequent battle, Fury retrieves Goose, who is revealed to be an alien Flerken. Goose swallows the Tesseract and scratches Fury, blinding his left eye. Danvers destroys a Kree bomber, forcing Kree officer Ronan the Accuser and his squadron to retreat. Danvers overpowers Yon-Rogg and sends him to Hala with a warning for the Supreme Intelligence. She then departs to help the Skrulls find a new homeworld, leaving Fury a modified pager to contact her in an emergency. Fury drafts an initiative to locate heroes like Danvers, naming it after her Air Force call sign, "Avenger". In a mid-credits scene, set in 2018, the activated pager is being monitored by the Avengers when Danvers appears looking for Fury. In a post-credits scene, Goose climbs onto Fury's desk and regurgitates the Tesseract. ## Cast - Brie Larson as Carol Danvers / Vers / Captain Marvel: An ex-U.S. Air Force fighter pilot and member of an elite Kree military unit called Starforce. She was imbued with superhuman strength, energy projection, and flight after exposure to Tesseract energy. Larson described Danvers as a "believer in truth and justice" and a "bridge between Earth and space", who must balance her unemotional Kree side with her "flawed" human half. Larson also called Danvers aggressive, quick-tempered, and invasive—attributes that help her in a fight but prove to be character flaws. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said Larson was cast because of her ability to balance the character's vast powers with her humanity. Due to concern that Larson (aged 26 when she was cast) was too young to portray an accomplished airman, screenwriter Nicole Perlman consulted with the Air Force, who said it was possible for someone to excel between the ages of 28 and 34. Larson trained for nine months for the role, learning judo, boxing, and wrestling. She also visited Nellis Air Force Base and met with active duty airmen, including Brigadier General Jeannie Leavitt and Thunderbirds pilot Major Stephen Del Bagno, in preparation for the role. Carol Danvers is portrayed as a thirteen-year-old by Mckenna Grace, and as a six-year-old by London Fuller. - Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury: The future director of S.H.I.E.L.D., who at this time is a low-level bureaucrat. Fury appears without his signature eye patch as the film is set before he loses his eye. Feige explained that Danvers is the first superhero that Fury has come across, which sets him on a path to his role working with heroes in later-set MCU films. Jackson described Fury at this point as a desk jockey, who has not yet become cynical towards bureaucracy and who learns in the film that there are superpowered beings who could help S.H.I.E.L.D. Jackson added that trusting Danvers plays a key role in his development, as they become "compatriots" throughout the film. Jackson was digitally de-aged by 25 years, the first time Marvel had done this for an entire film. - Ben Mendelsohn as Talos and Keller: Talos is the shape-shifting leader of the Skrulls who goes undercover at S.H.I.E.L.D. as Fury's boss, Keller. Mendelsohn described Keller as "buttoned up" compared to Talos's "more laid-back" Skrull persona. Mendelsohn uses an American accent inspired by former United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for Keller, and his native Australian accent for Talos; the latter was chosen, after a "lengthy discussion", due to what Mendelsohn called "earthy correctness". The makeup and prosthetics necessary to portray Talos took "a couple of hours" to apply. Executive producer Johnathan Schwartz added that "it's sort of fun to show off both the Skrull's powers and Ben's range as an actor" with the character. Talos also takes on a surfer-girl form, portrayed by Emily Ozrey and Abigaille Ozrey, and a Kree soldier disguise played by Duane Henry. An early version of the script had the character dying in the film. - Djimon Hounsou as Korath: A Kree swordsman and second-in-command of Starforce. Hounsou explained that Korath was "at his infancy" in the film compared to his appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), but was "still a humorless machine". - Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser: A high-ranking Kree official. Compared with his appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy, Ronan is not yet a "radical zealot", with his role in the Kree military intersecting with Starforce "in an interesting way". - Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau: One of Danvers' oldest friends and a fellow Air Force pilot who goes by the call sign "Photon". She is a single mother to daughter Monica. Lynch described Rambeau as "resilient" and someone "that you don't feel like you need to help". Larson called Rambeau "the representation of love" in the film and "an incredible badass". She described the friendship between Danvers and Rambeau as equal, with "a playful competitiveness [and a] mutual respect". Like Larson, Lynch met with active duty airmen in preparation for the role. In particular, she met with pilots who are also mothers. Lynch was excited to portray a character the audience would be proud of and could relate to, especially mothers and members of the black community, helping to continue "a real through-line" for African-American characters in the MCU after Black Panther (2018). - Gemma Chan as Minn-Erva: A Kree sniper and member of Starforce. Chan explained that Minn-Erva was "the star of Starforce" before Danvers joined the team and is "slightly threatened by someone else who has come in and is also very talented". - Annette Bening as the Supreme Intelligence and Mar-Vell / Dr. Wendy Lawson: The Supreme Intelligence is an artificial intelligence that is the collective embodiment of the greatest minds of the Kree people, and the ruler of the Kree Empire. It appears in different forms to each person, specifically to Vers as rebel Kree scientist Mar-Vell, who had disguised herself on Earth as Danvers' boss Dr. Wendy Lawson. Mar-Vell was originally written as a male love interest to Danvers as in the comics, but after struggling to cast the character, co-director Anna Boden suggested that they cast a woman instead, and tie her in to the Supreme Intelligence storyline by combining those characters. Boden said Bening was "regal" as the Supreme Intelligence, and "casual and cool and laid back" as Lawson. Feige said changing Mar-Vell's gender was important to Danvers' development in the film, giving her a female mentor. - Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson: A rookie agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. who works closely with Fury. Gregg said the film would be "the earliest we will have seen [Coulson in the MCU], so when he says 'Mr. Stark, this isn't my first rodeo' in Iron Man (2008), this is maybe the rodeo he's talking about." He had to work to portray Coulson as "a little less crusty and jaded" than he is in the present day of the MCU. Though Coulson encountered the Kree in the MCU television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Schwartz noted that Captain Marvel would not need to worry about that since it is a prequel where Kree is not even "part of his vocabulary yet". Like Jackson, Gregg was digitally de-aged by 25 years. - Jude Law as Yon-Rogg: The commander of Starforce and Danvers' mentor, who trains her to use her new powers. Law said that his character is "driven by a belief in the divine leadership of the Kree people. So he's almost a devout warrior—unquestioning, conservative, but inspirational." Law also stated that his character has a special relationship with Danvers, whom he views as a protégée, which becomes a source of tension in the film with the other members of Starforce. Robert Downey Jr., who portrays Tony Stark in the MCU films and who co-starred with Law in Sherlock Holmes (2009) and its sequel (2011), counseled him on working with Marvel before Law took the part. In October 2024, Law said he enjoyed making the film but wished that he was able to have more fun with the character and make him "more arch" and humorous. He signed a one-picture deal for the role. Additional members of Starforce include Algenis Pérez Soto as Att-Lass, the marksman of the team, and Rune Temte as Bron-Char, the "bigger, stronger guy who fights with his fists". Maria's daughter, Monica Rambeau, is played by Akira and Azari Akbar as an eleven-year-old and a five-year-old, respectively. Sharon Blynn portrays Soren, Talos' wife, while Auden L. Ophuls and Harriet L. Ophuls portray their daughter. Robert Kazinsky appears as a biker nicknamed "The Don". Vik Sahay plays a Torfan, while Chuku Modu portrays the Kree spy Soh-Larr. Colin Ford appears as Danvers' brother, Steve, and Kenneth Mitchell plays their father. Danvers' comic book cat Chewie (named for the Star Wars character Chewbacca) appears in the film, renamed Goose after the Top Gun (1986) character Nick "Goose" Bradshaw. Its name was changed since Star Wars is a contemporary franchise and not specific to Danvers, unlike the pilot-themed Top Gun. Goose is portrayed by four different cats, each chosen for their actions and personality: Reggie, Archie, Rizzo, and Gonzo. Patrick Brennan, who previously portrayed Marcus Daniels in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., appears as a bartender. Producer Victoria Alonso alluded to the possibility that the two were the same character. Real-life Air Force pilots Matthew "Spider" Kimmel and Stephen "Cajun" Del Bagno appear as themselves. Del Bagno died months prior to the film's release, and it is dedicated to his memory. Captain Marvel comic book writer Kelly Sue DeConnick makes a cameo appearance as a train station passerby, and Stan Lee, co-creator of Captain Marvel, appears posthumously as himself memorizing the lines for his cameo in Mallrats (1995). Reprising their MCU roles for the mid-credits scene are Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, and Don Cheadle as James "Rhodey" Rhodes. ## Production ### Development By May 2013, Marvel Studios' writing room had produced a script for a film featuring Ms. Marvel, an alias used by the character Carol Danvers before she took the mantle Captain Marvel. Later that year, executive producer Louis D'Esposito said the studio was interested in a female-driven superhero film and had plenty of "strong female characters" from which to choose, suggesting Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Pepper Potts, or Peggy Carter as possible candidates. Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios, said that if Marvel was to make a female-led film, he would prefer it to be a new character to the Marvel Cinematic Universe like Captain Marvel, for whom an origin story could be told. In August 2014, Feige stated that development had begun on a Captain Marvel film, and said members of the public asked about the project more often than Iron Man 4 or Avengers: Infinity War. In October 2014, Feige announced that Captain Marvel would be the studio's first female-led film, and would focus on Carol Danvers. It was given a release date of July 6, 2018, as part of their Phase Three slate of films. Feige said the film had been in development almost as long as Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Doctor Strange (2016), and one of its biggest challenges would be balancing the title character's "earthbound" adventures with her cosmic powers. He said a writer and director for the film would be announced soon, and female filmmakers were being considered for the project, but he could not promise that filmmakers from a certain demographic would be hired for the film. In February 2015, Marvel pushed the release date back to November 2, 2018, to accommodate Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017). In early April, Feige revealed that Captain Marvel had been included in an early draft of the Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) screenplay, but Marvel chose to remove this appearance because they did not want to introduce the character before they were able to explore her backstory and personality first. He also said that Marvel would announce writers for the film within a few weeks, and by mid-April, Guardians of the Galaxy co-screenwriter Nicole Perlman and Inside Out (2015) co-screenwriter Meg LeFauve were announced to be writing the screenplay. The duo were put together as a writing team after impressing Feige with separate takes on the character, and began work on the film within a month. Jessica Gao, who would later become the head writer for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022), also pitched for the film. LeFauve found the character being a female superhero to be both "wonderful" and a challenge, believing that the character's power-level could lead to the "Superman curse" of being perceived to be invulnerable. Additionally, LeFauve and Perlman found that writing a "story about a human and not get[ting] too overwhelmed by the worry of representing all women" worked best when approaching the story. An article about young girls who would quit learning to code after they encountered trouble made LeFauve and Perlman consider questions about females being taught they cannot make mistakes or embrace their own power. This helped the duo realize that "part of embracing your power is failure" and seeing it "more as feedback instead of your character". By May, Marvel had discussions with Ava DuVernay about directing Captain Marvel or Black Panther (2018), which Feige confirmed a month later, saying that he had met with DuVernay amongst a number of other directors and expected a decision to be made by mid- to late 2015. That September, Feige said that the casting process would not begin until 2016, as the studio did not want to try to cast Carol Danvers until they had decided on the direction for the character in the screenplay, as well as the structure of the film and the character's role in the rest of Marvel's Phase Three films. Producer Jeremy Latcham elaborated that "getting the character right first is going to lead the charge". In October 2015, Marvel changed the release date again, this time moving it to March 8, 2019, to make room for Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018). Feige stated in April 2016 that a director would be announced within a few months and that the first cast members would be announced in mid-2016. He also mentioned that the film would be about Carol Danvers becoming Captain Marvel. The next month, indie filmmaker Emily Carmichael's name surfaced as a possible contender to direct the film, and by June, Brie Larson emerged as the frontrunner to play Captain Marvel. Larson's casting was confirmed at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con. She was set to earn $5 million for the film. Larson was initially hesitant to accept the role, but "couldn't deny the fact that this movie is everything I care about, everything that's progressive and important and meaningful, and a symbol I wished I would've had growing up". She was able to bring to the part "some of those [deep emotional] things" she had used in previous, more "dramatic roles". Larson felt this would differentiate Captain Marvel from other superhero films. Also at Comic-Con, Feige said the search for a director had narrowed to ten candidates and he hoped to announce the final choice in the coming months. Perlman revealed in August that the character's origin story had been changed for the film because of similarities to the DC Comics character Green Lantern, with Feige explaining that the new story is centered on Danvers finding her limitations and vulnerabilities. He added that Danvers is the most powerful character in the MCU, and would become very important in the franchise. Producer Nate Moore said the film avoids the traditional structure of many MCU origin stories, which he described as a character having a problem before gaining "powers at the end of the first act, and the end of the second act they learn about the powers, the third act they probably fight a villain who has a function of the same powers"; instead, Danvers starts the film having already gained her powers. In October 2016, Feige admitted that the announcement for a director was taking longer than he previously expected, and explained that the studio was now waiting for more of the film's story to be defined in the script so they could then talk to potential directors about it. Once again talking about hiring a female filmmaker to direct the film, Feige said that he did not think it would be a requirement to make a "great version" of the film, but it was something that Marvel felt was important to consider, even if that female filmmaker did not know a lot about the comics, as "they just have to fall in love with it once they are presented with it. It's amazing to see all of the filmmakers read through [the source material] and know, 'Oh, a female's writing it now'", speaking in particular to Kelly Sue DeConnick's run in the comics. Feige expected a director to be announced by the end of 2016; however, Perlman and LeFauve turned in a script treatment around December, pushing additional meetings with director candidates into early 2017. In February 2017, Perlman stated that despite her and LeFauve being hired almost a year previously, the duo had only recently gotten their "marching orders" for the script, stating that one of the reasons for the delay was figuring out where the film would fit within the MCU. She explained that because of Marvel Studios' continually shifting plans for Phase Three and their culminating Avengers films, Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame (2019), the duo were tasked with creating various different versions of what the film could look like. These were then discussed with Marvel Studios executives to determine what worked from each and how it would fit in with the Avengers plans as they currently stood, before the writing duo would start the process over again; this "iterative" process occurred for over a year-and-a-half. Perlman also discussed the character's femininity, feeling that it was important to make sure she is not "somebody who is a hero in spite of her femininity ... being a woman is part of [her] strength". The writers were also wary of tropes that could be diminishing to a female character but not for male characters, such as things they would not have been concerned about writing for Iron Man but would not play the same way for Captain Marvel. ### Pre-production Marvel hired Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck to direct Captain Marvel in April 2017, after the duo impressed the studio over numerous meetings with their vision for the character and because of their experience working in both television and film. Feige said that he and Marvel were particularly impressed with Boden and Fleck's ability to create a diverse range of character-driven stories in all of their works. Feige felt the film had to focus on the complexity and relatability of Carol Danvers' character without being bogged down by the villains and the special effects, and thought that Boden and Fleck could provide this character focus. Filming was scheduled to begin in January 2018, at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia, but Feige said he did not expect it to begin until February. By July 2017, Samuel L. Jackson was set to appear in the film, reprising his role as Nick Fury. Larson, who had worked with Jackson on Kong: Skull Island (2017), pushed for Fury's presence in the film. At the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con, Feige revealed that the film would take place in the 1990s and that the Skrulls would be the film's villains, allowing elements from the "Kree–Skrull War" (1971) comic book storyline to be used. By setting the film in the 1990s, Feige noted that Danvers would "be the singular hero" while still giving her a definitive placing in the MCU timeline. Executive producer Jonathan Schwartz said setting the film in the 1990s was an idea from early in the development process, and gave the character a special place and significance within the MCU. It also allowed the film to make connections to plot details from past MCU films that are set later in the timeline. Regarding the elements from the "Kree–Skrull War" used for the film, Schwartz said some paranoia elements would be featured but would not be related to the Anti-Superhero Act as in the comics. He added that the Kree-Skrull conflict would mostly be a "backdrop and mythological underpinning" for the film. In response to the Comic-Con announcements, Graeme McMillan of The Hollywood Reporter compared the film to Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and the DC Extended Universe film Wonder Woman (2017), as they were also set decades before the present day. By setting the film in the 1990s, McMillan felt it would create the question "what happened to Captain Marvel to take her off the playing field ahead of the Marvel movies that we've seen to date?" Also in July, the California Film Commission awarded a $20.7 million tax credit to the production, going towards the first $100 million spent on qualified in-state expenditures, making California the main filming location for Captain Marvel. D'Esposito was excited about this since Marvel Studios' headquarters and post-production facilities are also in the state, allowing them to streamline the production process for this film and others. Awarding of the tax credit was dependent on filming beginning within 180 days. Marvel planned to spend $118.6 million filming in the state, for a net of $97.8 million after the tax credit was applied. Schwartz said one of the reasons Los Angeles was chosen for filming was because "not a lot of big movies shoot in LA anymore, so it weirdly feels like fresh territory for a movie like this". Geneva Robertson-Dworet was hired by mid-August to take over the scripting duties for Captain Marvel after LeFauve left the project to co-direct Gigantic for Disney Animation. Perlman also left the project, but stated that the story she and LeFauve had worked on in earlier drafts would be retained in the final screenplay. Robertson-Dworet described the film as an action-comedy, and likened her script to an initial one she wrote for Tomb Raider (2018) before that film took a more dramatic tone. She added that it was important to the entire creative team to keep the comedic elements of the film and the sassiness of Danvers' character. Robertson-Dworet also credited Boden for helping to shape Danvers' voice in the film and for the desire "to carve our own path and make sure we weren't retreading the same territory [after the release of Wonder Woman], and showing all facets of what women are capable of". Feige added that Captain Marvel would have action scenes that would pay homage to 1990s action films, including Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), since the 1990s action genre was one Marvel Studios had yet to explore. He also stated that much of the film would take place in outer space. RoboCop (1987), The French Connection (1971), and The Conversation (1974) also served as influences on Captain Marvel for Boden and Fleck. Speaking specifically to RoboCop, the directors were drawn to "this idea of a character who's finding himself and finding his past" from that film and how it could connect to the story they were telling in Captain Marvel. DeConnick and quantum physicist Spyridon Michalakis, of the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter at the California Institute of Technology, consulted on the film. By October, filming was slated to begin in March 2018. Feige said the film would play a significant role in setting up Endgame, which was set for release after Captain Marvel. Ben Mendelsohn entered negotiations to play the film's main villain, having previously worked with Boden and Fleck on their film Mississippi Grind (2015). They had him in mind for the Captain Marvel villain when they first began working on the story, and Mendelsohn agreed to play the role shortly after discussing the film with the directors. By November, Jude Law was in negotiations to join the film, which at the time was reported to be the role of Walter Lawson / Mar-Vell. Keanu Reeves had also been approached for the part but declined. In January 2018, DeWanda Wise was cast as Maria Rambeau, and Mendelsohn and Law were confirmed to have been cast. ### Filming Location shooting occurred at the end of January 2018. Set photos taken at that time showed Larson in a green-and-black uniform instead of the character's familiar red-and-blue suit. Feige responded by saying that Marvel accepts the risk of set photos being leaked as a consequence of location shooting, and felt that "most people are savvy enough to know they're looking at a behind-the-scenes photo, completely out of context". He added that a large number of scenes in the film would be shot on location. A month later, Gemma Chan joined the cast as Minn-Erva. In mid-March, Wise withdrew from the film because of a scheduling conflict with her television series She's Gotta Have It. Lashana Lynch entered into negotiations to replace Wise the next day, and was confirmed for the role by the end of the month. At that time, Marvel revealed that Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, and Clark Gregg were set to reprise their respective roles of Korath, Ronan the Accuser, and Phil Coulson from earlier MCU films; as those characters were all killed in their previous appearances, Richard Newby of The Hollywood Reporter described the film as a unique opportunity to "strengthen the presence of [the characters] who may not have lived up to their potential". Marvel also announced that Algenis Perez Soto, Rune Temte, and Mckenna Grace had been cast, and revealed that Boden, Fleck, and the writing team of Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch had all contributed to the film's screenplay in addition to LeFauve, Perlman, and Robertson-Dworet. Bek Smith, who previously was a member of Marvel's screenwriter program, performed uncredited rewrites during production. Principal photography began on March 19 in Los Angeles, at Sony Studios under the working title Open World. Schwartz stated that Open World was chosen because it likened the film to an open world video game that could go in many directions, which is how the production felt about Captain Marvel's story at the time. A 1986 carnival scene was filmed later that week at the Jim Hall Racing Club in Oxnard, California. Filming of Captain Marvel in Los Angeles, along with other big-budget films that took advantage of California's improved tax credit program, helped raise on-location feature film production in the area by 11.7% in the first quarter of 2018, compared with the same period in 2017, the first such double-figure increase since the fourth quarter of 2015. Filming at Shaver Lake outside Fresno, California, was set to take place in April but was pushed back to mid-May. In late April, Feige stated that almost half of filming was completed. The following month, Annette Bening joined the cast in an undisclosed role. Additional location shooting in and around the Los Angeles area included Simi Valley, Edwards Air Force Base, and Lucerne Valley. In late June, production moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana and New Orleans for two weeks. A realistic cat puppet was used on set since Larson is allergic to cats. Scenes featuring the interior of the Quadjet were filmed on the set used to depict the interior of Quinjets on the MCU television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Filming concluded on July 6. Cinematographer Ben Davis shot primarily on large-format Arri Alexa 65 cameras, liking how the camera rendered the film's costumes. Davis, who previously served as director of photography for Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Doctor Strange (2016), noted that there was a "point of departure" in the visuals of Captain Marvel coming from its 1990s setting. To achieve the 1990s aesthetic, Davis first attempted to utilize post-production techniques to convey a period look, but found that it just softened the image. He then tried using vintage Cooke Panchro and Canon K-35 lenses, but they were not compatible with the large format of the Arri Alexa camera system. Davis ultimately enlisted Dan Sasaki of Panavision to make new lenses for the period scenes that could work with the cameras. Davis initially intended not to use these lenses for scenes set in space, to differentiate them, but found himself using the lenses for some close-ups set in space because he liked the way they looked. ### Post-production Additional photography was confirmed to have begun via set photos in late November 2018. With the release of the theatrical poster in early December, Marvel revealed that the writing team of Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse had worked on the film's story, while Jac Schaeffer had contributed to the screenplay. Schaeffer had previously been hired by Marvel to write Black Widow (2021). Bening's and Law's roles were officially confirmed in February 2019 as the Supreme Intelligence and Yon-Rogg, respectively. The film was edited by Elliot Graham and Debbie Berman, marking Berman's third time co-editing an MCU film after Spider-Man: Homecoming and Black Panther. Captain Marvel was edited using Avid Media Composer software in the Avid DNxHD codec on Apple computers. Berman first became involved with the film when she was working on Homecoming and Boden and Fleck were hired, and was hired herself for Captain Marvel the first week she was working on Black Panther. In addition to Graham and Berman, the editing team was made up of first assistants Jessica Baclesse and Kimberly Boritz, second assistants Basuki Juwono and Christos Voutsinas, and assistant editor Joe Galdo, among others. Berman spoke fondly of this large team, feeling that they gave her the opportunity to focus on the film's story rather than the technical aspects of editing. Visual effects for the film were created by Animal Logic, Cantina Creative, Digital Domain, Framestore, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Lola VFX, Luma Pictures, Rise, Rising Sun Pictures, Scanline VFX, Trixter, and Elastic, with Lola VFX working on the de-aging of Jackson and Gregg. Lola looked at several of Jackson's films, including Pulp Fiction (1994), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), Jurassic Park (1993), Loaded Weapon 1 (1993), and One Eight Seven (1997), as a reference for his de-aging. However, some of these films were disqualified due to circumstances surrounding the character Jackson was playing: Pulp Fiction because of the character's wig and facial hair, and Jurassic Park because the character was made to appear older in that film. Lola VFX supervisor Trent Claus said the final look was based partly on Die Hard and Loaded Weapon 1, but mostly on One Eight Seven, which he described as the "hero movie". Jackson was de-aged approximately 25 years from the age of 70 at the time of filming, to 45 for the 1995 setting. To do this, both Jackson and Gregg had tracking dots applied to their faces during filming for which the VFX team could anchor the "hand-crafted" facial features that were composited primarily in Autodesk Flame. Lola's team included 40 primary compositors with another 15–20 junior compositors, and created approximately 500 different VFX shots, of which 385 made it in the final cut of film. It was the first time Lola de-aged an actor without using a body double, as it would take too long to re-film all of Fury's scenes with the double. Trixter did initial development on the look of Danvers' Binary powers and contributed the majority of visual effects for Goose the Cat, including movements that were impossible for real-life cats to act. ILM handled Goose's alien features, as well as much of the final battle for which they used Trixter's work on the Binary powers as well as inspiration from comic books, video games, and anime. ILM also did work on the Supreme Intelligence's virtual environment alongside Animal Logic, who took inspiration from the interior of the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the work they did with fractals for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017). These scenes were filmed in a white room without green or blue screen, so Animal Logic had to rotoscope the actors out of the footage and place them in the digital environment. To maintain the quality of the actors' hair during this process, Animal Logic created digital hair for Larson and Bening. Luma Pictures was primarily responsible for the train chase sequence, nicknamed the "French Connection" scene after the 1971 film of the same name. They had to make the footage look as if it were continuing along a single train line even though the sequence was filmed in multiple locations around Los Angeles. Digital Domain worked on the Skrull transformation sequences, Rise created the exterior environment of Hala, and Framestore handled the battle sequence on Torfa. Rising Sun handled all of the Kree forearm holograms, the interior of the Project Pegasus hangar, and the exterior of the Quadjet. Scanline worked on effects for the aerial chases and the accident scene where Danvers gains her powers. Elastic created the end titles, and The Third Floor, Inc. provided previsualization and postvisualization work. The film's mid-credits scene shows Captain Marvel meeting the Avengers, and was directed by Anthony and Joe Russo. Boden described it as a lead-in to the Russo's Avengers: Endgame. For Captain Marvel, Marvel Studios modified their production logo to honor Stan Lee, who died on November 12, 2018, by replacing the characters in the logo with Lee's MCU cameos. The logo is followed by a black screen reading "Thank You Stan". Feige said this was done because the film was Marvel's first since Lee died, and they wanted to start the film by acknowledging him with a celebration of his legacy rather than add a somber memorial to the end of the film. ## Music Pinar Toprak signed on to compose the film's score in June 2018, making her the first woman to score an MCU film. Toprak began by creating the title character's theme, before developing themes for the Kree and the Skrulls, whom she tried to connect in order to "find the universe" for the film's scenes in space and Earth. Toprak wanted Captain Marvel's theme to be recognizable from its first two notes. In addition to Toprak's score, the film's soundtrack includes Alan Silvestri's theme from The Avengers (2012); Michael Giacchino's Marvel Studios Fanfare, which is played over the Marvel Studios logo and referenced during Stan Lee's cameo appearance; and songs from the 1990s. In April 2019, Mark Salcido of the website Screen Geek alleged that Marvel and the film's directors had been unhappy with Toprak's work on the film even after she had responded to "ample" notes, and had replaced her as composer for the film with Giacchino. Giacchino responded to this report by confirming he was involved in the film, revealing that he had been asked to give feedback on Toprak's work while he was working with Marvel on the score for Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). He thought Toprak had written a "beautiful theme and an inspiring score" for the film and had helped her work on "a few cues" which he said was him supporting her as a fellow member of the Marvel "family". Giacchino made it clear that he "did not write the score to Captain Marvel ... bottom line is [Toprak] is a fabulous composer and certainly doesn't need me". ## Marketing In 2017, concept art from the film was shown at San Diego Comic-Con, and a first look at Larson as Danvers was revealed at CineEurope. Larson debuted the first trailer for the film that September at the National Air and Space Museum on Good Morning America. Petrana Radulovic of Polygon felt the trailer showed "large-scale action and intergalactic mayhem that reaches for Infinity War's heights", while Ben Kuchera, also of Polygon, approved of opening the trailer with Blockbuster Video since its logo is identifiable to the audience. Kuchera also compared the "sun-drenched" Air Force pilot sequences to Top Gun. Devan Coogan of Entertainment Weekly called the trailer "a powerful introduction to the MCU's first solo female hero". Graeme McMillian of The Hollywood Reporter felt the prominent narration by Nick Fury "grounds the trailer in something—someone—familiar for the Marvel faithful", but said the changes to the character's origin story were "a risky proposition" to long-time fans of the character. Richard Newby, also of The Hollywood Reporter, noted that the character's unfamiliarity to audiences was not presented as a joke in the trailer as with Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man (2015), and commended Davis for its more grounded look than previous MCU films. The trailer did receive some criticism, including that the plot presented was unclear, confusion as to why Danvers punches an elderly woman, and objections to Danvers not smiling much. The trailer was viewed 109 million times in its first 24 hours, becoming the 11th most viewed trailer in that time period. The second trailer debuted on December 3, 2018, during halftime of the Monday Night Football game between the Washington Redskins and the Philadelphia Eagles. McMillian felt the trailer too overtly responded to online criticisms of the first, including clarification that "the elderly lady Carol punches was a Skrull", more shots of her smiling, and "additional emphasis on both explaining the plot and establishing Carol Danvers as a character". McMillian compared the contents and structure of the two Captain Marvel trailers to those for Thor (2011) and Captain America: The First Avenger. Newby felt the second trailer "offers increased action and a more in-depth look at the mythology surrounding" Captain Marvel, but criticized it for not helping to introduce the film's supporting characters. He compared the trailer to a superhero version of John Carpenter's Starman (1984), explaining, "Explosions, space battles, and superpowers may bring in the crowds, but it's moments [of] humanity and introspection that will allow Captain Marvel to leave her mark and encourage audiences to care about the mystery surrounding who she is." On December 8, Larson participated in a panel at CCXP in Brazil, where she shared footage and an extended trailer from the film and presented an exclusive poster for the event. By January 3, 2019, BoxOffice revealed their "Trailer Impact" metric service indicated approximately 66–70% of people surveyed who viewed the Captain Marvel trailer in the past two weeks expressed interest in seeing the film. In the two weeks it was measured by "Trailer Impact", it was number two for both, behind Avengers: Endgame, and had some of the highest percentage of respondents express interest in seeing the film ever for the service. "Trailer Impact" usually includes films 10 weeks out from release, but BoxOffice decided to add Captain Marvel to the survey 12 weeks out. In January 2019, the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe announced the \#CaptainMarvelChallenge, a campaign to purchase tickets and refreshments for girls and chaperones at the Greater Los Angeles chapter of Girls, Inc. The campaign, inspired by the success of the \#BlackPantherChallenge which raised more than $50,000 for children to watch Black Panther, came after Brie Larson suggested on Twitter that there should be a similar campaign for Captain Marvel. For the film's press tour, Larson noted she would be "pushing for representation across the board: my interviews, magazine covers, the clothes that I'm wearing" as part of her support for inclusiveness and opposition to sexual harassment in Hollywood. In February, a commercial for the film aired during the television broadcast of Super Bowl LIII. Bruce Fretts of The New York Times listed the commercial as one of the best advertisements to air during the telecast, stating, "The commercial introduces a new catchphrase—'higher, further, faster'—and lives up to it with a lightning-quick montage that sets pulses racing." CBS charged $5.25 million for each 30-second advertisement that aired during the game. Also in February, Alaska Airlines unveiled a Captain Marvel-themed Boeing 737-800 jet, featuring the film's logo on the side and images of Goose the Cat on its wings. The plane debuted at the Seattle–Tacoma International Airport before its first flight to Orange County, California. At the end of the month, an hour-long video of Goose was livestreamed on Marvel's YouTube channel. ## Release ### Theatrical Captain Marvel premiered in London on February 27, 2019, and in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on March 4. The Hollywood premiere included a flyover by the United States Air Force Thunderbirds in honor of Thunderbirds pilot Major Stephen Del Bagno, who consulted with Larson on the film before dying in a training accident in April 2018. The film was released in the United States on March 8, coinciding with International Women's Day. It was also released in IMAX and 3D formats. It was originally scheduled for release on July 6, 2018, but in February 2015 it was moved to November 2, 2018, to make room for Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), and in October 2015 it was pushed to its final March 2019 date for Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018). The film's release in Pakistan was delayed for four weeks. At the time, Disney's South Asia division, which is headquartered in India, had not given Pakistan the rights to distribute it. Commentators online speculated that this was due to ongoing Indo-Pakistani tensions, but Disney South Asia head Nadeem Mandviwalla called this statement "baseless". Captain Marvel is part of Phase Three of the MCU. ### Home media Captain Marvel was the first Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures-distributed film not to stream on Netflix, after Disney let their licensing deal with Netflix expire. It became the first theatrical Disney release to stream exclusively on Disney+, which launched on November 12, 2019. The film was released on digital download by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on May 28, 2019, and on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on June 11. The digital and Blu-ray releases include behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, and gag reels. Captain Marvel has made over $64.2 million from video sales in the U.S. The IMAX Enhanced version of the film was made available on Disney+ beginning on November 12, 2021. ## Reception ### Box office Captain Marvel grossed $426.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $701.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.128 billion. It had a worldwide opening of $456.7 million, the sixth-biggest of all time, and the biggest opening for a female-led film. Deadline Hollywood estimated that the film had a total production and advertising cost of $300 million. It is the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2019. On April 2, 2019, the film crossed the $1 billion mark worldwide, becoming the first female-led superhero movie to do so, as well as the seventh Marvel title, the 19th Disney film, and 38th film overall. Deadline Hollywood calculated the film's net profit as $414 million, accounting for production budgets, marketing, talent participations, and other costs; box office grosses and home media revenues placed it fifth on their list of 2019's "Most Valuable Blockbusters". The film's first 24 hours of advance ticket sales, which began on January 7, 2019, ranked third on Fandango for an MCU film, behind Avengers: Infinity War and Black Panther, and second on Atom Tickets, behind Infinity War. According to Fandango, Captain Marvel had the third-largest advanced ticket sales of any MCU film, behind Infinity War and Black Panther, and surpassed Wonder Woman and Aquaman (2018) during the same time period. The film made $61.4 million on its first day, including $20.7 million from Thursday night previews, which was the fifth-highest total for a Marvel film and second-highest for a March release, behind Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). It made $153.4 million over its opening weekend, making this the third-best March opening, after Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Beauty and the Beast (2017), as well as seventh-highest of the MCU. Captain Marvel would hold the record for having the highest opening weekend for a female-directed film until it was surpassed by Barbie four years later in 2023. The film remained in first place during its second weekend, with $69.3 million, the second-highest sophomore weekend in March, behind Beauty and the Beast. The film grossed $35.2 million in its third weekend, dropping to second, behind Us. In the following weeks it dropped to third, fifth, sixth, and fourth, before rising to second again in its eighth weekend with the release of Avengers: Endgame. Captain Marvel finished its box office run as the sixth highest-grossing film of 2019 in this region. On its first day of international release, the film made $5.9 million in South Korea and $1.7 million in France, as well as $2.51 million from Thursday night previews in China, the fourth-best for an MCU film in the country. Through its first two days of release in foreign territories the film made $44 million, including $9.1 million in South Korea, $3 million in Brazil, $2.9 million in France and $2.5 million in Australia. It also grossed $34 million on its first day in China, the third-best superhero opening day ever in the country. The film went on to have a foreign opening weekend of $302.4 million, the fifth-best of all time. Its largest markets were China ($89.3 million), South Korea ($24.1 million), the UK ($16.8 million), Brazil ($13.4 million, the second-best opening of any film in the country's history) and Mexico ($12.8 million, fifth-best ever). Through its first 12 days of release, the film's highest-grossing foreign countries were China ($135.7 million), South Korea ($37.5 million), the United Kingdom ($32.9 million), Brazil ($26.1 million) and Mexico ($25.7 million). By April 2, the film's largest foreign markets were China ($152.3 million), South Korea ($43.7 million), the UK ($43.3 million), Brazil ($34.5 million) and Mexico ($31.8 million). ### Critical response The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of , with an average score of , based on reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Packed with action, humor, and visual thrills, Captain Marvel introduces the MCU's latest hero with an origin story that makes effective use of the franchise's signature formula." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 64 out of 100 based on 56 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". According to The New York Times, the film's overall reception was "fairly positive", but it wasn't as well-received as other films in the MCU. The Hindustan Times, collating multiple reviews of the film, noted praise for Brie Larson's performance but also criticism for the film's "convoluted plot and lack of originality". Kenneth Turan, writing for the Los Angeles Times, lauded Larson's performance and the direction of Boden and Fleck, saying, "Marvel has come to recognize, as this film proves, that even effects-heavy behemoths can benefit from a directing touch that is human, not programmatic, that understands character and nuance and can create scenes with an emotional heft we might not expect." A.O. Scott of The New York Times said the film was "not too long, not too self-important, and benefits from the craft and talent of a cast that includes Annette Bening, Jude Law, and Ben Mendelsohn". Writing for Variety, Owen Gleiberman also praised the film's direction. He said that Boden and Fleck had not been able to retain their signature style of "low-key American neorealis[m]", but was still positive about how they were able to create a film with "enough tricks and moods and sleight-of-hand layers to keep us honestly absorbed" within the house style of the MCU. Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, and said it was a "real treat" to follow the origin stories of both Carol Danvers and Nick Fury. Rolling Stone's Peter Travers gave it four stars and praised Larson's performance for bringing "layers of feeling to a role that a lesser actress might have let slide by on pyrotechnics. You see how she lays the foundation for a character who defies male objectification and becomes akin to what Joni Mitchell called 'a woman of heart and mind.'" Anthony Lane of The New Yorker stated, "Superhero cinema has lectured us, ad infinitum, on the responsibility that is conferred by extraordinary gifts. Praise be to Larson, for reminding us that they can be bringers of fun." Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter described the film as "mundane, marked by unimaginative plotting, cut-rate villains, a bland visual style and a lack of elan in every department". David Ehrlich at IndieWire gave the film a 'C−' grade and called it "neither a blast from the past, nor an inspiring glimpse into the future ... it's just another Marvel movie. And not a particularly good one". Ehrlich praised Mendelsohn, saying he gave the best performance in the film. Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal said Danvers "is a candidate for genuine heroism" but found a "fundamental dissonance between the depth of her plight and the shallow disorganization of the script". The A.V. Club's Ignatiy Vishnevetsky was disappointed by the film, finding it to be "everything you might expect a sci-fi superhero movie to be, if you hadn't seen one in a long time". Richard Brody of The New Yorker compared the film to a political commercial that "packs a worthy message [but] hardly counts as an aesthetic experience. The message of the film is conveyed less through the story than through its casting." ### Audience response In late December 2018, the film was named as the most anticipated 2019 film by IMDb, the most anticipated new standalone comic book film and the second-most anticipated blockbuster of 2019 according to Fandango, and the second-most anticipated superhero and overall film by Atom Tickets. Ahead of the film's release, Captain Marvel's "Want to See" score—an audience anticipation poll on Rotten Tomatoes—had fallen to 28%. Reports described the decline as an effort to review bomb the film's page with negative comments attacking the film and Larson for their perceived feminism. Rotten Tomatoes changed the "Want to See" feature shortly after, showing only the number of people indicating interest in the film instead of a percentage. The announcement said this was part of a larger redesign of the site, and that the "Want to See" feature would be restored once the film was released. By 8:00 a.m. on opening day in the United States, the film held a 33% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes from more than 58,000 reviews, which was more audience reviews than Avengers: Infinity War had during its entire theatrical run. Analysts attributed the low score and sheer number of reviews to online trolling. Rotten Tomatoes later said a bug was responsible for the high count of reviews, and by 1:00 p.m. the number of counted ratings was down to 7,000 with an audience score of 35%. Audiences of the film polled by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of "A" on a scale of A+ to F, while PostTrak reported that 73% of filmgoers gave it a "definite recommend". 58% said it met their expectations, while 35% said it exceeded them. Unlike Wonder Woman, which was watched by more women than men, Captain Marvel's initial audience was 61% male, according to PostTrak. Discussing these statistics, Deadline Hollywood's Anthony D'Alessandro praised CinemaScore and PostTrak for taking scientific polls that actually identified how the audience was feeling about the film, and criticized the Rotten Tomatoes audience score as an "ancient 1990s means of collecting opinions online" that is influenced by "ugly Internet troll noise". ### Accolades The film was recognized with The ReFrame Stamp for hiring people of underrepresented gender identities, and of color. ## Sequel The Marvels was released on November 10, 2023, with Nia DaCosta directing and Megan McDonnell writing the script. Larson reprises her role, and is joined by Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel and Teyonah Parris as a grown-up Monica Rambeau, both reprising their roles from Disney+ series. Zawe Ashton appears as the villain.

Peter Beckford (junior)

Jamaican planter, politician and merchant (1672/3–1735)

Peter Beckford (c. 1672/3 – 3 April 1735) was a Jamaican planter, politician and merchant who served as speaker of the House of Assembly of Jamaica from 1707 to 1713, and again in 1716. The son of one of the richest men in the colony of Jamaica, Beckford sat in the House of Assembly of Jamaica for three decades and acquired a vast financial estate. His wealth would go on to support the political careers of his children in Great Britain. Born into the Jamaican planter class, Beckford was educated in England at Oxford before pursuing a government career as the Receiver General of Jamaica. In 1697, he killed fellow official Samuel Lewis and fled to France; thanks to the effort of his father, the case was declared nolle prosequi and Beckford returned to Jamaica and entered into a political career, serving as the colonial assembly's speaker and politician William Congreve's deputy. Beckford frequently came into conflict with successive governors of Jamaica, including Thomas Handasyd, Lord Archibald Hamilton and Sir Nicholas Lawes. In 1714, a pamphlet war occurred after Hamilton accused of Beckford of profiteering and corruption, with Beckford emerging triumphant after Hamilton stepped down as governor. During this period, his political and financial success led to social pre-eminence among the Jamaican slavocracy. After his father's death in 1710, Beckford was bequeathed most of his vast estate of money, land and slaves. By the end of his life, Beckford acquired an estate worth approximately £300,000 (), which included 2,314 slaves, and was the richest subject in Jamaica and one of the wealthiest people in the British Empire. He had nine children, three of whom went on to serve in various political offices in England thanks to his wealth. ## Early life Peter Beckford was born in the English colony of Jamaica c. 1672/3. His father, also named Peter Beckford, was born in Clerkenwell, England before emigrating to Jamaica during the mid-seventeenth century, where he amassed a substantial fortune through the ownership of twenty sugar plantations operated with roughly 1,200 enslaved people. Beckford's mother was Anne Ballard, who gave birth to two other children, Charles and Thomas. While in England, Beckford was called to the bar in 1695. A year later, Beckford, having returned to Jamaica, was appointed to serve as the colony's receiver general. Much like his father, Beckford "possessed a violent temper"; on 13 December 1697, he killed fellow politician Samuel Lewis by stabbing him to death with his own sword. Beckford quickly fled to France rather than remain in Jamaica and face prosecution by the judiciary. In France, Beckford wrote a petition to William III of England, claiming that he killed Lewis in a duel and was at most guilty of manslaughter instead of murder; the petition also argued Beckford's family had "been very faithful and serviceable to your Majesty". Though no pardon was granted, due in part to fierce opposition from Lewis' relatives, after Beckford's father went to London to defend him in 1698 the case was declared nolle prosequi. ## Political career After he escaped the murder charge, Beckford returned to Jamaica, where he began a career in politics. In 1701, Beckford was elected to serve in the House of Assembly of Jamaica, where he would sit consistently for almost three decades. Six years later in 1707, he was appointed as speaker of the house of assembly, serving in that position until 1713. During this period, Beckford was also appointed to serve as the comptroller of customs in Jamaica. On 3 April 1710, a session of the house of assembly at Spanish Town led to the death of Beckford's father. Discussions in the session grew heated to the point where Beckford attempted to adjourn the house, to which a group of politicians responded to by barring the chamber's doors and drawing their swords on Beckford, forcing him to reoccupy the chair. Beckford's father heard his cry for help and attempted to rescue him, suffering a fatal stroke in the process. In 1716, he again served as speaker of the house of assembly, holding the office for a year. Five years later, he began serving as a deputy to Whig politician William Congreve, assuming the offices of secretary of Jamaica, commissary of the forces and clerk of enrolments. Beckford charged fees paid to him as a result of holding these offices at twice the statutory rate, partly to pay Congreve as compensation for holding the offices and partly for personal gains. As part of his political career, Beckford frequently came into conflict with successive governors of Jamaica, among them Thomas Handasyd, Lord Archibald Hamilton and Sir Nicholas Lawes. Beckford held a particularly bitter relationship with Hamilton; both men leveraged their influence in London as part of attempts to resolve several political disputes, which "[promoted] metropolitan interest in colonial affairs, especially in the wake of the Peace of Utrecht". From 1714 to 1716, a pamphlet war broke out after Hamilton accused Beckford of profiteering from his position as comptroller of customs and claimed that his relatives were also engaged in acts of corruption. Beckford counter-claimed that the governor had overstepped his authority. Though Beckford won after Hamilton stepped down as governor, the affair confirmed to metropolitan observers that Jamaica was a "factious and unpredictable colony". ## Financial activities and death After his father's death in 1710, Beckford was bequeathed the majority of his estate (which consisted of 1,200 slaves and £1,500,000 in bank shares) in the elder Beckford's will and testament. Through financial activities and his ownership of plantations and other pieces of real estate, Beckford acquired by the end of his life an estate worth approximately £300,000. This included land, slaves, luxury goods, mortgage-backed securities, bonds and open accounts. Possessing "the largest property real and personal of any subject in Europe", he died the richest planter in Jamaica. During his life, Beckford acquired total ownership over nine sugar plantations (and partial ownership over seven), nine cattle pens, a farm, one storehouse and 2,314 slaves. These were mostly located in the parishes of Westmoreland and Clarendon. He achieved this via "a combination of shrewd purchases and mortgage defaults" and working as a banker to many white Jamaicans. Additionally, his legal training (having been a member of the Inns of Court while in England) meant Beckford frequently served as a trusted confidante and legal attorney to fellow colonists. Beckford's political and financial success led to social pre-eminence among the Jamaican elite, with one rival referring to him as the "famous" Beckford and another commentator dubbing him "the God of the Creolians". Among white Jamaicans, the "country natives" of the colony, it was widely perceived that "for the good of [Beckford's] children 'tis impossible for him to do anything but what is the true interest of the country." From 1714 onwards, the successes of Beckford's fellow planters combined with the Peace of Utrecht led to a period of economic stability in Jamaica. In 1730, Beckford entered into a financial partnership with Scottish immigrant Alexander Grant, who worked as a physician after emigrating to Jamaica. This partnership allowed Grant to acquire 300 acres of land in Saint Elizabeth Parish from Beckford, and Grant would go on to acquire more land in the parishes surrounding Saint Catherine Parish and the city of Kingston. As part of their partnership, the two men leased a storehouse together, using it to sell supplies to local plantation owners. Beckford also introduced Grant to his future wife Elizabeth Cootes in 1734. Near the end of his life, Beckford, aware "of the inherent difficulties of settling a transatlantic empire", appointed Thomas Beckford, a relative and merchant in London, and George Ellis, a Jamaican justice of the peace, as executors of his estate. On 3 April 1735, Beckford died in Spanish Town at the age of sixty-two. After his death, Beckford's vast estates were reported on by the London press, with The Gentleman's Magazine estimating his fortunes at a sum which, according to Welsh historian Perry Gauci, rivaled "estates of the greatest landowners among the British nobility." ## Personal life At some point in his life, Beckford married Bathshua Hering, having nine children: Peter, William, Richard, Nathaniel, Julines, Francis, Ellis, Bathshua and Elizabeth. In his last will and testament, Beckford gave 1,000 pounds and a plantation to Hering and varying sums of money and property to his children and their offspring. He also stipulated in his will that an annual sum of money be provided to a white bookkeeper that had been employed by Beckford, and instructed that Diego, a slave he owned, be emancipated and given 10 pounds per annum along with 10 acres of land. Aware of the lack of schools in Jamaica, which was "often identified as the root cause of the island's sociocultural failures", Beckford bequeathed 1,000 pounds to the establishment of a school for the poor in Spanish Town. While living in England at a young age, Beckford had been educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood and the University of Oxford's New College between 1681 and 1689, the advantages of which he recognised after returning to Jamaica. Beckford later arranged for William to be educated at the City of London's Westminster School in 1723. After Beckford's death, William returned to Jamaica to help manage the family estate. He eventually went back to England in 1744, pursuing a career in politics alongside Richard and Julines. All three sat in the Parliament of Great Britain, while William repeatedly served as Lord Mayor of London. Catherine moved to Great Britain and married Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Effingham on 14 February 1745. According to the Dictionary of National Biography, Beckford's greatest legacy was accumulating "an estate great enough to support his [children] in their British ambitions." Historians have generally maintained a positive view of Beckford; according to academic Sidney Blackmore, he increased his family's wealth "on the firm foundations laid by the founding father." Similarly, historian Richard B. Sheridan wrote that Beckford was a "financier of great magnitude". Gauci held a more mixed view of Beckford, arguing his wealth was a "testament to... commercial acumen and sheer ruthlessness". Historians have also given disparate assessments of his wealth; Trevor G. Burnard estimated that Beckford's estate was worth 500,000 pounds at his death.

Buildings and architecture of Bath

Permanent structures including significant examples of English architecture from the Roman Baths

The buildings and architecture of Bath, a city in Somerset in the south west of England, reveal significant examples of the architecture of England, from the Roman Baths (including their significant Celtic presence), to the present day. The city became a World Heritage Site in 1987, largely because of its architectural history and the way in which the city landscape draws together public and private buildings and spaces. The many examples of Palladian architecture are purposefully integrated with the urban spaces to provide "picturesque aestheticism". In 2021, the city was added to a second World Heritage Site, a group of historic spa towns across Europe known as the "Great Spas of Europe". Bath is the only entire city in Britain to achieve World Heritage status, and is a popular tourist destination. Important buildings include the Roman Baths; neoclassical architect Robert Adam's Pulteney Bridge, based on an unused design for the Rialto Bridge in Venice; and Bath Abbey in the city centre, founded in 1499 on the site of an 8th-century church. Of equal importance are the residential buildings designed and built into boulevards and crescents by the Georgian architects John Wood, the Elder and his son John Wood, the Younger – well-known examples being the Royal Crescent, built around 1770, and The Circus, built around 1760, where each of the three curved segments faces one of the entrances, ensuring that there is always a classical facade facing the entering visitor. Most of Bath's buildings are made from the local, golden-coloured, Bath Stone. The dominant architectural style is Georgian, which evolved from the Palladian revival style that became popular in the early 18th century. The city became a fashionable and popular spa and social centre during the 18th century. Based initially around its hot springs, this led to a demand for substantial homes and guest houses. The key architects, John Wood and his son, laid out many of the city's present-day squares and crescents within a green valley and the surrounding hills. According to UNESCO this provided... "an integration of architecture, urban design, and landscape setting, and the deliberate creation of a beautiful city". Development during modern eras, including the development of the transport infrastructure and rebuilding after bomb damage during World War II, has mostly been in keeping with earlier styles to maintain the integrated cityscape. ## Celtic, Roman and Saxon Buildings from Bath's pre-Norman period either no longer exist, or their remains are below street level. Archaeological sites in the central area of the city have supplied some details about how they may have looked, while the lower areas of the Roman Baths reveal significant remains from the Roman period. The Baths were built around hot springs, the only ones naturally occurring in the United Kingdom. Archaeological evidence suggests that the main spring in its natural state was treated as a shrine by the Celts. During the early Roman occupation of Britain, in the 60s or 70s AD, engineers drove oak piles into the mud to provide a stable foundation and surrounded the spring with an irregular stone chamber lined with lead. These still survive. At this early stage the spring was an open pool in the corner of the temple precinct. It fed a bathing complex on its south side within a barrel-vaulted building. The complex was gradually built up over the next 300 years. All the stonework above the level of the baths is from more recent periods including the 12th century, when John of Tours built a curative bath over the King's Spring reservoir, and the 16th century, when the city corporation built a new bath (Queen's Bath) to the south of the spring. The spring is now housed in 18th-century buildings designed by architects John Wood, the Elder and John Wood, the Younger; visitor access is via an 1897 concert hall by J M Brydon, which is an eastward continuation of the Grand Pump Room with a glass-domed centre and single-storey radiused corner. Beside the baths, a temple, in classical style with four large, fluted Corinthian columns and dedicated to Minerva The temple remained in use for worship until around the 4th century, but the site is now occupied by the Grand Pump Room. The city was given defensive walls, probably in the 3rd century, but they disappeared during subsequent redevelopments. The line of then formed the basis of the medieval walls enclosing 23 acres (9.3 ha), some which survived until the 18th century. The Anglo-Saxons called the town Baðum, Baðan or Baðon, meaning "at the baths," the source of the present name. In 675, Osric, King of the Hwicce, set up a monastic house at Bath, probably using the walled area as its precinct. The Anglo-Saxon poem known as The Ruin may describe the appearance of the Roman site about this time. King Offa of Mercia gained control of this monastery in 781 and rebuilt the church, which was dedicated to St. Peter. By the 9th century the old Roman street pattern had been lost, and Bath had become a royal possession; King Alfred laid out the town afresh, leaving its south-eastern quadrant as the abbey precinct. ## Norman, Medieval, Tudor, and Stuart Bath Abbey was founded in 1499 on the site of an 8th-century church. The original Anglo-Saxon church was pulled down after 1066, and a grand cathedral dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul was begun on the site by John of Tours, Bishop of Bath and Wells, around 1090; however, only the ambulatory was complete when he died in December 1122. The half-finished cathedral was devastated by fire in 1137, but work continued until about 1156; the completed building was approximately 330 feet (101 m) long. By the 15th century, Bath's abbey church was badly dilapidated and in need of repairs. Oliver King, Bishop of Bath and Wells, decided in 1500 to rebuild it on a smaller scale. It is in a late Perpendicular style with flying buttresses and crocketed pinnacles decorating a crenellated and pierced parapet. The new church was completed just a few years before Bath Priory was dissolved in 1539 by Henry VIII. James Montague, Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1608, spent considerable sums in restoring Bath Abbey, which was re-roofed at his own expense. Major restoration work was carried out by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the 1860s, funded by the rector, Charles Kemble. The choir and transepts have a fan vault by Robert and William Vertue, in the 1860s, completing the original roof from 1608. The nave was given a matching vault in the 19th century. The building is lit by 52 windows. The medieval era is represented by the remains of the city walls in Upper Borough Walls. There are no other surviving buildings from this period. Several areas of the city underwent development during the Stuart period, in response to the increasing number of visitors to the spa and resort town who required accommodation. The St Thomas à Becket Church was built between 1490 and 1498 by John Cantlow, Prior of Bath Abbey and took the place of an older Norman church. The church was commonly called Old Widcombe Church and used to be the principal church of the parishes of Widcombe and Lyncombe. The Domesday survey of 1086 shows a small settlement around the church although no trace of it remains. In 1847 a much larger church, St Matthews, was built in Widcombe parish. On 22 April 1847, it was announced that the church bells, which had for centuries been in the tower of St. Thomas à Becket, were to be removed and installed in the new St. Matthew's. Widcombe Manor was originally built in 1656 and then rebuilt in 1727 for Philip Bennet the local MP. Thomas Guidott, moved to Bath and set up practice in 1668. He became interested in the curative properties of the waters and he wrote A discourse of Bathe, and the hot waters there. Also, Some Enquiries into the Nature of the water in 1676. This brought the health-giving properties of the hot mineral waters to the attention of the country and soon the aristocracy started to arrive to partake in them. The early 18th century the central area around the Abbey was expanded including the Abbey Church Yard which contained Marshal Wade's House, and Trim Street, which was named after George Trim who owned the land. Number 5, which is also known as General Wolfe's house, is a 2-storey building with a parapet and rusticated quoins, built by Thomas Greenway. The doorway has Ionic pilasters and a tympanum decorated with the implements of war. In 1716 the architect William Killigrew was commissioned to rebuild St John's Hospital which was founded around 1180, by Bishop Reginald Fitz Jocelin and is among the oldest almshouses in England. The 2 storey Bath stone building has a heavy ground floor arcade of round-headed arches on pillars, and retains its original window mouldings and sashes. Building work continued after 1727 under the 23-year-old John Wood, the Elder, his first commission in Bath. ## Georgian The dominant style of architecture in central Bath is Georgian; this evolved from the Palladian revival style which became popular in the early 18th century. The original purpose of much of Bath's architecture is concealed by the honey-coloured classical façades; in an era before the advent of the luxury hotel, these apparently elegant residences were frequently purpose-built lodging houses, where visitors could hire a room, a floor, or (according to their means) an entire house for the duration of their visit, and be waited on by the house's communal servants. The architects John Wood, the Elder and his son John Wood, the Younger laid out the new quarters in streets and squares, the identical façades of which gave an impression of palatial scale and classical decorum. Much of the creamy gold Bath stone which was used for construction throughout the city, was obtained from the limestone Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines, which were owned by Ralph Allen (1694–1764). Allen, in order to advertise the quality of his quarried limestone, commissioned the elder John Wood to build him a country house on his Prior Park estate between the city and the mines, replacing his Town House. Queen Square was the first speculative development by John Wood, the Elder who lived in one of the houses. Queen Square was described by Nikolaus Pevsner as "one of the finest Palladian compositions in England before 1730". The west side (numbers 14–18 and 18A, 19 and 20) was designed by John Pinch the younger in 1830 and differs from Wood's original design as the central block is in Neo-Grecian style. The Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution (BRLSI) now occupies 16–18. The south side (numbers 5–13) was originally left open, but is now occupied by a hotel. The obelisk in the centre of the square was erected by Beau Nash in 1738. The Circus is seen as the pinnacle of Wood's work. It consists of three long, curved terraces designed by the elder John Wood to form a circular space or theatre intended for civic functions and games. The games give a clue to the design, the inspiration behind which was the Colosseum in Rome. Like the Colosseum, the three façades have a different order of architecture on each floor: Doric on the ground level, then Ionic on the piano nobile and finishing with Corinthian on the upper floor, the style of the building thus becoming progressively more ornate as it rises. Gay Street links Queen Square to The Circus. It was designed by John Wood, the Elder in 1735 and completed by his son John Wood, the Younger. The houses are of 3 storeys with Mansard roofs, with many also having Ionic columns. Hester Thrale, who was also known as Mrs Piozzi, lived at number 8, with its 4 Corinthian pilasters on the ground and 1st floors in 1781. Number 41 is on the corner between Gay Street and Queen Square. It was the home of John Wood, the Younger. One of the main shopping streets is now Milsom Street, which was built in 1762 by Thomas Lightholder. The buildings were originally grand town houses with mansard roofs and Corinthian columns. The bank at number 24 was built by Wilson and Willcox and includes baroque detail not seen on the other buildings. Numbers 37 to 42 which are known as Somersetshire Buildings have been designated as Grade I listed buildings. The Octagon Chapel was a place of worship when it was built in 1767, then a furniture shop by Mallett Antiques, and is now a restaurant. Milsom Street leads uphill, from the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, which was founded in 1738 as The Mineral Water Hospital, to The Paragon which overlooks the Walcot area. The Paragon was designed by Thomas Warr Attwood. Each building has matching doors and windows with central pediments and flat entablatures either side of the 1st floor windows and Tuscan pilasters and pediments to the doorways. Numbers 22 to 37 continue the theme from numbers 1 to 21 and were completed in 1775 by Joseph Axford, a local mason. Numbers 28 to 32 were damaged by bombing during World War II but have since been restored. St Swithin's Church was built between 1779 and 1790 by John Palmer. The church house which forms number 38 The Paragon was built in the early 18th century. The adjoining cemetery has gates with a rusticated base and panels with inverted torches between pilasters. There is an entablature with metopes and triglyphs. The best known of Bath's terraces is the Royal Crescent, built between 1767 and 1774 and designed by the younger John Wood. But all is not what it seems; while Wood designed the great curved façade of what appears to be about 30 houses with Ionic columns on a rusticated ground floor, that was the extent of his input. Each purchaser bought a certain length of the façade, and then employed their own architect to build a house to their own specifications behind it; hence what appears to be two houses is sometimes one. This system of town planning is betrayed at the rear of the crescent: while the front is completely uniform and symmetrical, the rear is a mixture of differing roof heights, juxtapositions and fenestration. This "Queen Anne fronts and Mary-Anne backs" architecture occurs repeatedly in Bath. In front of the Royal Crescent is a Ha-ha, a trench on which the inner side of which is vertical and faced with stone, with the outer face sloped and turfed, making the trench, in effect, a sunken fence or retaining wall. The ha-ha is designed not to interrupt the view from Royal Victoria Park, and to be invisible until seen from close by. The other crescents which give Bath its architectural identity include: Camden Crescent which was built by John Eveleigh in 1788, and damaged by a landslide in 1889, Lansdown Crescent, designed by John Palmer and constructed by a variety of builders between 1789 and 1793, and Somerset Place for which the facades were designed by the architect John Eveleigh who went bankrupt during the building, which started in 1790 but was not completed until the 1820s. Some of Somerset Crescent was destroyed during the Second World War and rebuilt as student accommodation in the 1950s and 1960s. It used to form part of the campus of Bath Spa University, but has since been sold. The area of North Parade, South Parade, Pierrepont and Duke Streets was part of a wider scheme to build a Royal Forum, similar to Queen Square, which was never completed. Wood designed the facade, of Bath stone, after which a variety of builders completed the work with different interiors and rear elevations. Many of the buildings are now hotels and shops whilst some remain as private residences. North Parade Bridge was built almost 100 years later in 1836 by William Tierney Clark. His original bridge was made of cast iron on stone abutments, with lodges and staircases. This was rebuilt in 1936 completely in stone. Many of the buildings in South Parade are now hotels and restaurants whilst some remain as private residences. The area which Wood envisaged as an area of sunken gardens matching the houses is now a car park. On the southern side of the road is the Roman Catholic St John's Church, which was designed and built between 1861 and 1863 by Charles Francis Hansom who added the 222-foot (68 m) spire in 1867. The heart of the Georgian city were Wood's Assembly Rooms, and the Pump Room, which, together with its associated Lower Assembly Rooms, was designed by Thomas Baldwin, a local builder responsible for many other buildings in the city, including the terraces in Argyle Street, the Guildhall, The Cross Bath, Widcombe Crescent and Royal Baths Treatment Centre in Bath Street. The Grand Pump Room itself includes a North Colonnade of 9 bays, with unfluted Ionic columns. The South Colonnade is similar but had an upper floor added in the late 19th century. The colonnades and side wall of the Pump Room have a facade on Stall Street. Baldwin rose rapidly, becoming a leader in Bath's architectural history. Great Pulteney Street, where Baldwin eventually lived, is another of his works: this wide boulevard, constructed c. 1789 and over 1,000 feet (305 m) long and 100 feet (30 m) wide, leading from Laura Place is lined on both sides by Georgian terraces. Around 1770 the neoclassical architect Robert Adam designed Pulteney Bridge, a three-arched bridge spanning the Avon. He used as his prototype an original, but unused, design by Andrea Palladio for the Rialto Bridge in Venice. Thus, Pulteney Bridge became not just a means of crossing the river, but also a shopping arcade. Along with the Rialto Bridge, is one of the very few surviving bridges in Europe to serve this dual purpose. It has been substantially altered since it was built. The bridge was named after Frances and William Pulteney, the owners of the Bathwick estate for which the bridge provided a link to the rest of Bath. At the end of Great Pulteney Street is the Holburne Museum of Art, which was originally designed as the Sydney Hotel and was built by Charles Harcourt Masters in 1795–6. It stands on Sydney Place and within the Sydney Pleasure Gardens which stretch from the road to the Kennet and Avon Canal. Next to the church of St Mary the Virgin is Bathwick Hill which leads up to Claverton Down and the campus of the University of Bath; beyond is Claverton Manor, which was built in 1820 and is now home to the American Museum. The early 18th century saw Bath acquire its first purpose-built theatre, the Theatre Royal, along with the Grand Pump Room attached to the Roman Baths and assembly rooms. Master of Ceremonies Beau Nash, who presided over the city's social life from 1705 until his death in 1761, drew up a code of behaviour for public entertainments. The population of the city had reached 40,020 by the time of the 1801 census, making it one of the largest cities in Britain, which was expanding up the surrounding hills. William Thomas Beckford bought a house in Lansdown Crescent in 1822, eventually buying a further two houses in the crescent to form his residence. Having acquired all the land between his home and the top of Lansdown Hill, north of the city centre, he created a garden over half a mile in length and built Beckford's Tower at the top. To the west Partis College was built in the Newbridge area as a large block of almshouses between 1825 and 1827. It was founded by Ann and Fletcher Partis for women "who had been left in reduced circumstances", and still provides accommodation, in 30 terraced houses set around three sides of a quadrangle, for women, aged over 50 in membership of the Church of England. In 1862, George Gilbert Scott redesigned the original chapel, which had been built by Goodrich. ## Victorian In the early 19th century the romantic Gothic Revival style appeared as a backlash to the symmetry of Palladianism, which brought certain changes to the city's appearance. Many of the new churches, for example, were built in the Gothic style as were a number of new villas. Most of the new civic and retail buildings however continued to be designed in the classical mode but along much more ornamented and elaborate lines than their 18th century predecessors. However virtually all the new buildings were constructed using the local bath stone so the city continued to have a cohesive look. By the middle of the 19th century, as a result of new technology, construction was able to develop incorporating steel as a building component. In 1810 the Kennet and Avon Canal opened linking the River Avon at Bath to Reading. Bath Locks mark the divergence of the River Avon and the canal, 656 yards (600 m) south of Pulteney Bridge. Alongside the bottom lock are a side pound and a pumping station that pumps water up the locks to replace that used each time the lock is opened. The next stage of Bath Deep Lock is numbered 8/9 as two locks were combined when the canal was restored in 1976. The new chamber has a depth of 19 feet 5 inches (5.92 m), making it Britain's deepest canal lock. Just above the 'deep lock' is an area of water enabling the lock to refill and above this is Wash House Lock, followed by Abbey View Lock, by which there is another pumping station and, in quick succession, Pultney Lock and Bath Top Lock. Above the top lock the canal passes through Sydney Gardens including two short tunnels and under two cast iron footbridges dating from 1800. Cleveland tunnel is 173 feet (53 m) long and runs under Cleveland House, the former headquarters of the Kennet and Avon Canal Company. A trap-door in the tunnel roof was used to pass paperwork between clerks above and bargees below. Many of the bridges over the canal are also listed buildings. Victoria Bridge, which was built in 1836 across the River Avon, was an important early example of a cable-stayed bridge. As the size of the city and numbers of visitors grew new facilities opened. Cleveland Pools in Hampton Row, is a semi-circular lido built, by John Pinch the elder, around 1814. It is believed to be the oldest surviving public outdoor swimming pools in England. The Corridor is one of the world's earliest retail arcades, designed by architect Henry Goodridge and built in 1825, with a glass roof. The High Street end has a Doric colonnade. Each end has marble columns. A musicians gallery, with a wrought iron balustrade and gilt lions heads and garlands, is in the centre of the arcade. Cleveland Bridge was built in 1826 by William Hazledine with Henry Goodridge as the architect. St Michael's Church was rebuilt between 1835 and 1837 and St. Stephen's Church built in Walcot by James Wilson, between 1840 and 1845. The Bear Flat area south of the city centre was started by the Georgians but the main estate of Poets' Corner is late Victorian and Edwardian. The opening of the Great Western Railway in 1841 removed much of the canal's traffic, and in 1852 the railway company took over its running. Bath Spa railway station is the principal railway station in Bath. It was built in 1840 by Brunel. It is in an asymmetrical Tudor style with curving gables, and lies on the north bank of the Avon, with the line swerving elegantly across from the southern bank to the station and then back again. Green Park railway station opened in 1870 as the terminus of Midland Railway's Mangotsfield and Bath Branch Line. For some of its life, it was known as Bath Queen Square. It includes a vaulted glass roof in a single-span wrought iron arch structure. Parts of the distinctive glass roof were damaged during bombing raids in April 1942, and the glazing was not re-instated during railway usage after the war. Following the Beeching Report, passenger trains ceased from 1966 and the last goods train ran in 1971. In the 1980s the rail approaches to the station were redeveloped as a major supermarket opened in December 1982, and the station itself is used as a pedestrian passageway to and from the city; there are a number of small shop units in the former station buildings. The Victoria Art Gallery, a free public art museum and library was built between the Guildhall and Pulteney Bridge. It was designed by John McKean Brydon. The exterior of the building includes a statue of Queen Victoria, by A. C. Lucchesi, and friezes of classical figures by George Anderson Lawson. ## Twentieth century The Empire Hotel was built in 1901 on Orange Grove close to both Bath Abbey and Pulteney Bridge. In the 1920s and 1930s Bath's architectural traditions combined with an art deco style in buildings such as The Forum which opened as a 2,000-seat cinema in 1934, and has since been converted into a church and concert venue. The Royal United Hospital opened in the Weston suburb, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the city centre in 1932. During World War II, between the evening of 25 April and the early morning of 27 April 1942, Bath suffered three air raids in reprisal for RAF raids on the German cities of Lübeck and Rostock, part of the Luftwaffe campaign popularly known as the Baedeker Blitz. Over 400 people were killed, and more than 19,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed. Houses in the Royal Crescent, Circus and Paragon were burnt out along with the Assembly Rooms, while part of the south side of Queen Square was destroyed. A postwar review of inadequate housing led to the clearance and redevelopment of large areas of the city in a postwar style, often at variance with the Georgian style of the city. In the 1950s the nearby villages of Combe Down, Twerton and Weston were incorporated into Bath to enable the development of further housing, much of it council housing such as the Whiteway estate. In the 1970s and 1980s it was recognised that conservation of historic buildings was inadequate, leading to more care and reuse of buildings and open spaces. In 1987 the city was selected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognising its international cultural significance. In the 1960s and early 1970s the way in which some parts of Bath were redeveloped, resulting in the loss of some 18th- and 19th-century buildings, led to a popular campaign to change the way the city was developing, which drew strength from the publication of Adam Fergusson's The Sack of Bath. Since 2000, developments have included the Bath Spa, SouthGate, and the Bath Western Riverside project. ## Twenty-first century Controversy continued with the demolition of the 1930s Churchill House, a mock-Georgian municipal building originally housing the Electricity Board, to make way for the new Bath Bus Station. This was part of the Southgate redevelopment begun in 2007 in which the central 1960s shopping precinct, bus station, and multi-story carpark were demolished and replaced with a new area of mock-Georgian shopping streets. As a result of the changes the city's status as a World Heritage Site was reviewed by UNESCO in 2009. The decision was made to let Bath keep its status, but UNESCO asked to be consulted on future phases of the Riverside development, saying that the density and volume of buildings in the second and third phases of the development needed to be reconsidered. It also said that Bath must do more to attract world-class architecture to any new developments. In 2021, Bath received its second UNESCO World Heritage inscription, becoming part of a group of 11 spa towns across seven countries that were listed by UNESCO as the "Great Spas of Europe". ## See also - Grade I listed buildings in Bath and North East Somerset - Grade II\* listed buildings in Bath and North East Somerset - List of tourist attractions in Bath - Bath Preservation Trust

John Mylne (died 1667)

Scottish master mason and architect, died 1667

John Mylne (1611 – 24 December 1667), sometimes known as "John Mylne junior", or "the Younger", was a Scottish master mason and architect who served as Master Mason to the Crown of Scotland. Born in Perth, he was the son of John Mylne, also a master mason, and Isobel Wilson. Practising as a stonemason, he also took on the role of architect, designing as well as building his projects. He was one of the last masters of Scottish Renaissance architecture, before new styles were imported by his successors. Alongside his professional career, he also served as a soldier and politician. He married three times but had no surviving children. ## Career Mylne learned his trade from his father, assisting him with projects including the sundial at Holyrood Palace. In 1633 Mylne was made a burgess of the royal burgh of Edinburgh, and was admitted to the Edinburgh lodge of masons, both due to his father's position. He was first appointed to the town council in 1636 and, in the same year, was appointed master mason to the Crown, succeeding his father. His building projects were concentrated in Edinburgh, where, from 1637, he served as principal master mason to the city. For ten years he was involved in the construction of the Tron Kirk on the High Street, which opened in 1647. The Tron was built to house the congregation of St Giles', which had been raised to cathedral status, and was laid out in the new T-plan form with the pulpit in the centre, to suit reformed worship. The design was informed by contemporary Dutch architecture and, in particular, by the work of Hendrick de Keyser whose Architectura Moderna showcased his church designs in the Netherlands. Mylne worked on the building with master wright John Scott who was responsible for the timber work. The building was executed in a Dutch influenced style with both gothic and classical details. The church was not fully complete before Mylne's death and was subsequently remodelled in the 18th century. A new spire was added in the 19th century following a fire, but Mylne's work can be seen in the body of the kirk. The carved tympanum was executed by Mylne's brother Alexander. From 1637 to 1649 he was also engaged on the design of Cowane's Hospital in Stirling, which was executed by Stirling mason James Rynd. Mylne also carved the statue of its founder for the facade. In 1642, Mylne surveyed the crumbling remains of Jedburgh Abbey, for which services he was made a burgess of Jedburgh. He built the choir, steeple, and north aisle of Airth Old Church, commencing 15 July 1647. From 1643 to 1659, he served as master mason for the construction of Heriot's Hospital (now a school), succeeding William Aytoun. The building had been started in 1628 by William Wallace, and would not be finally completed until 1700; Mylne rebuilt one or two of the towers in 1648. Also in 1648, Mylne was engaged to repair the crown steeple of St. Giles', Edinburgh. Projects in the 1650s included the building of fortifications in Leith, and the addition of artillery emplacements to Edinburgh's town wall. He undertook the division of Greyfriars Kirk, so that it could serve two congregations, and constructed a professor's house for Edinburgh University, which was demolished in the 18th century. Following the Restoration of Charles II, Mylne was reconfirmed in his post of Royal Master Mason, and was commissioned in 1663 to survey the upper floors of Holyrood Palace. The resulting plans are the earliest surviving architectural drawings from Scotland, and are held in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. His design for the completion of the palace went unexecuted, with the work eventually being carried out by Sir William Bruce in the 1670s. In 1666 John Mylne designed and was engaged to build Panmure House, near Forfar, for the 2nd Earl of Panmure. After his death, the work was continued by Alexander Nisbet, possibly with the assistance of William Bruce. This house, demolished in 1950, resembled Heriot's Hospital and other Scottish 17th-century buildings, rather than looking forward to the new classical styles which would be introduced by Bruce. During the Second Anglo-Dutch War of 1665–1667, Mylne designed and built fortifications at Lerwick, which were later reconstructed as Fort Charlotte. He provided a design for Linlithgow's tolbooth in 1667, but following his death another mason was sought, and a different design built. Another scheme was for Leslie House, carried out after his death by Robert Mylne, again with the advice of Bruce. Mylne's architectural works are in the Scottish Renaissance tradition, which combined gothic and classical elements, together with mannerist ornament, often derived from imported pattern books. Colvin describes Mylne as "the leading master of the last phase of Scottish mannerism". By the 1660s, Mylne's work was becoming old-fashioned, as the European-inspired Palladian began to be imported by William Bruce. ## Political and military service In 1640, Mylne joined the Scottish army which invaded northern England during the Second Bishop's War. He was promoted in 1646 to Captain of Pioneers, and Master Gunner of Scotland. As well as serving on Edinburgh's town council from 1636 to 1664, Mylne played several other political roles in his life. In 1652, he served as part of a commission sent to the English Parliament in London, to discuss a possible Treaty of Union. From 1654 to 1659 he represented Edinburgh at the Convention of Royal Burghs, and in 1662 he was elected a burgh commissioner for Edinburgh, attending Charles II's first Scottish parliament. ## Death In 1667 Mylne was in discussions with the town of Perth for construction of a new market cross. However, he died at Edinburgh in December. He was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh, where a monument, erected by his nephew and apprentice Robert Mylne, still stands. Another memorial was erected by the Freemasons at their meeting place, St. Mary's Chapel, although this former church was demolished in the 18th century. His portrait is in storage in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Robert Mylne succeeded him as master mason to the crown.

HMS Hussar (1799)

Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate

HMS Hussar was a 38-gun fifth-rate Amazon-class frigate of the Royal Navy. Launched at the end of 1799, the entirety of the frigate's career was spent serving in the English Channel and off the coast of Spain. Hussar primarily served as a convoy escort and cruiser, in which occupation the frigate took several prizes, including the French privateer Le General Bessieres. Towards the end of 1803 Hussar was sent to serve in Sir Edward Pellew's Ferrol squadron. On 8 February 1804 Hussar was returning to England with dispatches when the ship was wrecked off the coast of Île de Sein. The crew attempted to sail for home in a fleet of commandeered boats, but the majority were forced to go into Brest to avoid sinking in bad weather, where they were made prisoners of war. ## Design and construction Hussar was a 38-gun, 18-pounder, fifth-rate Amazon-class frigate. The ship was one of two built to the design, along with the namesake of the class HMS Amazon. The ships were drawn up by the Surveyor of the Navy Sir William Rule, who submitted the design on 19 April 1796. They were an enlarged version of a previous design by Rule, the 38-gun HMS Naiad. Naiad was in turn an expanded version of another, older, Rule ship class, this being the Amazon class designed in 1794. Hussar was ordered on 15 February 1797 to be built at Woolwich Dockyard by shipwright John Tovery. The ship was originally planned to be named Hyaena, but this was changed on 24 January 1798. Hussar was laid down in August of the latter year, and launched on 1 June 1799 with the following dimensions: 150 feet 3 inches (45.8 m) along the upper deck, 125 feet 8 inches (38.3 m) at the keel, with a beam of 39 feet 6 inches (12 m) and a depth in the hold of 13 feet (4 m). The ship had a draught of 18 feet 1 inch (5.5 m) forward and 19 feet 8 inches (6 m) aft, and measured 1,04288⁄94 tons burthen. The fitting out process was completed in the River Thames on 11 November, with the final cost of construction totalling £29,884. Hussar's class was described in sailing reports as "fast and very weatherly", as well as being highly manoeuvrable. They were capable of reaching up to 13 knots (24.1 km/h) and showed superior sailing qualities to most other vessels, especially when in a "stiff breeze". The ships were, however, known for "deep and uneasy rolling and pitching", which naval historian Robert Gardiner suggests was because they were built very stiffly. The frigate had a crew complement of 284, which would later be raised to 300, and held twenty-eight 18-pounder guns on the upper deck. Rule had originally planned for the quarterdeck to hold eight 9-pounder guns and the forecastle to hold a further two, but on 6 May 1797 six 32-pounder carronades were added to the quarterdeck armament and two more to the forecastle. Hussar's armament was changed again on 17 June 1799, with all but two 9-pounders on each of the quarterdeck and forecastle replaced by more carronades. This resulted in a final armament of twelve 32-pounder carronades and two 9-pounder guns on the quarterdeck, and two 32-pounder carronades and two 9-pounder guns on the forecastle, in addition to Hussar's main 18-pounder guns. ## Service Hussar was commissioned by Captain Lord Garlies in November 1799, for service in the English Channel and off the coast of Ireland as part of the Cork Station. Hussar was in company with the 38-gun frigate HMS Loire and 16-gun schooner HMS Milbrook on 17 May 1800 when the three ships recaptured the British merchant ship Princess Charlotte and captured the French schooner La Francoise. Hussar subsequently sailed to Madeira, returning from there on 9 July. The frigate continued to serve off Ireland, escorting a convoy of ships from west India in to England on 31 October. On 9 November a large gale hit the south coast of England, and many ships in the area were driven out to sea by it and badly damaged. Among these casualties was Hussar, which lost all topmasts and the mizzenmast in the gale, and received considerable hull damage, including the loss of the rudder. Hussar was brought into Portsmouth with a hoy rigged behind as a temporary rudder. The ship was docked for repairs, which were completed on 28 November. Having returned to sea, Hussar continued operating with convoys, escorting the East India Company ships Carnatic, Henry Addington, Nottingham, and Ocean on the first leg of their journey to Calcutta on 8 January 1801. Then on 2 March the frigate captured the French 4-gun privateer Le General Bessieres in the Atlantic Ocean. The French warship had been attempting to sail from Bourdeaux to Santo Domingo. Hussar then recaptured the British merchant ship James on 12 April. Later on in the same month Garlies was replaced in command of Hussar by Captain John Giffard, but he in turn gave command over to Captain William Brown soon afterwards. Brown also served in Hussar only briefly, with Captain John Ommanney soon taking over from him on a temporary basis, with the frigate continuing to serve in the English Channel. On 22 May the 54-gun fourth-rate HMS Madras attempted to enter Portsmouth, but grounded on Bembridge Ledge. Hussar joined with the 24-gun post ship HMS Eurydice and together they pulled Madras off without damaging the ship. Hussar received a refit at Plymouth Dockyard between May and November 1802, and was recommissioned in June by Captain Philip Wilkinson, who had joined the ship in May. The frigate was sent to serve in the North Sea and English Channel. On 10 January 1803 the frigate's gunnery storeroom caught fire while anchored near Sheerness. The fire was close to the ship's magazine and while it did not reach it, some other combustible matter did explode. In reaction to this Hussar's crew ran onto the quarterdeck, from where one small boat was hanging off the rear of the ship. Too many people attempted to board the boat to escape the explosion, causing the davit to break and all in the boat to be thrown into the water. Two master's mates, a midshipman, fourteen seamen, and a woman were drowned. No more explosions on Hussar occurred and Wilkinson was able to stop the fire from spreading or from doing serious damage to the frigate. When the Napoleonic Wars began in May 1803, Hussar was based at Spithead, and was quickly sent out into the Bay of Biscay. On 23 June Hussar was sailing in sight of the British privateer Trimmer when the latter captured the French brig La Flore, for which Hussar shared in the prize money of. The frigate then underwent a refit at Plymouth, in which new masts and rigging were put in place, that was completed on 29 October. The ship briefly returned on 17 November to repair damage received in a large storm while cruising. Hussar continued on station after this, and in the winter was sent to join a squadron serving off the coast of Spain at Ferrol. On 6 February 1804 Hussar was ordered to sail back to England from Ares Bay carrying the dispatches of Captain Sir Edward Pellew, the commander of the squadron. While doing so the frigate was also to make contact with the Channel Fleet which was stationed off Cape Finisterre. In the course of this errand Hussar was wrecked off the coast of Île de Sein in the late evening of 8 February. The crew were not harmed and they landed on the island, taking it over from the fishermen who lived there. In the morning of 10 February Wilkinson sent a party out to burn Hussar, the wreck of which was still intact. Upon the completion of this task Wilkinson set sail in his barge, with the rest of the crew in thirteen commandeered fishing boats, intending to sail for England. The fishing boats, however, were found to be in very poor condition and they were all forced to sail into Brest to avoid being lost at sea as the weather worsened. There they surrendered themselves to the French fleet present in port. Wilkinson's barge, which had been leading the fishing boats before being lost in the rain, was not affected by these problems, and he reached the 36-gun frigate HMS Sirius which took him in, arriving at Portsmouth on 28 February. The rest of Hussar's crew were incarcerated as prisoners of war for ten years. Two members of the crew, Midshipman Henry Ashworth and Master's Mate Donat Henchy O'Brien, succeeded in escaping from the prison of Bitche Citadel in November 1808 by stealing a boat and making their way to Trieste, from where they and another naval officer were picked up by a raiding party from the 32-gun frigate HMS Amphion. ## Prizes ## Notes and citations

The Iron Giant

1999 animated film by Brad Bird

The Iron Giant is a 1999 American animated science fiction film produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation and distributed by Warner Bros. It is based on the 1968 novel The Iron Man by Ted Hughes (which was published in the United States as The Iron Giant). The film is directed by Brad Bird (in his directorial debut) and produced by Allison Abbate and Des McAnuff, from a screenplay written by Tim McCanlies, and based on a story treatment by Bird. The film stars the voices of Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., Vin Diesel, James Gammon, Cloris Leachman, John Mahoney, Eli Marienthal, Christopher McDonald, and M. Emmet Walsh. Set during the Cold War in 1957, the film centers on a young boy named Hogarth Hughes, who discovers and befriends a giant alien robot. With the help of a beatnik artist named Dean McCoppin, Hogarth attempts to prevent the U.S. military and Kent Mansley, a paranoid federal agent, from finding and destroying the Giant. The film's development began in 1994 as a musical with the involvement of the Who's Pete Townshend, though the project took root once Bird signed on as director and hired McCanlies to write the screenplay in 1996. The film was animated using traditional animation, with computer-generated imagery used to animate the Iron Giant and other effects. The understaffed crew of the film completed it with half of the time and budget of other animated features. Michael Kamen composed the film's score, which was performed by the Czech Philharmonic. It was the final film by Warner Bros. Feature Animation to be fully animated and not a live-action/animation hybrid. The Iron Giant premiered at Mann's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles on July 31, 1999, and was released in the United States on August 6. The film significantly underperformed at the box office, grossing $31.3 million worldwide against a production budget of $50 million, which was attributed to Warner Bros.' lack of marketing and skepticism towards animated film production following the box office failure of Quest for Camelot in the preceding year. Despite this, the film was praised for its story, animation, musical score, characters, the portrayal of the title character and the voice performances of Aniston, Connick, Diesel, Mahoney, Marienthal, and McDonald. The film was nominated for several awards, winning nine Annie Awards out of 15 nominations. Through home video releases and television syndication, the film gathered a cult following and is widely regarded as a modern animated classic, and one of the greatest animated films ever made. In 2015, an extended, remastered version of the film was re-released theatrically, and on home video the following year. ## Plot In October 1957, during the Cold War, an object from space crashes in the ocean just off the coast of Maine and then enters the forest near the town of Rockwell. The following night, nine-year-old Hogarth Hughes investigates and finds the object, a 50-foot-tall alien robot; he runs away but then returns to save the robot when he gets electrocuted while trying to eat the transmission lines of an electrical substation. Hogarth eventually befriends the Giant, finding him docile and curious. When he eats railroad tracks in the path of an oncoming train, the train collides with him and derails; Hogarth leads the Giant away from the area, discovering that he can self-repair. While there, Hogarth shows the Giant comic books and compares him to the hero Superman. The incidents lead paranoid U.S. government agent Kent Mansley to Rockwell. He suspects Hogarth's involvement after talking with him and his widowed mother, Annie, and rents a room in their house to keep an eye on him. Hogarth evades Mansley and leads the Giant to a junkyard owned by beatnik artist Dean McCoppin, who reluctantly agrees to keep him. Hogarth enjoys his time with the Giant but is compelled to explain the concept of death to the Giant after he witnesses hunters killing a deer. Hogarth is detained and interrogated by Mansley when he discovers evidence of the Giant after finding a photo of him next to Hogarth and summons a U.S. Army contingent led by General Shannon Rogard to the scrapyard to prove the Giant's existence, but Dean (having been warned by Hogarth earlier) tricks them by pretending that the Giant is one of his art pieces. Later, while playing with a toy gun, Hogarth inadvertently activates the Giant's defensive system, firing a laser beam in the process. Dean yells at him for nearly killing Hogarth, and the saddened Giant runs away with Hogarth giving chase. Dean realizes that the Giant was only acting in self-defense and catches up to Hogarth as they follow the Giant. The Giant rescues two boys falling from a roof when he arrives, winning over the townspeople. Mansley spots the Giant in the town while leaving Rockwell and has the Army attack the Giant after he has picked up Hogarth, forcing the two to flee. They initially evade the military by using the Giant's flight system, but the Giant is shot down and crashes to the ground. Hogarth is knocked unconscious, but the Giant assumes that Hogarth is dead, and in a fit of rage and grief transforms into a war machine and returns to Rockwell. Mansley convinces Rogard to prepare a nuclear missile launch from the USS Nautilus, as conventional weapons prove to be ineffective. Hogarth awakens and returns in time to calm the Giant while Dean clarifies the situation to Rogard. Rogard is ready to stand down and order the Nautilus to deactivate its primed nuke, but a panicked Mansley snatches Rogard's radio and orders the missile launch. The missile is targeted to hit Rockwell, where it will destroy the town upon impact in the resulting nuclear detonation. Mansley attempts to escape, but the Giant intervenes, and Rogard has Mansley arrested. To save the town, the Giant bids farewell to Hogarth and flies off to intercept the missile. As he soars into the missile's path, the Giant remembers Hogarth's words, "You are who you choose to be," smiles contentedly, and declares himself "Superman" as he collides with the weapon. The missile explodes in the atmosphere, saving Rockwell, its population, and the military forces nearby, while the Giant is presumably destroyed, leaving Hogarth, Dean, Annie, and Rogard devastated. Months later, Dean and Annie, now a couple, have a chat at a memorial of the Giant made by Dean, standing in Rockwell. Hogarth is given a package from Rogard containing a screw from the Giant, which is the only remnant found. That night, Hogarth finds the screw trying to move on its own and, remembering the Giant's ability to self-repair, happily allows the screw to leave. The screw joins many other parts as they converge on the Giant's head on the Langjökull glacier in Iceland, and the Giant smiles as he begins reassembling himself. ## Voice cast - Eli Marienthal as Hogarth Hughes, an intelligent, curious, energetic, and courageous 9-year-old boy with an active imagination. Marienthal's performances were videotaped and given to animators to work with, which helped develop expressions and acting for the character. He is named after author Ted Hughes, who wrote the book that inspired the film, and artist Burne Hogarth. - Jennifer Aniston as Annie Hughes, Hogarth's mother, the widow of a military pilot, and a diner waitress. According to Bird, Aniston was the only casting suggestion made by Warner Bros. execs that he personally really liked and approved. - Harry Connick Jr. as Dean McCoppin, a beatnik artist and junkyard owner. Bird felt it appropriate to make the character a member of the Beat Generation, as they were viewed as mildly threatening to small-town values during that time. An outsider himself, he is among the first to recognize the Giant as no threat. - Vin Diesel as the Iron Giant, a 50 ft., metal-eating robot. Of unknown origin and created for an unknown purpose, the Giant involuntarily reacts defensively if he recognizes anything as a weapon, immediately attempting to destroy it. The Giant's voice was originally going to be electronically modulated but the filmmakers decided they "needed a deep, resonant and expressive voice to start with", so they hired Diesel. - James Gammon as Foreman Marv Loach, a power station employee who follows the robot's trail after it destroys the station. - Gammon also voices Floyd Turbeaux, a farmer and friend of Earl Stutz. - Cloris Leachman as Karen Tensedge, Hogarth's fourth grade teacher at Redford Elementary School. - Christopher McDonald as Kent Mansley, a paranoid federal government agent sent to investigate sightings of the Iron Giant. The logo on his official government car says he is from the "Bureau of Unexplained Phenomena". - John Mahoney as General Shannon Rogard, an experienced and level-headed military leader in Washington, D.C., Mansley's superior at the Bureau of Unexplained Phenomena who goes from merely being annoyed and exasperated with Mansley to openly despising him. - M. Emmet Walsh as Earl Stutz, a sailor and the first man to see the Giant. In addition, Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas voice the train's engineers briefly seen near the start of the film. Johnston and Thomas, who were animators and members of Disney's Nine Old Men, were cited by Bird as inspirations for his career, which he honored by incorporating their voices, likenesses, and first names into the film. ## Production ### Development The origins of the film lie in the book The Iron Man (1968), by poet Ted Hughes, who wrote the novel for his children to comfort them in the wake of their mother Sylvia Plath's suicide. In the 1980s, rock musician Pete Townshend chose to adapt the book for a concept album; it was released as The Iron Man: A Musical in 1989. In 1991, Richard Bazley, who later became the film's lead animator, pitched a version of The Iron Man to Don Bluth while working at his studio in Ireland. He created a story outline and character designs but Bluth passed on the project. After a stage musical was mounted in London, Des McAnuff, who had adapted Tommy with Townshend for the stage, believed that The Iron Man could translate to the screen, and the project was ultimately acquired by Warner Bros. Entertainment. In late 1996, while developing the project on its way through, the studio saw the film as a perfect vehicle for Brad Bird, who at the time was working for Turner Feature Animation developing Ray Gunn. Turner Broadcasting had recently merged with Warner Bros. parent company Time Warner, and Bird was allowed to transfer to the Warner Bros. Animation studio to direct The Iron Giant. After reading the original Iron Man book by Hughes, Bird was impressed with the mythology of the story and in addition, was given an unusual amount of creative control by Warner Bros. This creative control involved introducing two new characters not present in the original book, Dean and Kent, setting the film in America, and discarding Townshend's musical ambitions (who did not care either way, reportedly remarking, "Well, whatever, I got paid"). Bird would expand upon his desire to set the film in America in the 1950s in a later interview: > The Maine setting looks Norman Rockwell idyllic on the outside, but inside everything is just about to boil over; everyone was scared of the bomb, the Russians, Sputnik — even rock and roll. This clenched Ward Cleaver smile masking fear (which is really what the Kent character was all about). It was the perfect environment to drop a 50-foot-tall robot into. Ted Hughes, the original story's author, died before the film's release. His daughter, Frieda Hughes, saw the finished film on his behalf and loved it. Townshend, who stayed on as the film's executive producer, enjoyed the final film as well. ### Writing Tim McCanlies was hired to write the script, though Bird was somewhat displeased with having another writer on board, as he wanted to write the screenplay himself. He later changed his mind after reading McCanlies' then-unproduced screenplay for Secondhand Lions. In Bird's original story treatment, America and the USSR were at war at the end, with the Giant dying. McCanlies decided to have a brief scene displaying his survival, stating, "You can't kill E.T. and then not bring him back." McCanlies finished the script within two months. McCanlies was given a three-month schedule to complete a script, and it was by way of the film's tight schedule that Warner Bros. "didn't have time to mess with us" as McCanlies said. The question of the Giant's backstory was purposefully ignored as to keep the story focused on his relationship with Hogarth. Bird considered the story difficult to develop due to its combination of unusual elements, such as "paranoid fifties sci-fi movies with the innocence of something like The Yearling". Hughes himself was sent a copy of McCanlies' script and sent a letter back, saying how pleased he was with the version. In the letter, Hughes stated, "I want to tell you how much I like what Brad Bird has done. He's made something all of a piece, with terrific sinister gathering momentum and the ending came to me as a glorious piece of amazement. He's made a terrific dramatic situation out of the way he's developed The Iron Giant. I can't stop thinking about it." Bird combined his knowledge from his years in television to direct his first feature. He credited his time working on Family Dog as essential to team-building, and his tenure on The Simpsons as an example of working under strict deadlines. He was open to others on his staff to help develop the film; he would often ask crew members their opinions on scenes and change things accordingly. One of his priorities was to emphasize softer, character-based moments, as opposed to more frenetic scenes—something Bird thought was a problem with modern filmmaking. "There has to be activity or sound effects or cuts or music blaring. It's almost as if the audience has the remote and they're going to change channels," he commented at the time. Storyboard artist Teddy Newton played an important role in shaping the film's story. Newton's first assignment on staff involved being asked by Bird to create a film within a film to reflect the "hygiene-type movies that everyone saw when the bomb scare was happening." Newton came to the conclusion that a musical number would be the catchiest alternative, and the "Duck and Cover" sequence came to become one of the crew members' favorites of the film. Nicknamed "The X-Factor" by story department head Jeffery Lynch, the producers gave him artistic freedom on various pieces of the film's script. ### Animation The financial failure of Warner's previous animated effort, Quest for Camelot, which made the studio reconsider animated films, helped shape The Iron Giant's production considerably. "Three-quarters" of the animation team on that film helped craft The Iron Giant. By the time it entered production, Warner Bros. informed the staff that there would be a smaller budget as well as time-frame to get the film completed. Although the production was watched closely, Bird commented "They did leave us alone if we kept it in control and showed them we were producing the film responsibly and getting it done on time and doing stuff that was good." Bird regarded the trade-off as having "one-third of the money of a Disney or DreamWorks film, and half of the production schedule" but the payoff as having more creative freedom, describing the film as "fully-made by the animation team; I don't think any other studio can say that to the level that we can." A small part of the team took a weeklong research trip to Maine, where they photographed and videotaped five small cities. They hoped to accurately reflect its culture down to the minutiae; "we shot store fronts, barns, forests, homes, home interiors, diners, every detail we could, including the bark on trees", said production designer Mark Whiting. Bird stuck to elaborate scene planning, such as detailed animatics, to make sure there were no budgetary concerns. The team initially worked with Macromedia's Director software, before switching to Adobe After Effects full-time. Bird was eager to use the then-nascent software, as it allowed for storyboard to contain indications of camera moves. The software became essential to that team—dubbed "Macro" early on—to help the studio grasp story reels for the film. These also allowed Bird to better understand what the film required from an editing perspective. In the end, he was proud of the way the film was developed, noting that "We could imagine the pace and the unfolding of our film accurately with a relatively small expenditure of resources." The group would gather in a screening room to view completed sequences, with Bird offering suggestions by drawing onto the screen with a marker. Lead animator Bazley suggested this led to a sense of camaraderie among the crew, who were unified in their mission to create a good film. Bird cited his favorite moment of the film's production as occurring in the editing room, when the crew gathered to test a sequence in which the Giant learns what a soul is. "People in the room were spontaneously crying. It was pivotal; there was an undeniable feeling that we were really tapping into something," he recalled. He opted to give the film's animators portions to animate entirely, rather than the standard process of animating one character, in a throwback to the way Disney's first features were created. The exception were those responsible for creating the Giant himself, who was created using computer-generated imagery due to the difficulty of creating a metal object "in a fluid-like manner". They had additional trouble with using the computer model to express emotion. The Giant consisted of 7000 parts (the Battle Giant had 10,000 parts), and was designed by filmmaker Joe Johnston and refined by production designer Mark Whiting and Steve Markowski, head animator for the Giant. Using software, the team would animate the Giant "on twos" (every other frame, or twelve frames per second) when interacting with other characters, to make it less obvious it was a computer model. Bird brought in students from CalArts to assist in minor animation work due to the film's busy schedule. He made sure to spread out the work on scenes between experienced and younger animators, noting, "You overburden your strongest people and underburden the others [if you let your top talent monopolize the best assignments]." Hiroki Itokazu designed all of the film's CGI props and vehicles, which were created in a variety of software, including Alias Systems Corporation's Maya, Alias' PowerAnimator, a modified version of Pixar's RenderMan, Softimage 3D, Cambridge Animation's Animo (now part of Toon Boom Technologies), Avid Elastic Reality, and Adobe Photoshop. The art of Norman Rockwell, Edward Hopper and N.C. Wyeth inspired the design. Whiting strove for colors both evocative of the time period in which the film is set and also representative of its emotional tone; for example, Hogarth's room is designed to reflect his "youth and sense of wonder". That was blended with a style reminiscent of 1950s illustration. Animators studied Chuck Jones, Hank Ketcham, Al Hirschfeld and Disney films from that era, such as 101 Dalmatians, for inspiration in the film's animation. ### Music The score for the film was composed and conducted by Michael Kamen, making it the only film directed by Bird not to be scored by his future collaborator, Michael Giacchino. Bird's original temp score, "a collection of Bernard Herrmann cues from '50s and '60s sci-fi films," initially scared Kamen. Believing the sound of the orchestra is important to the feeling of the film, Kamen "decided to comb eastern Europe for an "old-fashioned" sounding orchestra and went to Prague to hear Vladimir Ashkenazy conduct the Czech Philharmonic in Strauss's An Alpine Symphony." Eventually, the Czech Philharmonic was the orchestra used for the film's score, with Bird describing the symphony orchestra as "an amazing collection of musicians". The score for The Iron Giant was recorded in a rather unconventional manner, compared to most films: recorded over one week at the Rudolfinum in Prague, the music was recorded without conventional uses of syncing the music, in a method Kamen described in a 1999 interview as "[being able to] play the music as if it were a piece of classical repertoire." Kamen's score for The Iron Giant won the Annie Award for Music in an Animated Feature Production on November 6, 1999. ### Post-production Bird opted to produce The Iron Giant in widescreen—specifically the wide 2.39:1 CinemaScope aspect ratio—but was warned against doing so by his advisers. He felt it was appropriate to use the format, as many films from the late 1950s were produced in such widescreen formats. He hoped to include the CinemaScope logo on a poster, partially as a joke, but 20th Century Fox, owner of the trademark, refused. Bird later recalled that he clashed with executives who wished to add characters, such as a sidekick dog, set the film in the present day, and include a soundtrack of hip hop. This was due to concerns that the film was not merchandisable, to which Bird responded, "If they were interested in telling the story, they should let it be what it wants to be." The film was also initially going to be released under the Warner Bros. Family Entertainment banner, the logo which features mascot Bugs Bunny in a tuxedo eating a carrot as seen in the film's teaser trailer. Bird was against this for a multitude of reasons, mainly because he felt that the logo did not fit the tone of the movie, and eventually got confirmation that executives Bob Daley and Terry Semel agreed. Instead, Bird and his team developed another version of the logo to resemble the classic studio logo in a circle, famously employed in Looney Tunes shorts. He credited executives Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Courtney Vallenti with helping him achieve his vision, noting that they were open to his opinion. According to a report from the time of its release, The Iron Giant cost $50 million to produce with an additional $30 million going towards marketing, though Box Office Mojo later reported its budget as $70 million. It was regarded as a lower-budget film, in comparison to the films distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. ## Themes When he began work on the film, Bird was in the midst of coping with the death of his sister, Susan, who was shot and killed by her estranged husband. In researching its source material, he learned that Hughes wrote The Iron Man as a means of comforting his children after his wife, Sylvia Plath, died by suicide, specifically through the metaphor of the title character being able to re-assemble itself after being damaged. These experiences formed the basis of Bird's pitch to Warner Bros., which was based around the idea "What if a gun had a soul, and didn't want to be a gun?"; the completed film was also dedicated to Hughes and Susan. McCanlies commented that "at a certain point, there are deciding moments when we pick who we want to be. And that plays out for the rest of your life", adding that films can provide viewers with a sense of right and wrong, and expressed a wish that The Iron Giant would "make us feel like we're all part of humanity [which] is something we need to feel." When some critics compared the film to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Bird responded by saying "E.T. doesn't go kicking ass. He doesn't make the Army pay. Certainly you risk having your hip credentials taken away if you want to evoke anything sad or genuinely heartfelt." ## Release ### Marketing The Iron Giant was a commercial failure during its theatrical release; consensus among critics was that its failure was, in part, due to lack of promotion from Warner Bros. This was largely attributable to the reception of Quest for Camelot; after its release, Warner would not give Bird and his team a release date for their film until April 1999. After wildly successful test screenings, the studio was shocked by the response: the test scores were their highest for a film in 15 years, according to Bird. They had neglected to prepare a successful marketing strategy for the film—such as cereal and fast food tie-ins—with little time left before its scheduled release. Bird remembered that the studio produced one teaser poster for the film, which became its eventual poster. Brad Ball, who had been assigned the role of marketing the film, was candid after its release, noting that the studio did not commit to a planned Burger King toy plan. IGN stated that "In a mis-marketing campaign of epic proportions at the hands of Warner Bros., they simply didn't realize what they had on their hands." The studio needed an $8 million opening to ensure success, but they were unable to properly promote it preceding the release. They nearly delayed the film by several months to better prepare. "They said, 'we should delay it and properly lead up to its release,' and I said 'you guys have had two and a half years to get ready for this,'" recalled Bird. Press outlets took note of its absence of marketing, with some reporting that the studio had spent more money on marketing for the intended summer blockbuster Wild Wild West instead. Warner Bros. scheduled Sunday sneak preview screenings for the film prior to its release, as well as a preview of the film on the online platform Webcastsneak. ### Home media and television syndication After criticism that it mounted an ineffective marketing campaign for its theatrical release, Warner Bros. revamped its advertising strategy for the video release of the film, including tie-ins with Honey Nut Cheerios, AOL and General Motors and secured the backing of three U.S. congressmen (Ed Markey, Mark Foley and Howard Berman). Awareness of the film was increased by its February 2000 release as a pay-per-view title, which also increased traffic to the film's website. The Iron Giant was released on VHS and DVD on November 23, 1999, with a Laserdisc release following on December 6. Warner Bros. spent $35 million to market the home video release of the film. The VHS edition came in three versions—pan and scan, pan and scan with an affixed Giant toy to the clamshell case, and a widescreen version. All of the initial widescreen home video releases were in 1.85:1, the incorrect aspect ratio for the film. In 2000, television rights to the film were sold to Cartoon Network and TNT for $3 million. Cartoon Network showed the film continuously for 24 consecutive hours in the early 2000s for such holidays as the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving. The Special Edition DVD was released on November 16, 2004. In 2014, Bird entered discussions with Warner Bros. regarding the possibility of releasing The Iron Giant on Blu-ray. On April 23, he wrote on Twitter that "WB & I have been talking. But they want a bare-bones disc. I want better," and encouraged fans to send tweets to Warner Home Video in favor of a Special Edition Blu-ray of the film. The film was ultimately released on Blu-ray on September 6, 2016, and included both the theatrical and 2015 Signature Edition cuts, as well as a documentary entitled The Giant's Dream that covered the making of the film. This version also received a DVD release months earlier on February 16 with The Giant's Dream documentary removed. This film became available on HBO Max on November 1, 2020. ## Reception ### Critical response The Iron Giant received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 96% approval rating based on 142 reviews, with an average rating of 8.20/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "The endearing Iron Giant tackles ambitious topics and complex human relationships with a steady hand and beautifully animated direction from Brad Bird." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 85 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. The Reel Source forecasting service calculated that "96–97%" of audiences that attended recommended the film. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called it "straight-arrow and subversive, [and] made with simplicity as well as sophistication," writing, "it feels like a classic even though it's just out of the box." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, and compared it, both in story and animation, to the works of Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki: "Like the new Japanese animated films, The Iron Giant is happy to be a 'real movie' in everything but live action. There are no cute little animals and not a single musical number: It's a story, plain and simple... It works as a lot of animation does, to make you forget from time to time that these are moving drawings, because the story and characters are so compelling." He concluded that it was "not just a cute romp but an involving story that has something to say." The New Yorker reviewer Michael Sragow dubbed it a "modern fairy tale", writing, "The movie provides a master class in the use of scale and perspective—and in its power to open up a viewer's heart and mind." Time's Richard Schickel deemed it "a smart live-and-let-live parable, full of glancing, acute observations on all kinds of big subjects—life, death, the military-industrial complex." Lawrence Van Gelder, writing for The New York Times, deemed it a "smooth, skilled example of animated filmmaking." Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal felt it "beautiful, oh so beautiful, as a work of coherent art", noting, "be assured that the film is, before anything else, deliciously funny and deeply affecting". Both Hollywood trade publications were positive: David Hunter of The Hollywood Reporter predicted it to be a sleeper hit and called it "outstanding", while Lael Loewenstein of Variety called it "a visually appealing, well-crafted film [...] an unalloyed success." Bruce Fretts of Entertainment Weekly commented, "I have long thought that I was born without the gene that would allow me to be emotionally drawn in by drawings. That is, until I saw The Iron Giant." Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle agreed that the storytelling was far superior to other animated films, and cited the characters as plausible and noted the richness of moral themes. Jeff Millar of the Houston Chronicle agreed with the basic techniques as well, and concluded the voice cast excelled with a great script by Tim McCanlies. The Washington Post's Stephen Hunter, while giving the film 4 out of 5 stars, opined, "The movie — as beautifully drawn, as sleek and engaging as it is — has the annoyance of incredible smugness." ### Box office The Iron Giant opened at Mann's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles on July 31, 1999, with a special ceremony preceding the screening in which a concrete slab bearing the title character's footprint was commemorated. The film opened in Los Angeles and New York City on August 4, 1999, with a wider national release occurring on August 6 in the United States. It opened in 2,179 theaters in the U.S., ranking at number nine at the box office accumulating $5.7 million over its opening weekend. It was quick to drop out of the top ten; by its fourth week, it had accumulated only $18.9 million—far under its reported $50 million budget. According to Dave McNary of the Los Angeles Daily News, "Its weekend per-theater average was only $2,631, an average of $145 or perhaps 30 tickets per showing"—leading theater owners to quickly discard the film. At the time, Warner Bros. was shaken by the resignations of executives Bob Daly and Terry Semel, making the failure much worse. T.L. Stanley of Brandweek cited it as an example of how media tie-ins were now essential to guaranteeing a film's success. The film went on to gross $23.2 million domestically and $8.1 million internationally for a total of $31.3 million worldwide. Analysts deemed it a victim of poor timing and "a severe miscalculation of how to attract an audience." Lorenzo di Bonaventura, president of Warner Bros. at the time, explained, "People always say to me, 'Why don't you make smarter family movies?' The lesson is, Every time you do, you get slaughtered." ### Accolades The Hugo Awards nominated The Iron Giant for Best Dramatic Presentation, while the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America honored Brad Bird and Tim McCanlies with the Nebula Award nomination. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts gave the film a Children's Award as Best Feature Film. In addition The Iron Giant won nine Annie Awards out of fifteen nominations, winning every category it was nominated for, with another nomination for Best Home Video Release at The Saturn Awards. IGN ranked The Iron Giant as the fifth favorite animated film of all time in a list published in 2010. In 2008, the American Film Institute nominated The Iron Giant for its Top 10 Animated Films list. ## Legacy The film has gathered a cult following since its original release. In 2018, when questioned over social media if there was ever a possibility of a sequel, Bird stated that because the film was considered a financial failure, a sequel was not likely to ever happen, but he also stressed that he considered the story of The Iron Giant to be completely self-contained in the film and saw no need for extending the story. The Cartoon Network series Mad, did a parody of the movie as well as the film The Iron Lady for their Season 3 premiere entitled The Iron Giant Lady. In the sketch, British prime minister Margaret Thatcher is the Giant and inspires other gynoids to take positions of political power. In the Season 7 episode of Futurama entitled "Assie Come Home", the Iron Giant's head can be seen in Yuri's chop-shop in Filthytown. The designers of the 2015 video game Ori and the Blind Forest were guided by inspirations from the film and Disney's The Lion King. In the Lego Movie spin-off series Unikitty\!, the episode entitled "Kaiju Kitty" references the film's climatic moment of the Giant being blown up by the missile. The Iron Giant appears in Steven Spielberg's 2018 science fiction film Ready Player One. Aech had collected the parts of the Iron Giant, which she later controlled during the Battle of Castle Anorak, where he teams up with Gundam to fight Mechagodzilla. After the Iron Giant sacrifices itself and falls into a pool of lava, it gives a thumbs up to Wade and his crew while it sinks into the lava paying direct homage to the end of Terminator 2: Judgment Day when the T-800 gives the thumbs up to both John & Sarah Connor as it sacrifices itself into the molten steel. The Iron Giant appears in Malcolm D. Lee's 2021 basketball film Space Jam: A New Legacy. He is among the characters in the Warner Bros. 3000 Entertainment Server-Verse that watches the basketball game between the Tune Squad and the Goon Squad. After the Tune Squad won the game, the Giant shared a fist bump with King Kong. The Iron Giant appears as a playable character in the fighting game MultiVersus on July 26, 2022, as a part of its "open beta". The Iron Giant appears in the Teen Titans Go\! episode, "Warner Bros. 100th Anniversary". He is among the remains of Blockbuster Island. Beto Tlahuetl, director of the Mexican music band "Grupo Soñador", stated that he was inspired by the movie to write the song "El Gigante de Hierro" (The Iron Giant) after dreaming of the Giant dancing in Los Angeles streets. The lyrics emphasize the theme of never giving up on a daughter's love by being the biggest protector. ### Signature Edition A remastered and extended cut of the film, named the Signature Edition, was shown in one-off screenings across the United States and Canada on September 30, 2015, and October 4, 2015. The edition is approximately two minutes longer than the original cut, and features a brief scene with Annie and Dean in the cafe and the Giant's dream sequence. Both scenes were storyboarded by Bird during the production on the original film, but could not be finished due to time and budget constraints. Before they were fully completed for this new version, they were presented as deleted storyboard sequences on the 2004 DVD bonus features. They were animated in 2015 by Duncan Studio, which employed several animators that worked on the original film, under Bird's supervision. The film's Signature Edition was released on DVD and for digital download on February 16, 2016, with an official Blu-ray release of this cut following on September 6. Along with the additional scenes, it also showcases abandoned ideas that were not initially used due to copyright reasons, specifically a nod to Disney via a Tomorrowland commercial, which was also a reference to his then-recently released film of the same name, and a reference regarding the film being shot with CinemaScope cameras. On March 14, 2016, coinciding with the release of the Signature Edition, it was announced that The Art of the Iron Giant would be written by Ramin Zahed and published by Insight Editions, featuring concept art and other materials from the film. ## See also - United States in the 1950s - The Beat Generation

Sean Bean

English actor (born 1959)

Sean Bean (born Shaun Mark Bean; 17 April 1959) is an English actor. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he made his professional debut in a production of Romeo and Juliet in 1983 at The Watermill Theatre. Retaining his Yorkshire accent, he first found mainstream success for his portrayal of Richard Sharpe in the ITV series Sharpe, which originally ran from 1993 to 1997. Bean's film roles include Stormy Monday (1988), Patriot Games (1992), GoldenEye (1995), Ronin (1998), Don't Say a Word (2001), The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003), Equilibrium (2002), National Treasure (2004), Troy (2004), Flightplan (2005), North Country (2005), The Island (2005), Silent Hill (2006), Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), Black Death (2010), Jupiter Ascending (2015), and The Martian (2015). His television roles include the BBC anthology series Accused, Broken, Game of Thrones, and the ITV historical drama series Henry VIII and Legends. As a voice actor, Bean has been featured in the video games The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Sid Meier's Civilization VI, and the feature films Wolfwalkers and Mummies among others. Since 2002, Bean has been the main voiceover for O2 adverts, with his most recent narrated advert released in November 2024. In 2022, Bean won the British Academy Television Award as Leading Actor in Time, a BBC One drama. ## Early life Shaun Mark Bean was born in the Handsworth suburb of Sheffield on 17 April 1959, the son of Rita (née Tuckwood) and Brian K. Bean (born 1934). He has a younger sister, Lorraine. His paternal grandfather, Harold Bean Jr. (1914–2001), served in the Royal Navy in the Second World War and was a stud mill labourer who later became a pacifist. His father owned a fabrication company that employed 50 people, including Bean's mother, who worked as a secretary. Despite becoming relatively wealthy, the family never moved away from the council estate as they preferred to remain close to friends and family. As a child, Bean smashed a glass door during an argument, which left a piece of glass embedded in his leg that briefly impeded his walking, and left a large scar. This prevented him from pursuing his ambition of playing football professionally. Bean first attended a local school, Handsworth Junior School, before going to Athelstan School until he was 12, when he went to study at Brook School. In 1975, Bean left Brook Comprehensive School with O levels in Art and English. After a job at a supermarket and another for the local council, he started work at his father's firm. Once a week, he attended Rotherham College of Arts and Technology to study welding. While at college, he came upon an art class, and decided to pursue his interest in art. After attending courses at two other colleges, one for half a day and the other for less than a week, he returned to Rotherham College, where he enrolled in a drama course. After some college plays and one at Rotherham Civic Theatre, he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), starting a seven-term course in January 1981. ## Career Bean graduated from RADA in 1983, making his professional acting debut later that year as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury. His early career involved a mixture of stage and screen work. As an actor, he adopted the Irish spelling of his first name. His first national exposure came in an advert for Barbican non-alcoholic lager. In 1984, he starred in David and Jonathan by William Douglas-Home at the Redgrave Theatre in Farnham. Between 1986 and 1988, he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing in productions of Romeo and Juliet, The Fair Maid of the West, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. He appeared in his first film, Derek Jarman's Caravaggio (1986), opposite Tilda Swinton, playing Ranuccio Tomassoni, followed by the same director's War Requiem (1988). He had the protagonist role in Stormy Monday (1988), directed by Mike Figgis. In 1989, he starred as the evil Dominic O'Brien in The Fifteen Streets, where he gained a dedicated following. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Bean became an established actor on British television. In 1990, Bean starred in Jim Sheridan's adaptation of the John B. Keane play The Field. Also in 1990, his role as the journalist Anton in Windprints examined the difficult problems of apartheid in South Africa. He appeared in the BBC productions Clarissa (1991) (with Saskia Wickham and Lynsey Baxter) and Lady Chatterley (1993) (with Joely Richardson). In 1996, he combined his love of football with his career to finally achieve his childhood dream of playing for Sheffield United, starring as Jimmy Muir in the film When Saturday Comes. Although the film was not critically acclaimed, Bean received credit for a good performance. In August 1997, Bean appeared in what became a famous Sky Sports commercial for the upcoming 1997–98 Premier League season. His football-related work continued in 1998 when he narrated La Coupe de la Gloire, the official film of the 1998 FIFA World Cup held in France. Bean's critical successes in Caravaggio and Lady Chatterley contributed to his emerging image as a sex symbol, but he became most closely associated with the character of Richard Sharpe, the maverick Napoleonic Wars rifleman in the ITV television series Sharpe. The series was based on Bernard Cornwell's novels about the Peninsular War, and the fictional experiences of a band of soldiers in the famed 95th Rifles. Starting with Sharpe's Rifles, the series followed the fortunes and misfortunes of Richard Sharpe as he rose from the ranks as a Sergeant, promoted to Lieutenant in Portugal, to Lieutenant Colonel by the time of the Battle of Waterloo. Bean was not the first actor to be chosen to play Sharpe. As Paul McGann was injured while playing football two days into filming, the producers initially tried to work around his injury, but it proved impossible and Bean replaced him. The series ran continuously from 1993 to 1997, with three episodes produced each year. It was filmed under challenging conditions, first in Ukraine and later in Portugal. After several years of rumours, more episodes were produced: Sharpe's Challenge (2006) and Sharpe's Peril (2008). Both of these were released as two cinema-length 90-minute episodes per series. With a role as enigmatic Lord Richard Fenton in the TV miniseries Scarlett, Bean made the transition to Hollywood feature films. His first notable Hollywood appearance was that of an Irish republican terrorist in the 1992 film adaptation of Patriot Games. While filming his death scene, Harrison Ford hit him with a boat hook, giving him a permanent scar. Bean's rough-cut looks made him a patent choice for a villain, and his role in Patriot Games was the first of several villains that he would portray, all of whom die in gruesome ways. In the 1995 film GoldenEye, Bean portrayed James Bond's nemesis Alec Trevelyan (MI6's 006). He played the weak-stomached Spence in Ronin (1998), a wife-beating ex-con in Essex Boys (2000), and a malevolent kidnapper/jewel thief in Don't Say a Word (2001). He was also widely recognised as villainous treasure hunter Ian Howe in National Treasure, and played a villainous scientist in The Island (2005). In the independent film Far North, he plays a Russian mercenary who gets lost in the tundra and is rescued by an Inuit woman and her daughter, whom he later pits against one another. Bean's most prominent role was as Boromir in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. His major screen time occurs in the first instalment, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. He appears briefly in flashbacks in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, as well as in a scene from the extended edition of The Two Towers. Before casting finished, rumours circulated that Jackson had considered Bean for the role of Aragorn, but neither Bean nor Jackson confirmed this in subsequent interviews. Bean's fear of flying in helicopters caused him difficulties in mountainous New Zealand, where the trilogy was filmed. After a particularly rough ride, he vowed not to fly to a location again; in one instance, he chose to take a ski lift into the mountains while wearing his full costume (complete with shield, armour, and sword) and then hike the final few miles. Other roles gave more scope for his acting abilities. In 1999's Extremely Dangerous, his character walked a fine line between villain and hero. He became a repentant, poetry-reading Grammaton cleric who succumbs to his emotions in 2002's Equilibrium, a quirky alien cowboy in 2003's The Big Empty, and a sympathetic and cunning Odysseus in the 2004 film Troy. He appeared with other Hollywood stars in Moby's music video "We Are All Made of Stars" in February 2002. In the same year, he returned to the stage in London performing in Macbeth. Due to popular demand, the production ran until March 2003. In 2005, Bean had sizeable roles in the films Flightplan and North Country. Bean has done voice-over work, mostly in the British advertising industry. He has featured in television adverts for O2, Morrisons and Barnardos as well as for Acuvue and the Sci-Fi Channel in the United States. He also does the voice-over for the National Blood Service's television and radio campaign. Bean has also filmed a TV ad for Yorkshire Tea, a United Kingdom brand of tea. For the role playing video game, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, he voiced Martin Septim. Bean's distinctive voice has also been used in the intro and outro segments of the BBC Formula 1 racing coverage for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. Bean completed a one-hour pilot, Faceless, for US television. He has also appeared in Outlaw (2007), an independent British remake of the 1986 horror film The Hitcher; here he used an American accent again. In 2009, he appeared in the Red Riding trilogy as the malevolent John Dawson. He also appeared in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), playing the role of Zeus, the king of Mount Olympus and god of the sky, thunder, and lightning. Also that year, Bean starred in Cash, playing the lead role of Pyke Kubic, a dangerous man determined to recover his wealth in a bad economy. Cash explored the role money plays in today's hard economic times. Bean also played the villain's twin brother, Reese. Bean starred in the first season of Game of Thrones, HBO's adaptation of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R. R. Martin, playing the part of Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark. Bean and Peter Dinklage were the two actors whose inclusion show runners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss considered necessary for the show to become a success, and for whose roles no other actors were considered. His portrayal won him critical praise; as The A.V. Club's reviewer put it, he "portrayed Ned as a man who knew he lived in the muck but hoped for better and assumed everyone else would come along for the ride." HBO's promotional efforts focused on Bean as the show's leading man and best-known actor. In 2012, Bean appeared in four films: Soldiers of Fortune; Cleanskin, in which he plays a secret service agent faced with the task of pursuing and eliminating a suicide bomber and his terrorist cell; Tarsem Singh's Snow White adaptation, Mirror Mirror; and the sequel Silent Hill: Revelation, in which he reprised his role as Christopher Da Silva. Also that year, Bean co-starred in the ABC drama series Missing, and appeared as cross-dressing teacher Simon in the opening episode of the second season of UK television series Accused, a role which would earn him a Royal Television Society best actor award. Bean starred in the espionage television series Legends as Martin Odum, an FBI agent who takes on various fabricated identities to go undercover. The show was canceled after its second season. An intensive viral marketing campaign was centred on the hashtag \#DontKillSeanBean, focusing on the various deaths of his past characters and promising his character in Legends would not suffer the same fate. The campaign culminated with a Funny or Die exclusive video featuring Bean filming a scene for the show where he's become so accustomed to dying on screen that he expects his character to die a bizarrely gruesome death despite the simplicity of the scene. From 2015 to 2017, Bean starred in the ITV Encore drama series The Frankenstein Chronicles. In that time, he also starred in multiple notable films including Jupiter Ascending, Pixels, and The Martian. In 2017, Bean starred in the BBC series Broken as the troubled priest Father Michael Kerrigan, which earned him a BAFTA award for Best Actor. In 2019, Bean played a damaged veteran in the TV drama World on Fire, basing his interpretation on his late paternal grandfather. On 31 May 2020, Bean appeared on Josh Gad's YouTube series Reunited Apart which reunites the cast of popular movies through video-conferencing, and promotes donations to non-profit charities. The episode saw Bean reunited with fellow Lord of the Rings castmates Sean Astin, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, Miranda Otto, John Rhys-Davies, Andy Serkis, Liv Tyler, Karl Urban, and Elijah Wood, plus composer Howard Shore, writer Philippa Boyens and director Peter Jackson. In 2021, the actor was reunited with Jimmy McGovern (author of Broken and Accused) and Stephen Graham (his co-star in Tracie's Story) for the 3-part BBC prison drama Time. Bean starred alongside Nicola Walker in Stefan Golaszewski's drama series Marriage (2022), which opened to mixed reviews from both critics and viewers. ## Public image ### Personality Bean is often described as "down to earth" and has retained his Yorkshire accent. He says that he does not mind being considered as a "bit of rough" by women. He has developed a reputation as a loner, a label that he considers unfair. He has described himself instead as quiet, and interviewers confirm that he is a "man of few words", with one interviewer calling him "surprisingly shy". He admits that he can be a workaholic; he reads books or listens to music in his spare time, and is a skilled pianist. He is also a keen gardener, welder, and sketcher. Popular in his home county, a 2018 poll for Yorkshire Day saw Bean ranked the second greatest Yorkshireman ever behind Monty Python comedian, and fellow Sheffielder, Michael Palin. ### Acting style Despite being professionally trained, Bean adopted an instinctive style of acting that some say makes him especially well-suited to portraying his characters' depths. He has said that the most difficult part is at the start of filming when trying to understand the character. After achieving this, he can snap in and out of character instantly. This ability to go from the quiet man on set to the warrior Boromir "amazed" Sean Astin during filming of The Fellowship of the Ring. Other fans include directors Mike Figgis and Wolfgang Petersen, who described working with Bean as a "beautiful thing". ### Deaths of characters Bean's characters tend to die on screen, a phenomenon that has gained notoriety on the internet and in The Lord of The Rings, Game of Thrones and James Bond fandoms and become an Internet meme. In September 2019, Bean revealed that he had been turning down roles that would have his character killed following Game of Thrones so that his performances would not become predictable. Bean's favourite on-screen death is Boromir in The Fellowship of the Ring: "I thought his death was very heroic and triumphant and poignant. It had pathos." ## Personal life Bean has been married five times and divorced four times. He married his secondary school sweetheart Debra James on 11 April 1981, and they were divorced in 1988. He met actress Melanie Hill at RADA, and they were married on 27 February 1990. Their first daughter was born in October 1987, and their second was born in September 1991. Their marriage ended in divorce in August 1997. During the filming of Sharpe, Bean met actress Abigail Cruttenden, and they were married on 22 November 1997. Their daughter was born in November 1998. They were divorced in July 2000. In addition to his three children, Bean has four grandchildren. Bean began dating actress Georgina Sutcliffe in 2006. After cancelling their planned January 2008 wedding on the eve of the ceremony for "personal reasons", he married Sutcliffe at the Marylebone Town Hall in London on 19 February 2008. During allegations that Bean physically abused Sutcliffe in 2009, domestic disturbances resulted in the police being called to their home in Belsize Park on three occasions. Bean and Sutcliffe's separation was announced on 6 August 2010, and a decree nisi was granted on 21 December 2010. He married Ashley Moore on 30 June 2017. Bean has been a fan of Sheffield United (the "Blades") since he was eight years old, and has a tattoo on his left shoulder that reads "100% Blade". He opened their Hall of Fame in 2001 and, after making a six-figure contribution to the club's finances, was on their board of directors between 2002 and 2007 to help raise the profile of the club. He stepped down in 2007 to "go back to being an ordinary supporter" where he feels at home. During his time there, he had a dispute with Neil Warnock, former manager of Sheffield United, after Warnock claimed that Bean stormed into his office and shouted at him in front of his wife and daughter when the club had just been relegated from the Premier League. Bean denies it, calling Warnock "bitter" and "hypocritical". He wrote the foreword and helped to promote a book of anecdotes called Sheffield United: The Biography. He also follows Yorkshire County Cricket Club. Bean has a tattoo of the number nine on his shoulder, written using Tengwar, in reference to his involvement in the Lord of the Rings films and the fact that his character was one of the original nine companions of the Fellowship of the Ring. Seven of the other actors of "The Fellowship" (Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, and Viggo Mortensen) have the same tattoo, while John Rhys-Davies, whose character was also one of the original nine companions, arranged for his stunt double to get the tattoo instead. Aligned with the British left, in 2015 Bean expressed support for Jeremy Corbyn and for "old Labour", the era before Tony Blair rebranded the party as New Labour; Bean also spoke of his admiration for Tony Benn. Bean is a Christian and a gardener in his spare time. ## Filmography ### Film ### Television ### Video games ### Music videos ### Voice over ## Awards and honours In his home city of Sheffield, he has received several honours and acclaims, including an honorary doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University in 1997 and a Doctor of Letters in English Literature from the University of Sheffield in July 2007. He was selected as one of the inaugural members of Sheffield Legends (the Sheffield equivalent of the Hollywood Walk of Fame) and a plaque in his honour has been placed in front of Sheffield Town Hall. Bean commented: "I did get a doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University about 11 or 12 years ago so now I'm a double doctor. But this was wonderful, especially from my home city."

From Here to Eternity (musical)

Musical by Stuart Brayson and Tim Rice

From Here to Eternity is a musical with music and lyrics by Stuart Brayson and Tim Rice and a book by Bill Oakes. Based on the 1951 novel of the same name by James Jones, the musical made its West End and world premiere in 2013, at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London. Jones's novel From Here to Eternity was a best-seller and well known for its successful movie adaptation. Jones's manuscript was heavily censored by his publisher to remove profanity and references to gay prostitution; the unexpurgated version was not published until 2011. Once it was, composer Stuart Brayson thought it might be adapted as a musical, and proposed the project to Tim Rice, who acquired the stage rights and wrote the lyrics. The musical was announced in May 2011 and opened on 23 October 2013, a year later than originally planned. The West End production stars Darius Campbell as Warden, Robert Lonsdale as Private Prewitt, and Ryan Sampson as Maggio. The work received mixed reviews, though Brayson was praised for an imaginative score. The production closed on 29 March 2014, after a run of six and a half months. It later transferred to the United States in 2016. ## Synopsis The musical is set in 1941, at the Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, in the months leading up to the Attack on Pearl Harbor. The story tells the tale of G Company, in particular First Sergeant Milt Warden, who begins an affair with his captain's wife Karen, insubordinate soldier and male hustler Maggio and Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt, an infantryman from Kentucky and self-described "thirty-year man" (a career soldier), who falls in love with prostitute Lorene. Because he blinded a fellow soldier while boxing, the stubborn Prewitt refuses to box for his company's outfit led by Captain Dana "Dynamite" Holmes and then resists the "Treatment," a daily hazing ritual in which the non-commissioned officers of his company run him into the ground. ## Background The basis of the musical is the 1951 novel From Here to Eternity by James Jones. In 1941, Jones was serving with the US Army in Hawaii, at the time of Pearl Harbor, and the novel was loosely based on his experiences in the 27th Infantry Regiment. It focuses on the lives of a group of soldiers in the months leading up to the attack, in particular Private Prewitt, a boxer who no longer wants to fight having blinded an opponent, and Sergeant Milt Warden, who has an affair with the wife of his commanding officer. James's story was censored by its publisher, Scribner as it would not allow profanity and gay prostitution. to remain in the text. Jones fought the censorship but had to back down; despite this it won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1952 and is recognised as one of the twentieth century's best American novels. The title of From Here to Eternity is inspired by Rudyard Kipling's poem "Gentlemen-Rankers", in particular the line "damned from here to Eternity". Two years later in 1953, it was adapted into a film starring Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Frank Sinatra, Donna Reed and Ernest Borgnine which achieved success at the box office and won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The movie was also initially deemed controversial because of the source text's critical views on the Army, with minor changes being made to the script to gain the military's co-operation. The uncensored version of the novel was released in May 2011, initially as an e-book. The idea for the musical came from Stuart Brayson, who had been sending cassette tapes with music ideas to Tim Rice since they had first met in the 1980s, when Brayson was a member of the band Pop. In 2002, Brayson sent Rice a tape of music and lyrics to form the basis of a stage version of From Here to Eternity. Rice liked the idea but only intended to produce the show, however after Bill Oakes had been hired to write the book gaps appeared where new songs were needed and some no longer fitted within the context of the show. Rice agreed to write around six new songs, but ultimately ended up writing around 90% of the show's lyrics inspired by Brayson's original lyrics. On the subject Rice said: "Stuart's were very good, but they weren't theatrical and there is a difference. I often wish I could write great rock lyrics, but I can't, however, I can do reasonable lyrics within the context of a show. There are people who can write good tunes, but few who can do theatrical lyrics." In May 2011, Tim Rice and Lee Menzie announced that an adaption was being planned. Rice acquired the stage rights at an initial cost of around US$40,000, with the intention of opening the show in London the following year. Although the show did not ultimately open until 2013, a workshop of the show took place in 2012. As the show is based on the uncensored novel released in 2011, rather than the 1953 film adaptation, it contains references to prostitution and gay sex, as well as the Army's investigation into them, that the film did not feature. The right to create the musical adaptation came with the condition that it had to be based on the original book. James Jones's daughter Kaylie and son Jamie were in the audience for the show's opening night in London. During its preview period some people walked out of the performance, having been unprepared for the nudity and swearing in the production. Darius Campbell who played First Sergeant Milt Warden, said that the "James Jones novel really portrayed homosexuality and prostitution in the way that it existed in those days and we've dived in head first. Maybe some of the nudity, swearing and explicitness have been too much for them, but a younger audience and an audience who have loved the film – and wanted to see more – have been giving us standing ovations and for that we are all grateful." Kaylie admitted they had doubts about the idea of the show when it first came up, but added that "I'm thrilled—it's so sophisticated and moving." She also noted that she "was so delighted they put in the gay bar scenes, because my dad said this is just the way it was back then" and that "my father would have been amazed". ### Themes The show contains many adult themes, including, gay men in the United States military, prostitution, bullying and the effects of war. As a result of these themes, the show is recommended for children aged 13 onwards. ## Production history ### West End (2013) On 26 October 2012, producers announced that the show would play the Shaftesbury Theatre from September 2013, with tickets going on sale in April. The show has a book by Bill Oakes and is directed by Tamara Harvey, with choreography by Javier De Frutos, orchestrations by David White, set and costume design by Soutra Gilmour, lighting design by Bruno Poet and sound design by Mick Potter. The musical features an original score, with music by Stuart Brayson and lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical adaption marked Rice's first entirely new show since Aida and Brayson's first West End musical. Former US Marine Ray Elliott, also head of the James Jones literary society, was hired to ensure an accurate picture of military life for the era. Elliott read the script to ensure it was realistic, ran military drills, taught the cast how to salute all ranks and how to hold rifles correctly. The show received its first public outing as part of West End Live in June 2013, with star Robert Lonsdale singing "Fight the Fight". On 1 July 2013, full casting was announced with Darius Campbell playing Warden, Robert Lonsdale playing Private Prewitt, Ryan Sampson playing Maggio, Siubhan Harrison playing Lorene and Rebecca Thornhill playing Karen. From Here to Eternity began previews on 30 September 2013, at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London, and held its official opening gala night on 23 October. In all the London production features a cast of thirty three and a fifteen-member band. A typical London performance runs two hours and 50 minutes, including one interval of 15 mins. On 29 November 2013, it was announced the production would close on 26 April 2014, after a 7+1⁄2-month run, with the possibility of reopening at another theatre. The closure was later brought forward a month to 29 March. To mark the 72nd anniversary of Pearl Harbor on 7 December 2013, the cast joined with The Military Wives choir for a special post curtain rendition of the song "The Boys of '41". ### US Premiere (2016) June 29, 2016 saw the production's US premiere at the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival in New York. ### Off-West End Revival (2022) A newly revised production played the Charing Cross Theatre from 29 October 2022 to 17 December 2022. The production was directed by Brett Smock, with orchestrations and new musical arrangements by Nick J Barstow, set and costume design by Stewart J. Charlesworth, choreography by Cressida Carré, lighting design by Adam King, projection design by Louise Rhodes-Brown, and casting by Jane Deitch. This production was significantly different from the original West End one, with a completely rewritten book and lots of changes made to the musical numbers, since the female ensemble was cut and the cast size reduced. ## Music Brayson's music features a mix of blues, swing, big band, and rock 'n' roll numbers. The musical uses a fifteen-member orchestra consisting of keyboard, cello, ukulele, flute, saxophone, clarinet, flugelhorn, trumpet, bugle, trombone, tuba, French horn, guitar, bass, drums, percussion and harmonica. On the show's music Alexander Gilmour, writing for Financial Times said that the show: "has half a dozen numbers that bring the house down", and that "it feels grown-up. It has a certain grit. It's moving. You might just cry, fall in love, hum yourself to sleep to the tune of 'Thirty Year Man', wake up and join the army." ### Musical numbers (2013 West End production) - Act I - "Prologue" – Maggio - "G Company Blues" – The Men of G Company - "Thirty Year Man" – Prewitt, The Men of G Company - "Another Language" – Karen - "Sure" – Warden - "Don'cha Like Hawaii" – Mrs. Kipfer, The New Congress Club Trio, Company - "You Got The Money" – Lorene, The Girls of the New Congress Club - "The Treatment" – Prewitt - "Marking Time" – Warden - "Fight The Fight" – Prewitt, The Men of G Company - "Run Along Joe" – Lorene - "You Got The Money" (reprise) – Drag Queen - "Fight The Fight" (reprise) – Prewitt - "More Than America" – Warden, Karen, Company - Act II - "Thirty Year Man" (reprise) – The Men of G Company - "Love Me Forever Today" – Prewitt, Lorene - "I Love The Army" – Maggio - "Ain't Where I Wanna Be Blues" – Prewitt, Warden - "G Company Blues" (boxing reprise) – The Men of G Company - "Maybe" – Karen - "Something in Return" – Warden, Prewitt, Karen, Lorene, Maggio, Company - "Fight The Fight" (reprise) – Prewitt - "From Here To Eternity" – Karen, Warden, Lorene, Prewitt - "The Boys of '41"– The Ladies - "Run Along Joe" (reprise)– Lorene - "Almost Perfect Lie" – Prewitt - "Finale"– Company ### Musical numbers (2022 Off-West End revival) - Act I - "G Company Blues" – The Men of G Company - "Thirty Year Man" – Prewitt, The Men of G Company - "More To Life Than This" – Karen - "I Know What You Came For" – Mrs. Kipfer - "From Here To Eternity" – The Men of G Company - "At Ease" – Warden - "Love Me Forever Today" – Prewitt, Lorene - "Thirty Year Man" (reprise) — Warden, The Men of G Company - Act II - "Ain't Where I Wanna Be Blues" – Prewitt, Warden - "I Love The Army" – Maggio - "Fight The Fight" – Prewitt - "Run Along Joe" – Lorene - "I Love The Army" (reprise) – Maggio - "I'll Remember The Day" – Karen - "The Boys of '41" – Karen, Lorene, Mrs. Kipfer - "Run Along Joe" (reprise) – Lorene - "Almost Perfect Lie" – Prewitt - "Finale" – Company ### Recordings The song "Fight the Fight" from the show was recorded and released by Michael Ball as part of his Both Sides Now album in February 2013. The same track was later released as a digital download in December 2013, sung by Robert Lonsdale. In July 2013, Rice allowed Clare Teal to record another song from the show, "Another Language", for release on her album And So It Goes. In February 2014, Rice announced that a cast album would be recorded, prior to the show's West End closure. The original London cast recording was released as a digital download on 3 July 2014, with the physical release following on 4 August. #### Cast album ## Principal roles and cast members ## Critical reception Michael Billington of The Guardian noted that the original novel had helped offset overly heroic images of the American soldier, but in the wake of Abu Ghraib, the view of the military was already mixed, "why now, and what does music add to the story?" Simon Edge of the Daily Express deemed the show "a commendably ambitious work that makes a refreshing addition to the West End menu." Paul Taylor of The Independent suggested, "For all the show's many defects, though, you come away impressed by its seriousness of purpose". Taylor praised the music: "Brayson's catchy score, which moves deftly through swing, blues, jazz and early rock'n'roll can rise to good old showbiz brassiness when needed". Henry Hitchings of the Evening Standard gave a mixed view of the music, "There are seductive melodies and a couple of genuinely catchy songs. But it never settles into a single confident idiom, and between the big numbers there are lulls, especially in the overlong first half." Taylor predicted on 24 October 2013, "Wags have quipped that it should be called From Here to November. But I reckon it's going to survive quite a bit longer than that." ## Awards and nominations On 6 December 2013, it was announced the production had received four WhatsOnStage Awards nominations, including Best New Musical. Ultimately the production did not win in any of the four categories. Although eligible, the musical did not receive any nominations for the 2014 Laurence Olivier Awards.

FLCL

Anime series directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki

FLCL (Japanese: フリクリ, Hepburn: FURI KURI, pronounced in English as FOOLY COOLY) is an anime anthology series created and directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki, written by Yōji Enokido, and produced by the FLCL Production Committee, which consisted of Gainax, Production I.G, and King Records. The series tells the adventures of the eccentric, hyperactive alien Haruko Haruhara and her various conflicts on Earth against the intergalactic megalomaniacal corporation Medical Mechanica, often wreaking mass destruction in the process and disrupting the lives of the people she encounters. The original FLCL series was released as an original video animation (OVA) series, and follows Naota Nandaba, a taciturn twelve-year-old boy whose suburban life and obsession with seeming adult is disturbed by Haruko's appearance. The six-episode series was released in Japan from April 2000 to March 2001 alongside a manga and novel adaptation. In 2016, two new seasons totaling 12 episodes were announced as a co-production between Production I.G, Toho, and Adult Swim. The second season, FLCL Progressive, premiered on June 3, 2018 on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block, while the third season, FLCL Alternative, premiered on September 8, 2018. In Japan, Alternative and Progressive had theatrical screenings as compilation films with Alternative opening on September 7, 2018 and Progressive opening on September 28, 2018. The first episode of FLCL Alternative premiered unannounced on April Fools' Day 2018 at 12 a.m. ET on Toonami in Japanese with English subtitles as part of Adult Swim's annual stunt. Two additional seasons were ordered by Adult Swim in 2022, titled FLCL: Grunge and FLCL: Shoegaze, respectively. Both seasons premiered in Northern America in 2023. ## Plot The first season of FLCL is a coming-of-age story and revolves around Naota Nandaba, a 12-year-old, working-class boy living with his widower father and grandfather. His life in the Japanese city of Mabase is interrupted by the arrival of a Vespa-riding maniac named Haruko Haruhara. She runs over Naota then revives him with CPR before hitting him on the head with her left-handed, electric bass guitar (a blue, vintage Rickenbacker 4001) and proceeds to stalk him. Finding Haruko weaseling her way into his life as a live-in maid, Naota discovers that the head injury she caused created an "N.O." portal, which giant robots produced by a company known as Medical Mechanica emerge from periodically. The first of these robots is hit on the head by Haruko and becomes a friendly service robot later named Canti. Canti ingests Naota to assume the reddened form he first had when fighting the robots sent after him. Haruko claims she is an alien investigator from the Galactic Space Police Brotherhood, and her presence places Naota and those around him in danger. The Interstellar Immigration Bureau's Commander Amarao, whom Haruko has a history with, asserts rather that she is an apathetic seductress seeking a space-manipulating being called Atomsk who was partially contained within Canti. Every time Naota is absorbed by Canti, Atomsk is gradually brought to Earth. As Atomsk is held in Medical Mechanica's custody and Haruko ultimately places Earth under threat, the company eventually turns their factory stationed on the planet into a doomsday terraforming device, attempting to have Naota and Canti absorbed by the doomsday device's Terminal Core. Haruko's plan fails as Naota ends up becoming Atomsk's host and then releases him into the universe after a brief battle that ends Medical Mechanica's attack on Earth. Haruko follows after Atomsk, and Mabase returns to some normalcy. In the second season, FLCL Progressive, Haruko returns to Mabase many years after her failed attempt to contain Atomsk in the first season, although she did manage to absorb him sometime in between these events. Placing herself as a middle school homeroom teacher, Haruko targets a 14-year-old girl named Hidomi Hibajiri through her classmate and eventual love interest Ko Ide. Haruko finds opposition in both the headphones Hidomi wears and Julia Jinyu, a more stoic offshoot of Haruko that splintered from her during her initial attempt to control Atomsk's power. Haruko eventually eats Julia to restore herself, and uses Ide to get to Hidomi. Like before, this causes conflict between Medical Mechanica and the Interstellar Immigration Bureau, as the latter was reverse-engineering Canti's technology to utilize the N.O. channel's energies for their own use. Atomsk appears on Earth as planned, but Haruko ends up failing again with a freed Julia taking her leave. Haruko regains her composure and resumes her hunt for Atomsk as Hidomi and Ide begin their relationship while Mabase rebuilds after much of it was destroyed by Medical Mechanica. In the third season, FLCL Alternative, Haruko enters the life of high school student Kana Koumoto and her friends as she became a mentor of sorts to Kana in helping the teen's transition into adulthood as Medical Mechanica begins its assault on Earth. While helping Kana resolve some issues as one of her friends leaves for Mars, Haruko ends up on another planet as a direct result of Kana's reverse N.O. portal that they used to transport Medical Mechanica's plants off the planet. The season takes place before the events of all the other seasons currently present. In the fourth season, FLCL: Grunge, Haruko manipulates the mob-run town of Okura in a scheme to infect Medical Mechanica with a virus and steal Atomsk from them. In the process, she influences the lives of three working kids: Shinpachi, Shonari and Orinoko, before taking off after Atomsk on top of Medical Mechanica's plant. The season takes place between the events of Shoegaze and the first season. In the fifth season, FLCL: Shoegaze, Masaki is a teenager who sees ghosts that nobody else can see, including a large ghost bird perched atop a tower. Harumi joins him in exploring the tower after it is locked down by the Bureau of Interstellar Immigration. Kana Koumoto (from the third season) is now a 27-year-old adult working for the bureau and is called in to assist in getting the teenagers out. After setting off an explosion, the teenagers find that the tower extends into N.O. space. The bureau chief admits that the purpose of the tower is to reconnect the dimension they are currently in with a separate one that split away 10 years ago and he hopes that with enough emotional turmoil he can get Masaki to trigger the N.O. device and merge them back together. After Harumi is shot and Masaki realizes that he loves her, his N.O. field begins the merger in which Harumi realizes that she is actually from the other dimension, a colony on Mars. As Masaki calms, the merger fails, and a large snake-like entity appears. In the closing credits, Masaki is able to jump dimensions through N.O. space to visit the Mars colony. He explains that the worm-creature helps him do so and its name is Atomsk. ## Production The first season of FLCL was directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki and produced by the FLCL Production Committee, which included Gainax, Production I.G, and Starchild Records. Tsurumaki has said that he tried to "break the rules" of anime when making FLCL, for example, by choosing a contemporary Japanese band to provide the soundtrack, and patterning the style more after "a Japanese TV commercial or promotional video", creating a work that is "short, but dense-packed". FLCL's localization director and script writer Marc Handler stated that localization of the script was the hardest part of the show. The in-jokes in the show included obscure pop culture references that had to be decoded and transferred to English audiences. One example was a reference to Cheerio, a discontinued soft drink in Japan, for the English release the choice was made to use a discontinued American soft drink at the time, Crystal Pepsi. Director Kazuya Tsurumaki responded to criticism of FLCL, stating "comprehension should not be an important factor in FLCL". The Medical Mechanica building featured is in the shape of a large iron. The character Amarao describes Medical Mechanica's goal as the destruction of all thought. FLCL uses the iron as a symbolic breakdown of "thought" by smoothing out the wrinkles as equated to the removing of the brain's wrinkles. For English localization, the Japanese team had to explain the concept because a direct translation of script did not convey the ideology. ## Media ### Original video animation The six-episode series was released in Japan from April 26, 2000 – March 16, 2001. It originally debuted in the United States on Adult Swim in August 2003, where it managed to gain a significant cult following and was widely acclaimed, despite its short length. The series would continue to air on the network in the following years, including reruns on the network's Toonami programming block from October 2013 to January 2014, and in April 2018 (to promote the then-upcoming release of Progressive and Alternative). The series is also available via iTunes, adultswim.com and Funimation's website. Six DVD compilations, each containing one episode, have been released in Japan by Gainax. In addition, a DVD collection box, containing all six DVD compilations, was released in Japan on August 13, 2005. Three DVD compilations were released by Synch-Point in North America. A DVD collection box, containing all the DVD compilations of the English episodes, was released on January 23, 2007, but have since gone out of print. In January 2010, Funimation announced that they had acquired the license for the series and would be releasing it on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in February 2011. Shortly after, it has been released in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment on a 3-disc DVD set and on Blu-ray Disc. It is also licensed in the United Kingdom by MVM Films. The series also aired in the United States on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block from August 4 to August 13, 2003. ### Novels A three-volume novel series adaptation was written by the anime's screenwriter, Yoji Enokido, illustrated by Kazuya Tsurumaki and Hiroyuki Imaishi, and published by Kadokawa Shoten. The novels were released in Japan in June 2000, October 2000, and March 2001 respectively. The English-language versions were published by Tokyopop and were released in North America on March 11, 2008; September 9, 2008; and March 10, 2009 respectively. The novels cover all 6 episodes of the anime, introducing elements that were not present in the original production. ### Manga A two-volume manga adaptation was created by artist Hajime Ueda. The manga interprets the series with certain elements altered and removed, and tells the events of the anime using a reductive art style and unsteady pacing. Jack Kotin defended the unique artstyle of the manga, saying "It can be crudely drawn at times, but this style fits in well with the overall story and atmosphere...". The manga was published by Kodansha and serialized in monthly Magazine Z from December 25, 1999 to March 26, 2001. The two volumes were released on October 23, 2000 and August 23, 2001 respectively. The manga was re-released in bunkoban format with the two volumes labeled "Jō" (上, First) and "Ge" (下, Final) in two individual box sets titled "Kodansha Box". Jō volume was on May 7, 2007 and the Ge volume was released on June 4, 2007. An edited tankōbon version of the manga that was released in box sets, were released on January 10, 2012 and February 9, 2012 respectively. The English-language editions of the manga was released by Tokyopop on September 16, 2003 and on November 4, 2003 respectively. In March 2011, Dark Horse Comics announced to re-release the manga in omnibus edition. The omnibus edition was released on May 16, 2012 and includes remastered story pages, a remastered script, and bonus color pages. ### Soundtracks Six pieces of theme music are used for the episodes; five insert songs and one closing theme, all by Japanese rock band the Pillows. The battle themes are "Advice", "Little Busters" and "I Think I Can"; the opening themes are: "One Life", used in episode one, "Instant Music" in episodes two and three, "Happy Bivouac" in episode four, "Runners High", in episode five, and "Carnival" in episode six. The closing theme of each episode is "Ride on Shooting Star", the series' main theme song, used during ending sequences in which appears Yukiko Motoya and a Vespa. Geneon Entertainment has released three original soundtracks encompassing the songs by the Pillows, and the score by composer Shinkichi Mitsumune. The first soundtrack, titled FLCL No.1: Addict (フリクリNo.1 アディクト), contains tracks featured in the first three episodes of FLCL. The soundtrack was released on October 4, 2000 in Japan and January 20, 2004 in the US. The second soundtrack, titled FLCL No.2: King of Pirates (フリクリNo.2 海賊王, Furi Kuri No.2 Kaizoku-ō), contains tracks featured in the last three episodes of FLCL. The soundtrack was released on July 25, 2001 Japan and September 7, 2004 in the US. This volume features several audio dramas, with the cast of FLCL playing the various parts. Due to the dramas included, this album acts as a sequel of sorts to the anime. The third soundtrack, titled FLCL No.3 (フリクリNo.3), is a compilation of the first two soundtracks, featuring only music by the Pillows. The released on June 8, 2005 and June 7, 2005 in the US. Unlike the previous two soundtracks, the songs are the original vocal versions from the band's LPs. A fourth album title FooL on CooL generation (フールオンクールジェネレーション) was released in September 2018 with music used in Progressive and Alternative. ## Reception and legacy FLCL has received a mostly positive reception. The series has been described as "bizarre" and "surreal", and has been noted for its symbolic content, unusual plot, and its soundtrack composed by the Pillows. Its experimental nature has also been noted, which includes an entire scene made in the cutout animation style of animated American series South Park, or The Matrix-like camera rotation tricks. Christopher McDonald of Anime News Network called it "downright hilarious" and "visually superb" with great music, citing the packaging of 2 episodes per DVD as the only weakness of Synch-Point's original release. Robert Nelson of THEM Anime Reviews gave the anime 4 out of 5 stars, stating "FLCL may not have a straightforward or deep plot. It may not have complex characterizations. Hell, it may not have any meaning. But FLCL does succeed in its true objective. It is fun to watch\!" Chris Beveridge of Mania gave it an A−, stating "FLCL is something that allowed those involved to try a wide variety of styles and techniques and does come off as quite experimental. But nearly everything worked in their favor and you end up with three hours of nearly break neck speed action, comedy and commentary on modern life." Brian Ruh praised the series, stating "It was very frenetic and kept pushing the envelope on what was possible in Japanese animation." IGN columnist Davis Smith reviewed the anime shortly after its English premiere. In the article, Smith praised the series' unusual story telling, extremely high quality animation and the soundtrack provided by the Pillows; rewarding the series a score of 9 out of 10 concluding, "Logic dictates that FLCL should be an undisciplined and unaffecting mess, given all the insanity that its creators are attempting to weld into a functioning whole. Yet while it's hard to explain exactly why, it works. It entertains me. At times, it makes me laugh; at times, it makes me a little misty-eyed; at times, it makes me want to scream and howl and light things on fire and break windows with baseball bats and yes, maybe even buy a Vespa. That's the kind of success that you just can't argue with." From January 3 to February 7, 2012, Hayden Childs, of the online magazine The A.V. Club, composed a six-part weekly analysis and review of each FLCL episode in celebration of The Legend of Korra's then upcoming third season, a series that was heavily influenced by FLCL's animation style. In the article, Childs gave an extremely positive review of the series, understanding it as a surrealist inspired coming of age story, stating "For all of its wild and initially bewildering aspects, the major purpose of FLCL is the impressionistic and often naturalistic documentation of Naota's passage into maturity." Avatar: The Last Airbender director Giancarlo Volpe has stated members of his staff "were all ordered to buy FLCL and watch every single episode of it." Chainsaw Man creator Tatsuki Fujimoto has stated in his 3 million copies sold thank you letter to fans that Chainsaw Man is a "wicked version of FLCL". ### Awards and acclaims On August 12, 2003, a Time Warner press release noted the success of Cartoon Network: FLCL "ranked No. 42 among all shows on ad-supported cable among adults 18–34". Also in 2003, FLCL won third place for Best Animation Film at the Fantasia Festival. On February 24, 2007, FLCL was nominated for "Best Cast", and won "Best Comedy Series" and "Best Short Series" at the first American Anime Awards show. Anime Insider ranked FLCL 4th in their list of the best English-licensed anime of all time in November 2007. ## Sequel seasons On August 31, 2015, Anime News Network reported that Production I.G may have been planning a continuation or remake of the OVA series after announcing their acquisition of the rights to FLCL from production studio Gainax. According to Hideaki Anno, his animation studio Khara was originally set to buy the rights to FLCL from Gainax before Production I.G. However, before the deal was finalized Gainax suddenly raised the asking price causing the deal with Khara to fall though. On March 24, 2016 via Toonami's official Facebook and Tumblr pages it was announced that 12 new episodes of FLCL would be produced in cooperation with Production I.G. The episodes were split into two individual seasons: FLCL Progressive (フリクリ プログレ, Furikuri Purogure, "FLCL Progress") and FLCL Alternative (フリクリ オルタナ, Furikuri Orutana, "FLCL Alterna") which served as sequels to the popular series, which was initially broadcast on Adult Swim in August 2003. The synopsis of the first sequel season was published by Adult Swim: > In the new season of FLCL, many years have passed since Naota and Haruhara Haruko shared their adventure together. Meanwhile, the war between the two entities known as Medical Mechanica and Fraternity rages across the galaxy. Enter Hidomi, a young teenage girl who believes there is nothing amazing to expect from her average life, until one day when a new teacher named Haruko arrives at her school. Soon enough, Medical Mechanica is attacking her town and Hidomi discovers a secret within her that could save everyone, a secret that only Haruko can unlock. > > But why did Haruko return to Earth? What happened to her Rickenbacker 4001 she left with Naota? And where did the human-type robot 'Canti' go? FLCL Progressive, the sequel series, featured the return of original character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamato (as his respective role) and original series creator Kazuya Tsurumaki, who supervised the project. Hideto Iwai wrote the scripts, and Katsuyuki Motohiro served as chief director on the project, with each episode featuring a different director: Kazuto Arai, Toshihisa Kaiya, Yuki Ogawa, Yoshihide Ibata, Kei Suezawa, and Hiroshi Ikehata. The animation was produced mostly by Production I.G, but studios Production GoodBook and Signal.MD handled episodes 2 and 5, respectively. The Pillows contributed to the series soundtrack, although the score was primarily composed by R・O・N from music production company VERYGOO. FLCL Alternative, the third season, once again saw the return of character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, composer R・O・N (with tracks by the Pillows), scriptwriter Hideto Iwai, and supervisor Kazuya Tsurukamki. Katsuyuki Motohiro, as well, returned as chief director, although Yutaka Uemara was the only director, and Kiyotaka Suzuki served as assistant director. Production I.G, Revoroot, and NUT produced the animation for the series. FLCL Progressive premiered on June 3, 2018 on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block and concluded on July 7, 2018; FLCL Alternative premiered on September 8, 2018 and concluded on October 13, 2018. In Japan, Alternative and Progressive had theatrical screenings on September 7, 2018, and September 28, 2018, respectively. The first episode of FLCL Alternative unexpectedly premiered early at midnight on April Fools' Day on Toonami, airing entirely in Japanese with English subtitles. The day of the second season's US premiere, Toonami simultaneously announced via its Facebook page that they would be delaying the English subtitled versions of both new seasons until November 2018, in respect for the Japanese film format releases. Warner Bros. released FLCL Progressive on DVD on October 1, 2019. It later released FLCL Alternative on DVD along with a Blu-ray combo pack of both sequels on February 4, 2020. Two additional seasons were ordered by Adult Swim in 2022, which were announced on Toonami's 25th anniversary, titled FLCL: Grunge and FLCL: Shoegaze. Both seasons premiered in 2023. On October 7, 2023, it was announced there are no plans for further FLCL seasons.

Al Aaraaf

Poem by Edgar Allan Poe

"Al Aaraaf" is an early poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1829. It tells of the afterlife in a place called Al Aaraaf, inspired by A'raf as described in the Quran. At 422 lines, it is Poe's longest poem. "Al Aaraaf", which Poe said he wrote before he was 15, was first published as the major poem in Poe's 1829 collection Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems. The book and "Al Aaraaf" in particular received mostly negative reviews for its complexity, obscure references, and odd structure. Some, however, noted the potential in the young poet, including author and critic John Neal, to whom Poe had shown "Al Aaraaf" prior to publication. Poe later referred to Neal's response as the first words of encouragement he had received. Nevertheless, the negative response to "Al Aaraaf" may have inspired Poe's later poetic theory that poems should be kept short. Years later, in 1845, Poe used "Al Aaraaf" to hoax members of the Boston literary circle during a reading. Poe said the poem was a new one and his audience was perplexed by it. He later said a Boston crowd did not deserve a new poem. He held a strong dislike for New England poets and the New England–based Transcendental movement and hoped by presenting a poem he had written in his youth would prove Bostonians did not know good literature. ## Overview "Al Aaraaf" is the longest poem Poe wrote and was inspired by Tycho Brahe's identification of a supernova in 1572 which was visible for about seventeen months. Poe identified the supernova with Al Aaraaf, a star that was the place between paradise and hell. Al Aaraaf (Arabic الأعراف, alternatively transliterated al-Aʻrāf) was a place where people who have been neither markedly good nor markedly bad had to stay until forgiven by God and let into Paradise, as discussed in Sura 7 of the Qur'an. As Poe explained to a potential publisher: > Its title is "Al Aaraaf" from the Al Aaraaf of the Arabians, a medium between Heaven and Hell where men suffer no punishment, but yet do not attain that tranquil & even happiness which they suppose to be the characteristics of heavenly enjoyment. In the opening section of the poem, God commands Nesace, a name for Beauty's spirit, to convey a message to "other worlds". Nesace rouses the angel Ligeia and tells her to awaken the other thousand seraphs to perform God's work. Two souls, however, fail to respond: the "maiden-angel" Ianthe and her "seraph-lover" Angelo (Michelangelo), who describes his death on earth and the flight of his spirit to Al Aaraaf. Ianthe and Angelo are lovers, and their failure to do as Nesace commanded results in God not allowing them into heaven. ## Analysis "Al Aaraaf" is thick with allusions and, because of this, is often avoided by scholars because, as writer Arthur Hobson Quinn notes, it can be "unintelligible". Nevertheless, Quinn says it possesses qualities which are important to understand the development of Poe's skills as a poet. "Al Aaraaf" mixes historical facts, religious mythology and elements of Poe's imagination. The poem primarily focuses on the afterlife, ideal love, and ideal beauty in relation to passion. The majority of the poem focuses on this reaching for ideal beauty and aesthetics. Characters in the poem serve as representative symbols of personified emotions. The goddess Nesace is beauty, Ligeia represents the music in nature, Ianthe and Angelo are creatures of passion. The poem draws from Sura 7 (Arabic الأعراف) in the Quran; Poe also drew upon the Quran in other works, including "The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade". In "Al Aaraaf", Poe was probably less interested in the Quran itself and more interested in an atmosphere of the exotic or otherworldliness. The true setting of the poem is a sort of dreamscape or alternative world. As critic Floyd Stovall wrote, the theme of the poem is "one of disillusionment with the world and escape into some more congenial realm of dream or of the imagination". The star which prompted Poe to write "Al Aaraaf" was believed to foretell disaster or that humanity would be punished for breaking God's laws. Poe may have gotten the idea to base a poem on Brahe's astronomical discovery from poet John Keats's use of the 1781 discovery of the planet Uranus in a poem called "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" (1816). The name of the star has been changed from "Al Orf" to "Al Aaraaf" to become similar to the word arafa, which means distinguishing between things. Additionally, Poe was indebted to Irish poet Thomas Moore, whose poem Lalla-Rookh inspired, among other parts of "Al Aaraaf", the catalogue of flowers near the beginning. Another work by Moore, The Loves of the Angels, inspired Poe's idea of uniting mortal and immortal love. Structurally, the 422-line "Al Aaraaf" has no discernible or consistent poetic rhythm, though the meter resembles a section of Lord Byron's Manfred. Instead of formal structure, the poem focuses on the flow of sound. Poet Daniel Hoffman analyzed the fluctuating meter and determined that Part I begins as octosyllabic couplets then shifts to pentameter couplets with occasional interludes of alternately rhymed trimeter-dimeters. Part II generally uses pentameter couplets with an interlude of anapestic dimeters. ## Publication history Poe claimed he wrote "Al Aaraaf" before he was 15 years old, though he would later adapt his claim. A few passages from the poem were first published in the May 19, 1829, issue of the Baltimore Gazette signed "Marlow". Poe first offered the complete poem to publishers Carey, Lea & Carey in Philadelphia around May 1829. He wrote to them, "If the poem is published, succeed or not, I am 'irrecoverably a poet.' But to your opinion I leave it". He met with Isaac Lea, who was willing to publish it so long as they were protected against any loss. Poe asked his foster-father John Allan to subsidize the printing but, not supportive of Poe's literary pursuits, he refused. By July 28, Poe wrote to the publishers asking for the return of his manuscript because, as he said, he had "made a better disposition of my poems than I had any right to expect". "Al Aaraaf" finally saw print for the first time in the collection Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems. 250 copies of the 71-page work was issued by Hatch and Dunning of Baltimore, Maryland in December 1829. Though Poe had already self-published Tamerlane and Other Poems, he considered Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems his first book. Though this was not entirely true, it was the first work published with his name, signed "Edgar A. Poe". Poe addressed the obscurity in "Al Aaraaf" by including multiple footnotes, many of which were left untranslated from French, Latin, and Spanish. "Al Aaraaf" was published in its entirety only once in Poe's lifetime, though some critics believe Poe never actually completed the poem because Poe implied it was originally intended to have four parts or 400 lines. ## Critical response Upon publication, "Al Aaraaf" and the other poems in Poe's collection drew harsh criticism because of how difficult it was to understand. Among the early reviewers was John Hill Hewitt, who wrote of Poe that "no man has been more shamefully overestimated". In trying to explain the title poem, he wrote, "all our brain-cudgeling could not compel us to understand it line by line or the sum total". A reviewer for the Baltimore Minerva and Emerald asked, "Has the poet been struck dumb with palsy?" Before publication, Poe had sought the advice of William Wirt, who had earned a reputation as a distinguished man of letters in Baltimore. On "Al Aaraaf", Wirt wrote that he was not the best judge of poetry but believed that it might be accepted by modern-thinking readers. As he wrote, "but to deal candidly... (as I am bound to do) I should doubt whether the poem will take with old-fashioned readers like myself". Sarah Josepha Hale of Godey's Lady's Book noted that "Al Aaraaf" must have been written by a young author because it was "boyish, feeble, and altogether deficient in the common characteristics of poetry". Nevertheless, she still called the author a genius. A reviewer for the American Ladies' Magazine also commented on the poet's age: "[the] author who appears to be very young, is evidently a fine genius, but he wants judgment, experience, tact". Poe boasted that these early poems were superior to most other examples in American poetry. Critic John Neal, who was a friend of Poe's cousin George Poe, responded to Poe's claim in his review of "Al Aaraaf" for The Yankee and Boston Literary Gazette. He said Poe's boast was "rather exquisite nonsense" but that the young author showed promise and predicted that some day Poe might "make a beautiful and perhaps a magnificent poem" to prove his claim. He believed that if future poems by Poe were as good as some of his best lines in "Al Aaraaf": > He will deserve to stand high—very high—in the estimation of the shining brotherhood. Whether he will do so however, must depend, not so much upon his words now in mere poetry, as upon his worth hereafter in something yet loftier and more generous—we allude to the stronger properties of the mind, to the magnanimous determination that enables a youth to endure the present, whatever the present may be, in the hope, or rather in the belief, the fixed, unwavering belief, that in the future he will find his reward. Neal's encouragement, which came prior to publication, led Poe to include a dedication to Neal in the collection Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems. Poe's cousin Neilson Poe was impressed by Neal's endorsement and wrote, "Our name will be a great one yet." Edgar Poe would refer to Neal's comments as "the very first words of encouragement I remember to have heard." Poe himself admitted that "Al Aaraaf" had some "good poetry" in it as well as "much extravagance, which I have not had time to throw away". In the 20th century, poet Daniel Hoffman referred to "Al Aaraaf" as "Poe's most ambitious failure", suggesting it is a "fractured" attempt at an epic poem that "ran out of gas". Biographer Jeffrey Meyers called it Poe's "most turgid and opaque poem". ## Legacy "Al Aaraaf" includes names Poe would later reuse: Ligeia and Zante. Some of the themes in the poem also foreshadow a future poem, "The City in the Sea" (1831). The critical failure of both "Al Aaraaf" and "Tamerlane" convinced Poe that long poems are inherently flawed because they cannot sustain a proper mood or a high quality poetic form. Because of this, he never again experimented with long poetry. He would later write of his theory on short poetry in "The Poetic Principle" in 1848. In that essay, he wrote "A long poem does not exist. I maintain that the phrase, 'a long poem,' is simply a flat contradiction in terms." Instead, he says, epic poetry and other long poems are actually a series of short poems strung together. Critics have suggested that this theory was written so that Poe could justify why "Al Aaraaf" was unpopular. After the publication of "The Raven" in 1845, Poe became a household name and, having reached the height of his poetic fame, he was often asked to lecture or recite poetry at public events. One such invitation came from the Boston Lyceum in October 1845, arranged with help from James Russell Lowell. Poe had a strong dislike for the Boston literary scene and the city itself, despite having been born there. Nevertheless, he accepted the $50 fee and the challenge of writing a brand new poem for his appearance. Fresh off his public feud with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his dislike of the Massachusetts-based Transcendentalism movement, Poe instead decided to play a trick on his Boston audience. The program, held October 16 at Boston's Odeon Theater, was a grand event and featured a speech by Massachusetts statesman Caleb Cushing which was two and a half hours long. Poe read "Al Aaraaf", renamed "The Messenger Star" for the event, and tried to convince his Boston audience that the poem he wrote as a young man was new. The audience was confused by the obscure poem and many left during its recitation. Poe ended with "The Raven", as the theater manager noted, "thus enabling us to make some show of front after a most lamentable defeat." Poe considered the hoax an opportunity to prove that Bostonians did not know good literature. Based on critical reaction, he believed he was right. The editor of the Boston Courier reviewed "The Messenger Star" as "an elegant and classic production, based on the right principles, containing the essence of true poetry, mingled with a gorgeous imagination". When Poe claimed that he wrote the poem before he had turned 12, Cornelia Wells Walter of the Boston Evening Transcript wrote of her shock: "A poem delivered before a literary association of adults, as written by a boy\! Only think of it\!" It is unclear how old Poe was at the time he wrote the poem because, in part, he frequently changed his claim. Lewis Gaylord Clark said Poe's age at writing the poem was irrelevant and, though he admitted the audience did not know the author's age, "they only knew it was sad stuff". Modern biographer Daniel Stashower compared Poe's stunt with the story "The Imp of the Perverse", in which Poe wrote about "an earnest desire to tantalize a listener... The speaker is aware that he displeases." Upon his return to New York, Poe wrote in the Broadway Journal his view of the event. After noting that he refused to offer a didactic poem, he wrote: > It could scarcely be supposed that we would put ourselves to the trouble of composing for the Bostonians anything in the shape of an original poem... We do not, ourselves, think the poem a remarkably good one:—it is not sufficiently transcendental. Still it did well enough for the Boston audience—who evinced characteristic discrimination in understanding, and especially applauding, all those knotty passages which we ourselves have not yet been able to understand... If we cared a fig for their wrath we should not first have insulted them to their teeth, and then subjected to their tender mercies a volume of our Poems. "Al Aaraaf" was used between 1928 and 1952 as a pen name by Glasgow artist Hannah Frank.

Side Effects (Mariah Carey song)

2008 song by Mariah Carey

"Side Effects" is a song by American singer and songwriter Mariah Carey from her eleventh studio album, E=MC2 (2008). It was written by Carey, Scott Storch, Crystal Johnson and the song's featured artist, Young Jeezy. It was inspired by Carey's marriage to record executive Tommy Mottola and his controlling nature over her and her career. Carey discusses how she still deals with the side effects of the experiences that she encountered during the relationship. Critical response to the song was positive, with many critics highlighting it as an album standout, praising its candid lyrics and honesty. It charted at number 93 on the US Billboard Pop 100 chart. ## Background In 1988, Carey moved to Manhattan, New York to pursue a career in music. After working as a background singer for rising pop singer Brenda K. Starr, Carey was introduced to Tommy Mottola, head of Columbia Records, at a record executives gala. Accompanied by Starr, Carey handed Mottola her demo tape, featuring four of the eleven songs that would eventually comprise her debut studio album. In what has been largely described as a "Cinderella-like story", Mottola heard the tape in his Limousine ride home, and quickly returned to the event to find the girl with the "elusive voice". When he arrived, Carey had already left early, disappointed in the events of the evening. In what became a search, Mottola began to track Carey down through Star's management and eventually signed her to Columbia's roster of artists. After the release of her self-titled debut album (1990), Carey rose to fame, with the album selling over 15 million units globally. During the recording of Carey's third album, Music Box (1993), the pair became romantically involved, and wed by August 1993, only one month short of the album's release. The couple moved into a large 12-bedroom mansion in upstate New York, a home Carey would later come to be described as a "private prison" and "golden cage". Referring to Columbia, Carey said in an interview "That company, made a billion dollars from the raggedy girl he met at that party." Throughout the marriage, Mottola, both Carey's husband and boss, carefully manipulated and controlled her career, crafting her into the adult contemporary/pop singer he sought her to be. With each album, Carey's genre influences and production styles evolved, leading her farther into R\&B and hip-hop territory. By 1994, Carey was already the best-selling artist of the 1990s, and the labels best-selling act. Due to her continued success, Carey was able to take more creative control over subsequent projects. During the recording sessions for her fifth album Daydream (1995), the couple had already begun "fighting at the drop of a feather", due to his controlling nature over their personal life and her career. They separated in 1997, and divorced the following year. Carey described her sixth album Butterfly (1997) as her magnum opus, and her greatest and most personal work, due to its personal and emotional background. On the album's title track – written by Carey for Mottola – Carey reached out to him, asking to allow her to be free like a 'butterfly', and if the two were 'meant to be', then the butterfly 'would return'. In an interview with Interview magazine, Carey described the importance the song held for her, as well as its meaning: > It was '97 and I was leaving my marriage [to Tommy Mottola]. which encompassed my life. I was writing the song 'Butterfly' wishing that that's what he would say to me. There's a part that goes, 'I have learned that beauty/has to flourish in the light/wild horses run unbridled/or their spirit dies/you have given me the courage/to be all that I can/and I truly feel ...[sings] and I truly feel your heart will lead you back to me when you're ready to land.' At that point I really believed that I was going to go back to the marriage – I didn't think I was going to leave forever. But then the things that happened to me during that time caused me to not go back. Had it been, 'Go be yourself, you've been with me since you were a kid, let's separate for a while,' I probably would've." "Butterfly" became what Carey later described as her "favorite and most heartfelt ballad." Its lyrics were very personal, linking to her personal life and relationship with Mottola. Carey wrote "Butterfly" for Mottola, hoping he would say its contents to her, and choose to do what was best for her. She described it as "the best ballad she had ever written" and credited it as the epitome of Butterfly. ## Production and composition "Side Effects" was written by Carey, Scott Storch, Crystal Johnson and featured artist Young Jeezy. It is an R\&B song with elements of electro. Lyrically, Carey is recounting a past relationship which fell into "violent times", and how she still deals with the effects of what she experienced. Carey begins with the line "I was a girl/ You were ‘the man'/ I was too young to understand/ I was naïve /Believing everything you told me." Although Carey never mentions Mottola's name, many critics believed that she was addressing him directly in the lines "Shining like a chandelier/ That decorated every room inside/ The private hell we built", "Sleeping with the enemy, aware that he was smothering every last part of me" and "Said you were strong/ Protecting me/ Then I found out that you were weak/ Keepin' me there, under your thumb/ Cause you were scared that I'd become much/ More than you could handle." After confessing that she would "[wake] up scared some nights, still dreaming about the violent times," Carey decides to walk away from the relationship, and declares "but I still live with the side effects". J. Freedom De Luc of The Washington Post likened the "echoing" repetition of "Side Effects" to that of Rihanna's on her 2007 single "Umbrella". In an interview with Jennifer Vineyard of MTV News, Carey explained why she felt compelled to write the song: > "I wrote it because it was necessary for me to write it. You know what? I’ve been through too much at this point, I want happiness and I want pure and real love, but the side effects of what other relationships have put me through cause me to be kind of on the defensive a lot of the time. And if somebody isn’t mature or caring and loving and open-hearted enough to understand that, then it’s tough, but this is a song for people who need that." ## Reception The Guardian's Alex Macpherson praised the song, writing "the magnificent Side Effects finds Carey at the height of her powers. Over synths as slow as molasses, she intones some of the darkest lyrics of her career, a meditation on the long-term effects of an abusive relationship. Verbose to the point of opulence, she crams syllables into the verses, races against her own emotions and perfectly conveys the song's claustrophobic intensity." Joey Guerra from the Houston Chronicle singled out "Side Effects" as "an electro-tinged standout" in his review of the album. He praised Storch and Young Jeezy for giving the song a "menacing mood". Writing for Fox News, Roger Friedman described Carey's vocals performance as "gorgeous", Jeezy's rap verse as "cool" and the hook as having Top 40 appeal. He continued to write that Mottola would most likely do a spit-take upon hearing the lyrics. Describing the song as "a not-so-thinly-veiled swipe" at Mottola, Evan Sawdey of PopMatters thought that the lyrical content would "raise some eyebrows". The New York Times writer Ben Ratliff labeled the track as a "drama bomb" which recounts how Carey lived under the spell of Mottola during their marriage. The Washington Post's J. Freedom De Luc thought that "Side Effects" was one of the album's highlights along with "Touch My Body" and "I Wish You Well", and continued to write that Carey appears to be unloading onto her ex-husband. Nick Levine from Digital Spy described the song as Carey's revenge on Mottola, and "her rawest, most personal track in years". Jayanthi Daniels of The New York Sun was critical of "Side Effects" as well as "I'm That Chick", describing them as "throwaway pop tracks" on a hip-hop album. ## Live performances On July 31, 2008, Carey performed a free concert at the Hollywood and Highland Center shopping mall in Los Angeles, California, for 2,000 people. Young Jeezy joined Carey on stage to perform "Side Effects"; Todd Martens of the LA Times said of the performance that his "gruff intonations providing a surprisingly effective counterbalance to Carey's pleasantly light phrasing". Carey also performed "We Belong Together", "Shake It Off" and a medley of "Touch My Body/I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time". The concert was filmed and presented on Jimmy Kimmel Live\!, as part of Samsung AT\&T Summer Krush concert series. The production cost of the concert was estimated to be $250,000; according to Kimmel's music booker Scott Igoe. He confirmed that the cost was not incurred by Kimmel, and that Samsung made a contribution because "Carey doesn't come cheap". ## Charts

Black Ice (album)

2008 studio album by AC/DC

Black Ice is the fifteenth studio album by Australian rock band AC/DC. First released in Europe on 17 October 2008 and released internationally on 20 October 2008, it was produced by Brendan O'Brien. It marked the band's first original recordings since Stiff Upper Lip (2000), with the eight-year gap being the longest between AC/DC's successive studio albums. Black Ice has the longest running time of any AC/DC studio album. The album was the band's final studio release to feature founding rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young, who left the band in September 2014 after being diagnosed with dementia, and died three years later. The album's development was delayed because bass guitarist Cliff Williams sustained an injury and the band changed labels from Elektra Records to Sony Music. The first composing sessions between guitarists/brothers Angus and Malcolm Young were in London in 2003. Recording happened during March and April 2008 at The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. O'Brien tried to recapture the rock sound of the band's early work, as opposed to the blues orientation of Ballbreaker and Stiff Upper Lip, with suggestions such as adding "soul crooning" to Brian Johnson's singing. The songs were mostly recorded live in the studio; engineer Mike Fraser used only sparse overdubs and effects to keep the tracks as close to the originals as possible. Black Ice was released exclusively in physical formats, as the group did not sell its music digitally at the time. Wal-Mart received exclusive rights to distribute the album in North America. Its release was promoted with an extensive marketing campaign, which included displays of AC/DC memorabilia. The four singles issued from the album were, "Rock 'n' Roll Train", "Big Jack", "Anything Goes", and "Money Made". Black Ice peaked at number one in 29 countries, including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States. It was the second best-selling record of 2008, behind Coldplay's Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends and had shipped 6 million copies worldwide by December. Critical reviews were generally positive, praising the music and its resemblance to the classic AC/DC sound, although some critics found the work too long and inconsistent. The track "War Machine" won the Best Hard Rock Performance category at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards. The album itself was nominated for many awards, including the Grammy, Brit, Juno and ARIA Music Awards; and was supported by a world tour between 2008 and 2010. ## Background and production Black Ice is AC/DC's fifteenth studio album release in Australia and their fourteenth international release. The band took a break after finishing the Stiff Upper Lip World Tour in 2001, and resumed performing in 2003, with eight presentations that included AC/DC's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and they opened three concerts for The Rolling Stones' Licks Tour. During those two years, guitarists Angus Young and Malcolm Young wrote music separately, then met in a London studio to work on new songs. The production of Black Ice was delayed for several reasons. AC/DC left their label Elektra Records, signed a deal with Sony Music and changed labels within Sony from Epic Records to Columbia Records. Bass guitarist Cliff Williams suffered an injury to his hand in 2005 and was unable to play for 18 months. While Williams was recovering, the Young brothers perfected the songs they had written. Angus revealed that there was no pressure from Sony for the band to release a new album, as the label was releasing DVDs and remasters of the AC/DC catalogue, and thus the group "could afford to sit back and say we'll do another album when we think we've got all the goods." In a 2004 interview, vocalist Brian Johnson said that Angus had written harder riffs than those on Stiff Upper Lip and that he would be writing song lyrics for the first time since the band's 1988 album Blow Up Your Video, but his input would end up minimal, with all tracks on Black Ice credited to the Youngs. Johnson explained that the brothers had done most of the lyrical job, and his collaboration was that he "helped with melody and just filling in gaps that I thought needed filling in". While producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange expressed an interest in working again with AC/DC, his schedule did not allow this. When the Young brothers called Columbia Records' president Steve Barnett to announce the making of a new album, Barnett recommended producer Brendan O'Brien. Angus said the band had considered talking to O'Brien since the 1990s, as "he seemed to us a very competent professional" and because he and the band would benefit from working with a producer they had not worked with before. On 3 March 2008, recording started at The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, where Stiff Upper Lip was recorded, and lasted for eight weeks. Engineer Mike Fraser, who has mixed all AC/DC albums since The Razors Edge, said they recorded in batches of three songs to "keep things interesting" and to avoid overextended sessions. According to Fraser, the band had not rehearsed the songs before entering the studio. Despite "a couple of tweaks in the writing, sparkling up the choruses a bit better" during the recording, the compositions were mostly complete. Still, the Young brothers had new ideas during production, including the song "Anything Goes", which was written when the studio sessions were nearly finished. The songs were mostly recorded live in the studio; the instruments and backing vocals were recorded in the live room, and the lead vocals were recorded in both the control room and an overdubbing booth. The performances were first recorded with analogue equipment, as Fraser considers that tape conveys "the sound of rock & roll", and then digitised for mixing and overdubs. Fraser avoided altering the original recordings – "I used Pro Tools purely as a tape machine" – with no effects on the bass and rhythm guitar, sparse delay and reverb effects on the vocals and other instruments, and overdubs only for the lead guitar and vocals. The first title considered for the album was Runaway Train. Malcolm suggested using a photograph of the 1895 Montparnasse derailment for the cover, but reconsidered after he found that American rock band Mr. Big had used it for their album Lean Into It (1991). According to Angus, Runaway Train was rejected because it had been used by many musicians, including Elton John and Eric Clapton ("Runaway Train"); and Tom Petty ("Runaway Trains"), and he "wanted something unique, new, different". So he suggested Black Ice, which refers to gigs played during winter in Scotland. He said, "it rolled off the tongue" and it reminded him of "radio warnings up north of black ice." Angus was inspired to write the eponymous song by a similar warning heard on his car radio during production. ## Composition With Black Ice, Brendan O'Brien tried to recapture the rock sound of AC/DC's early work on albums such as Highway to Hell and Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. He thought the two previous studio albums, Ballbreaker and Stiff Upper Lip, were blues-influenced. O'Brien tried to focus on the choruses, which he felt were the best part of the AC/DC songs, and encouraged the band to emphasise the "hooky, melodic side" of its song-writing, which Angus complimented, since he had "never been great with harmonies". Mike Fraser said the band aimed "towards The Razors Edge era, a little bit more up-tempo stuff." O'Brien made suggestions about the band's performance, got Angus to play slide guitar on "Stormy May Day", and told Johnson to swap some screaming for "soul crooning" as Johnson was a soul singer. Johnson was worried that the rest of the band would think this did not suit the band's style of hard rock and roll, but the band was quite receptive. Because of the highly demanding singing style, Johnson only recorded his vocals for one hour a day. The rhythm section continues the basic structure from other AC/DC records; Cliff Williams played bass lines of eighth notes, and Phil Rudd's drumming was a consistent 4/4 time, mostly on his snare, kick drum and hi-hat cymbal. Both musicians expressed contentment with their roles in the band; Rudd said, "I'm not repressing skills. Most drummers are scared to try this", and Williams admitted he plays "the same thing in every song, for the most part", but added "in AC/DC's music, the song is more important than any individual's bit in it". Angus said that when composing with Malcolm they share ideas to make each track "work together" to form a complete album, and Johnson added "these songs belong together. It's about five boys having a damn good time in a studio." With 15 songs and a running time of over 55 minutes, Black Ice has the longest running time of any AC/DC studio record. Malcolm said that "about 60 or 70 song ideas" were developed. Angus said that the first attempt to sequence the album resulted in a track list comprising eleven songs, "but as the days went by each band member voted for a new track, and then another, and other one" so they decided to include all the recorded tracks. Most of the album's tracks are about rock and roll itself–Angus stated, "Certain songs just seem to come to life when you add that phrase". However, other themes served as inspiration. "Money Made" is a criticism on how, according to Angus, in the US "everything is money these days". "War Machine" was based on a documentary on Hannibal, which led to the conclusion that the military has not changed since Ancient Rome. "Wheels" tells about Johnson's passion for motorcars. He described the album's release as the "best one we've done", he felt that while Back in Black was great for its time, Black Ice shows the band's versatility. Angus also said he admired the album's diversity, saying "It is sufficiently varied to please people in varied moods". ## Release and promotion On 18 August 2008, Columbia Records announced that Black Ice would be released on 20 October in the US, and began accepting pre-orders. "Rock 'n' Roll Train" was issued as the first single from the album on 28 August; "Big Jack" and "Anything Goes" followed in some markets, and "Money Made" was an airplay single in Australia and the United Kingdom. The track "Spoilin' for a Fight", was used by the WWE as the theme song for its 2008 Survivor Series event, and "War Machine" would later be included in both a trailer for 2010's Iron Man 2 and the film's soundtrack album, in addition to serving as one of the theme songs for WrestleMania XXV. The CD version was also available in a hardcover, deluxe edition with a 30-page booklet containing exclusive new illustrations, studio and live photographs of the group and lyrics. A limited edition steel-box version, containing the CD, a 20-page colour booklet, a DVD featuring the "Rock 'n' Roll Train" video and a making of documentary, a large AC/DC flag, five stickers and a Gibson guitar pick, was issued in Germany and the United Kingdom in December. The album was released as a double LP on two 180-gram discs in a gatefold package featuring the standard red lettering artwork on the front. The LP was sold through the official website and through independent record shops in the US. An unknown number of copies of the vinyl version were incorrectly pressed; side 1B had tracks from The Clash's Live at Shea Stadium. Black Ice was not issued digitally as the band refused to sell their tracks separately. Angus declared, "If we were on iTunes, we know a certain percentage of people would only download two or three songs from the album – and we don't think that represents us musically." However, the entire album was leaked online a week before the official release. Rumours spread that Sony Music tried to control leaks by releasing fake tracks on peer-to-peer websites. In North America, Wal-Mart made a deal for the exclusive distribution of Black Ice, though a few independent music shops ordered copies of the album from foreign outlets. Angus declared that the band chose Wal-Mart because the company is the biggest physical music retailer in America, which they believed to be "the best alternative to iTunes". He also said, "There aren't as many record stores these days, and Wal-Marts are all over America. New York and Los Angeles and Chicago may be covered, but in the heartland of America, Wal-Mart may be the only gig in town." Wal-Mart created over 3000 "Rock Again AC/DC Stores" with displays showcasing the band's albums, branded clothing, the No Bull DVD, the video game AC/DC Live: Rock Band, and products from sponsors. Gary Severson, a Wal-Mart senior vice president, said that AC/DC was one of the rare artists whose loyal fan-base allowed them to display other merchandise along with the music. In October, MTV, Wal-Mart and Columbia created "AC/DC Rock Band Stores" in cities without regular Wal-Mart retail locations–New York's Times Square and Los Angeles. "Black Ice" trucks were dispatched on the streets of these cities after the release, playing tracks and making stops each day to sell merchandise. Advertising agency Arnold Worldwide was awarded both Best Activity Generating Brand Volume by the Marketing Agencies Association, and Best Retail/Co-Marketing Campaign by Promo Magazine for Black Ice's marketing campaign. A digital version of Black Ice was made available on iTunes, along with the rest of AC/DC's catalogue, on 19 November 2012. ### Tour To promote Black Ice, AC/DC launched the Black Ice World Tour on 28 October 2008 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Two days earlier, they had held a dress rehearsal in the same city. The tour lasted for 168 shows in 11 legs, with the last in Bilbao, Spain, on 28 June 2010. Mark Fisher, who had worked on the Stiff Upper Lip World Tour, designed the stage. The set's centrepiece was a full size locomotive, weighing 3500 kg, that was inspired by the working title Runaway Train and the track "Rock 'n' Roll Train". Five songs from Black Ice were included on the tour's set list; "Rock 'n' Roll Train", "Big Jack", "Black Ice", "War Machine", and "Anything Goes". The Black Ice World Tour was AC/DC's most successful, grossing $441.6 million, making it the fourteenth highest-grossing concert tour of all-time. Three concerts in December 2009 at the River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires were released as the DVD Live at River Plate on 10 May 2011. ## Packaging The cover art of Black Ice was drawn by Joshua Marc Levy, art director for Columbia and a longtime fan of the band who volunteered for the project among "many people at Sony who desired to work on it". There are four different covers; the standard edition has a red logo, the deluxe edition has a blue logo, and two variants to the regular design include yellow or white logos. Angus said the options were not to deliver the message that fans would need to purchase all covers. He said, "We know most people will only purchase the record once, in their colour of choice. For me, it's not relevant. What matters is that fans enjoy it. Music is the essence." After working with the cover for the album, provisionally titled Runaway Train, Levy went on vacation and travelled with Pearl Jam on their 2008 tour. After a concert in Washington D.C., Levy came up with the idea "to do it all graphic black on black" and sketched what would become the yellow artwork. The record company liked it and requested he do two more in the same style, which became the red and white versions. During the promotional photography sessions, Levy made the deluxe edition art. The tracks on the album did not have much influence on the artwork as Levy had heard "maybe 5 songs at that point", but he found it curious that his artwork fit the title track "Black Ice", which was not among the tracks he had heard. Levy said that since the album had many similarities with Back in Black – "Black" in the title, dark covers, and AC/DC resurfacing with a sound based on the band's early work – the art was "like a time travel, which is why there are so many psychedelic drawings". The artwork's resemblance to a train, echoing lead single "Rock N' Roll Train", was a coincidence, given Levy "never thought of it that way". Atop the image there is a cog with an image of Angus with his fist in the air resembling the statue on Stiff Upper Lip, because Levy "just thought it was great as a continuing icon." The photographs for the booklet and promotional photography were taken by music photographer Guido Karp, in August 2008 in London. ## Critical reception Critical reviews of Black Ice were generally favourable according to Metacritic, which provided a normalised rating of 69 out of 100 based on 24 reviews from mainstream critics. Most reviewers complimented the album's sound, with The Village Voice's Richard Bienstock considering that Brendan O'Brien's production restored a sonority closer to the Vanda and Young produced 1970s albums and effective choruses like those with "Mutt" Lange, and Aaron Burgess of The A.V. Club finding Black Ice the most inspired AC/DC album since The Razors Edge while sounding "harder, hungrier, and more relevant than anything on contemporary radio." "There's a sense of purpose to this new album that far outstrips its predecessor, Stiff Upper Lip," wrote Paul Eliott in a 7/10 review for Classic Rock. "It sounds bigger and better. It has more energy, more vibe. There's more craft to it, stronger songs, catchier hooks. It is, in short, their best album since... well, the one after Back in Black." A common argument was that Black Ice succeeded because AC/DC did not want to change the style that succeeded in previous albums. Bernard Zuel of The Sydney Morning Herald declared that "almost all of [the tracklist] could have appeared on any AC/DC album of the past 28 years". Chris Jones of the BBC said the band's "almost platonic form of rock 'n' boogie that was hand built to last" remains because they "have no reason to tinker with a formula that was well-nigh perfect to begin with". Writers such as Spin's David Marchese and The Observer's Peter Kimpton complimented the band's attempts at "some new sonic tricks", such as the slide guitar of "Stormy May Day" and the quieter "Decibel". However, some reviewers found the album inconsistent, overly long or formulaic. Black Ice was described as a retread of other AC/DC albums without the same inspiration, with Spence D. of IGN declaring that "the band sounds tight, but very few of the songs actually resonate with that sense of classicism found on much of their earlier efforts", The Austin Chronicles Austin Powell feeling that despite "a few cheap thrills" the album lacked "the urgent indecency and iron force that defined the Bon Scott era", and AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine considering that after "Big Jack" the tracks went into a "too-comfortable groove, fueled by too-tight rhythms and guitars that sound loud but not beefy". Many complained about the lack of variation, made more flagrant by the long track list. Entertainment Weekly's reviewer Clark Collis wrote that "even 2000's fairly monochromatic Stiff Upper Lip had more varied material", Brian Hiatt of Rolling Stone felt that Black Ice "feels longer than its 55 minutes, thanks to a stretch of throwaway rockers", and Robert Forster of The Monthly thought that a shorter running time would "maximise the album's impact", given he found the first four songs and the title track the best for sounding more diverse, while the other tracks were let down by poor songwriting and a "numbing predictability". ## Commercial performance Black Ice made history by debuting at number one on album charts of 29 countries, and is Columbia Records' biggest debut album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales data for Billboard in March 1991. Black Ice was the second best-selling album worldwide in 2008, behind Coldplay's Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends. As of December 2008, it had shipped six million copies worldwide, and earned sales certifications in 24 countries, with multi-platinum status in eight, platinum in twelve more, and gold in the four remaining. On the first day of its US release, 20 October 2008, Black Ice sold over 193,000 units. By 28 October, Black Ice debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 albums chart, selling over 784,000 copies in its first week, the second highest one-week sales of an album in the US of 2008, behind Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III. It was AC/DC's second release to top the US charts, after For Those About to Rock We Salute You (1981) and became the biggest debut ever by a mainstream hard rock album. As of 31 December 2008, the album had sold 1.915 million copies in the US, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and was certified 2× Platinum by the RIAA. Black Ice also debuted at number one on the ARIA Album Charts, selling over 90,000 units, and the UK Album charts, with 110,000 copies sold. It was their first number one in the UK since Back in Black (1980). In Canada, Black Ice debuted at number one and sold 119,000 copies in its first week, making it the best-selling album debut in Canada in 2008. The album held the top spot in Canada for three consecutive weeks, with sales of over 200,000 copies. In Germany, Black Ice became the 14th best-selling album of the 2000s, with sales of 1 million copies and being certified 5 times platinum. Black Ice was ranked 41st on Rolling Stone's Top 50 Albums of 2008 list, 29th on a similar list by Q magazine, 17th on Kerrang\!'s Top 20 Albums of the Year and 3rd in UGO's list of the 11 Best Metal Albums of 2008. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2009, Black Ice won in the categories of Best Rock Album and Highest Selling Album; it was nominated for Album of the Year and AC/DC were nominated for Group of the Year. It was nominated for Best International Album at the Juno Awards and the Brit Awards. It won the 2009 Classic Rock Roll of Honour Award for Album of the Year. At the 51st Grammy Awards in 2009, "Rock 'n' Roll Train" was nominated for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, and at the 2010 ceremony, Black Ice was nominated for Best Rock Album and the track "War Machine" won the Best Hard Rock Performance category. At the APRA Awards of 2010 Angus and Malcolm won Songwriters of the Year, and "Rock 'n' Roll Train" won Most Played Australian Work Overseas. ## Track listing ## Personnel Credits adapted from the album's liner notes. AC/DC - Brian Johnson – lead vocals - Angus Young – lead guitar - Malcolm Young – rhythm guitar, backing vocals - Cliff Williams – bass guitar, backing vocals - Phil Rudd – drums Production' - Brendan O'Brien – production - Mike Fraser – engineering, mixing - Eric Mosher – engineering assistance - Billy Bowers – additional engineering - Richard Jones – equipment technician - Geoff Banks – equipment technician - Rick St. Pierre – equipment technician - George Marino – mastering - Alvin Handwerker (Prager and Fenton LLP) – management - Guido Karp – photography - Joshua Marc Levy – art direction, design, illustrations (containing vector graphics by You Work For Them, LLC) ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ### Decade-end chart ## Certifications and sales ## Release history

Cloud9 League of Legends

League Championship Series team

The League of Legends division of Cloud9 (C9) is a gaming team based in Los Angeles, California, and competes in the League of Legends Championship of The Americas (LTA), the top-level professional league for video game League of Legends in the Americas, as a franchised team in the North Conference. Established in 2013, the League of Legends division was the founding division of Cloud9. The team was originally a player-owned team before they were acquired by Quantic Gaming that same year; weeks later, the contracts of the players were sold to Jack Etienne. Under their founding roster of Balls, Meteos, Hai, Sneaky, and LemonNation, Cloud9 won back-to-back League Championship Series (LCS) titles in their first two years of existence by winning the 2013 NA LCS Summer Split and 2014 NA LCS Spring Split. The team claimed their third LCS title by winning the 2020 LCS Spring Split in what was generally considered one of the greatest season performances by a team in the league's history. The team's fourth LCS title came in Spring 2021 after winning the 2021 Mid-Season Showdown. Additionally, Cloud9 hold several LCS records, including the highest winning percentage in a single split (92.9%) and the longest game winning streak in a single split (18). ## History Cloud9's League of Legends division traces its roots back to the disbandment of Quantic Gaming's League of Legends roster, which included Nientonsoh, Hai, Yazuki, WildTurtle, and LemonNation. Following their departure from Quantic Gaming, these five players came together to form their own team called Team NomNom. However, their initial foray into the competitive scene faced an early setback when they were eliminated during the group stage of the Season 3 North American Offline Qualifier for the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS). Azure Gaming and Team MRN proved to be formidable opponents, leading to Team NomNom's elimination. As a result, Nientonsoh and Yazuki decided to part ways with the team. In early 2013, Team NomNom underwent a rebranding and officially became Cloud9 (C9). The team's emerged victorious at the 2013 MLG Summer Promotion Qualifiers, defeating Velocity esports in the finals. This win secured their qualification for the 2013 NA LCS Summer Promotion Qualifiers. Cloud9 was then reacquired by Quantic Gaming on April 1. The roster, consisting of Balls, Meteos, Hai, Sneaky, and LemonNation, went undefeated in the Summer Promotion Qualifier, earning them a spot in the 2013 NA LCS Summer Split. Following their qualification, Quantic made the decision to revert the team's name back to Cloud9. However, the team would soon experience yet another ownership change, as former Team SoloMid manager Jack Etienne purchased the players' contracts for less than $20,000, solidifying the establishment of the Cloud9 organization. ### 2013–2015: First seasons #### Back-to-back LCS titles In the 2013 LCS Summer split regular season, the team went on a 13-game winning streak, marking the longest winning streak in LCS history at the time. They went on to finish the 2013 Summer split with a 25–3 game win–loss record to claim the top seed in the Summer Season Playoffs. With a bye into the semifinals, Cloud9 defeated Dignitas by a score of 2 games to 0. The team went on to sweep Team SoloMid, 3 games to 0, in the grand finals on September 1 to claim their first-ever LCS title. With the win, Cloud9 finished the season with a 30–3 game record and the highest winning-percentage in LCS history at 90.9%. Due to their NA LCS Summer Season championship, Cloud9 received bye into the quarterfinals at the Season 3 World Championship (Worlds). In their first match, on September 23, Cloud9 lost to the top-seeded European team Fnatic by a score of 1 games to 2, eliminating them from the tournament. On October 29, the organization announced the departure of coach Alex Penn and the addition of Dan Dinh as the team's coach as the team planned to move from San Jose to Los Angeles. After a poll conducted earlier that month, Cloud9 was voted into IEM Season VIII - Cologne; the team received the most votes and was seeded directly into the semifinals. Cloud9 faced Gambit Gaming in the semifinals match on November 24, but Gambit took the win to move onto the finals. Cloud9 closed out 2013 by defeating European team Fnatic, 2–0, on December 22 at the Battle of the Atlantic. The win marked the first time that Cloud9 had defeated an international team. In the 2014 NA LCS Spring Split, Cloud9 closed out the final five weeks on a 13-game winning streak, equaling their LCS record 13-game winning streak in 2013, to finish the regular season with a 24–4 record and the top seed in the playoffs. With a bye into the semifinals, Cloud9 first defeated Team Curse by a score of 2–0 in the playoffs. Cloud9 won their second consecutive LCS title after a 3–0 sweep over Team SoloMid in the grand finals on April 20. After going 5–0 in the playoffs, Cloud9 extended their record winning streak to 18 games and had gone undefeated in back-to-back playoffs. Their LCS playoffs victory earned the team a spot in the 2014 All-Stars event in Paris, France. However, on April 30, Hai suffered a collapsed lung, which would prevent him from attending the All-Star event; two days later, Counter Logic Gaming's Link replaced him in the lineup on a loan. In group stage of the tournament, the team defeated OMG, Fnatic, and Taipei Assassins, but lost to SK Telecom T1 K, to finish the stage with a 3–1 record. In the playoff semifinals, Cloud9 lost to OMG, 0–2, and were eliminated from the playoffs. In the 2014 NA LCS Summer Split, Cloud9 suffered a mid-season slump, falling to as low as fifth place in the season standings, but recovered to finish with a 18–10 record in the regular season and claim the top seed in the playoffs. After sweeping Team Curse the semifinals, Cloud9 advanced to the grand finals to face Team SoloMid for the third consecutive split. Cloud9 won the first game, extending their playoff winning streak dating back to the 2013 NA LCS Summer split, but dropped three of the next four games to lose the match, 2–3, and finish in second place. With their finish at the 2014 NA LCS Summer split, Cloud9 qualified for the 2014 World Championship. In the World Championship group stages, Cloud9 became the first North American team in two years to defeat a Korean team after taking down NaJin White Shield. Cloud9 advanced to the knockout stage but lost to Samsung Galaxy Blue, 1–3, on October 4 in the quarterfinals. In November, Cloud9 was voted in by fans to play at IEM Season IX San Jose. In the tournament, the team swept paiN Gaming, 2–0, in the quarterfinals and defeated Alliance, 2–1, in the semifinals. The team took home their first IEM title on December 7 after they swept Unicorns of Love, 3–0, in the finals. #### First roster changes In the midst of the 2015 NA LCS Spring split regular season, Cloud9 competed in the IEM Katowice World Championship, which took place beginning on March 13, after qualifying as the winners of IEM San Jose in 2014. The team made an early exit in the tournament after falling to GE Tigers and Flash Wolves in their first two matches of the group stages. Cloud9 began the 2015 NA LCS Spring Split going 1–3. By the end of the regular season, the team finished with a 12–6 record, and after defeating Counter Logic Gaming in a tiebreaker match, they claimed the second seed and a first-round bye in the playoffs. After defeating Team Liquid in the semifinals match, Cloud9 advanced to the finals to face Team SoloMid for the fourth straight LCS split. Cloud9 took an early lead, winning the first game but dropped the following three, losing 1–3 and placing second for the second LCS split in a row. A few days after their second-place finish, on April 22, Hai officially retired from the team, citing chronic wrist pain and a loss of team confidence as the reasons for his retirement. Hai's retirement ended the team's nearly 750-day record of having the longest starting lineup in professional League of Legends history. While Hai stepped down as a competitor, he remained with Cloud9 in an organizational role as a partner management and team expansion assistant. On May 8, Cloud9 officially signed Incarnati0n as a replacement for Hai as mid-laner. The team started the 2015 NA LCS Summer Split going 3–7. After the poor start, Meteos stepped down from the starting roster, later citing internal issues with his teammates. In his stead, Hai substituted back into the starting roster. Cloud9 dropped the three of the next four games, heading into the final two weeks with a 4–10 record and in eighth place – a low enough placement to be relegated. The team finished the season with a 6–12 record, and after defeating Team 8 in a tiebreaker match, they placed seventh in the regular season standings to avoid relegation but missed the LCS playoffs for the first time in their organization's history. After avoiding LCS relegation, Cloud9 qualified for the North American Regional Qualifier for the 2015 World Championship as the last seed. In the tournament, they defeated Gravity Gaming, Team Impulse, and Team Liquid to earn North America's third seed in the World Championship tournament. Cloud9 started the group stages going 3–0 in the first week, defeating ahq eSports Club, Invictus Gaming, and Fnatic. In the second week of the group stage, they dropped three games in a row, and after losing a tiebreaker game against ahq, they were eliminated from the tournament. On October 23, Cloud9 officially announced that LemonNation would be retiring as a competitor and transitioning to a coaching role. Cloud9 signed Rush and Bunny FuFuu in November, with Bunny FuFuu splitting time with Hai. With the new roster, Cloud9's final tournament of 2015 was IEM X Cologne, as the team qualified for the tournament after winning a fan vote. The team faced H2k-Gaming in the quarterfinals, but after winning game one of the match, they dropped the following two games and were eliminated from the tournament. ### 2016–2020: Reapered era #### First head coach In the 2016 NA LCS Spring Split, Cloud9 finished the regular season with a 12–6 record and the third seed in the Spring playoffs. Jensen (formerly Incarnati0n) was named to the NA LCS Spring Split 1st All-Pro Team and was a runner-up for the league's Most Valuable Player award. The team faced Team SoloMid in the quarterfinals on April 2; they won the first game of the match but lost the following three to lose by a score of 1–3. Between splits, Cloud9 made the biggest roster changes in their organization's history, acquiring Impact from NRG eSports to replace Balls, bringing Meteos back to the main roster to replace Rush, and bringing Bunny FuFuu back to the main roster to replace Hai. Additionally, the team added former Edward Gaming coach Bok "Reapered" Han-gyu as the team's first official head coach. Cloud9 began the 2016 NA LCS Summer Split regular season with an 8–5 record. Up to this point in the season, Bunny FuFuu and Smoothie split starts, but on July 10, Bunny FuFuu stepped down from the starting roster. Similar to the 2016 Spring Split, Cloud9 finished the 2016 Summer Split regular season with a 12–6 record and the third seed in the Summer playoffs. In their quarterfinal match against Team EnVyUs, Jensen set an LCS record 20 kills in a single game as the team went on to win, 3–1. The team then defeated Immortals, 3–2, in the semifinals. For the fifth time in the team's history, Cloud9 faced Team SoloMid in the finals. In the match, Cloud9 took an early lead, winning the first game, but lost the following three, losing the match 1–3 and finishing the split in second place. With their performance in the 2016 LCS season, Cloud9 qualified as the second seed in the North American Regional Qualifiers tournament for the 2016 World Championship. At the Regional Qualifiers, they swept Team EnVyUs, 3–0, in the second round and defeated Immortals, 3–1, in the finals, giving them the third seed for North America in the 2016 World Championship. At the 2016 World Championship, Cloud9 was placed in a group with IMay, SK Telecom T1, and Flash Wolves. Cloud9 went 3–3 in the group and earned the a spot a spot in quarterfinals, where they faced Samsung Galaxy on October 14. The team was swept by Samsung, 0–3, and were eliminated from the playoffs. On December 19, Cloud9 officially announced they had promoted Contractz from their Challenger team to replace Meteos and signed former Dignitas player Ray as a substitute. #### Quest for third title Cloud9 went undefeated through the first four weeks of the 2017 NA LCS Spring Split, going 8–0. Prior to week five, the contract of Meteos, a substitute player for Cloud9 at the time, was sold to Phoenix1. The team finished the regular season in second place with a 14–4 record and a first-round bye in the Spring Split Playoffs. Smoothie was named to the 2017 NA LCS Spring Split 1st All-Pro team, Reapered was named the NA LCS Coach of the Split, and Contractz was named the NA LCS Rookie of the Split. In the playoffs, Cloud9 swept Phoenix1, 3–0, in the semifinals. For the sixth, and second consecutive, time, Cloud9 faced Team SoloMid in the NA LCS finals. After dropping the first two games of the match, Cloud9 won the following two to tie up the series but lost game five, finishing the split as the runners-up of the league. After starting the 2017 NA LCS Summer Split with a 6–6 record, Cloud9 finished the split on a six-match winning streak to finish the regular season with a 12–6 record and the fourth seed in the playoffs. Jensen was named to the NA LCS Summer Split 1st All-Pro team and was the runner-up for the NA LCS Summer Split MVP. The team faced Team Dignitas in the quarterfinals of the Summer Split Playoffs on August 19; Cloud9 lost the match, 1–3, ending their 2017 LCS season. Cloud9 was placed into the North America Regional Qualifiers for the 2017 World Championship play-in stage. The team defeated Counter Logic Gaming 3–1, to advance to the play-ins and represent North America as the third seed. In the play-in stage, Cloud9 was placed in a group with Team oNe and Dire Wolves. They went undefeated in their group with a 4–0 record to advance to the next stage of the play-ins. In the second stage, a single match against Lyon Gaming, Cloud9 swept Lyon, 3–0, and qualified into the Group Stage of the 2017 World Championship. In the group stage, Cloud9 was placed in a group which with Korea's SKT Telecom T1, China's EDward Gaming, and Taiwan's ahq e-Sports Club. They achieved a 3–3 record in the group stage and advanced to the knockout stage as the second seed from their group. In the quarterfinals, Cloud9 lost a 5-game match against Team WE from China and were eliminated from the tournament. In November 2017, Cloud9 made multiple roster changes. The team lost Impact to free agency and signed Licorice as his replacement. Additionally, Cloud9 transferred Contractz to Golden Guardians and acquired Svenskeren from Team SoloMid as his replacement. Cloud9 began the 2018 NA LCS Spring Split strong, going 8–2 through the first five weeks. They ended the split with an 11–7 record and in a four-way tie for third place with Team SoloMid, Team Liquid, and Clutch Gaming. After losing the third-place tiebreaker against Team Liquid and winning the fifth-place tiebreaker against Clutch Gaming, Cloud9 entered the playoffs as the fifth seed. Licorice was named the NA LCS Rookie of the Split, while head coach Reapered was the runner-up for the NA LCS Coach of the Split. In the playoffs, Cloud9 was swept by Team Liquid in the quarterfinals by a score of 0–3. Before the Summer Split began, Jensen, Sneaky, and Smoothie were benched from the starting lineup, with Goldenglue, Keith, and Zeyzal being promoted from Cloud9's academy team as their replacements. With their starters benched, C9 started the Summer Split regular season with a 3–7 record and in last place through the first five weeks. In that time, Jensen and Sneaky returned to the starting roster in weeks three and four, respectively, as the team implemented a seven-man rotating roster, with Blaber and Svenskeren splitting starts at jungle and Jensen and Goldenglue splitting starts in the midlane. The team closed out the final four weeks of the regular season on an 8–0 run to finish the regular season in second place with an 11–7 record. Jensen was named to the All-Pro 1st Team, Blaber was named the Rookie of the Split, and Reapered was named the Coach of the Split. Cloud9 faced Team SoloMid in the semifinals match of the playoffs; after falling behind 1–2, Cloud9 won the final two games to win the match, 3–2, and advance to the finals. In the finals, they were swept by Team Liquid, 0–3, to finish as the runners-up of the split. Cloud9 was placed in the North American Regional Qualifiers in order to qualify for the 2018 World Championship play-in stage. With a bye into the final, Cloud9 swept Team SoloMid, 3–0, in the finals match and earned a spot in the play-ins. Placed in a group with Japan's DentonatioN FocusMe and Brazil's KaBuM\!, Cloud9 went 4–0 in their group and advanced to the second round of the play-ins. With a 3–2 victory over Russia's Gambit Esports, Cloud9 advanced to the 2018 World Championship. In the group stage, Cloud9 was grouped with Europe's Team Vitality, China's Royal Never Give Up (RNG), and Korea's Gen.G. The team finished with a 4–2 record in the group and tied for first with RNG; after losing a tiebreaker match against RNG, they finished second in their group and advanced to the knockout stage. In the quarterfinals, Cloud9 swept Korea's Afreeca Freecs, 3–0, and advanced to the semifinals. The win marked the first time in seven years that a North American team had qualified for the World Championship semifinals. Cloud9 was swept by Fnatic, 0–3, in the semifinals, ending their World Championship run. In November, Jensen was transferred to Team Liquid; Cloud9 acquired Nisqy from Splyce as his replacement. In the 2019 LCS Spring Split, Cloud9 secured the second seed and a bye to the semifinals of the playoffs after a win over FlyQuest on March 23. With a win over Clutch Gaming in their final regular season match, the team closed out the regular season with a 14–4 record. Licorice was named to the LCS All-Pro 1st Team and was the runner-up for the league's Most Valuable Player award, while head coach Reapered was named the Coach of the Split for the second split in a row. In the playoffs, Cloud9 faced Team SoloMid in the semifinals on April 13. After winning the first two games of the series, Cloud9 dropped the following three to lose the match by a score of 2–3. Through the first six weeks of the 2019 LCS Summer Split, Cloud9 accrued an 8–4 record. Prior to week seven, the team traded Keith to Golden Guardians in exchange for Deftly. Cloud9 finished the regular season with a 12–6 record, again claiming the second seed in the playoffs and qualifying directly to the semifinals. Svenskeren won the Summer Split Most Valuable Player award and was named to the LCS All-Pro 1st Team. In the semifinals match, the team took a 3–1 win over Counter Logic Gaming and advanced to their seventh all-time LCS finals match. Cloud9 faced Team Liquid in the finals; after leading the series 2–1, Cloud9 lost the final two games to lose the match, 2–3, and finish the split at the runners-up. After their LCS finish, Cloud9 qualified directly into the group stage for the 2019 World Championship as North America's second seed. In the group stage, Cloud9 was drawn into a group with Griffin, G2 Esports, and Hong Kong Attitude. The team finished with a 2–4 record in the group, failing to advance to the knockout stage for the first time since 2015. After their 2019 season, the team acquired Dignitas' player Vulcan in exchange for a reported $1.5 million and academy player Johnsun. Additionally, Cloud9 parted ways with Sneaky, the team's starting AD carry of the past seven years, although later it was announced that Sneaky would remain as a part of the organization as an owner, advisor, and streamer. The team signed former Team SoloMid player Zven as his replacement. #### Third LCS title and first World Championship absence Cloud9 began the 2020 LCS Spring Split with a 12–0 record through the first six weeks, securing a spot in the winners bracket of the playoffs in the process. The team's first, and only, loss in the regular season came on March 7, when they fell to Team SoloMid in week 7. Cloud9 finished the regular season with a 17–1 record – tied for the best game record in LCS history – and the top seed in the playoffs. All five starters, Licorice, Blaber, Nisqy, Zven, and Vulcan, were named to the 2020 LCS Spring Split All-Pro 1st Team, head coach Reapered was named the Coach of the Split, and Blaber won LCS Spring Split Most Valuable Player award. In first round of the upper bracket of the playoffs, Cloud9 swept 100 Thieves, 3–0. The team then defeated Evil Geniuses, 3–1, in the upper bracket finals, advancing them to their second consecutive finals appearance. Cloud9 secured their third LCS title on April 19 after they swept FlyQuest, 3–0, in the finals. The win gave the team their first LCS title since 2014. With an overall 26–2 game win–loss record, including playoffs, for the split, Cloud9 set a LCS record for the highest winning percentage ever in a single split by a North American team at 92.9%, breaking their previous record of 90.9% from the 2013 Summer Split. The win qualified the team their first Mid-Season Invitational, but the event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cloud9 initially carried their momentum from the Spring Split into the 2020 LCS Summer Split, posting a 9–0 record regular season record throughout the first half of the split. However, their momentum came to an end, as the team only won two of their next six games, including suffering their first 0–2 week for the first time in two years. After splitting their final two games, they finished the regular season in second place with a 13–5 record and a bye into the second round of the playoffs. Blaber and Zven were named to the 2020 LCS Summer Split All-Pro 1st Team. In the second round of the upper bracket of the playoffs, Cloud9 fell to FlyQuest, 1–3, dropping them into the lower bracket. The team then swept Evil Geniuses, 3–0, in the second round of the lower bracket. Cloud9's playoff run ended after they lost to Team SoloMid, 1–3, in the third round of the lower bracket. Due to changes made in the 2020 LCS season, where only the top three teams from the Summer Split would qualify 2020 World Championship, Cloud9 did not qualify for the 2020 World Championship, marking the first time in the organization's history that they would not attend the World Championship. On September 14, Cloud9 parted ways with head coach Bok "Reapered" Hangyu, who had been the head coach of the team for the past four years. The organization promoted Cloud9's academy team coach Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin as their new head coach. While the organization originally stated that the 2020 player roster would remain together going into the 2021 season, it was later announced that the team had parted ways with Licorice and Nisqy; the team promoted Fudge from their academy team and acquired Perkz from G2 Esports as their replacements. ### 2021–present #### Fourth LCS title The LCS made major changes for the 2021 LCS season onwards. Records for the Spring and Summer Splits would no longer be separated; records from the Spring Split carry over to the Summer Split. Additionally, the Spring Split Playoffs were replaced by the Mid-Season Showdown, which acts as a qualifier for the Mid-Season Invitational, and the Summer Split Playoffs were replaced by the LCS Championship, which would then act as a qualifier for the World Championship. Cloud9 sat atop the regular season standings throughout the entirety of the Spring Split of the 2021 LCS season, and after a win over Immortals in their Spring final regular season match, Cloud9 finished with the first half of the season with a 13–5 record and secured the top seed in the 2021 Mid-Season Showdown. Blaber, Perkz, and Zven were all named to the 2021 LCS Spring Split All-Pro 1st Team, and Vulcan was named to the 2nd Team, while the Cloud9 coaching staff won the Coaching Staff of the Split award. In the Mid-Season Showdown, Cloud9 defeated 100 Thieves, 3–0, and Team Liquid, 3–1, to advance to the finals. In the finals match, the team once again faced Team Liquid, who had made it to the finals through the lower bracket of the playoffs. Cloud9 took home their fourth LCS title on April 11 after taking down Team Liquid by a score of 3–2. Cloud9's Mid-Season Showdown title qualified them to play in the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) as the sole representatives of North America. For the first round of the tournament, Cloud9 was placed into Group C with Korea's DWG KIA, Japan's DetonatioN FocusMe and Latin America's Infinity Esports. After a 1–2 win–loss record to begin the group stage, Cloud9 won their final three matches to finish the group stage with a 4–2 record and advanced to the next stage of the tournament, the Rumble stage, as the second seed from their group, behind DWG KIA. Cloud9 finished the Rumble stage with three wins and seven losses and did not advance to the next stage of the tournament. Following their fifth-place finish in the MSI, Cloud9 promoted Calvin "K1ng" Truong from their academy team and sent Zven to their academy team. Additionally, Reignover stepped down as head coach to become the team's new assistant coach, while Alfonso "Mithy" Rodriguez took over as the team's new head coach. After beginning the Spring Split of the 2021 LCS season with a 4–5 record, Cloud9 brought Zven back to the starting roster, and K1ng returned to the Academy team. After posting a 21–12 record partially through the season, the team secured a spot in the LCS Championship on July 6. Cloud9 finished the 2021 regular season in fourth place with a 27–18 record. In the first match of the double-elimination 2021 LCS playoffs, Cloud9 faced Team Liquid, and lost by a score of 1–3, sending them to the lower bracket. The team went on to win three series in a row in the lower bracket, defeating Golden Guardians, Evil Geniuses, and Team SoloMid by scores of 3–0, 3–0, and 3–2, respectively, securing the third and final spot for North America at the 2021 World Championship in the process. The team lost 1–3 in the lower bracket finals to 100 Thieves, ending their playoff run. At Worlds, Cloud9 started in the Play–In stage, and were drawn into Group A, alongside Taiwan's Beyond Gaming, Japan's Detonation FocusMe, Turkey's Galatasaray Esports, and the Unicorns of Love of the LCL. The team went 3–1 in the group stage, placing second in their group after losing the tiebreaker to Detonation FocusMe, before defeating PEACE from Oceania with a score of 3–0 to qualify for the main event. In the group stage, Cloud9 were placed in Group A alongside Korea's Dawmon Kia (DK), China's FunPlus Phoenix (FPX), and Europe's Rogue. Group A was dubbed the "Group of death" by the media, as it hosted the two previous World Championship winners in DK and FPX, who were the favorites to win the tournament. Cloud9 lost their first three games, before winning two of their three games on the last day, putting them at a three-way tie with Rogue and FPX, with each team sitting at a 2–4 record. Cloud9 won the tiebreaker game, which was against Rogue, and advanced to the quarterfinals, becoming the first North American team to make it past the group stage since the previous Cloud9 team reached semifinals in 2018. In the quarterfinals, Cloud9 were matched up against Korea's Gen.G, and were swept 0–3, ending their run, and placing 5th–8th overall. After their defeat in the 2021 World Championship quarterfinals, Perkz and Vulcan left the team, and Cloud9 signed Summit, Beserker, and Winsome as players and Nick "LS" Desare as their new head coach. After a strong 3–1 start to the split, falling only to heavy favorite Team Liquid, it was announced less than an hour before Cloud9's first match of week three that LS had been dismissed as head coach. Regardless, Cloud9 would end the regular split in sole position of second place, but would end the spring split playoffs in fourth after 0–3 defeats to both 100 Thieves and Evil Geniuses, only managing to beat Golden Guardians in a best of 5 during the first round of the losers bracket. On May 2, Isles, Summit, and Winsome departed Cloud9. ## Rivalries ### Team SoloMid Team SoloMid and Cloud9, two of the oldest professional Western League of Legends teams, developed a rivalry as a result of their four consecutive North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS) finals matches from Summer 2013 to Spring 2015. In 2013, former Team SoloMid manager Jack Etienne purchased the contracts of the players of Cloud9, and the team's first season was in the 2013 NA LCS Summer Split. Earlier that year, Team SoloMid had won the 2013 Spring Split, making them the defending champions of the LCS. The first meeting between the teams took place in Cloud9's first-ever LCS Regular Season match on June 12, 2013; Cloud9 went on to win the match. Cloud9 defeated Team SoloMid in the 2013 Summer and 2014 Spring finals. In the following two LCS Finals, Team SoloMid defeated Cloud9 in both the 2014 Summer and 2015 Spring finals. They met again in three consecutive NA LCS playoffs from Spring 2016 to Spring 2017; Team SoloMid won each match, which included the 2016 Summer and 2017 Spring finals. Cloud9 defeated Team SoloMid in the 2018 Summer semifinals. The same year, Cloud9 took down Team SoloMid in the 2018 World Championship play-ins, eliminating Team SoloMid from qualifying for the World Championship. In 2019, Team SoloMid defeated swept Cloud9 in the 2019 Spring semifinals match. Team SoloMid handed Cloud9 their only loss in the 2020 Spring Regular Season. Team SoloMid eliminated Cloud9 in Summer 2020 Playoffs, which also prevented Cloud9 from securing a spot at the 2020 World Championship. The following year Cloud9 returned the favor, defeating Team SoloMid in the 2021 Summer Playoffs, eliminating them from post-season contention and in doing so, Cloud9 claimed the finals spot at Worlds 2021. ## Roster ## Season-by-season records ## Accomplishments and awards LCS Most Valuable Player - Svenskeren – Summer 2019 - Blaber – Spring 2020, Spring 2021 - Summit – Spring 2022 - Berserker – Spring 2023 LCS Finals MVP - Hai – Spring 2014 - Vulcan – Spring 2020 - Perkz – Spring 2021 - Berserker – Summer 2022 - Fudge – Spring 2023 LCS Rookie of the Split - Contractz – Spring 2017 - Licorice – Spring 2018 - Blaber – Summer 2018 LCS Coach of the Split - Reapered – Spring 2017, Summer 2018, Spring 2020 - Coaching staff – Spring 2021, Spring 2023 LCS All-Pro First Team - Jensen – Spring 2016, Summer 2017, Summer 2018 - Smoothie – Spring 2017 - Licorice – Spring 2019, Spring 2020–Summer 2020 - Blaber – Spring 2020–Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Summer 2023 - Nisqy – Spring 2020 - Zven – Spring 2020–Spring 2021 - Vulcan – Spring 2020 - Perkz – Spring 2021 - Fudge – Summer 2021, Spring 2023 - Summit – Spring 2022 - Berserker – Spring 2023, Summer 2023 LCS All-Pro Second Team - Rush – Spring 2016 - Sneaky – Spring 2016–Spring 2017, Summer 2018–Spring 2019 - Hai – Spring 2016 - Impact – Spring 2017 - Jensen – Spring 2017, Spring 2018 - Contractz – Summer 2017 - Smoothie – Summer 2017–Spring 2018 - Licorice – Summer 2018, Summer 2019 - Zeyzal – Summer 2018–Spring 2019 - Svenskeren – Spring 2019–Summer 2019 - Nisqy – Summer 2019 - Vulcan – Summer 2020–Spring 2021 - Berserker – Spring 2022, Summer 2022 - Zven – Spring 2023, Summer 2023 - EMENES – Spring 2023 LCS All-Pro Third Team - Balls – Spring 2016 - Impact – Summer 2016 - Jensen – Summer 2016 - Sneaky – Summer 2017–Spring 2018 - Svenskeren – Spring 2018 - Nisqy – Spring 2019, Summer 2020 - Zeyzal – Summer 2019 - Blaber – Summer 2021 - Fudge – Spring 2022, Summer 2023 - EMENES – Summer 2023 Sources:

Algoman orogeny

Late Archaean episode of mountain building in what is now North America

The Algoman orogeny, known as the Kenoran orogeny in Canada, was an episode of mountain-building (orogeny) during the Late Archean Eon that involved repeated episodes of continental collisions, compressions and subductions. The Superior province and the Minnesota River Valley terrane collided about 2,700 to 2,500 million years ago. The collision folded the Earth's crust and produced enough heat and pressure to metamorphose the rock. Blocks were added to the Superior province along a 1,200 km (750 mi) boundary that stretches from present-day eastern South Dakota into the Lake Huron area. The Algoman orogeny brought the Archean Eon to a close, about ; it lasted less than 100 million years and marks a major change in the development of the Earth's crust. The Canadian shield contains belts of metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks formed by the action of metamorphism on volcanic and sedimentary rock. The areas between individual belts consist of granites or granitic gneisses that form fault zones. These two types of belts can be seen in the Wabigoon, Quetico and Wawa subprovinces; the Wabigoon and Wawa are of volcanic origin and the Quetico is of sedimentary origin. These three subprovinces lie linearly in southwestern- to northeastern-oriented belts about 140 km (90 mi) wide on the southern portion of the Superior Province. The Slave province and portions of the Nain province were also affected. Between about 2,000 and these combined with the Sask and Wyoming cratons to form the first supercontinent, the Kenorland supercontinent. ## Overview Through most of the Archean Eon, the Earth had a heat production at least twice that of the present. The timing of initiation of plate tectonics is still debated, but if modern-day tectonics were operative in the Archean, higher heat fluxes might have caused tectonic processes to be more active. As a result, plates and continents may have been smaller. No broad blocks as old as 3 Ga are found in Precambrian shields. Toward the end of the Archean, however, some of these blocks or terranes came together to form larger blocks welded together by greenstone belts. Two such terranes that now form part of the Canadian shield collided about . These were the Superior province and the large Minnesota River Valley terrane, the former composed mainly of granite and the latter of gneiss. This led to the mountain-building episode known as the Algoman orogeny in the U. S. (named for Algoma, Kewaunee County, Wisconsin), and the Kenoran orogeny in Canada. Its duration is estimated at 50 to 100 million years. The current boundary between these terranes is known as the Great Lakes tectonic zone (GLTZ). This zone is 50 km (30 mi) wide and extends in a line roughly 1,200 kilometers long from the middle of South Dakota, east through the middle of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, into the Sudbury, Ontario region. The region remains slightly active today. Rifting in the GLTZ began about at the end of the Algoman orogeny. The orogeny affected adjacent regions of northern Minnesota and Ontario in the Superior province as well as the Slave and the eastern part of the Nain province, a far wider region of influence than in subsequent orogenies. It is the earliest datable orogeny in North America and brought the Archean Eon to a close. The end of the Archean Eon marks a major change in the development of the Earth's crust: the crust was essentially formed and achieved thicknesses of about 40 km (25 mi) under the continents. ## Tectonics The collision between terranes folded the Earth's crust, and produced enough heat and pressure to metamorphose then-existing rock. Repeated continental collisions, compression along a north–south axis, and subduction resulted in the uprising of the Algoman Mountains. This was followed by intrusions of granite plutons and batholithic domes within the gneisses about ; two examples are the Sacred Heart granite of southwestern Minnesota and the Watersmeet Domes metagabbros (metamorphosed gabbros) that straddle the border of Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. After the intrusions solidified, new stresses on the greenstone belt caused movement horizontally along several faults and moved huge blocks of the crust vertically relative to adjacent blocks. This combination of folding, intrusion and faulting built mountain ranges throughout northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, Michigan's Upper Peninsula and southernmost Ontario. Igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks are associated with the orogeny. By extrapolating the now-eroded and tilted beds upward, geologists have determined that these mountains were several kilometers high. Similar projections of the tilted beds downward, coupled with geophysical measurements on the greenstone belts in Canada, suggest the metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks of the belts project downward at least a few kilometers. ### Greenstone The action of metamorphism on the border between granite and gneiss bodies produces a succession of metamorphosed volcanic and sedimentary rocks called greenstone belts. Most Archean volcanic rocks are concentrated within greenstone belts; the green color comes from minerals, such as chlorite, epidote and actinolite that formed during metamorphism. After metamorphism occurred, these rocks were folded and faulted into a system of mountains by the Algoman orogeny. The volcanic beds are 8 to 9 km (26,000 to 30,000 ft) thick. About the greenstone belt was subjected to new stresses that caused movement along several faults. Faulting on both small and large scales is typical of greenstone belt deformation. These faults show both vertical and horizontal movement relative to adjacent blocks. Large-scale faults typically occur along the margins of the greenstone belts where they are in contact with enclosed granitic rocks. Vertical movement may be thousands of meters and horizontal movements of many kilometers occur along some fault zones. Some time before , masses of magma intruded under and within the igneous and sedimentary rocks, heating and pressing the rocks to metamorphose them into hard greenish greenstones. They began with fissure eruptions of basalt, continued with intermediate and felsic rocks erupted from volcanic centers and ended with deposition of sediments from the erosion of the volcanic pile. The rising magma was extruded under a shallow ancient sea where it cooled to form pillowed greenstones. Some of Minnesota's pillows probably cooled at depths as great as 1,000 m (3,300 ft) and contain no gas cavities or vesicles. Most greenstone belts, with all of their components, have been folded into troughlike synclines; the original basaltic rock, which was on the bottom, occurs on the outer margins of the trough. The overlying, younger rock units – rhyolites and greywackes – occur closer to the center of the syncline. The rocks are so intensely folded that most have been tilted nearly 90°, with the tops of layers on one side of the synclinal belt facing those on the other side; the rock sequences are in effect lying on their sides. The folding can be so complex that a single layer may be exposed at the surface many times by subsequent erosion. ### Volcanic activity As the greenstone belts were forming, volcanoes ejected tephra into the air which settled as sediments to become compacted into the greywackes and mudstones of the Knife Lake and Lake Vermilion formations. Greywackes are poorly sorted mixtures of clay, mica and quartz that may be derived from the decomposition of pyroclastic debris; the presence of this debris suggests that some explosive volcanic activity had occurred in the area earlier. The volcanism took place on the surface and the other deformations took place at various depths. Numerous earthquakes accompanied the volcanism and faulting. ## Superior province The Superior province forms the core of both the North American continent and the Canadian shield, and has a thickness of at least 250 km (160 mi). Its granites date from 2,700 to 2,500 million years ago. It was formed by the welding together of many small terranes, the ages of which decrease away from the nucleus. This progression is illustrated by the age of the Wabigoon, Quetico and Wawa subprovinces, discussed in their individual sections. Later terranes docked on the periphery of continental masses with geosynclines developing between the fused nuclei and oceanic crust. In general the Superior province consists of east–west-trending belts of predominately volcanic rocks alternating with belts of sedimentary and gneissic rocks. Due to down warping along elongate zones, each belt is essentially a large downfold or downfaulted block. The areas between individual belts are fault zones consisting of granite or granitic gneiss. Its western part contains a regional pattern of east–west-trending 100 to 200 km (60 to 120 mi) wide granitic greenstone and metasedimentary belts (subprovinces). Western Superior province's mantle has remained intact since the 2,700-million-year-ago accretion of the subprovinces. Both folding and faulting can be seen in the Wabigoon, Quetico and Wawa subprovinces. These three subprovinces lie linearly in southwestern- to northeastern-oriented belts of about 140 km (90 mi) wide (see figure on right). The northernmost and widest province is the Wabigoon. It begins in north-central Minnesota and continues northeasterly into central Ontario; it is partially interrupted by the Southern province. Immediately to the south, the Quetico subprovince extends as far west in north-central Minnesota, and extends further to the northeast. It is completely interrupted by a narrow band of the 1,100- to 1,550-million-year-old Southern province to the northeast of Thunder Bay. The Wawa subprovince is the most southerly of the three; it begins in central Minnesota, continues northeast to Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, (where its southern border just skims north Thunder Bay) and then extends east beyond Lake Superior. The northern boundary continues in a roughly northeasterly heading, while the southern border dips south to follow the northeast shore of Lake Superior. ### Fault zones The three subprovinces are separated by steeply dipping shear zones caused by continued compression that occurred during the Algoman orogeny. These boundaries are major fault zones. The boundary between the Wabigoon and Quetico subprovinces seems to have been also controlled by colliding plates and subsequent transpressions. This Rainy Lake – Seine River fault zone is a major northeast–southwest trending strike-slip fault zone; it trends N80°E to cut through the northwest part of Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota and extends westward to near International Falls, Minnesota and Fort Frances, Ontario. The fault has transported rocks in the greenstone belt a considerable distance from their origin. The greenstone belt is 2 to 3 km (0 to 0 mi) wide at the Seven Sisters Islands; to the west the greenstone interfingers with pods of anorthositic gabbro. Radiometric dating from the Rainy Lake area in Ontario show an age of about 2,700 million years old, which favors a moving tectonic plate model for the formation of the boundary. The largest fault is the Vermilion fault separating the Quetico and Wawa subprovinces. It has a N40°E trend and was caused by the introduction of masses of magma. The Vermilion fault can be traced westward to North Dakota. It has had a 19 km (12 mi) horizontal movement with the northern block moving eastward and upward relative to the southern block. The junction between the Quetico and Wawa subprovinces has a zone of biotite-rich migmatite, a rock that has characteristics of both igneous and metamorphic processes; this indicates a zone of partial melting which is possible only under high temperature and pressure conditions. It is visible as a 500 m (1,600 ft) wide belt. Most of the flattened large crystals in the fault indicate a simple compression rather than a wrenching, shearing or rotational event as the two subprovinces docked. This provides evidence that the Quetico and Wawa subprovinces were joined by the collision of two continental plates, about . Structures in the migmatite include folds and foliations; the foliations cut across both limbs of earlier-phase folds. These cross-cutting foliations indicate that the migmatite has undergone at least two periods of ductile deformation. ### Wabigoon subprovince The Wabigoon subprovince is a formerly active volcanic island chain, made up of metavolcanic-metasedimentary intrusions. These metamorphosed rocks are volcanically derived greenstone belts, and are surrounded and cut by granitic plutons and batholiths. The subprovince's greenstone belts consist of felsic volcanics, felsic batholiths and felsic plutons aged from 3,000 to 2,670 million years old. ### Quetico subprovince The Quetico gneiss belt extends some 970 km (600 mi) across Ontario and parts of Minnesota. The dominant rocks within the belt are schists and gneisses produced by intense metamorphism of greywackes and minor amounts of other sedimentary rocks. The sediments, alkalic plutons and felsic plutons are aged from 2,690 to 2,680 million years. The metamorphism is relatively low-grade on the margins and high-grade in the center. The low-grade components of the greywackes were derived primarily from volcanic rocks; the high-grade rocks are coarser-grained and contain minerals that reflect higher temperatures. The granitic intrusions within the high-grade metasediments were produced by subduction of the ocean crust and partial melting of metasedimentary rocks. Immediately south of Voyageurs National Park and extending to the Vermilion fault is a broad transition zone that contains migmatite. The Quetico gneiss belt represents an accretionary wedge that formed in a trench during the collision of several island arcs (greenstone belts). Boundaries between the gneiss belt and the flanking greenstone belts to the north and south are major fault zones, the Vermilion and Rainy Lake – Seine River fault zones. ### Wawa subprovince The Wawa subprovince is a formerly active volcanic island chain, consisting of metamorphosed greenstone belts which are surrounded by and cut by granitic plutons and batholiths. These greenstone belts consist of felsic volcanics, felsic batholiths, felsic plutons and sediments aged from 2,700 to 2,670 million years old. The predominant rock type is a white, coarse-grained, foliated hornblende tonalite. Minerals in the tonalite are quartz, plagioclase, alkali feldspar and hornblende. ## Slave province In extensive regions of the Slave province of northern Canada, the magma that later became batholiths heated the surrounding rock to create metamorphic regions called aureoles about 2,575 million years ago. These regions are typically 10 to 15 km (6 to 9 mi) wide. The creation of aureoles was a continuous process, but three recognizable metamorphic phases can be correlated with established deformational phases. The cycle began with a deformation phase unaccompanied by metamorphism. This evolved into the second phase accompanied by broad regional metamorphism as thermal doming began. With continued updoming of the isotherms, the third phase produced minor folding but caused major metamorphic recrystallization, resulting in the emplacement of granite at the core of the thermal dome. This phase occurred at lower pressure because of erosional unloading, but the temperatures were more extreme, ranging up to about 700 °C (1,300 °F). With deformation complete, the thermal dome decayed; minor mineralogical changes occurred during this decay phase. The region has since been effectively stable. Geochronology of several Archean rock units establishes a sequence of events, approximately 75 million years in duration, leading to the formation of a new crustal segment. The oldest rocks, at 2,650 million years old, are basic metavolcanics with largely calc-alkaline characteristics. Radiometric dating indicates ages of 2,640 to 2,620 million years are recorded for the syn-kinematic quartz diorite batholiths and 2,590 to 2,100 million years for the major late-kinematic bodies. Pegmatitic adamellites, at 2,575±25 million years, are the youngest plutonic units. Metagreywackes and metapelites from two areas traversing one of these aureoles near Yellowknife have been studied. Most of the Slave province rocks are granitic with metamorphosed Yellowknife metasedimentary and volcanic rocks. Isotopic ages of these rocks is around , the time of the Kenoran orogeny. Rocks comprising the Slave province represent a high grade of metamorphism, intrusion and basement remobilization typical of Archean terranes. Migmatites, batholithic intrusive and granulitic metamorphic rocks show foliation and compositional banding; the rocks are uniformly hard and so thoroughly deformed that little foliation exists. Most Yellowknife Supergroup metasediments are tightly folded (isoclinal) or occur in plunging anticlines. ## Nain province The Archean rocks forming the Nain province of northeastern Canada and Greenland are separated from the Superior terrane by a narrow band of remobilized rocks. Greenland separated from North America less than and its Precambrian terranes align with Canada's on the opposite side of Baffin Bay. The southern tip of Greenland is part of the Nain Province, this means it was connected to North America at the end of the Kenoran orogen. ## See also -

HMS Crescent (1931)

C-class British and afterward Canadian destroyer

HMS Crescent was a C-class destroyer which was built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s. The ship was initially assigned to the Home Fleet, although she was temporarily deployed in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean during the Abyssinia Crisis of 1935–36. Crescent was sold to the Royal Canadian Navy in late 1936 and renamed HMCS Fraser. She was stationed on the west coast of Canada until the beginning of World War II when she was transferred to the Atlantic coast for convoy escort duties. The ship was transferred to the United Kingdom (UK) in May 1940 and helped to evacuate refugees from France upon her arrival in early June. Fraser was sunk on 25 June 1940 in a collision with the anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Calcutta while returning from one such mission. ## Design and construction Crescent displaced 1,375 long tons (1,397 t) at standard load and 1,865 long tons (1,895 t) at deep load. The ship had an overall length of 329 feet (100.3 m), a beam of 33 feet (10.1 m) and a draught of 12 feet 6 inches (3.8 m). She was powered by Parsons geared steam turbines, driving two shafts, which developed a total of 36,000 shaft horsepower (27,000 kW) and gave a maximum speed of 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph). Steam for the turbines was provided by three Admiralty 3-drum water-tube boilers. Crescent carried a maximum of 473 long tons (481 t) of fuel oil that gave her a range of 5,500 nautical miles (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph). The ship's complement was 145 officers and men. The ship mounted four 45-calibre 4.7-inch Mk IX guns in single mounts, designated 'A', 'B', 'X', and 'Y' from front to rear. For anti-aircraft (AA) defence, Crescent had a single QF 3-inch 20 cwt AA gun between her funnels, and two 40-millimetre (1.6 in) QF 2-pounder Mk II AA guns mounted on the aft end of her forecastle deck. The 3-inch (76 mm) AA gun was removed in 1936 and the 2-pounders were relocated to between the funnels. She was fitted with two above-water quadruple torpedo tube mounts for 21-inch torpedoes. Three depth-charge chutes were fitted, each with a capacity of two depth charges. After World War II began this was increased to 33 depth charges, delivered by one or two rails and two throwers. Crescent was ordered on 30 January 1930 as part of the 1929 Naval Programme and laid down on 1 December 1930 at Vickers-Armstrongs, Barrow-in-Furness. She was launched on 29 September 1931 and completed on 15 April 1932. ## Operational history After the ship commissioned on 21 April 1932, she was assigned to the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla of the Home Fleet. Crescent collided with her sister HMS Comet at Chatham on 21 July and was under repair until 27 August. Crescent was refitted at Chatham between 30 March and 6 May 1933, before deploying to the West Indies between January and March 1934. She was given another refit at Chatham from 27 July to 3 September 1934. Crescent was detached from the Home Fleet during the Abyssinian Crisis, and deployed in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea from September 1935 to April 1936. When the ship returned, she was refitted at Sheerness between 23 April to 13 June and placed briefly in reserve. ### Transfer to the Royal Canadian Navy Together with her sister HMS Cygnet, Crescent was sold to Canada on 20 October 1936 for a total price of £400,000. She was refitted again to meet Canadian standards, including the installation of ASDIC (sonar), and taken over by them on 1 February 1937. The ship was renamed as HMCS Fraser and commissioned into the RCN at Chatham on 17 February. Fraser was assigned to the Canadian Pacific Coast and arrived at Esquimalt on 3 May 1937. She remained there until she was ordered to the East Coast on 31 August 1939. When World War II began on 3 September, Fraser was transiting the Panama Canal and arrived at Halifax on 15 September. She and her sisters were employed as local escorts to ocean convoys sailing from Halifax. In November the Royal Navy's North America and West Indies Station took operational control of the Canadian destroyers. The ship escorted the convoy bringing most of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division to Britain part way across the North Atlantic in mid-December. In March 1940 she was ordered to join the Jamaica Force for Caribbean patrols before being reassigned to Western Approaches Command two months later. On 26 May she left Bermuda for Britain and arrived at Plymouth on 3 June where she was pressed into service evacuating Allied troops from various French ports on the Atlantic coast. Sometime in 1940, the ship's aft set of torpedo tubes was removed and replaced by a 4-inch (102 mm) AA gun. ## Loss On 25 June 1940, Fraser, her sister , and the cruiser Calcutta were returning from St. Jean de Luz after rescuing refugees trapped by the German Army (Operation Aerial), when Fraser was rammed by Calcutta in the Gironde estuary. Struck forward of the bridge by the cruiser's bow, Fraser was cut in half and sank immediately. All but 45 of the ship's crew were rescued by Restigouche and other nearby ships. Many of the survivors from Fraser transferred that later summer to , and were lost when that vessel sank on 22 October 1940 as a result of a collision with the freighter MV Port Fairy.

Geastrum pectinatum

Species of fungus

Geastrum pectinatum is an inedible species of mushroom belonging to the earthstar family of fungi. Although young specimens are spherical, fruit body development involves the outer layer of tissue splitting open like a star into 7 to 10 pointed rays that eventually bend back to point downward, revealing a small – 1 to 2.5 cm (1⁄2 to 1 in) broad – spore sac. The spore sac is supported by a small radially wrinkled stalk. There is a distinct conical opening (peristome) at the top of the spore sac that is up to 8 mm (3⁄8 in) long. It is commonly known as the beaked earthstar or the beret earthstar, in reference to the shape of the spore sac and its prominent, protruding peristome. The mass of spores and surrounding cells within the sac, the gleba, is dark-brown, and becomes powdery in mature specimens. Spores are spherical, measuring 4 to 6 micrometers in diameter, with warts on their surfaces. Although uncommon, G. pectinatum has a cosmopolitan distribution, and has been collected in various locations in Europe, North and South America, Asia, Australia and Africa, where it grows on the ground in open woods. Like several other earthstars, crystals of calcium oxalate are found on G. pectinatum, and are thought to be involved in fruit body maturation. ## Taxonomy Christian Hendrik Persoon published the first description of Geastrum pectinatum in 1801. In 1860, Miles Joseph Berkeley and Moses Ashley Curtis described the species Geastrum biplicatum (originally named Geaster biplicatus), based on specimens sent to them by Charles Wright that he obtained from the Bonin Islands during the North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition. Japanese mycologist Sanshi Imai considered this identical with G. pectinatum in a 1936 publication. In 1959, mycologist J.T. Palmer reported comparing the original specimen collected by Persoon with fresh samples of what were then thought to be the distinct species G. plicatum and G. tenuipes (named by English naturalist Miles Joseph Berkeley in 1838 and 1848, respectively) and concluded the three specimens were synonymous; the original Persoon specimen was then designated as the neotype. In Ponce de Leon's classification of Geastrum, he placed the species in the subgenus Geastrum, section Geastrum, as the type of the subsection Sulcostomata, group Pectinatum. Other species in this group—characterized by a determinate peristome surrounded by a groove—are G. xerophilum, and G. furfuraceum. In Stanek's (1958) infrageneric concept, G. pectinatum is placed in section Perimyceliata (encompassing species whereby the mycelial layer covers the entire endoperidium), in subsection Glabrostomata, which includes species with plicate peristomes. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin pectinatum, "like a comb". Its common names include the "beaked earthstar" or the "beret earthstar". Samuel Frederick Gray called it the "comblike shell-puff" in his 1821 "A Natural Arrangement of British Plants". ## Description Immature specimens – 1 to 2 cm (1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in) diameter – are roughly spherical and begin their development submerged in the ground, but gradually push above ground during maturation. In this state the outer surface is covered with mycelia, which forms a soft, fluffy coat that holds soil and debris to the outer surface. The young fruit bodies often have a rounded knob or protuberance. Like other members of genus Geastrum, G. pectinatum has a fruit body wall that is multilayered. At maturity, the outer layer (the exoperidium) splits open from the top in a stellate (star-shaped) manner into 7–9 rays that support the spore sac contained within the inner wall (the endoperidium). The expanded specimens are up to 5 cm (2 in) broad and 6 cm (2+1⁄4 in) tall. The rays of the exoperidium bend back (reflex), simultaneously elevating the spore sac above the ground in what is known as the fornicate condition; this position exposes the spore sac to more air currents, aiding spore dispersal. The surface of the rays often crack to reveal lighter-colored areas, especially along the edges. Together with a well-developed layer of mycelium, the rays are typically bound to fragments of earth or forest duff. The tough and membranous endoperidium comprising the spore sac, purple-brown in color and 0.5 to 1.5 cm (1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in) tall by 1 to 2.5 cm (1⁄2 to 1 in) wide, is supported by a small stalk—a pedicel—that is 3–4 mm (1⁄8–3⁄16 in) long by 7–10 mm (1⁄4–3⁄8 in) wide and which has a grooved (sulcate) apophysis, or swelling. This ring-shaped swelling is made of remnants from a tissue called the pseudoparenchymatous layer. When fresh, the pseudoparenchymatous layer is whitish in color, thick and fleshy; it dries to become brown to dark brown while shrinking and often splitting and peeling. The endoperidium may be pruinose—covered with fine, white, powder—although the presence of this characteristic has been noted as being somewhat variable. The spore sac is opened by a single apical pore atop a conical "beak", or peristome. The peristome is pectinate—made of tissue that resembles the teeth of a comb; the specific epithet is named after this characteristic. The peristome is 2 to 5 mm (0.08 to 0.20 in) long, and comprises 20–32 distinct ridges. The mass of spores and surrounding cells within the sac, the gleba, is dark-brown, and becomes powdery in mature specimens. Internally, the endoperidium contains a structure called the columella that is narrowly conical in shape, whitish or pale brown, and extends more than halfway into the gleba. G. pectinatum has no distinguishable odor or taste; like other earthstar mushrooms, it is inedible, and of "no alimentary interest". ### Microscopic characteristics The spores of G. pectinatum are brown and opaque. They have a roughly spherical shape and are ornamented with transparent (hyaline), truncate warts; the diameter is 4–4.5 μm, or 5.5–6.5 if the lengths of the warts is included. Spore-bearing cells, the basidia, are 2- or 4-spored, while cystidia (specialized sterile cells that occur at the hymenial surface in some mushrooms) are absent. The capillitia—a mass of thread-like sterile fibers dispersed among the spores—are light brown and 3–7 μm in diameter. They are tapered, thick-walled with a narrow interior, and either smooth or slightly encrusted. ### Similar species Geastrum pectinatum has been mistaken for the morphologically similar but smaller species G. schmidelii. The latter species lacks vertical striations on the basal portions of the endoperidium, and does not have a pseudoparenchymatous collar around the stem. Another similar species, G. berkeleyi, has a shorter stem and is missing the ridges at the base of the spore sac. Further, the color of its spore sac is usually brown, in contrast to the gray-blue of G. pectinatum. G. xerophilum also has a dusting of white powder on the surface of the spore sac, but unlike G. pectinatum, consistently lacks a ring at the base of the pedicel; furthermore, in contrast to G. pectinatum, the spores of G. xerophilum are yellow and contain oil drops that are readily observable with a microscope. G. striatum has smaller fruit bodies than G. pectinatum, and a distinct collar-like apophysis. ## Distribution and habitat This species has been reported to grow solitary or in groups on sandy soil or rich composted soil in both mixed and coniferous forests, often beneath cedars. In Hawaii, it is usually found growing in duff under coastal Casuarina and groves of Cupressus. The species has been noted to occur in late summer and autumn (in Britain and Europe), but the fruit bodies may dry and persist for some time. Geastrum pectinatum has a cosmopolitan distribution. It has been reported from Australia, and New Zealand, Africa (the Congo and South Africa) Central America (Costa Rica), Asia (Northeastern China and Japan), and South America (Brazil). In Europe, it has been reported from Belgium, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. In the Middle East, it has been recorded in Israel, and Turkey. In North America, it is known from the United States (including Hawaii), Canada, and Mexico. It is in the Red Data Book (documenting rare and endangered species) of Latvia, and is considered a threatened species in Poland. North American sources gives its frequency of appearance as "rare", but Stellan Sunhede, in his 1989 monograph on the Geastraceae, considers it one of the most common earthstar mushrooms of northern Europe. ## Calcium oxalate crystals Calcium oxalate is a common crystalline compound found in many fungi, including the earthstars. The presence of calcium oxalate crystals—apparent as a whitish powder on the surface of the spore sac—has been verified for G. pectinatum using scanning electron microscopy. The calcium oxalate crystals occur in the tetragonal form, known as weddellite. A study on the related species Geastrum saccatum has shown that these crystals are responsible for the characteristic opening (dehiscence) of the outer peridial layers. The formation of calcium oxalate crystals stretches the layers of the outer walls, pushing apart the inner and outer layers of the peridium.

Prospect Park Zoo

Zoo in Brooklyn, New York

The Prospect Park Zoo is a 12-acre (4.9 ha) zoo located off Flatbush Avenue on the eastern side of Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York City. As of 2016, the zoo houses 864 animals representing about 176 species, and as of 2007, it averaged 300,000 visitors annually. The Prospect Park Zoo is operated by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). In conjunction with the Prospect Park Zoo's operations, the WCS offers children's educational programs, is engaged in restoration of endangered species populations, runs a wildlife theater, and reaches out to the local community through volunteer programs. Its precursor, the Menagerie, opened in 1890. The present facility first opened as a city zoo on July 3, 1935, and was part of a larger revitalization program of city parks, playgrounds and zoos initiated in 1934 by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses. It was built, in large part, through Civil Works Administration and Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor and funding. After 53 years of operation as a city zoo run by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, Prospect Park Zoo, also colloquially known as "Brooklyn Zoo", closed in June 1988 for reconstruction. The closure signaled the start of a five-year, $37 million renovation program that, save for the exteriors of the 1930s-era buildings, completely replaced the zoo. It was rededicated on October 5, 1993, as the Prospect Park Wildlife Conservation Center, as part of a system of four zoos and one aquarium managed by the WCS, all of which are accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). ## Features The Prospect Park Zoo is part of the Wildlife Conservation Society, an integrated network of four zoos and an aquarium spread throughout New York City. Located at 450 Flatbush Avenue, across from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the zoo is situated on a 12-acre (4.9 ha) plot somewhat lower than street level in Prospect Park. Visitors may enter through the Flatbush Avenue entrance or from within Prospect Park, near Leffert's Homestead and the Carousel. In 2007, 234,000 people visited the Prospect Park Zoo, about the same as the 2006 level of 235,000. As of the Wildlife Conservation Society's 2016 census of its zoos, Prospect Park Zoo had 864 animals representing 176 species. ### Exhibits The zoo presents three themed exhibition venues, each housed in a dedicated building. #### World of Animals The World of Animals in the southern quadrant of the zoo, features the Discovery Trail. The trail begins in the World of Animals building, but visitors quickly pass to an outdoor path that winds through the southern third of the zoo. Animals from diverse corners of the globe are shown in settings not unlike their natural habitats. Visitors may find along the trail black-tailed prairie dogs, porcupines, red pandas, emus, dingos, North American river otters, and other animals. Signs often ask challenging questions, reinforcing presentations made in the zoo's Discovery Center, or alert viewers to look for signs of animal habitation. Along one part of the Discovery Trail, young visitors may crawl through "underground burrows" to observation posts roofed with clear, hemispherical observation ports. They may observe prairie dogs in the ground, right in the midst of the animals themselves. #### Animal Lifestyles Animal Lifestyles, in the western quadrant of the zoo, features indoor habitat exhibits. Visitors in the foyer of the building are shown Life in the Water, Life in Air, and Life on Land dioramas. Each diorama holds a carefully controlled environment that features select animals. These central displays broadly relate animals to their surrounds. Exhibits featuring more specific biota branch off from the central foyer. Side exhibits center on black-footed cats, pallas cats, sand cats, cotton-top tamarins, meerkats, emerald tree boas, dwarf mongooses, desert monitors, among others. Some of these exhibits feature critically endangered animals. The Prospect Park Zoo is engaged in breeding species in captivity, a part of the larger wild life recovery program of the Wildlife Conservation Society. The main Animal Lifestyles exhibit consists of a troop of hamadryas baboons. Zoo visitors may observe the troop in a large glassed-in gallery which looks out into a rocky outcrop. Small caves in the outcrop lead to interior burrows where the animals may avoid inclement weather. The rear wall of the gallery illustrates common forms of baboon signalling and behavior, along with other social aspects of the animals. Ample seating allows visitors to observe the troop. #### Animals in Our Lives Animals in Our Lives in the northern quadrant of the zoo has both indoor and outdoor exhibits illustrating relationships between animals and people and animal adaptations. The Animals in Art themed area occupies one side of the Animals in Our Lives building. The other side of the building showcases animals and their adaptations for a variety of survival needs. A small working barn further north of the building contains the Animals in Our Lives exhibit. It is organized around a working barn with sheep, cows, goats, ducks, geese and other animals. ### Educational programs The zoo hosts educational venues as well as exhibits. These revolve around the Discovery Center, a building with classrooms and laboratories designed to introduce school-age children to investigative practices of environmental and wildlife scientists. The Discovery Center introduces children to laboratory practices; they learn about and use professional laboratory equipment and learn how to integrate what they observe into zoological theory. These programs are based on educational concepts developed through WIZE (Wildlife Inquiry through Zoo Education), a program developed by Bronx Zoo educators. The volunteer program at the Prospect Park Zoo engages members of the community; it is a combination outreach and educational program for adults. Volunteer guides conduct tours for visitors, while volunteer docents augment the educational program. Docents enroll in a four-month training program. ### Facilities The zoo grounds and building exteriors were designed by Aymar Embury II. The facility consists of six red brick and lime-stoned trimmed buildings grouped in a semi-circular arrangement around a central courtyard with the sea lion pool occupying the center of the court. The building exteriors date to the 1930s while the interiors were built during the 1989–1993 reconstruction. There is a freestanding wooden barn just north of the circular group of buildings. A set of stairs from the main entrance leads visitors down to zoo level. A small restaurant and the administrative center is immediately to the left, occupying the southeastern quadrant of the zoo. The Discovery Center is immediately to the right, occupying the northeastern quadrant of the zoo. Arrayed in front of the visitor are the three exhibit buildings, The World of Animals to the south, the Animal Lifestyles building, behind the sea lion pool directly in front of the visitor, Animals in our Lives is to the right. ## History ### First menagerie The original 1866 proposal of Prospect Park featured a "Zoological Garden" on the western flank of the park, near the present Litchfield Villa, but the garden had not been started by the time Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux separated from the park in 1874. This notwithstanding, a few features of the original park design did serve zoological purposes. A Wild Fowl Pond, once occupying the northern quadrant of the zoo grounds, served as a haven for water birds. A Deer Paddock, once occupying the southern quadrants of the zoo grounds, was a penned-in area for deer. In addition, a flock of sheep regularly maintained the grass in the park meadows and were kept in a paddock on the eastern flank of Sullivan Hill, near the now-demolished . Interest in zoological gardens flowered in the last decade of the 19th century. An informal Menagerie began to take shape within Prospect Park in May 1890 when the newly appointed president of the City of Brooklyn Parks Commission, George V. Brower, donated "three young cinnamon bears." State Treasurer Harry Adams followed with a donation of three white deer, establishing a pattern. It was mainly through donations of animals by rich or prominent individuals that the Menagerie grew. By 1893, one observer noted that “seven seals arrived, one buffalo, from the estate of Samuel B. Duryea, three red foxes, three bears, one sacred cow, two white deer, five red deer, seven seals, and twelve to fifteen peacocks." The animals were kept in pens on Sullivan Hill, situated across the East Drive from the zoo's present location, near the sheep paddock and northeast of the Dairy Farmhouse. Of the original zoological facilities in the park, the Deer Paddock, located near the present Carousel, was converted into a meadow and the deer were moved to the new Menagerie, The Wild Fowl Pond remained, located on the east side of the park in a low area now forming the northern part of the zoo. The Menagerie continued to accrue animals in the first decades of the 20th century. These were generally donated by prominent individuals and institutions and formed a varied collection of specimens both native to North America and other regions of the world. A two-story brick building was opened in the Menagerie in 1916, housing monkeys, some small mammals, and several birds. An elephant house in the zoo was announced in 1930, and a heating system was proposed for the elephant house in 1932. ### Modern zoo creation After assuming office in January 1934, New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia hired Robert Moses to head a newly unified Parks Department. Moses soon prepared extensive plans to reconstruct the city's parks, renovate existing facilities and create new swimming pools, zoos, playgrounds and parks. Moses acquired substantial Civil Works Administration, and later, Works Progress Administration funding and soon embarked upon an eight-year citywide construction program, relieving some of the high unemployment in New York City in this Depression year. Aymar Embury II prepared plans for the new zoo, which were announced in March 1934. The new zoo was to be located between the Wild Fowl Pond and former Deer Paddock on the east side of the park, across the East Drive from the Menagerie and slightly north of Willink Plaza and the Lefferts Historic House. Work on preliminary excavations had already started when Embury's plans were officially announced. Embury designed a half circle of six brick buildings centered on a seal pool. Built of red brick with limestone trim, the buildings featured bas-relief scenes from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. Five sculptors executed a total of thirteen such scenes, not only on the front and back walls of zoo buildings, but also on all four sides of both brick entrance shelters at Flatbush Avenue. However, the positioning of some of the bas-reliefs makes them less accessible than others. The buildings constituted an integrated facility and were seen as a great improvement over the somewhat haphazardly developed Menagerie. The zoo featured an extensive bear pit, a seal pool, a lion's house (the current Animals in our Lives building) an elephant's house (the current Animal Lifestyles building), and a house for monkeys, birds, and horned animals (now the World of Animals building). These structures were to be accessed by a grand stair on Flatbush Avenue. In late 1934, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that the zoo was to be completed the next March. New York governor Al Smith was tasked with finding animals for the new exhibits in May 1935, and zoo officials began raising $50,000 that month to acquire animals. Samuel Klein of department store S. Klein provided $5,000 to buy animals for 25 cages, and Smith requested animals from states such as Vermont, Connecticut, and Virginia. Animals began arriving at the zoo at the end of June 1935. The new Prospect Park Zoo was dedicated on July 3, 1935, and received 150,000 visitors on its first day. Only three of the five planned structures were completed at that time. Moses and La Guardia, who had missed the zoo's official opening, toured the facility later that month. Tens of thousands of local children suggested names for the zoo's animals, who were formally given monikers at a ceremony in September 1935. Upon the new zoo's completion, the Dairy Farmhouse, sheep paddock, and Menagerie were demolished, and the sheep flock in Prospect Park were supplanted by mechanical mowers. ### Mid- and late 20th century From the 1930s to the 1980s, the zoo showcased large animals from faraway places. An estimated one million people visited the Prospect Park Zoo annually prior to World War II, but attendance gradually declined, reaching about a half million by the early 1980s. #### Early years In its first few months of operation, the zoo recorded an average of 100,000 daily visitors. The zoo initially had 131 animals and 56 birds and recorded two million visitors in its first ten months. Within two years of the zoo's opening, numerous animals joined the collection, such as elephants, a buck and doe, a boa constrictor, anteaters, and lizards. In addition, some animals were bred in the zoo, such as a brown bear, leopards, and several litters of lions. The zoo had 125,000 weekly visitors by mid-1937, some of whom went too close to the animals' cages or exhibits, prompting police to patrol the zoo. Zoo officials announced in 1939 that they would build a ramp around the elephant enclosure, following separate incidents in which one elephant was killed and another was injured. Officials also announced plans to reinforce the walls of the kangaroo enclosure after a kangaroo escaped into the streets of Brooklyn. Ronald Cheyne-Stout, who had been appointed as the zoo's director when it reopened, was removed from his position in 1939. The number of animals in the zoo increased through the 1940s, and officials held competitions where children named the new animals. In addition, Works Progress Administration laborers built a 60-by-30-foot (18.3 by 9.1 m) hay barn in the zoo in 1940. Visitors frequently tossed items into the zoo's enclosures, which killed many of the animals by 1943, including one elephant, 45 monkeys, and all of the zoo's seals. As a result, the police began strictly enforcing a rule banning patrons from feeding animals. In 1948, the city government provided $10,000 to purchase additional animals for the Central Park and Prospect Park zoos. Several animals were also born at the zoo in the late 1940s and the 1950s, such as a zebra, bear cubs, a llama, and a hippo. Zoo officials also expanded the collection by buying animals such as elephants. The U.S. government gave $615,000 for the restoration of the Prospect Park Zoo and other parts of the park in 1966. Many of the zoo's cages were widened in the late 1960s. #### Decline As early as 1967, zoo superintendent Ronald Ellis said the animals were so frequently abused that all of the animals had to be moved indoors at night. At the time, anyone could walk into the zoo from the street. In response to a 1967 report in the New York Daily News, the city doubled the number of security guards at the zoo at night. Writing in New York magazine in late 1970, writer Erik Sanberg-Diment termed the zoo the 'rattiest' in New York – "in the literal sense of the word. (I've never been there without seeing several rodents romping in the bear lair)." He reported that one of the zoo's earliest residents, a Southern United States black vulture, "...is still there, looking down his beak at visitors littering the walks, and celebrating his 35th anniversary in the same old cage." During the 1970s, there were multiple incidents involving animal injuries or deaths. This included the scalding death of a monkey in 1975, allegedly by a zoo employee, as well as an acting zoo director who was accused of shooting at pigeons and killing zoo animals. A zoo employee also locked himself in a monkey enclosure for several hours in 1974 to protest conditions at the zoo. These incidents, as well as several others at the Central Park Zoo, prompted protests by animal-rights groups who wanted to close the two zoos and move the animals to the larger Bronx Zoo. The administration of mayor Ed Koch and the New York Zoological Society (renamed the Wildlife Conservation Society, or WCS, in 1993) signed a fifty-year agreement in April 1980, wherein the Central Park, Prospect Park, and Queens Zoos would be administered by the Society. By the 1980s, a New York Times reporter quoted a zoo supervisor as saying: "Vandalism is a major problem, and deterioration is overtaking repairs." According to the supervisor, one of the zoo's bears frequently had bloodied feet because of all the litter in the zoo. Activists were pressing for major renovations of the zoo, which, in 1983, was rated by the Humane Society of the United States as one of the "10 worst" zoos in the country. Others felt that a zoo was not in keeping with the original design of Prospect Park and urged its complete removal from the grounds. The May 1987 mauling death of Juan Perez, an 11-year-old boy scaling the fence to the polar bear pit, underscored the difficulties with the fifty-year-old facility. By late summer 1987, an $18-million, 2.5-year renovation plan was put forth to renovate Prospect Park Zoo and coordinate its venue with other facilities to avoid redundant programming. Prospect Park Zoo was slated to specialize in children programs and house smaller, non-aggressive animal species. #### Renovation and repurposing The Prospect Park Zoo closed to the public in June 1988. Over the next six months, new homes were found for the displaced animals in other zoos throughout the US. Demolition was managed by the Parks Department and began in June 1989. The renovation was originally estimated to cost $18 million and take two and a half years. The exteriors of the Aymar Embury buildings were preserved, but badly deteriorated interiors were gutted, pits and cages were demolished, and new structures were built. The facilities were turned over to the NY Zoological Society in April 1993. The Society aimed to designate each of its three small zoos with a specific purpose. The Central Park Zoo would be focused toward conservation; the Prospect Park Zoo would be primarily a children's zoo; and the Queens Zoo would become a zoo with North American animals. The project was not complete until 1993; it had cost $36 million in total. Though the work was substantially complete in April, a further six months were needed to repopulate the zoo, prepare exhibits, and ready the facility for the public. The repurposed zoo opened on October 5, 1993, and renamed the "Prospect Park Wildlife Conservation Center". The Zoological Society hoped that the new name would suggest that the "Wildlife Conservation Center" was far more than a mere "zoo"; it was indeed a facility designed to preserve animal species. This name change coincided with the renaming of the zoological society to the "Wildlife Conservation Society". The programs of the new center were geared toward educating children. Classrooms for the Discovery Center were housed in a dedicated building on the north wing of the zoo. Exhibits housed smaller species, eschewing elephants, tigers, and lions, and augmented displays with interactive exhibits. ### 21st century In 2003, Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed eliminating funding for the Prospect Park and Queens zoos to fill a citywide budget gap, effectively forcing the WCS to close the zoos. The changes would have resulted in a total savings of around $5.6 million or $5.8 million. City Council Speaker Gifford Miller visited the zoo that June, estimating that the city would save $6 million but that the WCS would have to spend $8 million to decommission the zoos and find homes for 160 displaced animals. In response to the announcement, local residents signed petitions opposing the budget cuts; one such petition garnered more than 100,000 signatures. There were discussions about restoring the funds in exchange for raising admission fees and introducing private sponsorships at the zoos, and the WCS also contemplated renting out the zoos for private events. That June, the city government ultimately agreed to restore $4.8 million for the Prospect Park and Queens zoos, though the WCS had to fire staff, discontinue programs, and double admission fees. Funding levels for the Wildlife Conservation Society were restored in the 2007 city budget, though vulnerability to shortfalls remained. In the opening months of 2009, the WCS itself faced the prospect of losing its fiscal year 2010 New York State funding. The Prospect Park Zoo's Discovery Center reopened in December 2012 following a renovation. The discovery center included a children's play area, puzzle area, stage, activity boxes, and reading areas. The Prospect Park Zoo began displaying three Juliana pigs in 2015. In March 2020, the Prospect Park Zoo and the WCS's other facilities were shuttered indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. The zoo reopened that July. The zoo again closed indefinitely following the September 2023 New York floods, during which basements were flooded with up to 25 feet (7.6 m) of water, and WCS workers worked on restoring power to the zoo over the following months. The WCS announced in May 2024 that the zoo would reopen to the general public on May 26, following repairs to the enclosures and mechanical systems. ## See also - Heart of Brooklyn - List of zoos in the United States

Darrell Clarke

English football manager

Darrell James Clarke (born 16 December 1977) is an English professional football manager and former player who played in the English Football League. He is the head coach of club Barnsley. A box-to-box midfielder, Clarke began his career with Mansfield Town in 1995, where he spent the first six years of his career, making 173 league and cup appearances. In 2001, he transferred to Hartlepool United, where he spent another six years, making a further 136 appearances. He was sent out on loan to Stockport County, Port Vale, and Rochdale in the final years of his spell. In 2007, he left the professional game to sign for Salisbury City before taking up the management position at the club in 2010. He led the club to promotion into the Conference Premier from the Southern League with two play-off final victories in three seasons. He was appointed manager of Bristol Rovers in March 2014 but could not prevent the club from dropping out of the English Football League. However, one year later, Clarke successfully guided Bristol Rovers back into the Football League after winning the 2015 Conference Premier play-off final and then went on to take the club into League One with promotion out of League Two in 2015–16. At the time of his departure in December 2018, he was the fourth-longest serving manager in the EFL. He was appointed manager at Walsall in May 2019 and left the club in February 2021 to manage League Two rivals Port Vale. He led the club to promotion with victory in the 2022 play-off final before being sacked in April 2023. He took charge at Cheltenham Town in October 2023 and then at Barnsley in May 2024. ## Early and personal life Born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, Clarke stated that he was "brought up on a rough estate" in Ladybrook. His mother died in a car crash when Clarke was aged two and he and his brother, Wayne, were raised by his grandparents as his father was an alcoholic. His grandfather was a steward at Mansfield Town. He is a boyhood Manchester United fan. His eldest daughter, Ellie, died on Valentine's Day 2022 in what was ruled as a suicide by an inquest, though Clarke maintains was "a cry for help that went drastically wrong". ## Playing career ### Mansfield Town Clarke was an energetic box-to-box midfielder with an eye for goal. However, defending was his weakness. He started his career at Mansfield Town when he joined their youth set-up at the age of just 10. He made his way through the ranks and was offered a professional contract at Field Mill by Andy King in 1995. Clarke made his first-team debut on 21 December 1996, coming on as a half-time substitute for Ben Sedgemore in a 2–1 defeat at Cardiff City. He marked his home debut at Field Mill with a goal in a 2–0 victory over Doncaster Rovers. The "Stags" struggled near the foot of the Third Division in 1995–96, rising to mid-table in 1996–97 and 1997–98, before finishing one place outside the play-offs in 1998–99. They then dropped back into the lower half of the table in 1999–2000 and 2000–01 after manager Steve Parkin was replaced by Bill Dearden. While at Mansfield, he became a fan favourite due partly to his high work rate; he made 173 league and cup appearances for the club, scoring 27 goals. ### Hartlepool United Clarke was signed to Hartlepool United by Chris Turner in July 2001 on a free transfer, courtesy of the Bosman ruling, but Hartlepool still had to pay £70,000 as he was under 24. He was seen by many as the replacement for Tommy Miller. Clarke originally failed to cement his place in the starting 11 and found himself in and out of the team, making 26 league starts and 9 substitute appearances. However, he still managed to score seven league goals, including a hat-trick in a 7–1 win over Swansea City. The following season was much more successful for Clarke as he played in nearly all of Hartlepool's matches and added another seven goals to his tally in Hartlepool's promotion winning campaign. The arrival of manager Neale Cooper saw Clarke's opportunities in the first-team in 2003–04 limited, as Eifion Williams was preferred on the right wing. Clarke only started 23 league matches, but he still managed to make a further 12 substitute appearances. In the 2004–05 season, Clarke suffered a knee injury that prevented him from participating in any of Hartlepool's league games. He was loaned out to Stockport County — managed by former Hartlepool boss Chris Turner — to gain fitness in January, but this was cut short as Clarke picked up another knee problem after just one game. His knee injury caused him to miss the second half of the campaign. In September 2005 Clarke was loaned to Port Vale, but played just two minutes after being utilised as a late substitute by manager Martin Foyle. Despite his return to full fitness being described by manager Martin Scott as a 'massive boost', his appearances were again limited once he returned to Victoria Park. In July 2006 he was loaned to Rochdale, where he made 12 appearances, scoring one goal. He was released by Hartlepool manager Danny Wilson in May 2007. ### Salisbury City On 3 July 2007, he signed for newly-promoted Conference Premier club Salisbury City. He was strongly influenced by former teammate Tommy Widdrington to make the switch south, and was the third signing made by Nick Holmes. He helped the club avoid relegation in the 2008–09 season, which was a good achievement for the club. At the beginning of the 2009–10 season he became Salisbury's most senior player. He was duly given the captain's armband by Widdrington, who had recently been appointed manager. He captained the club to a mid-table finish. However, Salisbury were demoted down into the Southern League Premier Division as punishment for their severe financial problems. He also spent his spare time coaching the under-8s at Portsmouth. ## Management career ### Salisbury City In July 2010, Tommy Widdrington left Salisbury City for the job of assistant manager at Southend United. As a result of this, Clarke became joint caretaker manager beside Mikey Harris. The next month he was made player-manager permanently, with Harris as his assistant. He needed to secure an immediate promotion to maintain the funding to keep the club a full-time professional organisation and so recruited young players freshly released from Football League clubs. However, he lost top-scorer Matt Tubbs, who was sold for a club record £55,000 to Crawley Town. After his first season, the "Whites" won promotion from the Southern League Premier Division via the play-offs, winning 3–2 on penalties after a 2–2 draw with Hednesford Town. Clarke led Salisbury to the Second Round of the FA Trophy in his second season in charge. He also made history when his side beat Grimsby Town in the FA Cup Second Round, taking Salisbury to the Third Round of the FA Cup for the first time in the club's history, where they faced Sheffield United at Bramall Lane. At the start of the campaign he had stated his intention to sign promising young players, and during the January transfer window he signed 19-year-old Matt Clark and former England youth player Abdulai Bell-Baggie, as well as 29-year-old striker Robbie Matthews. However, he also placed winger Charlie Knight on the transfer list along with striker Jake Reid, defender Josh Casey, and winger Adam Kelly. They finished the 2011–12 campaign comfortably in tenth place, and Clarke extended his contract at the club to another season. Clarke's pre-season signings for 2012–13 included Jamie White from Winchester City, James Clarke from Oxford City, and Theo Lewis after his release from Cheltenham Town. By April, these signings proved successful and helped Salisbury take second place in the Conference South. The team's success saw him strongly linked with the vacant management position at Hartlepool United in October 2012, though he ultimately remained at Salisbury. The club finished four points behind champions Welling United and had to make do with a play-off place. Promotion was secured with a 3–2 extra time victory over Dover Athletic in the play-off final. ### Bristol Rovers In June 2013, Clarke was appointed as assistant manager of League Two club Bristol Rovers, supporting John Ward. Following another season of struggle at Rovers, Ward was moved to a role as Director of football and was replaced as manager by Clarke in March 2014. His first game on 29 March ended with a 1–0 victory over Morecambe at the Memorial Stadium, and Clarke said that "I tried to get my philosophy across today and I think we did it in spells and we need to more of that". Rovers were relegated out of the Football League on the final day of the 2013–14 after a 1–0 defeat to Mansfield Town; a draw would have been enough to keep the club up, as they were relegated on goal difference. He oversaw a rapid turnover of players for the 2014–15 season, releasing 16 players and signing 13 players on free transfers, including striker Matty Taylor. His first task However, was to remove 'Clarke Out' posters that had been placed around the training ground by disgruntled fans. After a poor start Rovers rose up the table and ended the campaign in second place, one point behind Barnet. Clarke led Rovers to promotion with a 5–3 penalty shoot-out victory over Grimsby Town at Wembley Stadium in the 2015 Conference Premier play-off final on 17 May 2015, following a 1–1 draw after extra time. He won three Manager of the Month awards during the season, in September, December and February. Rovers achieved a second-successive promotion with a third-place finish in League Two in the 2015–16 campaign. Clarke was named as Manager of the Month for March after winning six of seven games by "playing exciting and attacking football" according to head judge George Burley. Promotion was achieved on the final day of the season with a stoppage-time winner against Dagenham & Redbridge, which took them above Accrington Stanley into third place. Named as the Football League manager of the week, his citation stated that "Clarke has performed wonders as his men have stormed up the table". On 27 May 2016, Clarke turned down the opportunity to manage Championship club Leeds United and signed a new three-year contract with Bristol Rovers. He had met Leeds chairman Massimo Cellino but rejected the opportunity after Cellino told him he wanted an active role in player recruitment. Speaking after an FA Cup second round defeat to National League side Barrow in December 2016, Clarke said it might be the "end of the road" for some of his squad and urged investment in the playing squad. He was named as EFL manager of the week after overseeing a 5–0 victory over Northampton Town on 7 January. However, that month he lost Matty Taylor after Bristol City activated his £300,000 release clause to make Taylor the first player to move from Rovers to City in 30 years. During late March 2017, with his club sitting just outside the League One play off places, Norwich City were reported to be interested in Clarke following the sacking of previous manager Alex Neil. Whilst Clarke never turned down any potential offer he instead pledged his loyalty to Rovers instead, the announcement coming a day after his three-year anniversary of his first Rovers match in charge. Rovers finished in 10th-place in 2016–17. In June 2017, Clarke signed a new five-year contract. He was named as EFL manager of the week after overseeing a 6–0 win away at Northampton Town on 7 October despite missing his preferred centre-backs. However, speaking later in December he said he felt "let down" by the club for its wage policy and infrastructure, saying they were "30 years behind" other clubs. He further admitted some of his players were struggling with the increased expectations following recent successes, though Rovers still managed to end the 2017–18 campaign in 13th-place. Billy Bodin was sold to Preston North End for an undisclosed fee in January 2018. In June 2018 he graduated with the FA's highest coaching qualification (FA Level 5 UEFA Pro). The following month he sold forward Ellis Harrison to Ipswich Town for an undisclosed fee believed to be in the region of £750,000. He left his post on 13 December 2018 following a run of seven defeats in ten matches; at the time of his departure he was the fourth-longest serving manager in the EFL. ### Walsall On 10 May 2019, Clarke signed a three-year contract to become Walsall's new manager following their relegation into League Two at the end of the 2018–19 season. He signed 16 players as 23 departed – including midfielder George Dobson, who was sold on to Sunderland – and got off to a poor start after Walsall picked up just one win the opening ten games of the 2019–20 campaign, with the team sound defensively but failing to create any chances in a 5–3–2 formation. Form improved as Clarke switched to a 4–4–2 formation and got the best out of 22-year-old Wes McDonald, However, a run of six league defeats began in October and drew the club into a relegation battle, though was immediately followed by a run of only two defeats in 11 league games. Walsall were in mid-table when the season was ended early due to the COVID-19 pandemic in England and Walsall Supporters' Trust secretary Steve Davies said that the team were "starting to gel and the signing of Wes McDonald was key". Clarke went on to admit that the following campaign would likely see him focus more on youth as the club faced a challenging financial future due to the effects of the pandemic. He left the Bescot Stadium midway through the 2020–21 season with Walsall 11th in the table after Port Vale agreed to pay Walsall a compensation package. ### Port Vale On 15 February 2021, Clarke was appointed as manager of Port Vale, who were 18th in League Two and without a permanent manager since the departure of John Askey at the start of January. He arrived a week after David Flitcroft's appointment as director of football. It took him eight games to get his first win as Vale manager, which came in a 2–1 victory over Newport County on 16 March at Vale Park. This was the first of six successive victories, the longest winning streak for the club since March 1996. He was nominated for the League Two Manager of the Month award after his team picked up 16 out of an available 18 points in April, conceding just a single goal in the process. Port Vale ended the 2020–21 season in 13th-place and Clarke said that "I can't wait to get rid of the deadwood if I am honest". He released all 15 out of contract players and placed a further three contracted players on the transfer-list. Clarke and Flitcroft recruited 12 players for the start of the 2021–22 season, including Ben Garrity, Jamie Proctor and James Wilson. Clarke was named as September's Manager of the Month award after overseeing a run of three wins from four games which took his side into the automatic promotion places. He also won October's award after Vale secured a further 13 points, during which time they scored at least three goals in five of their six games; in doing so he became the first Port Vale boss to win the award two months running. Nine players left the club in the January transfer window, whilst eight signings were made, including Connor Hall and Chris Hussey. On 15 February, Clarke took a leave period after a close family bereavement, with Andy Crosby standing in during his absence. On 30 March, it was confirmed that Clarke would be returning to the club to support Crosby until the end of the season before taking charge again in the summer. Clarke completed a phased return to the manager role on 6 May. Vale qualified for the play-off semi-finals. Clarke was sent off in extra-time of the second leg for an altercation with Swindon Town's Dion Conroy, and had to witness Vale's penalty shoot-out victory from the stands. He apologised for his behaviour and went on to say that: "We've got one more game to go against Mansfield, which is fitting because it's where my eldest daughter came from.... it'll be an emotional day but I'm looking forward to the final." He signed a new five-year contract two days before the final. Vale eased to victory in the final with a 3–0 victory and Clarke dedicated the win to his daughter, Ellie, who had died in February. Clarke was one of eleven managers who received special recognition at the 41st Football Writers Awards dinner for their work during the 2021–22 season. Clarke was linked with the vacant management position at Portsmouth in January 2023, though stated that "I am really happy here [at Port Vale]". On 17 April 2023, Clarke was sacked following run of two wins in eighteen-games that left the club 18th in League One. He released a statement two weeks later which stated: "Port Vale and its incredible fanbase will always hold a place in my and my family's hearts. The journey we travelled together, on and off the pitch, can never be erased. I will never be able to repay you as people for how you were there for us in our darkest hour, and for that we will be eternally grateful". ### Cheltenham Town On 29 September 2023, Clarke signed a two-year deal to manage Cheltenham Town, who were bottom of League One without a victory or goal scored from their opening nine games of the 2023–24 season. Before taking charge on 2 October, Clarke watched his new side lose 2–0 at Lincoln City on 30 September. Cheltenham lost their first game under Clarke, defeated 2–0 at Whaddon Road by Fleetwood Town on 3 October, extending the goalless run to a record eleven league games. He put his trust in the experienced players in the squad, leaving the younger loanee players struggling to make the bench. Cheltenham won their first game under Clarke on 21 October, a 1–0 victory over Cambridge United at Whaddon Road. He was nominated for the EFL League One Manager of the Month award for October, with the EFL reporting that "to instil spirit and belief so quickly has been astonishing with six goals, seven points in five games". Cheltenham were relegated on the final day following defeat to Stevenage. ### Barnsley On 23 May 2024, Clarke was appointed head coach of League One side Barnsley on a two-year contract with the option for a third. He signed Conor Hourihane as a player-coach. The "Tykes" enjoyed a good start to the 2024–25 season, though were beaten 7–0 by Manchester United at Old Trafford in the EFL Cup. ## Management style Clarke is flexible with his formations and is open to different styles of playing rather than sticking to a rigid philosophy, believing that "adaptability is key". He does though have a preference for playing with two strikers. He is known for his intense training sessions and for producing extremely detailed reports on opposition teams. At Bristol Rovers his team played an attacking, passing style and scored an average of close to two goals per game. A motivational manager, he sees a happy dressing room as an essential part of a winning team and has been described as having a bubbly and infectious personality, though has been quoted as saying "I'm not a cuddling manager... soft players don't win you promotions". His personality traits make him an energetic, passionate and frank manager. He prefers to maintain a big squad of players and to regularly rotate his starting line-ups. > "I didn't want to take a job where success was staying in the division... I like promotions. I like that feeling of working towards a goal. ## Career statistics ### As a player ### As a manager ## Honours ### As a player Hartlepool United - Football League Third Division second-place promotion: 2002–03 ### As a player-manager Salisbury City - Southern Football League Premier Division play-offs: 2011 - Conference South play-offs: 2013 ### As a manager Bristol Rovers - Conference Premier play-offs: 2015 - Football League Two third-place promotion: 2015–16 Port Vale - EFL League Two play-offs: 2022 Individual - Conference Premier Manager of the Month: September 2014, December 2014, February 2015 - EFL League Two Manager of the Month: March 2016, September 2021, October 2021

Louis B. Costello

Maine newspaper publisher and banker (1876–1959)

Louis Bartlett Costello (September 14, 1876 – May 6, 1959) was an American newspaper publisher and banker who served as general manager and then president of The Lewiston Daily Sun and Lewiston Evening Journal in Lewiston, Maine. He began his career in journalism while still a student at Bates College and, by the end of his life, was a leading press figure in the state. For nearly a half century, Costello was one of the most prominent members of the Lewiston-Auburn community. In addition to running its largest morning and afternoon papers, he was a longtime trustee of both Bates College and the Androscoggin County Savings Bank, serving as the latter institution's president from 1931 to 1939. He was an active Freemason and member of the United Baptist church. ## Early life and education Costello was born in Wells, Maine on September 14, 1876. His father was Nicholas H. Costello (c. 1842–1885), a sea captain who drowned when Costello and his sister were young. In 1889, his mother, Annie Hill Costello (1842–1927) remarried William S. Wells, a prominent York County lumberman who later served in the Maine House of Representatives. Costello attended Berwick Academy and gave an oration at the school's 1894 class day. Thereafter he attended Bates College, where he was elected president of his senior class. He and Sadie Brackett, a fellow member of the class of 1898, wrote for The Bates Student. He was also a competitive debater and, after graduation, would participate in organizing a chapter of Delta Sigma Rho on Bates' campus. Costello and Brackett married in Lewiston on February 14, 1900 and had two children, Louise (b. 1902) and Russell (b. 1904). ## Career ### Newspapers In 1898, Lewiston publisher George W. Wood purchased the five-year old Lewiston Daily Sun, merging it with his weekly Maine Statesman, and hired Costello as the paper's business manager. Thanks largely to the arrival of Rural Free Delivery in the region, which allowed for wider distribution within the Lewiston-Auburn city and town area, circulation increased from around 2,000 copies per day to 8,000 over the following two decades. In 1926, Wood acquired the Lewiston Evening Journal and promoted Costello to treasurer and general manager of the papers' publishing company. Costello served in this position until Wood's death in 1945, when he took over as owner and president. By this time, the Sun and Journal were the fourth and fifth most-read dailies in the state with circulations of 27,480 and 14,088, respectively. Costello was generally conservative in his management style. He took interest in new technological developments, investing in a trained photography department in the 1930s, but strongly resisted the growth of non-print media, going as far as firing his general manager, Frank S. Hoy, when Hoy purchased the license for radio station WLAM without permission. Though the Sun grew during an era of political domination by the Maine Republican Party and historically embraced an "independent Republican" label, Costello stressed the importance of journalistic objectivity to those who worked under him. His papers gained a reputation for being socially progressive but not so much as to alienate readers averse to change. Writing under the headline "A Leaf Out of My Notebook," he shared with Sun readers reports of his and Sadie's cross-country travels. All the while, he remained devoted to his home state, with editorials focused on portraying local communities in a positive light. During his tenure, he served for a time as president of the Maine Daily Newspaper Publishers Association and of the Maine Members of the Associated Press. ### Banking Costello was named a trustee of Androscoggin County Savings Bank in 1916 and remained on the board until 1956. Androscoggin was the largest savings bank by assets held centered in Lewiston and one of the largest in the state. In 1931, Costello was elected president of the bank when incumbent William J. Crawshaw resigned due to ill health. He served in this position for eight years, seeing it through the Great Depression, including its accepting of Emergency Banking Act aid in 1933. ### Civic life Costello was a United Baptist, a designation common among Maine members of the Northern Baptist Convention into the twentieth century. He was a founding member of the Lewiston United Baptist Church. In the early 1920s, he served on the building committee for that congregation's now-demolished English Gothic home at the corner of Bates and Main streets, where Sadie taught religious school for many years. In 1932, he was named second vice president of the Maine United Baptist Convention; that year, convention delegates passed resolutions praising the United States' involvement in the World Disarmament Conference and opposing repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. He was also a Freemason, having served as a past master of Rabboni Lodge No. 150 and as a member of the Knights Templar fraternal order. ## Later life and death On June 15, 1952, in recognition of his achievements, including more than 30 years of service on Bates College's board of trustees, Costello was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by university president Charles Phillips. Other recipients honored at the ceremony were New Jersey Governor Alfred E. Driscoll, financier Frank Altschul, filmmaker Louis de Rochemont, and clergyman Daniel A. Poling. After a period of prolonged illness, Costello died at Central Maine General Hospital on May 6, 1959. Following services at the Bates College chapel, he was buried in Riverside Cemetery, alongside his wife, who preceded him in death two years earlier. In his will, he left $5,000 each () to Bates and the Lewiston United Baptist Church. As a result, the Costello Room in Bates' Chase Hall was named in his honor. His son, Russell, succeeded him as president of the Daily Sun company and oversaw the merger of The Sun and Evening Journal into the Sun Journal in 1989. Russell passed the presidency of the paper on to his son, James, upon his own death in 1993. In 2017, the Costellos announced the sale of the Sun Journal to MaineToday Media owner Reade Brower. The Costello family home at 45 Campus Avenue was purchased by Bates College and provided office and student organization space for a number of years before being torn down in 2014. The site is currently occupied by the school's Bonney Science Center. ## See also - List of Bates College people

Constitution of Virginia

Principles, institutions, and law of political governance in the U.S. state of Virginia

The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia is the document that defines and limits the powers of the state government and the basic rights of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Like all other state constitutions, it is supreme over Virginia's laws and acts of government, though it may be superseded by the United States Constitution and U.S. federal law as per the Supremacy Clause. The original Virginia Constitution of 1776 was enacted at the time of the Declaration of Independence by the first thirteen states of the United States of America. Virginia was an early state to adopt its own Constitution on June 29, 1776, and the document was widely influential both in the United States and abroad. In addition to frequent amendments, there have been six major subsequent revisions of the constitution (by Conventions for the constitutions of 1830, 1851, 1864, 1870, 1902, and by commission for 1971 amendments). These new constitutions have been part of, and in reaction to, periods of major regional or social upheaval in Virginia. For instance, the 1902 constitution included provisions to disenfranchise African Americans, who in 1900 made up nearly 36% of the state's population. They did not regain suffrage until after the enactment of federal civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s. ## Historic constitutions ### 1776 The preparation of the first Virginia Constitution began in early 1776, in the midst of the early events of the American Revolution. Among those who drafted the 1776 Constitution were George Mason and James Madison. Thomas Jefferson was Virginia's representative to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia at the time, and his drafts of the Virginia constitution arrived too late to be incorporated into the final document. James Madison's work on the Virginia Constitution helped him develop the ideas and skills that he would later use as one of the main architects of the United States Constitution. The 1776 Constitution declared the dissolution of the rule of Great Britain over Virginia and accused England's King George III of establishing a "detestable and insupportable tyranny". It also established separation of governmental powers, with the creation of the bicameral Virginia General Assembly as the legislative body of the state and the Governor of Virginia as the "chief magistrate" or executive. The accompanying Virginia Declaration of Rights, written primarily by Mason, focuses on guarantees of basic human rights and freedoms and the fundamental purpose of government. It, in turn, served as a model for a number of other historic documents, including the United States Bill of Rights. Critically, the 1776 Constitution limited the right to vote primarily to property owners and men of wealth. This effectively concentrated power in the hands of the landowners and aristocracy of Southeastern Virginia. Dissatisfaction with this power structure would come to dominate Virginia's constitutional debate for almost a century. ### 1830 By the 1820s, Virginia was one of only two states that limited voting to landowners. In addition, because representation was by county rather than population, the residents of increasingly populous Western Virginia (the area that would become West Virginia in 1863) had grown discontented at their limited representation in the legislature. Pressure increased until a constitutional convention was convened in 1829–1830. This convention became largely a contest between eastern Virginia planters of the slaveholding elite and the less affluent yeomen farmers of Western Virginia. Issues of representation and suffrage dominated the debate. Delegates to the convention included such prominent Virginians as James Madison, James Monroe, John Tyler, and John Marshall. Western leaders included Philip Doddridge and Alexander Campbell. The convention ultimately compromised by loosening suffrage requirements. It also reduced the number of delegates and senators to the Virginia General Assembly. The resulting constitution was ratified by a popular majority, though most of the voters in the western part of the state ended up voting against it. Thus, the underlying intrastate tensions remained, and would have to be addressed later. ### 1851 As of the 1840 census, the majority of the white residents of the state lived in western Virginia, but they were underrepresented in the legislature because of the continued property requirement for voting; not all held sufficient property to vote. This compounded their dissatisfaction with the apportionment scheme adopted in 1830, which was based on counties rather than population, thus giving disproportionate power to the fewer, but propertied whites who lived in the eastern part of the state and kept a grip on the legislature. As the state legislature also elected the governor and the United States senators, Western Virginians felt they had little influence on state leadership. Their attempts to win electoral reform in the Virginia legislature were defeated each time. Some began to openly discuss the abolition of slavery or secession from the state. Ultimately, the eastern planters could not continue to ignore their discontent, and a new constitutional convention was called to resolve the continuing tensions. The most significant change adopted in the 1851 Constitution was elimination of the property requirement for voting, resulting in extension of the suffrage to all white males of voting age. The 1851 Constitution established popular election for the governor, the newly created office of lieutenant governor, and all Virginia judges, rather than the election of the top two state officers by the legislature, or political appointment for judges. Because of these changes, the 1851 Virginia Constitution became known as the "Reform Constitution". ### 1864 When in 1861, the Virginia legislature voted for secession in the events leading up to the American Civil War, all of the western and several of the northern counties dissented. They set up a separate government with Francis H. Pierpont as governor. During the Civil War, this separate or "restored" government approved the creation of West Virginia as a separate state (which was admitted to the Union in 1863) and in 1864 it approved a new Constitution. The constitution was the product of a divided state and government; it was the first since the original 1776 Constitution to be adopted by the legislature without a popular vote. The 1864 Constitution abolished slavery in Virginia, disenfranchised men who had served in the Confederate government, recognized the creation of the State of West Virginia, and adjusted the number and terms of office of the members of the Virginia Assembly. The foreword to the current Virginia Constitution does not include the 1864 Constitution in its list of previous constitutions. It notes that the 1864 Constitution was drafted under wartime conditions and was of uncertain legal status. ### 1870 After the end of the Civil War, Virginia came briefly under military rule during Reconstruction, with the district commanded by John M. Schofield. Pursuant to federal Reconstruction legislation, Schofield called for a new constitutional convention to meet in Richmond from December 1867 to April 1868. In protest of freedmen's suffrage, many of Virginia's conservative whites refused to participate in voting for delegates. As a result, Republicans led by Judge John Curtiss Underwood dominated the convention. Opponents called the result the "Underwood Constitution" or the "Negro Constitution", as it gave freedmen suffrage. Significant provisions included expanding the suffrage to all male citizens over the age of 21, which included freedmen; establishing a state public school system for the first time, with mandatory funding and attendance; and providing for judges to be elected by the General Assembly rather than by popular vote. Controversy over clauses that continued the temporary disenfranchisement of former Confederate government members delayed the adoption of the Constitution. An eventual compromise provided for separate voting disenfranchisement clauses and the rest of the Constitution; the former failed to win approval. The remainder of the Underwood Constitution was ratified by a popular vote of 210,585 to 9,136 and went into effect in 1870. ### 1902 In the late nineteenth century, white Democrats regained power in state legislatures across the South. They passed Jim Crow laws establishing racial segregation in public facilities and restricting the lives of blacks. Beginning with Mississippi in 1890, legislatures began to ratify new constitutions, amendments or electoral laws that disenfranchised African American voters, devising means such as poll taxes, literacy tests and residential requirements that passed Supreme Court review but worked against poor blacks and many poor whites. By the turn of the 20th century, six Southern states had essentially eliminated the black vote, and pressure mounted among whites in Virginia to do the same, ostensibly as a way to stop electoral fraud and corruption. The 1901 constitutional convention met in this climate. Members were focused on restricting black voting rights without violating the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution or disenfranchising poor whites. Led by the future Senator Carter Glass, the convention created requirements that all prospective voters had to pay poll taxes or pass a literacy test administered by white registrars. An exemption was granted, in a kind of grandfather clause, for military veterans and sons of veterans, who were virtually all white. The changes effectively disenfranchised black voters, though many illiterate whites were also unable to meet the new requirements. In 1900 blacks made up nearly 36 percent of the population. In succeeding elections, the Virginia electorate was reduced by nearly half as a result of the changes. When adjusted for the Nineteenth Amendment, voter turnout would not return to 1900 levels until 1952 within a statewide population almost twice the size. The small electorate was key to maintaining the dominant Democratic Organization in power for sixty years. Other significant provisions of the 1902 Constitution imposed racial segregation in public schools (which already existed on a de facto basis) and abolished the county court system. The Constitution provided for the creation of the State Corporation Commission to regulate the growing power of the railroads. Because of concern over African American opposition, the convention did not honor its pledge to have the proposed constitution put to popular vote. Like the 1864 Constitution by the Loyalist government during the Civil War, the legislature adopted the 1902 Constitution without ratification by the electorate. It was in effect far longer than any previous Virginia constitution. ## Current constitution (1971) As a result of the Civil Rights Movement's challenging the restrictions and discrimination practiced against blacks' exercise of constitutional rights, a series of US Supreme Court cases, beginning with Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, the 24th Amendment, and federal legislation: the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 had overturned the most controversial aspects of the 1902 Constitution – the provisions restricting voting by African Americans and mandating school segregation. Combined with the election of Governor Mills Godwin in 1965, there was impetus for governmental change. Godwin strongly advocated the loosening of the strict constitutional restrictions on state-issued bonds and borrowing and used his power and popularity to push for a new constitution. In 1968 a joint resolution of the Virginia General Assembly approved a new commission, chaired by former Governor Albertis Harrison, to revise the constitution. The Commission on Constitutional Revision presented its report and recommendations to Governor Godwin and the General Assembly in January 1969, and continued to work with them to draft a final consensus version. The proposed Constitution was overwhelmingly approved by the voters of Virginia (who by then included African American men and women, following passage of federal civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s) and took effect on July 1, 1971. Since 1971, additional amendments have been passed by the General Assembly and approved by the voters to conform to provisions in the U.S. Constitution, rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court and Congressional statute. The voting age has been reduced to eighteen, voting residency requirements have been removed, and voter registration conforms to the Motor Voter Act. Additionally, the Virginia Constitution now provides for a General Assembly session following a governor's veto, and the right of the people to hunt, fish and harvest game is guaranteed. In 2006, Virginians passed an amendment limiting marriage to "unions between one man and one woman". That has since been overturned by Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), which legalized same-sex marriage throughout the United States. The current Constitution of Virginia consists of twelve Articles: ### Article I – Bill of Rights Article I contains the entire original Virginia Declaration of Rights from the 1776 Constitution. Several of the sections have been expanded to incorporate concepts from the United States Bill of Rights, including the right to due process, the prohibition against double jeopardy, and the right to bear arms. Like the Federal Constitution, the Virginia Bill of Rights, in §17, states that the listing of certain rights is not to be construed to exclude other rights held by the people. In 1997, a Victims' Rights Amendment was added to the Virginia Bill of Rights as §8-A. In Nobrega v. Commonwealth, the only case so far to interpret this amendment, the Virginia Supreme Court used the Victims's Rights Amendment to support its ruling that an alleged rape victim could not be compelled to submit to a psychiatric evaluation. On November 7, 2006, Virginia voters ratified an amendment, previously approved by the General Assembly, prohibiting same-sex marriage, to be added to the Bill of Rights. This amendment also prohibits the recognition of any "union, partnership, or other legal status" between unmarried people that intends to approximate marriage or which confers the "rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage." The Virginia Attorney General issued an opinion stating that the amendment does not change the legal status of documents such as contracts, wills, or Advanced Medical Directives between unmarried people. The amendment was declared to be in violation the United States Constitution by a U.S. District Court Judge on February 13, 2014. (In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that the failure to provide for same-sex marriage by any U.S. state had the effect of violating the rights of homosexuals to equal protection of law required under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.) ### Article II – Franchise and Officers The second Article of the Constitution sets out the procedures and mechanisms for voting, elections and holding office. Pursuant to Section 1, any Virginia resident over age 18 may vote in state elections; the voting age was reduced from 21 by a 1972 amendment to the federal constitution. However, § 1 denies the vote to people who have been determined to be mentally incompetent or anyone convicted of a felony. Disfranchising convicted felons has been found to be consistent with the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The General Assembly, pursuant to §4, is given wide power to regulate the time, place, and manner of all elections. §5 establishes that the only qualifications to hold office in Virginia are that a person must have been a Virginia resident for at least one year and eligible to vote. Any statute or rule requiring other qualifications is constitutionally invalid under this section. But, the General Assembly can impose local residency requirements for election to local governmental bodies or for election to the Assembly in representation of particular districts. ### Article III – Division of Powers Article III has one section, confirming the principle of separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government. Unlike the U.S. federal Constitution, the Virginia Constitution explicitly provides that no branch may exercise powers that properly belong to the others. Separation between the branches of government is also listed as a right of the people in §5 of Article I. ### Article IV – Legislature Article IV establishes the basic structure and authority of the Virginia legislature. The legislative power of the state is vested in the Virginia General Assembly, which consists of the Virginia Senate and the Virginia House of Delegates. §17 of Article IV gives the legislature the power to impeach members of the executive and judicial branches. The original §14 of Article IV forbade the incorporation of churches, though the Virginia Commission on Constitutional Revision, in its 1969 report, had recognized that the prohibition was probably invalid. The federal district court for the Western District of Virginia ruled in April 2002 that this provision of the Virginia Constitution was in fact unconstitutional, because it violates the federal constitutional right to the free exercise of religion. The court found that it is unconstitutional to deny a church the option to incorporate under state law when other groups can incorporate. An amendment striking the ban on church incorporation was approved by Virginia voters in November 2006. ### Article V – Executive The fifth Article similarly defines the structure and powers of the executive branch. The Governor of Virginia is invested as the chief executive, though §1 of Article V, provides that the governor may not run for successive terms. The offices of lieutenant governor and attorney general are established as supporting elected constitutional positions. The constitutional powers of the governor include the ability to sign legislation, veto bills (which veto may then be overridden by a two-thirds majority of both houses of the assembly), and issue pardons. ### Article VI – Judiciary Article VI vests judicial power in the Supreme Court of Virginia, along with the subordinate courts created by the General Assembly. Judges are appointed by a majority vote in the General Assembly to terms of 12 years for Supreme Court Justices and 8 years for other judges. The Supreme Court, pursuant to §5, has the authority to make rules governing the practice of law and procedures in the courts of the commonwealth (see rules), and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is established as the administrative head of the Virginia judicial system. ### Article VII – Local Government Article VII of the Constitution sets up the basic framework for the structure and function of local government in Virginia. Local government may be established at the town (population over 1000), city (population over 5000), county or regional government level. Article VII gives the General Assembly the power to create general laws for the organization and governing of these political subdivisions, except that regional governments cannot be created without the consent of the majority of the voters who vote on the issue in the region. Section 4 establishes the constitutional offices of treasurer, sheriff, Commonwealth's Attorney, clerk of court and Commissioner of the Revenue to be elected within each city and county in Virginia. ### Article VIII – Education A compulsory and free primary and secondary public education for every Virginia child is the focus of Article VIII. The General Assembly is empowered to determine the funding for the educational system and apportion the cost between state and local government. A state Board of Education is established to create school divisions and effectuate the overall educational policies. Supervision of the individual schools is delegated to local school boards, provided for in §7. ### Article IX – Corporations The primary purpose of Article IX is to create the Virginia State Corporation Commission, which is charged with administering the laws that regulate corporations. The State Corporation Commission also issues charters for Virginia corporations and licenses to do business for "foreign" (non-Virginia) corporations. Section 5 of Article IX prohibits such foreign corporations from doing anything in Virginia that a Virginia corporation could not do. ### Article X – Taxation and Finance Article X establishes the basic structure for taxation of personal property in Virginia. Pursuant to this Article, all non-exempt real and personal property is subject to taxation at its fair market value. Section 6 sets out a lengthy list of exempt property, which includes church property, cemeteries, and non-profit school property. Significant additions to Article X include §7, a budget amendment, which became effective in 1986, and §7-A, which establishes the "Lottery Proceeds Fund", requiring that all proceeds from the lottery be set aside for educational purposes. ### Article XI – Conservation Article XI states that it is the general policy of the Commonwealth to preserve, protect and conserve the state's natural and historic resources. The General Assembly is permitted to further these policies by entering into public-private partnerships or partnerships with federal agencies. A 2001 amendment added §4, which establishes hunting and fishing as constitutional rights of Virginians, though the legislature may enact appropriate regulations and restrictions on these rights. ### Article XII – Future changes The last Article creates the mechanism for future changes to the Constitution. Any amendment to the Constitution must first be passed by a majority in each of the two legislative houses. The proposed amendment must then be held over for consideration by the succeeding elected legislature, where it must again be passed by a majority in each house. The amendment then goes on the general ballot and becomes enacted into the Constitution if approved by a majority of the voters. Alternatively, a two-thirds vote of both Virginia houses may call for the creation of a constitutional convention. Any revisions or amendments proposed by the constitutional convention are presented to the citizens of Virginia and become law upon approval by a majority of voters. There is a perennial discussion over Virginia's unique Constitutional status restricting its governor to one consecutive term, and its method of selecting both trial and appellate judges by state legislature, shared only with South Carolina. Since the current constitution was ratified, there have been 53 amendments added to the constitution, concerning issues ranging from tax exemptions and voting rules to budgeting and legislative calendars. In 2020, the state redistricting process was dramatically reshaped, establishing a bipartisan redistricting commission with judicial oversight. ## See also - Law of Virginia - Virginia Conventions

William Francis Clarke

19th-century American Jesuit educator

William Francis Clarke (March 19, 1816 – October 17, 1890) was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit who held several senior positions at Jesuit institutions in Maryland and Washington, D.C. Born in Washington, he descended from several early colonial families of Maryland. He was educated at Gonzaga College and its successor institutions during the suppression of the Society of Jesus, followed by Georgetown College. After his entrance into the Jesuit order, he taught for several years at Georgetown, and became the pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Baltimore, where he took uncommon measures to integrate black Catholics and Italian immigrants into parish life. In 1858, he became the president of Loyola College in Maryland, remaining only two years before becoming the president of Gonzaga College and rector of St. Aloysius Church, which were impacted by the onset of the American Civil War. His term ended in 1861, and he returned to Loyola College as procurator. He spent his final years as a noted preacher and theologian. ## Early life William Francis Clarke was born on March 19, 1816, in the City of Washington in the District of Columbia. His ancestry on his father's side included Robert Clarke, one of the founders of the British Colony of Maryland, and a member of the colonial Maryland General Assembly. On his mother's side, his ancestry included some of the early settlers of Maryland, North Carolina, and Kentucky. ### Education He was educated at Gonzaga College. When the Society of Jesus was suppressed worldwide, the Jesuit president of Gonzaga, Jeremiah Keily, disobeyed his superiors by attempting to continue the operation of the school. He informed the parents, including Clarke's, that classes would resume at a new location on Capitol Hill, without informing them of the school's official closure by the superiors. As a result, Keily was eventually dismissed from the Jesuit order. Clarke attended Keily's school for two years, before Keily transferred leadership to a Virginia educator named Hughes, who relocated the school to East Capitol Street. Eventually, Clarke matriculated at Georgetown College on March 1, 1829, at the unusually young age of 13. He soon placed at the top of his classes each month, and graduated with honors in July 1833. ### Teaching Clarke entered the Society of Jesus on August 14, 1833, and was sent to the Jesuit novitiates at White Marsh Manor, and then Frederick, Maryland. After one year, he was appointed a professor of third grammar at Georgetown College, and two years later, he transitioned to teaching first grammar. By 1839, he was teaching second grammar. Beginning in 1840, he was again engaged in full-time study of philosophy and theology. On July 4, 1842, he was ordained a priest by the Archbishop of Baltimore, Samuel Eccleston. In 1844, he was charged with giving lectures on Catholic doctrine, which he continued to deliver until his death. The following year, he became a professor of philosophy at Georgetown. He then became socius (assistant) to the master of novices in Frederick in 1846. ## Ministry and leadership His health rapidly failed in 1846 and, fearing for his life, his superiors sent him to Bohemia Manor, Maryland, to recuperate. He remained there for four years, and his health slowly improved. Eventually, he was appointed pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Baltimore in 1849. Notably, he would give brief homilies at Sunday Masses, which was uncommon at the time. Clarke took many measures to integrate black Catholics into the life of St. Joseph's parish. He opened a girls' school run by the Sisters of Charity and a boys' school. He established the first sodality for black Catholics in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and introduced the Oblate Sisters of Providence, an order of black religious sisters, to the parish, placing them in charge of a school. He also had black altar boys serve at Benedictions of the Blessed Sacrament. In addition, he had Fr. Vicinanza deliver sermons in Italian for the Italian immigrants in the parish, representing the first Italian religious services in the archdiocese. ### Academia In 1858, Clarke resigned as pastor of St. Joseph's upon his appointment as president of Loyola College in Maryland. Succeeding John Early, he remained for only two years, before being appointed president of Gonzaga College in Washington, D.C., to replace Charles H. Stonestreet. He was succeeded as president of Loyola College by Joseph O'Callaghan in July 1860. Simultaneous with his appointment at Gonzaga, he became pastor of the adjacent St. Aloysius Church. He also succeeded John Early as pastor of St. Ignatius Church in the city in October 1858, and held the post until he was replaced by O'Callaghan the following year. He assumed the posts on the cusp of the American Civil War, when tensions where high in the capital city. Within six months of his taking office, the number of students at Gonzaga had reduced by half. In addition to his administration of the College, he also opened a parochial school in the basement of St. Aloysius for younger students. On the day of its opening, there were 250 students in attendance. This parochial school was moved to a property owned by Senator Stephen Douglas that he rented on I Street on September 24, 1860. His presidency of Gonzaga came to an end in 1861, and he was succeeded by Bernardin F. Wiget. He returned to Loyola College as procurator on August 19, 1861. There, he also frequently preached in the nearby St. Ignatius Church. ## Later years Clarke's tenure at Loyola College came to an end in August 1888, when he returned to Gonzaga College to teach and perform ministerial work at St. Aloysius Church. In his later years, he remained an active preacher, delivering sermons to mark major occasions and anniversaries in Baltimore, Washington, and Philadelphia. He came to be considered an authority who was consulted on theological questions, and he catechized students, resulting in a substantial number of conversions to Catholicism. Clarke died on October 17, 1890, at Gonzaga College, and was buried in the Jesuit Community Cemetery at Georgetown.

1876 Atlantic hurricane season

The 1876 Atlantic hurricane season featured the first hurricane landfall in North Carolina since 1861. Overall, the season was relatively quiet, with five tropical storms developing. Four of these became a hurricane, of which two intensified into major hurricanes. However, due to the absence of remote-sensing satellite and other technology, only storms that affected populated land areas or encountered ships at sea were recorded; therefore, the actual total could be higher. An undercount bias of zero to six tropical cyclones per year between 1851 and 1885 and zero to four per year between 1886 and 1910 has been estimated. Of the known 1876 cyclones, both the first and fourth systems were first documented in 1995 by José Fernández-Partagás and Henry Diaz. They also proposed large changes to the known tracks of the second and fifth storms. The track and start position of the fifth system was further amended in 2003 by the Atlantic hurricane reanalysis project, which did not add any storms to the official hurricane database (HURDAT). However, climate researcher Michael Chenoweth authored a reanalysis study, published in 2014, which concluded that the 1876 season featured a total of 12 tropical cyclones. This included the removal of the third system due to a lack of information and the addition of eight previously undocumented storms. Chenoweth also proposed some alterations to the track and intensity of each storm, including a significant extension of the track and duration of the first cyclone. However, these changes have yet to be incorporated into HURDAT. The season's first known cyclone was first observed between Bermuda and Nova Scotia on September 9. It transitioned into an extratropical cyclone two days later. On September 12, the track of the next storm begins as a hurricane just east of the Leeward Islands. The system crossed the Lesser and Greater Antilles, causing particularly severe impacts on Puerto Rico, including at least 19 deaths. After striking North Carolina on September 17, the storm killed people in the state, all due to drowning. The hurricane and its remnants then impacted the Northeastern United States, with $30,000 (1876 USD) in damage on the barrier islands of Cape May County, New Jersey, alone. In early October, the fourth storm struck Nicaragua, rendering about $5 million in damage and leaving approximately 20 deaths. Later that month, the fifth and final known storm caused damage in the Cayman Islands, Cuba, and Florida prior to being last noted just northeast of Bermuda on October 23. Overall, the cyclones of the 1876 season left 52 fatalities and more than $5.03 million in damage. ## Season summary The Atlantic hurricane database (HURDAT) officially recognizes five tropical cyclones for the 1876 season. Four storms attained hurricane status, with winds of 75 mph (120 km/h) or greater. The second and fourth hurricanes both peaked with maximum sustained winds up to 115 mph (185 km/h). Thus, both of these storms intensified into a major hurricane. In 1995, reanalysis by José Fernández-Partagás and Henry Diaz led to the addition of the first and fourth systems in HURDAT. While the Atlantic hurricane reanalysis project did not add any new cyclones during their reanalysis in 2003, climate researcher Michael Chenoweth concluded that the 1876 season had a total of 12 storms in a reanalysis study published in 2014. This included the removal of the third system and the addition of eight previously undocumented cyclones. However, Chenoweth's proposals have yet to be incorporated into HURDAT. The first storm of the season, initially observed by three ships on September 9, was a hurricane that existed for two days offshore Atlantic Canada. Three other cyclones developed in September. The season's second storm, also known as the San Felipe hurricane, was first observed near the Windward Islands on September 12 and struck Puerto Rico as a Category 3 hurricane before crossing Hispaniola and Cuba. It then turned north-northeastward and made landfall in North Carolina, becoming the first to strike the coast of that state since 1861. The cyclone continued through the interior of the United States until dissipating near Cape Cod on September 19. Officially, this storm caused 52 deaths and more than $30,000 in damage, as the latter only includes Cape May County, New Jersey. The season's fourth cyclone and third to form in the month of September struck Nicaragua in early October, leaving about $5 million in damage and about 20 deaths. Later, the fifth and final known storm impacted the Cayman Islands, Cuba, and Florida before being last detected to the northeast of Bermuda on October 23. Overall, the cyclones of the 1876 season are known to have collectively caused at least 52 deaths and more than $5.03 million in damage. The season's activity was reflected with an accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) rating of 57, the second lowest total of the 1870s decade. ACE is a metric used to express the energy used by a tropical cyclone during its lifetime. Therefore, a storm with a longer duration will have higher values of ACE. It is only calculated at six-hour increments in which specific tropical and subtropical systems are either at or above sustained wind speeds of 39 mph (63 km/h), which is the threshold for tropical storm intensity. Thus, tropical depressions are not included here. ## Systems ### Hurricane One On September 9, the ships Annie and Lilly, Alfred, and Astor each encountered this storm south of Atlantic Canada. Because the Alfred observed a barometric pressure of 970 mbar (29 inHg), HURDAT begins the track of this cyclone as a hurricane with winds of 90 mph (150 km/h) about halfway between Bermuda and Nova Scotia. The hurricane did not strengthen and began to gradually weaken as it moved to the south of Newfoundland. It weakened to a tropical storm early on September 11 and transitioned into an extratropical cyclone several hours later. Climate researcher Michael Chenoweth theorized that this storm began as a tropical depression near the Cabo Verde Islands on September 2. Chenoweth's study, published in 2014, notes that the cyclone intensified into a tropical storm by the following day and moved generally northwestward until September 7. Additionally, Chenoweth concluded that it did not attain hurricane status. ### Hurricane Two Hurricane San Felipe of 1876 While the bark Mary M. Williams reportedly encountered this storm before September 12, the official track for this system begins on that day due to the system's close proximity to the Lesser Antilles, which allowed more observations to confirm its existence. Considered a hurricane at the beginning of its track, the storm moved generally westward and passed either or over Anguilla, Saint Barthélemy, and Saint Martin late on September 12. By early the next day, the cyclone briefly intensified into a Category 3 hurricane, peaking with winds of 115 mph (185 km/h), several hours before striking Puerto Rico between Yabucoa and Humacao. The system moved west-northwestward across the Mona Passage and struck the Dominican Republic, weakening to a tropical storm on September 14 as it traversed Hispaniola. Thereafter, the storm briefly re-attained hurricane status while crossing the Windward Passage early on the next day and soon made landfall in Cuba near San Antonio del Sur. Weakening to a tropical storm, the cyclone continued west-northwestward until turning northward over the central part of the island, barely avoiding Florida on September 16. The storm became a hurricane again early on September 17, several hours before striking near Wilmington, North Carolina. The storm moved parabolically across the interior of the United States, dissipating on September 19 near Cape Cod, Massachusetts. A newspaper on Saint Thomas noted that many homes lost their roofs and fences, but that impact from this storm was less than during other storms. Saint Croix, however, reportedly experienced its worst hurricane in 50 years, while Saint Kitts also suffered considerably. In Puerto Rico, the storm was remembered as the "San Felipe Hurricane" because it struck on September 13, the feast day of Saint Philip. Exactly 52 years later, Puerto Rico was struck by Hurricane San Felipe Segundo, a much more destructive and powerful cyclone. The lowest pressure during the 1876 storm was 989 mb (29.20 inHg) at San Juan, where the storm left few homes undamaged. Overflowing rivers and the storm itself carried away many bridges and caused significant losses to coffee, rice, and sugarcane estates. A total of 19 deaths were reported, but historians suspected the Spanish government withheld the actual damage and death toll data for Puerto Rico. At least 13 drownings occurred in North Carolina, two in Onslow County and eleven others after the Rebecca Clyde sank at Portsmouth. Many other ships capsized along the coast of North Carolina. Flooding, damage to buildings, and uprooted trees were reported in Wilmington. The cyclone impacted several other states, particularly New Jersey, with The New York Times declaring it the "one of the most severe ever known along the coast of New Jersey." Damage on the barrier islands of Cape May County reached $30,000. Chenoweth extended the track of this system back two days, with a tropical storm east of the Lesser Antilles, and proposed that the cyclone did not weaken to a tropical storm despite its passage over Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and Cuba. ### Tropical Storm Three The track of the season's third cyclone begins about 270 mi (435 km) east-northeast of the Lesser Antilles. It headed north, peaking with winds of 60 mph (95 km/h) and passing well to the east of Bermuda. The system apparently dissipated on September 18. Chenoweth could not confirm the existence of this storm, noting "Insufficient supporting evidence from other neighboring data sources". ### Hurricane Four The RMS Nile first observed a tropical storm east of Martinique on September 29. By early on October 1, the storm strengthened into a hurricane as it passed near the Netherlands Antilles. It later peaked as a Category 2 hurricane before making landfall just south of Bluefields, Nicaragua, late on October 3. The system weakened to a tropical storm early on the next day, but remained a tropical cyclone due to crossing relatively flat terrain. Several hours later, the storm reached the Pacific Ocean, but dissipated on October 5. The cyclone severely damaged parts of Central America, inundating the Nicaraguan capital of Managua with floodwaters. People climbed rooftops to evade the floodwaters. On the east coast of the country, 300 homes were destroyed at Bluefields. The hurricane also demolished some 500 homes in Managua. Overall, the cyclone left approximately $2 million in damage to property and $3 million to coffee crops. About 20 deaths occurred. The ship Costa Rica, in the eastern Pacific and bound for Acapulco on October 4, lost her hurricane-deck as well as the head of her main mast, main topmast, and gaff. She also lost one of her quarter boats and experienced a wind shift at 2030 UTC. The 2014 study by Chenoweth proposed a much slower-moving system, which began near Tobago on September 24. Initially moving west-northwestward, the storm begins a west-southwestward trajectory two days later. Additionally, the cyclone attains a much stronger intensity, peaking with winds of 150 mph (240 km/h), equivalent to Category 4 status. ### Hurricane Five The Cuba-South Florida Hurricane of 1876 A tropical storm was discovered north of Panama on October 12. The storm moved very slowly and generally northward. It became a hurricane early on October 17 and passed just east of Grand Cayman. It attained a peak intensity of 115 mph (185 km/h) just before making landfall on Bejucal in western Cuba, where the barometer dropped as low as 958 mbar (28.3 inHg) on October 19. The calm center of the storm passed over the capital Havana and then turned northeastward as it entered the Straits of Florida. Just before 00:00 UTC on October 20, the eye of the cyclone struck Key West, Florida. About six hours later, early on October 20, the hurricane made landfall on the mainland near Chokoloskee with winds of 105 mph (165 km/h) and emerged into the Atlantic near Sebastian around 12:00 UTC. In passing over Eau Gallie near Melbourne, the calm eye lasted about four hours between 08:30–12:30 UTC. The cyclone later passed north of Bermuda before dissipating on October 23. On Grand Cayman, where west winds occurred during the closest approach of the cyclone, severe damage and the destruction of 170 houses was reported. The storm disrupted communications via telegram across the island of Cuba, although the most significant damage occurred in Havana and Matanzas provinces. The city of Havana reported significant damage to several buildings. In South Florida, the hurricane produced tides of 8 to 10 ft (2.4 to 3.0 m) on Biscayne Bay, but local ships rode out the storm in a natural anchorage called Hurricane Harbor, on the west side of Key Biscayne. The bark Three Sisters was wrecked on Virginia Key, her cargo of lumber being salvaged by local residents. The storm flooded the islands on Biscayne Bay and destroyed many structures. On the Lake Worth Lagoon, the cyclone snapped or blew down large mastic and banyan trees, each more than 3 ft (0.9 m) in diameter and believed to have been hundreds of years old. All vegetation was stripped of foliage and branches were downed, while settlers' furniture was blown away. After the storm, the Atlantic Ocean appeared yellowish-brown due to silt, and numerous fish and sea mammals, including porpoises, were found beached. The settlement that later became Palm Beach was destroyed. Two decades later in 1896, the storm was still noted by settlers as among the worst ever in South Florida. Bermuda recorded gale-force winds and a pressure of 29.30 inHg (992 mb). Chenoweth began the track for this system farther south and two days earlier, October 10. The storm intensified into a hurricane on October 12, several days before HURDAT indicates. Additionally, the study proposed that the cyclone weakened to a tropical storm slightly earlier on October 23 and transitioned into an extratropical cyclone that day. ### Other storms A reanalysis study proposed eight additional tropical cyclones during the 1876 season, including five before the first system currently listed in HURDAT. Chenoweth's first unofficial storm begins over the eastern Caribbean Sea on July 17. Moving west-northwestward, the system remained just south of the Greater Antilles as it intensified into a hurricane. Two landfalls at hurricane intensity occurred in Mexico – first on the Yucatán Peninsula and then in the state of Veracruz – before the storm dissipated near Mexico City on July 23. About a week later, on July 30, a tropical depression formed approximately halfway between Bermuda and South Carolina. Trekking to the northwest, the cyclone approached North Carolina on August 1 but then turned northeastward. Chenoweth theorized that the storm briefly attained hurricane status on the following day before weakening to a tropical depression and dissipating roughly halfway between Bermuda and Nova Scotia. The next unofficial system began about halfway between Bermuda and Puerto Rico on August 13. Moving generally north-northwestward, the depression dissipated just west of Bermuda three days later. Chenoweth concluded that the cyclone briefly attained hurricane status on August 14. A third unofficial system formed on August 17 near Barbados. The storm moved generally northwestward and passed near Martinique on the following day. It later crossed Hispaniola and Cuba before becoming extratropical over the Straits of Florida on August 25. That same day, another storm formed about halfway between Bermuda and Puerto Rico. Moving mostly north-northeastward throughout its duration, the storm held hurricane status from August 26 to August 29 and was last noted east of Newfoundland on August 30. Chenoweth proposed that another storm developed roughly halfway between the Capo Verde Islands and the Leeward Islands on September 12. The cyclone initially moved north-northwestward to northwestward before turning to the northeast three days later. On September 18, the system became extratropical just north of the Azores. Chenoweth initiated the track of another storm just east of the Windward Islands on September 29. Moving north-northwestward, the cyclone passed just west of Barbados that day and briefly attained hurricane status. The storm then turned westward and struck Martinique early on September 30 before curving southwest over the Caribbean. On October 1, the system weakened to a tropical depression and dissipated near La Orchila Island. The track of the final unofficial begins as a hurricane over the central Atlantic on November 7. After initially trekking to the northwest, the storm turned northeastward by the next day. The hurricane weakened to a tropical storm early on November 10 and was last noted southwest of the Azores on November 12. ## Season effects This is a table of all of the known storms that formed in the 1876 Atlantic hurricane season. It includes their known duration (within the basin), areas affected, damages, and death totals. Deaths in parentheses are additional and indirect (an example of an indirect death would be a traffic accident), but were still related to that storm. Damage and deaths include totals while the storm was extratropical, a wave, or a low, and all of the damage figures are in 1876 USD. ## See also - List of Florida hurricanes (pre-1900) - List of North Carolina hurricanes (pre-1900) - List of Puerto Rico hurricanes - Tropical cyclone observation

25 Images of a Man's Passion

1918 wordless novel by Frans Masereel

25 Images of a Man's Passion, or The Passion of a Man is the first wordless novel by Flemish artist Frans Masereel (1889–1972), first published in 1918 under the French title 25 images de la passion d'un homme. The silent story is about a young working-class man who leads a revolt against his employer. The first of dozens of such works by Masereel, the book is considered to be the first wordless novel, a genre that saw its greatest popularity in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. Masereel followed the book in 1919 with his best-known work, Passionate Journey. Masereel had grown up reading revolutionary socialist literature, and expressed his politics in A Man's Passion; the work is also filled with religious imagery, as with the Common Man taking the role of the martyred Christ. It owed its visual style to Expressionism and mediaeval woodcuts. The book was popular, particularly in German editions, which had introductions by writers Max Brod, Hermann Hesse, and Thomas Mann. ## Background Frans Masereel (1889–1972) was born into a French-speaking family in Blankenberge, Belgium. When he was five his father died, and his mother remarried to a doctor in Ghent, whose political beliefs left an impression on the young Masereel. Masereel grew up reading Marxist, socialist, and anarchist works by such writers as Karl Marx and Peter Kropotkin, and often accompanied his stepfather in socialist demonstrations. After a year at the Ghent Academy of Fine Arts in 1907, Masereel left to study art on his own in Paris. During World War I he volunteered as a translator for the Red Cross in Geneva, drew newspaper political cartoons, and copublished a magazine called Les Tablettes, in which he published his first woodcut prints. In the early 20th century there was a revival in interest in mediaeval woodcuts, particularly in religious books such as the Biblia pauperum. The woodcut is a less refined medium than the wood engraving that replaced it—artists of the time took to the rougher woodcut to express angst and frustration. From 1917 Masereel began publishing books of woodcut prints, using similar imagery to make political statements on the strife of the common people rather than to illustrate the lives of Christ and the saints. In 1918 he created the first such book to feature a narrative, 25 Images of a Man's Passion, which is thus the earliest example of the wordless novel genre. ## Synopsis 25 Images of a Man's Passion tells of a young man who protests injustice against the working class in an industrialized society. The man is born to an unwed mother, struggles to make a living, and drinks and whores with his coworkers. He educates himself by reading and talking with his coworkers, and is executed by the authorities for leading a revolt against his employer. ## Style and analysis The title and content of the book have biblical resonances with the mediaeval woodcuts from which they draw inspiration. In line with Masereel's politics, the Common Man is martyred instead of Christ; during his trial, Christ on the crucifix shines light upon the man. The cover of the German edition depicts the main character burdened Christ-like with a crucifix. Visually, the book owes much to Expressionism, though experts disagree on whether to label Masereel's work Expressionist; critic Lothar Lang finds Masereel's revolutionary politics to set Masereel apart from the Expressionists. Perry Willet finds parallels between the story arc of Masereel's book and that of Expressionist playwright Ernst Toller's The Transformation (1919), though Masereel's work was the more political—Toller lacked Masereel's commitment to socialism. Socialist themes of the martyrdom of the working class were common in wordless novels; with the city as a backdrop to a worker's struggle against oppression, the book set the tone and themes for future wordless novels by Masereel and other artists, such as the American Lynd Ward. ## Publication and reception Printed from twenty-five woodcut blocks, the book was first released in 1918 by Édition de Sablier, a Swiss publishing house of which Masereel was a co-sponsor. It was first offered as a numbered collectors' edition, and followed by trade editions. Kurt Wolff produced an inexpensive German edition (Die Passion eines Menschen) in 1921. The German edition was particularly popular, and its several editions had introductions by writers Max Brod, Hermann Hesse, and Thomas Mann. In the same Expressionistic style, Masereel followed Man's Passion with Passionate Journey (1919), The Sun (1919), Story Without Words (1920), and The Idea (1920). ## See also - Gods' Man - Graphic novel

Frances McConnell-Mills

American physician, toxicologist and forensic pathologist (1900-1975)

Frances Mary McConnell-Mills (July 9, 1900 – December 28, 1975) was an American toxicologist. She was the first woman to be appointed Denver's city toxicologist, the first female toxicologist in the Rocky Mountains, and probably the first female forensic pathologist in the United States. McConnell was raised in Colorado and after studying chemistry she became a high school teacher. She later attended medical school at the University of Colorado Denver, graduating in 1925. She specialized in the fields of toxicology and forensic pathology, which led her to testify in many high-profile criminal cases throughout her career. In addition to working as Denver's city toxicologist, she held positions in multiple hospitals and administrative boards. After battling lifelong health problems, including rheumatic heart disease and a leg amputation, McConnell died in 1975. She was posthumously inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. ## Early life McConnell-Mills was born Frances Mary McConnell in 1900 in Monument, Colorado. Her father was a physician and a pharmacist, and often took Frances with him when he made house calls to patients. She was sent to live with her aunt and grandfather so that she could attend Colorado Springs High School; she graduated at the age of 15 and was awarded a full scholarship to the University of Denver. She received a bachelor's degree from the university in 1918, aged 17, and graduated again with a master's degree in chemistry when she was 19, making her the university's youngest graduate with a master's degree at the time. In 1919, she began work as a teacher of chemistry, biology, geometry and trigonometry at Englewood High School. McConnell applied to the University of Colorado School of Medicine in 1920 and was accepted. Although her father had previously paid for 17 men to attend medical school, he refused to pay for Frances' tuition because he deemed medicine to be "too hard a life for a woman". She therefore supported herself through medical school by working as a musician in local bars and theaters, as a tutor, and as a laboratory assistant. In November 1925, she married David L. Mills, a lawyer, and gave birth to a daughter the year after. Although McConnell hyphenated her name to McConnell-Mills, she continued to use her maiden name for her professional career to avoid drawing attention to her children. ## Career McConnell graduated from the University of Colorado as a Doctor of Medicine in 1925 and completed an internship at Denver General Hospital. She subsequently took on a position as a toxicologist in the coroner's offices at the same hospital, making her the first female toxicologist in the Rocky Mountains area. She was appointed Denver's city toxicologist in 1926 and became an assistant pathologist in 1927, working alongside deputy coroner George Bostwick and city pathologist W. S. Dennis. Her appointment to city toxicologist made her the first woman to hold the position. McConnell's work mainly focused on poison and blood analysis, and she testified in many criminal cases as an expert witness. Her work often involved determining the cause of death when poisoning was suspected. In 1930, she investigated the death of a ten-year-old Denver girl; the case was referred to at the time as the city's "most famous and controversial murder case". Although she initially suspected the girl had been poisoned, McConnell discovered crushed glass in the girl's stomach and blood stains in the family car; her testimony led to the sentencing of the girl's stepmother for murder. In 1936, McConnell testified against suspected rapist and murderer Joe Arridy after finding fibers from the bedspread at the murder scene under the suspect's fingernails. (Although Arridy was convicted of murder and executed in 1939, he was granted a posthumous pardon in 2011.) McConnell also discovered that murder victim Georg Obendoerfer had been killed with a lethal dose of arsenic, which led to further investigations confirming that Anna Marie Hahn had killed Obendoerfer, as well as other men in the same way. McConnell testified at Hahn's trial in Cincinnati and Hahn was subsequently convicted and executed. After she was called to Raton, New Mexico as a key witness in a murder trial in 1935, a court reporter for the Raton Range wrote that McConnell "has gained a national reputation ... in her blood analysis work". Additionally, she is thought to be the United States' first female forensic pathologist. Despite working on numerous high-profile, widely publicized cases, McConnell kept her life as private as possible and only ever gave one interview during her career. Outside of toxicology, McConnell did extensive laboratory work. In the 1930s and 1940s she undertook personal research into passive immunity and developed serums for scarlet fever, polio, the common cold and acne for use on family members. While working for otolaryngologist Harry Baum, she invented a hair rinse which Baum called "Noreen" that was produced until the 1990s. In 1941, she was appointed director of the laboratory department of the Colorado State Board of Health, and she later founded Denver General Hospital's School for Medical Technologists in order to train new workers, especially women. She enrolled in an advanced serology training program at the University of Michigan in 1941 and went on to study surgical pathology at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago in 1943. Following her term at Cook County, she resigned from the Board of Health and accepted a role at St. Luke's Hospital in Denver as a laboratory director and pathologist. She was forced to leave St. Luke's in 1944 due to illness, and after recovering she returned to Denver General Hospital as its laboratory director. She continued to work on criminal cases between other jobs until 1948. In the 1950s, McConnell joined physician and public health activist Florence R. Sabin to create an examination on behalf of the Colorado State Board of Basic Sciences for granting licenses to applicants who wished to practice health science. McConnell was appointed to the Board in 1956, making her the only female member at the time, and served until 1975. ## Health problems and death McConnell battled with health problems throughout her life, after contracting rheumatic fever at the age of 20 which subsequently progressed to rheumatic heart disease. In 1944 she contracted appendicitis which required an emergency appendectomy; she developed deep vein thrombosis in her right leg after the surgery and her leg was subsequently amputated above the knee. She was given a prosthetic leg which she named "Matilda" but later needed to use a wheelchair. Following the death of her husband in 1967, McConnell lived alone. She kept working until the last two weeks of her life, filling various roles on the Board of Basic Sciences, in an allergy practice, and as a consultant for the Denver Poison Center. She died in December 1975 in St. Luke's Hospital, Denver, at the age of 75. ## Legacy A year before her death, in December 1974, McConnell received an award from the University of Colorado Medical School which recognized her as a 50-year graduate of the school and as one of only two Coloradoan women at the time who had practiced medicine for 50 years. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1996. In 1999, her daughter Jeanne Varnell published a book titled Women of Consequence: The Colorado Women's Hall of Fame, which contains the biographies of McConnell and 58 other inductees of the Hall of Fame. The project began when Varnell set out to write a biography of her mother, but was urged by her editor to do the same for all 59 of the women in the Hall of Fame at the time, and compile them into a book.

Tolkien's monsters

Evil beings in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fiction

Tolkien's monsters are the evil beings, such as Orcs, Trolls, and giant spiders, who oppose and sometimes fight the protagonists in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. Tolkien was an expert on Old English, especially Beowulf, and several of his monsters share aspects of the Beowulf monsters; his Trolls have been likened to Grendel, the Orcs' name harks back to the poem's orcneas, and the dragon Smaug has multiple attributes of the Beowulf dragon. The European medieval tradition of monsters makes them either humanoid but distorted, or like wild beasts, but very large and malevolent; Tolkien follows both traditions, with monsters like Orcs of the first kind and Wargs of the second. Some scholars add Tolkien's immensely powerful Dark Lords Morgoth and Sauron to the list, as monstrous enemies in spirit as well as in body. Scholars have noted that the monsters' evil nature reflects Tolkien's Roman Catholicism, a religion which has a clear conception of good and evil. ## Origins The word "monster" has as its origin the Latin monstrum, "a marvel, prodigy, portent", in turn from Latin monstrare, "to show". Monsters in Medieval Europe were often humanoid, but could also resemble wild beasts, but of enormous size; J. R. R. Tolkien followed both paths in creating his own monsters. Some of Tolkien's monsters may derive from his detailed knowledge of the Old English epic poem Beowulf; Gollum has some attributes of Grendel, while the dragon Smaug in The Hobbit shares several features with the Beowulf dragon. The poem, too, speaks of Orcs, with the Old English compound orcneas, meaning "demon-corpses". In his famous 1936 lecture, "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics", Tolkien described the poem's monsters as central to its structure, changing the course of Beowulf scholarship. Commentators have noted that Tolkien clearly preferred the epic's monsters to the critics. ## Humanoid, bestial, and beyond ### Evil in mind or body In the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, Jonathan Evans initially identifies two categories of monster in Tolkien's legendarium. The first includes Trolls, Orcs, and Balrogs, which are humanoid, but distorted in various ways; the second consists of malevolent beasts which resemble those of the natural world, but are much larger, such as the wolflike Wargs, the giant evil spiders – Ungoliant and her brood including Shelob – and the tentacled Watcher in the Water. The featherless winged steeds of the Nazgûl are monstrous in the second way, gigantic but evidently based on nature, and "apt to evil". Tolkien never names them, though he describes them as "fell beasts", and describes them in a letter as "pterodactylic". Evans notes that Tolkien's dragons, "an especially important monstrous type", do not fit either of these categories, and he treats those "extraordinarily large, reptilian creatures ... preternaturally evil monsters" separately. Dragons are mentioned only in passing in The Lord of the Rings, but dragons that can speak but which are certainly not humanoid are important characters in both The Silmarillion and The Hobbit. Tolkien was not consistent in his allocation of monsters to these categories. In The Hobbit, the hill-trolls are initially comic; they are carnivorous but not particularly malevolent, have vulgar table manners, and speak, with Cockney accents. However, when the Wizard Gandalf outwits them, the scholar Christina Fawcett writes, these Trolls are seen as "monstrous, a warning against vice, captured forever in stone for their greed and anger". The critic Gregory Hartley adds that the Trolls in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings are "more bestial" and much less like the trolls of Norse mythology; Fawcett compares them to the monster Grendel in Beowulf. Tolkien's description runs: "Olog-hai they were called in the Black Speech. That Sauron bred them none doubted, though from what stock was not known... Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race, strong, agile, fierce and cunning, but harder than stone. Unlike the older race of the Twilight they could endure the Sun, so long as the will of Sauron held sway over them. They spoke little, and the only tongue that they knew was the Black Speech of Barad-dûr." ### Evil in spirit Other scholars sometimes add the Legendarium's powerful opponents to the list of monsters; Joe Abbott, writing in Mythlore, describes the Dark Lords Morgoth and Sauron as monsters, intelligent and powerful but wholly gone over to evil. Abbott notes that in The Monsters and the Critics, Tolkien distinguished between ordinary monsters in the body, and monsters also in spirit: > The distinction [is] between a devilish ogre, and a devil revealing himself in ogre-form—between a monster, devouring the body and bringing temporal death, that is inhabited by a cursed spirit, and a spirit of evil aiming ultimately at the soul and bringing eternal death" By going beyond the limits of the body with these monstrous Dark Lords, Tolkien had in Abbott's view made the "ultimate transformation" for a Christian author, creating "a far more terrifying monster". ## Themes ### Evil and darkness Tolkien's Roman Catholicism gave him a clear sense of good and evil, and a ready symbolism to hand: light symbolises good, and darkness evil, as it does in the Bible. In The Fellowship of the Ring, the first evil being that the Hobbits encounter after leaving the Shire on the quest to destroy the One Ring is Old Man Willow, a powerful tree or tree-spirit who controls much of the Old Forest. He is wholly malevolent. Outside the entrance to Moria, the Company is again attacked, this time by the Watcher in the Water. It specifically seizes Frodo, the ring-bearer, as if it knew and opposed the quest. Evans comments that though clearly deadly dangerous, the monster is vague, only sketchily described in the text. Evans notes that "vaguer still", possibly not even living, are the "monstrous Watchers" that guard the gate of the Tower of Cirith Ungol, on a pass into the evil land of Mordor. Tolkien describes them as aware, but immobile, with an indwelling "spirit of evil vigilance": > They were like great figures seated upon thrones. Each had three joined bodies, and three heads facing outward, and inward, and across the gateway. The heads had vulture-faces, and on their great knees were laid clawlike hands. They seemed to be carved out of huge blocks of stone, immovable, and yet they were aware: some dreadful spirit of evil vigilance abode in them. They knew an enemy. Visible or invisible none could pass unheeded. They would forbid his entry, or his escape. The monstrous Watchers are defeated by the Elvish light of the Phial of Galadriel; Sam holds it up "and the shadows under the dark arch fled"; Sam sees "a glitter in the black stones of their eyes", full of malice, and their will is broken. The light of the Phial of Galadriel is effective, too, against Middle-earth's giant spider Shelob, daughter of the line of the evil Ungoliant. Shelob is both evil and ancient, "bloated and grown fat with endless brooding on her feasts, weaving webs of shadow; for all living things were her food, and her vomit darkness". The opposition of Galadriel and Shelob has been interpreted psychologically in terms of Jungian archetypes. The medievalist Alaric Hall states more generally that in The Lord of the Rings, as in Beowulf and the Grettis saga, the opposition of protagonists and monsters is psychological as much as physical, since "heroes cannot defeat their enemies without taking something from them to themselves." The Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger writes that Galadriel's light is a splintered remnant of that of the Two Trees of Valinor, which were consumed into the limitless darkness of Shelob's earliest ancestor, Ungoliant. That light contained and symbolised divine power; its destruction was the embodiment of evil. ### Undead Other monsters in The Lord of the Rings are humanoid, but undead, like the barrow-wight who traps the Hobbits soon after they have left Tom Bombadil's house. Such wights are found in Norse mythology. Far more powerful are the Nazgûl, undead and invisible but still physical ringwraiths, able to ride horses and to wield weapons; they were once kings of Men, but were trapped by Sauron with the gift of Rings of Power. Gollum, too, once a member of a peaceful group of Hobbits, has become a desperate monster, alive but with his mind almost destroyed, constantly seeking the One Ring, after bearing it for many centuries. Flieger suggests that Gollum is Tolkien's central monster-figure, likening him to both Grendel and the Beowulf dragon, "the twisted, broken, outcast hobbit whose manlike shape and dragonlike greed combine both the Beowulf kinds of monster in one figure". ### Souls and sentience Orcs are depicted as wholly evil, meaning that they could be slaughtered without regret. All the same, Orcs are human-like in being able to speak, and in having a similar concept of good and evil, a moral sense of fairness, even if they are not able to apply their morals to themselves. This presented Tolkien, a devout Roman Catholic, with a problem: since "evil cannot make, only mock", the at least somewhat sentient and morally-aware Orcs could not have been created by evil as a genuinely new and separate species; but the alternative, that they were corrupted from one of Middle-earth's free peoples, such as Elves, which would imply that they were fully sentient and had immortal souls, was equally unpalatable to him. Tolkien realized that some of the decisions he had made in his 1937 children's book The Hobbit, showing his goblins (orcs) as even slightly civilised, and giving his animals the power of speech, clearly implied sentience; this conflicted with the more measured theology behind his Legendarium. The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey writes that the orcs in The Lord of the Rings were almost certainly created just to equip Middle-earth with "a continual supply of enemies over whom one need feel no compunction", or in Tolkien's words from "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics", "the infantry of the old war", ready to be slaughtered. Shippey states that all the same, orcs share the human concept of good and evil, with a familiar sense of morality, though he comments that, like many people, orcs are quite unable to apply their morals to themselves. In his view, Tolkien, as a Catholic, took it as a given that "evil cannot make, only mock", so orcs could not have an equal and opposite morality to that of men or elves. Shippey notes that in The Two Towers, Tolkien has the orc Gorbag disapprove of the "regular elvish trick" of seeming to abandon a comrade, as he wrongly supposes Sam has done with Frodo. Shippey describes the implied view of evil as Boethian, that evil is the absence of good; he notes however that Tolkien did not agree with that point of view, believing that evil had to be actively combatted, with war if necessary, the Manichean position. Wargs, great wolf-like beasts, can attack independently, as they do while the Fellowship of the Ring is going south from Rivendell, and soon after Thorin's Company emerged from the Misty Mountains. The group of wargs in The Hobbit could speak, though never pleasantly. Hartley treats wargs as "personified animals", noting that Tolkien writes about their actions using verbs like "[to] plan" and "[to] guard", implying in his view that the wargs are monstrous, "more than mere beasts"; but all the same, he denies that they "possess autonomous wills". ### Fallen angels Some of Tolkien's monsters are certainly sentient, as they are angel-like beings, powerful Ainur, fallen into evil. This is just as in Christianity, where the devil Lucifer is understood to be a fallen angel, having been indeed once the greatest of the angels. These characters had immortal souls, were created good by the one God (Eru Iluvatar in the Legendarium), but had made the choice of evil by their own free will. The evil Lords of the Legendarium are extremely powerful. Melkor (later renamed Morgoth) particularly resembles Lucifer, as he is described as having been the most powerful of the Ainur before he turned to darkness. He has indeed been interpreted as analogous to Satan as, like Lucifer, he rebels against his creator. He physically and symbolically destroys the Two Trees of Valinor, which brought light to the world. When some of their light is captured and embodied in the jewel-like Silmarils, he steals them and places them in his crown. Morgoth's servant, Sauron, was similarly described as the Dark Lord; he had been a Maia serving the Vala Aulë but, on betraying the other Maiar, became Morgoth's principal lieutenant and then, in the absence of Morgoth, the Dark Lord of Middle-earth in his own right. Tolkien has a character in The Lord of the Rings, Elrond, state that "Nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so." The fire-demons or Balrogs, too, come into this category, at least in Tolkien's later writings, where they were described as Maia corrupted by Melkor. In The Lord of the Rings, the Wizard Gandalf names the Balrog of Khazad-Dum as "a foe beyond any of you" and "flame of Udûn", meaning an immortal but evil being, with power similar to his own. ## Adaptations and legacy Tolkien's Middle-earth and its monsters have been documented in Clash of the Gods: Tolkien's Monsters, a 2009 television programme in the History Channel's Clash of the Gods series. Jason Seratino, writing on Complex, has listed his ten favourite Tolkien monsters in movies, describing the Great Goblin as "a slimy cross between Sloth and the Elephant Man". Artists including Alan Lee, John Howe, and Ted Nasmith have created paintings of Tolkien's monsters, including those published in Tolkien's Dragons & Monsters: A Book of 20 Postcards.

2019 Riga Masters

Professional ranking snooker tournament, held July 2019

The 2019 Riga Masters (also known as the 2019 Kaspersky Riga Masters due to sponsorship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament held from 26 to 28 July 2019 at the Arēna Rīga in Riga, Latvia. It was the sixth Riga Masters event, with the first being held in 2013, and the first ranking event of the 2019/2020 snooker season. The defending champion, Neil Robertson, previously defeated Jack Lisowski in the 2018 final. However, Robertson and several other players were forced to withdraw from qualifying round matches due to flight cancellations, and therefore could not compete in the event. Yan Bingtao defeated Mark Joyce 5–2 in the final, winning the event and earning his first career ranking title. Yan became the first teenager to win a ranking event in 13 years since Ding Junhui won the 2006 Northern Ireland Trophy aged 19. No players from the top 20 in the world reached the quarter-finals. Lisowski scored the highest break of the tournament, a 145. The event had a total prize fund of £278,000 with the winner receiving £50,000. Qualifying for the event was held between 10 and 13 June 2019 at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield, England. ## Format The tournament was played from 26 to 28 July 2019 at the Arēna Rīga in Riga, Latvia. The event was organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, and sponsored by Kaspersky Lab. Matches were played as best-of-seven until the semi-finals, which were best-of-nine frames. The quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final were all played on 28 July. The event was broadcast on Eurosport Player (Pan-Europe); NowTV (Hong Kong); Truesport Thailand; and Superstars Online, Youku, and Zhibo.tv (China). ### Prize fund The prize fund was slightly increased from the 2018 event. The champion still received £50,000, but the total prize fund increased from £259,000 to £278,000, as follows: - Winner: £50,000 - Runner-up: £25,000 - Semi-final: £15,000 - Quarter-final: £6,000 - Last 16: £4,000 - Last 32: £3,000 - Last 64: £2,000 - Highest break: £5,000 - Total: £278,000 ## Tournament summary ### Early rounds The round-of-64 began on 26 July 2019 in Riga, Latvia. Due to flight complications, many players missed the event and had to withdraw, including two-time and defending champion Neil Robertson, Kyren Wilson, and Joe O'Connor. World Snooker commented that due to the number of players missing their matches, it would be difficult to reschedule the affected matches. The held-over qualifying match between Robertson and Robert Milkins was not held as both players were unable to compete in the event, which gave Ben Woollaston a bye into the last 32. Milkins and Robertson made Twitter comments on their encounter, as penalty frames were awarded to each player for not appearing in the match. Three-time world champion Mark Williams defeated James Cahill 4–3, but Williams did not realise he could score a century break, after turning down the final . Mark Selby received two byes before facing Graeme Dott in the second round. Dott won the first three frames of the match, but Selby won the final four to progress. In the round of 16, Selby lost to Stuart Carrington. The 2018 runner-up Jack Lisowski reached the round of 16, before losing to Mark Joyce. ### Quarter-finals After the round-of-16, no player qualifying for the quarter-finals was ranked in the top 20 in the world. With a ranking of 21, Yan Bingtao was the highest ranked player in the quarter-finals. The quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals were all played on 28 July. In the quarter-finals, Joyce, who was world rank 54, defeated Carrington 4–1 to advance to the semi-finals, marking his best performance in a ranking event. After defeating Lyu Haotian and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in previous rounds, Kurt Maflin defeated Luo Honghao 4–1, reaching his third career semi-final. Matthew Selt defeated Mark King 4–1 to reach the semi-final. Selt was the only remaining player who had previously won a ranking event (the 2019 Indian Open). Yan defeated Li Hang 4–3 to reach the semi-finals for the first time since the 2017 Northern Ireland Open. ### Semi-finals In the first semi-final, Joyce and Maflin exchanged frames throughout the match, with each player alternately winning each frame to tie at 4–4. After Maflin missed a , Joyce made a match-high break of 126 to win 5–4. In the second semi-final, Yan defeated Selt 5–3. Neither player made a century break. However, Yan scored a match-high break of 88 to win. ### Final The final between Yan and Joyce was played at 9 p.m. EEST (UTC+3) and refereed by Tatiana Woollaston. It was Joyce's first final, and neither player had previously won a ranking event. In the first frame, Yan required a snooker and the cue ball behind the black, forcing Joyce to hit the blue ball instead of the brown, awarding Yan enough penalty points to be able to win the frame. Yan to win the first frame. Yan won the second frame to lead 2–0, but Joyce won the third with a century break. Yan won three of the next four frames, with breaks of higher than 50. He defeated Joyce 5–2, winning the event and earning his first career ranking title. Yan became the first player born after 2000 to win a ranking event, as well as the first teenager to win a ranking event in 13 years since Ding Junhui won the 2006 Northern Ireland Trophy at age 19. ## Main draw The main draw for the tournament featured 64 players. Certain players had to withdraw from the competition due to flight difficulties, and are denoted below with a bye to their opponent. A w/d indicates a withdrawn player, whilst a w/o indicates a walkover. Players listed in bold denote match winners. ### Final ## Qualifying Qualifying matches were held between 10 and 13 June 2019 at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield, England. Matches involving Neil Robertson, Kishan Hirani, Mark Selby, Duane Jones, and Mark Williams, were planned to be played in Riga. All matches were best-of-seven frames. ## Century breaks ### Televised stage centuries A total of 19 centuries were made during the event. Jack Lisowski scored a 145, the highest break of the event. Mark Williams made his break of 137 in a held over match. - 145, 140, 119 – Jack Lisowski - 143 – Graeme Dott - 137 – Liam Highfield - 137 – Mark Williams - 127 – Daniel Wells - 126, 112, 109, 103 – Mark Joyce - 120 – Mei Xiwen - 112 – Kurt Maflin - 110 – Gary Wilson - 109, 104 – Tom Ford - 106 – Ricky Walden - 106 – Rod Lawler - 101 – Yan Bingtao ### Qualifying stage centuries During the pre-tournament qualification, 23 centuries were made. Dominic Dale scores the highest of these, with a break of 141. - 141 – Dominic Dale - 138 – Lu Ning - 136 – Yuan Sijun - 132, 112 – Thepchaiya Un-Nooh - 131 – David Grace - 131 – Oliver Lines - 131 – Ricky Walden - 129 – Anthony Hamilton - 128, 109 – Alan McManus - 125 – Michael Holt - 124 – Scott Donaldson - 120, 101 – Jamie O'Neill - 119 – Mei Xiwen - 112 – Jackson Page - 112 – Yang Qingtian - 109 – Chris Wakelin - 109 – Riley Parsons - 105 – Kurt Maflin - 103 – Joe O'Connor - 101 – Ian Burns

Sincerity Is Scary

"Sincerity Is Scary" is a song by the English band the 1975 from their third studio album, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships (2018). The song was written by band members Matty Healy, George Daniel, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald, while Daniel and Healy handled the song's production. It was released on 13 September 2018 by Dirty Hit and Polydor Records as the fourth single from the album. Contributions are featured from Roy Hargrove, who performs the trumpet, and the London Community Gospel Choir, who provide the choir vocals. Healy was inspired to write the song to confront his fear of sincerity, using postmodernism in the lyrics to denounce sardonicism and irony, choosing to portray vulnerability and honesty instead. An experimental neo soul, R\&B and neo jazz ballad, "Sincerity Is Scary" is built upon a hip hop beat. The song contains a hip hop production that incorporates layers of brass, trumpets, horns, saxophones, lounge piano riffs and a steady drum beat. It also draws from jazz, funk, indie pop, soul and lounge jazz. Thematically, the song highlights the problems of modern communication and critiques society for being generally cold and emotionless. Lyrically, Healy laments his partner for not being honest with herself and leading to a breakdown of their relationship. "Sincerity Is Scary" received generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics, who mostly praised the production, lyrics and thematic depth. Reviewers compared the song to A Tribe Called Quest, Gang Starr, the Soulquarians and Musiq Soulchild. It peaked at number 57 on the UK Singles Chart, number 84 in Scotland, number 66 in Ireland and number 20 on the US Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. The song was later certified silver in the United Kingdom by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). An accompanying music video, directed by Warren Fu, was released on 21 November 2018. Inspired by classic musical films, the visual features numerous references and Easter eggs related to the 1975's previous works. The video received positive reviews from contemporary critics, who praised the storyline, choreography and atmosphere, while it later appeared on several year-end lists. ## Background and development In an interview with Genius, Healy revealed that the process of creating "Sincerity Is Scary" was not calculated. The singer relied on his instincts, having learned that the 1975's best music was created by trusting themselves. He sought to denounce sardonicism and insincerity in the song's lyrics, saying it is easier for people to remain ironic and defensive in the face of adversity. Speaking to Zane Lowe of Apple Music's Beats 1 Radio, Healy revealed that the song is meant to denounce his postmodern fear of being authentic. He believed there was a widespread tendency among people to hide behind irony and shield themselves from judgment. Elaborating further on his use of postmodernism within "Sincerity Is Scary", the singer used self-awareness when developing the lyrics, recognizing certain defence mechanisms of his and correcting them by being "just a bit more open and a bit easier, and genuinely sincere". The 1975 collaborated with the London Community Gospel Choir on "Sincerity Is Scary", with them providing the choir vocals. After having previously worked with them on I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It, Healy lauded the choir as "amazing" and wanted them on A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships, saying: "It wouldn't really be a 1975 record without them on it." The London Community Gospel Choir recorded their vocals at Abbey Road's Studio Three, which were engineered by Chris Bolster with assistance from Daniel Hayden. Roy Hargrove, who collaborated with the band on their previous album, performs the trumpet on "Sincerity Is Scary". According to Healy, they were highly impressed by Hargrove's playing on D'Angelo's Voodoo (2000), calling his work "iconic". The singer felt intimidated by the instrumentalist, calling the experience: "So intense. You'd get him in the room and you'd be so scared." Hargrove died two months after the song's release, an event that Healy called "heartbreaking", noting the instrumentalist was the first non-band contributor to feature on one of the 1975's albums. The singer took to Twitter and encouraged the band's fanbase to listen to "If I Believe You" (2016) and "Sincerity Is Scary" in remembrance of Hargrove, who Healy assured "made those songs so special for us". ## Music and lyrics Musically, "Sincerity Is Scary" is an experimental neo soul, R\&B and neo jazz ballad built upon a hip hop beat. The song also contains elements of jazz, funk, indie pop, soul and lounge jazz. It has a length of three minutes and 45 seconds (3:45). According to sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Hal Leonard Music Publishing, "Sincerity Is Scary" is set in the time signature of common time with a slow tempo of 90 beats per minute. The track is composed in the key of A major, with Healy's vocals ranging between the notes of F♯₃ and F♯₄. It follows a chord progression of Dmaj–E♯dim–F♯m–G9. The song's hip hop production contains gentle sounds, gospel choirs, billowing trumpet lines, dragging beats, delicate guitar chords, soothing keyboard arrangements, piano riffs, a steady drum beat, synths and smooth layers of brass. It features waves of instrumentation composed of slow drums, smooth saxophones, intentionally scattered trumpets, horns and a loungey piano. "Sincerity Is Scary" features contributions from Hargrove, who performs the trumpet, and the London Community Gospel Choir, who provide the choir vocals. Thematically, "Sincerity Is Scary" deals with modern communication problems, allowing oneself to be vulnerable, Healy's limitations as a songwriter and his struggle with heroin. Lyrically, "Sincerity Is Scary" critiques society at large for being cold and emotionless. As the song begins, Healy highlights the irony of insincerity and accuses people of hiding behind their feelings. In the chorus, he describes being in a relationship with a woman who is not honest with herself, inhibiting a closer emotional bond between the pair. However, trying to address this problem puts a strain on their relationship: "Why can't we be friends, when we are lovers? / 'Cause it always ends with us hating each other". Later, Healy addresses social media surveillance, self-knowledge and a communication breakdown ("And why would you believe you could control how you're perceived / When at your best, you're intermediately versed in your own feelings?") and derides her inability to mature and start a family ("Keep on putting off conceiving / It's only you that you're deceiving / Oh, don't have a child, don't cramp your style"). Rhian Daly of NME observed the premise of "Sincerity Is Scary" to be Healy's dismantling of his ironic defences. He considered the lyrics "You lack substance when you say / Something like, 'Oh, what a shame'" to be self-referential, noting the later phrase is used multiple times throughout I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It. Jarrod Johnson II of Paste felt the song addresses the mental hurdles of reduced transparency and honesty in modern-day relationships, both socially and romantically. Maura Johnston of Rolling Stone interpreted religious undertones, calling it "a shuffling rumination on the gaps between people that underscores Healy's hoped-for leap into faith". Matt Collar of AllMusic compared the track to the work of D'Angelo. Marissa Lorusso of NPR noted that the chorus of voices in the refrain are evocative of the "more touching" numbers on the 1975's second studio album, while Joe Goggins of Drowned in Sound said the inclusion of Hargrove is more specifically reminiscent of the band's "If I Believe You". Echoing Goggins' statements, Caitlin Ison of Atwood Magazine said both songs share sonic similarities owing to the use of gospel choirs in their choruses. ## Release and reception "Sincerity Is Scary" was released as a single on 13 September 2018; the song was met with generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics. Chris DeVille of Stereogum deemed "Sincerity Is Scary" the 15th-best pop song of 2018, while Frazier Tharpe of Complex declared it the fifth-best song of the year. Johnston deemed the song a highlight from A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships. Robin Murray of Clash praised the 1975's incorporation of jazz in "Sincerity Is Scary" and noted influences of A Tribe Called Quest and Gang Starr that are "filtered through a 1975 lens". Goggins commended Hargrove's contribution. Danny Chau of The Ringer said the song was one of the most surprising stylistic choices on the album, praising Hargrove's contribution and comparing the composition to the Soulquarians and Musiq Soulchild. Shannon Cotton of Gigwise called the song smooth and sultry, saying it "makes you feel like you should be sat on the rooftop of a New York apartment, with a cigarette in one hand and an expensive glass of red wine in the other, gazing at the skyline". Ross Horton of musicOMH praised the fun and "sexy" sound of "Sincerity Is Scary" and the London Community Gospel Choir's inclusion, saying he could image listeners repeatedly listening to it. Daly praised the stark yet warm composition and lyrical depth, saying: "[Healy's] attempts at [sincerity] are still as beautiful and thought-provoking as his lyrics at the other end of the spectrum. This time, he just feels a lot more human." Marina Pedrosa of Billboard highlighted the contrast of the song's emotionally-charged lyrics against the uplifting sonics and graceful melody. Lorusso declared it the most exciting single from A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationship, praising Healy for providing an earnestness that "positions him as a try-hard worth rooting for". Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone said "Sincerity Is Scary" serves as a "reminder that sincerity is worth flexing every once in a while", commenting that its subject matter matches the band's sonic dichotomy. She observed the underlying message to be a confrontation with society's desire to hide insecurities by presenting a brighter facade. Isabella Castro-Cota of Spin commented that the song's lyrics are performed through "a more honest lens". Ison commended the 1975 for exploring a larger, more serious topic, while remaining approachable through a fun and feel-good sound. Althea Legaspi of Rolling Stone highlighted the earnest sentimentality of the lyrics and the warm chorus of voices on the hook. Gil Green of Stereogum praised Healy for "working towards some innovative angle that never quite means what you think". In a mixed review of "Sincerity Is Scary", Claire Biddles of The Line of Best Fit deemed it one of the few missteps on A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationship. While she praised the laid-back music style, Biddles found the lyrics "painfully close to the faux-authenticity of a charity single". Similarly, Libby Cudmore of Paste called the song a "stupefying mess" and the album's accidental thesis. While she praised the composition and songwriting, Cudmore felt the 1975 were attempting to incorporate too many genres at once. In a negative review, Roisin O'Connor of The Independent compared "Sincerity Is Scary" to a throwaway Ed Sheeran song, calling it a "sickly ballad that frontman Matty Healy claimed was about dismantling his ironic shield, but if anything this sounds as false and insincere as anything else they've released before". Commercially, "Sincerity Is Scary" performed modestly on international music charts. In the 1975's native United Kingdom, the song peaked at number 57 on the UK Singles Chart and number 84 in Scotland. Internationally, it reached number 66 in Ireland and number 20 on the US Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. "Sincerity Is Scary" was later certified silver in the United Kingdom by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), denoting sales of over 200,000 units. ## Music video ### Development and release To create the music video for "Sincerity Is Scary", the 1975 worked alongside director Warren Fu. It was filmed on a fake American street located on a set at Walt Disney Studios in Los Angeles, California. The video was inspired by classic musical films such as Singin' in the Rain (1952) and My Sister Eileen (1955). Healy was also influenced by more recent musicals, specifically La La Land (2016), saying: "I grew up wanting to be a dancer [...] I was obsessed with Michael Jackson." Building upon a Hollywood musical theme, Healy and Fu spent several months brainstorming ideas before filming. They sought to incorporate a supporting cast of chorus girls, dancers and marching bands. Speaking on his experience working with Healy, Fu said: "When it comes to music videos, it never ceases to amaze me when sketches on a whim materialise in person a few days later on set. There's no better feeling." Much of the video was shot using a whip pan technique to create an "endless" flow, while Healy invented other production techniques himself, such as using a treadmill to create an optical illusion that he is continuously walking on the same spot. Overall, the singer called the video his proudest visual, describing it as a "good bowl of soup levels wholesome". On 26 October 2018, Healy teased the video on Twitter, posting a photo of the band from an NME photoshoot alongside a caption reading: "Sincerity Is Scary Video". On both the occasions, the singer wore a rabbit hat that Shahlin Graves of Coup de Main compared to the 2009 film Where the Wild Things Are. The video was later released on 21 November. Upon release, Healy challenged the 1975's fanbase to find all the Easter eggs hidden in the visual. The rabbit hat worn by the singer was later made available for purchase on the band's official website, labelled as the "Sincerity Hat". ### Synopsis The video begins with Healy waking up in his all-white bedroom. A framed photo is shown on the wall, captured from an avant-garde art performance by Joseph Beuys entitled I Like America and America Likes Me, a nod to the band's song of the same name. As he sits up, a clock is shown with four hands, pointed at numbers one, nine, seven and five–spelling out the 1975's name; this is why an extra hand was added. The singer puts on the rabbit hat and a pair of headphones before exiting the house–shown to be located at street number 1975–in a 1990s inspired outfit. While initially shown to be drowsy, Healy's demeanour changes to joyful, and he skips down the stairs toward the street wearing a backpack. Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, Healy begins to sing the song on the bright, busy and colourful street, greeting strangers and sharing kindness as he performs retro choreography. No Rome makes a cameo in the scene, greeting the singer while wearing a spacesuit and walking his Dalmatian. Continuing his walk down the street, Healy encounters a man wearing a paper bag over his head that reads "A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships". The man also holds a newspaper with the headline "Modernity has failed us", a lyric from "Love It If We Made It". The singer steals flowers and grabs one to give to an older woman watering her plants. Healy continues walking the street before falling into a hole in the ground, immediately emerging from a nearby building. He engages in a dance-off with a well-dressed man in the street, reminiscent of the video for the band's "A Change of Heart" (2016), and the pair swap outfits out of frame. The singer performs a dance sequence evocative of Jackson and gives his hat to a child before dashing to a lamppost, swinging around it in reference to Gene Kelly. As the camera pans, Healy emerges from a different house and is greeted by a choir of women on the steps. The women, dressed in pantsuits, are meant to represent women in the United States Congress. After performing the chorus with them on the road, the singer performs a football trick and plays a game of hopscotch with one of the children. In a cartoonish fashion, he then rushes to save MacDonald from a falling piano that crashes onto the sidewalk as the chorus starts. The camera pans again to show Healy in front of a theatre as the sky fades into a sunset, changing the visual to a rosy hue. The signage outside the theatre reads "La poesie est dans la rue", meaning "the poetry is in the streets", a reoccurring motif that appears in several of the 1975's works, including the videos for "Love It If We Made It" and "Robbers" (2014). Healy performs the final chorus and bridge and is joined by the choir of women and a marching band. A little girl, dressed in mime makeup and holding an umbrella, stands with Healy out front of the theatre. Her attire is a nod to the 1975's video for "A Change of Heart", where the singer dons a similar appearance and plays a mime. While she is initially shown in black and white, Healy climbs up a ladder and pours water on her using a watering can, with the girl's appearance being restored to full colour. As the video concludes, the camera pans off into a pink sky. ### Reception and controversy Upon release, the "Sincerity Is Scary" music video was well-received by contemporary critics. Tom Breihan of Stereogum gave the video a positive review, saying it "fucking rules". He compared the visual to the 2010 film Step Up 3, saying: "Healy goes into a series of full-on charming and ridiculous old-timey movie-musical dance routines." Ryan Reed of Rolling Stone declared it a "joyously surreal" sidewalk musical. The Dork editorial staff compared the visual to a mix between the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Fred Astaire, praising Healy's dancing, "winningly likeable smile and [the] spring in his step". Shea Lenniger of Billboard commended the visual, calling it charming, while Graves deemed the music video a "must-watch" and called it heartwarming. Melissa LaGrotta of Soundigest echoed Graves' second comment, saying the video is heartwarming. Daly gave the video a very positive review, saying: "Much like the song it accompanies, [the video will] make you feel a different kind of way than you'd typically expect The 1975 to make you feel – warm, fuzzy, and overflowing with positivity." Philip Cosores of Uproxx deemed it a "joyful dance party on the city streets". Patrick Campbell of Don't Bore Us called the visual "incredibly fun" and praised the less-serious tone in comparison to the previous videos released from A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships. Maggie Serota of Spin wrote: "['Sincerity Is Scary'] has everything, up to and including choreography, sick soccer moves, a child in corpse paint, and what appears to be one long tracking shot." Rosie Byers of Wonderland declared the visual one of the seven best music videos of 2018, calling it "unapologetically wholesome". Breihan ranked "Sincerity Is Scary" as the 16th-best music video of 2018, describing it as a "gloriously sunny, weirdly endearing pop-music hallucination". Hannah Mylrea of NME included the video on her year-end music videos list, commending the visual beauty, Easter eggs and dance routines, while calling it "gorgeous". Billboard declared "Sincerity Is Scary" the 15th-best video of 2018, with C.S. praising the 1975's successful execution of the musical-inspired concept, self-awareness and memorability, commenting it is "very fun". Daniel Welsh of HuffPost ranked the visual at number 18 on his year-end music videos list, writing it is: "At once both completely pretentious and utterly silly, which is actually a perfect description of the band themselves." Grant Sharples of Alternative Press included "Sincerity Is Scary" on his list of 10 music videos from the 1975 that should be made into feature-length films. Describing the visual, Sharples said it "is so charming and charismatic that it virtually begs the listener to smile and sing along". On 16 January 2020, Lauv released his music video for "Tattoos Together". The 1975's fanbase quickly drew similarities between the two videos, noting both visuals featured the singers dancing in the street, accompanied by dancers in a Broadway-style fashion in front of similar backdrops. After receiving criticism over accusations of plagiarism, Lauv posted a public apology on Twitter, saying: "[I] wanna be one to own up to shit, [I'm] sorry." He posted a photo showing a text message conversation between himself and Healy, saying he is a "massive fan" who heavily respects the 1975 and made "an honest mistake [...] [I] want to do whatever [I] can to make this right". Healy humorously replied, "[your] mums a hoe", telling Lauv he did not mind the similarities and encouraged him to post a screenshot of the messages in response to the criticism. He ended the conversation by saying: "Let's all love making music." ## Live performances The 1975 played "Sincerity Is Scary" live at the 2019 Brit Awards. The band's performance mirrored the song's music video, featuring Healy wearing a knit hat, a backpack, a pair of headphones and a tuxedo. Host Jack Whitehall described Healy's attire as "half James Bond, half Japanese schoolgirl". Healy also used the same moving conveyor belt from the video, creating the feeling of constant motion. The 1975 performed "Sincerity Is Scary" as part of their setlist for the Coachella Festival on 12 April. For the song, they included the Jaiy Twins from their Music for Cars Tour and incorporated the travelator into the front of the stage to recreate Healy's choreography from the music video. Included as part of the tour's setlist, the band replicated the video for "Sincerity Is Scary", including the backdrop of the houses and the built-in treadmill, while dancing in the streets. ## Credits and personnel Credits adapted from A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships album liner notes. - Matthew Healy – composer, producer, keyboards, vocals - George Daniel – composer, producer, programming, drums, keyboards, synthesizer programming, background vocals - Adam Hann – composer, guitar - Ross MacDonald – composer, bass guitar - Roy Hargrove – trumpet - London Community Gospel Choir – choir vocals - Guendoline Rome Viray Gomez – programming, keyboards - Jonathan Gilmore – recording engineer - Luke Gibbs – assistant recording engineer - Robin Schmidt – mastering engineer - Mike Crossey – mixer ## See also - The 1975 discography - List of songs by Matty Healy ## Charts ## Certifications

Skagen Painters

Late 1870s–early 1900s group of Scandinavian artists

The Skagen Painters () were a group of Scandinavian artists who gathered in the village of Skagen, the northernmost part of Denmark, from the late 1870s until the turn of the century. Skagen was a summer destination whose scenic nature, local milieu and social community attracted northern artists to paint en plein air, emulating the French Impressionists—though members of the Skagen colony were also influenced by Realist movements such as the Barbizon school. They broke away from the rather rigid traditions of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, espousing the latest trends that they had learned in Paris. Among the group were Anna and Michael Ancher, Peder Severin Krøyer, Holger Drachmann, Karl Madsen, Laurits Tuxen, Marie Krøyer, Carl Locher, Viggo Johansen and Thorvald Niss from Denmark, Oscar Björck and Johan Krouthén from Sweden, and Christian Krohg and Eilif Peterssen from Norway. The group gathered together regularly at the Brøndums Hotel. Skagen, in the very north of Jutland, was the largest fishing community in Denmark, with more than half of its population so engaged. Among the locals, fishermen were by far the most common subject for the Skagen painters. Skagen's long beaches were exploited in the group's landscapes; P.S. Krøyer, one of the best known of the Skagen painters, was inspired by the light of the evening "blue hour", which made the water and sky seem to optically merge. This is captured in one of his most famous paintings, Summer Evening at Skagen Beach – The Artist and his Wife (1899). Although the painters had their own individual styles without any requirement to adhere to a common approach or manifest, one of their common interests was to paint scenes of their own social gatherings, playing cards, celebrating or simply eating together. Michael Ancher drew attention to the attractions of the area when his Will He Round the Point? (1885) was purchased by King Christian IX. He married Anna Brøndum, the only member of the group from Skagen, who became a pioneering female artist at a time when women were not permitted to study at Denmark's Royal Academy. Today the Skagens Museum, founded in the dining room at Brøndum's Hotel in October 1908, hosts many of their works of art, some 1,800 pieces in total. Many of the paintings have been digitized under the Google Art Project and are accessible online. Related exhibitions continue to be held; in 2008, the Arken Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen presented "The Skagen Painters—In a New Light", and in 2013, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. presented "A World Apart: Anna Ancher and the Skagen Art Colony". ## History The first notable artist to paint in Skagen was Martinus Rørbye (1803–1848), one of the central figures of the Golden Age of Danish Painting. His first visit was in 1833 but he returned towards the end of his life in 1847 and 1848. He is remembered in particular for his Men of Skagen on a Summer Evening in Fair Weather painted in 1848. Another marine painter, Vilhelm Melbye (1824–1882), visited Skagen in 1848, painting his View over Skagen. According to Karl Madsen, the painter Peter Raadsig (1806–1882) also visited the town on several occasions between 1862 and 1870, painting the dunes and the fishermen. Christian Blache (1838–1920), another marine painter, first visited Skagen in 1869 when he painted his Grey Lighthouse. It was as a result of his influence that the poet and dramatist Holger Drachmann first visited the town in 1871. In the 1860s and 1870s, despite evolving trends in Europe, especially in Paris, embracing Realism and Impressionism, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts refused to change their approach, insisting their students should continue to paint in the preferred styles of Historicism and Neoclassicism. Among those who were increasingly frustrated by this approach were Michael Ancher, Karl Madsen and Viggo Johansen who in the early 1870s were studying at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen. Madsen, who had already visited Skagen in 1871 while staying with his uncle in nearby Frederikshavn, invited Ancher to join him there in 1874, to paint the local fishermen. He became a friend of the Brøndum family, who had a shop with a bar which was soon extended to become Brøndums Gastgiveri, a guest house. He was invited to their 15-year-old daughter Anna's confirmation and showed an immediate interest in her. The following year, he returned to Skagen with both Madsen and Viggo Johansen, who had been strongly influenced by French Impressionism. In particular, Johansen began to paint open-air scenes combining Impressionism with Realism. In 1876 and especially in 1877, several other artists spent the summer in Skagen, using the Brøndums' house for accommodation and their frequent gatherings. Michael Ancher made Skagen his new home. He became engaged to Anna Brøndum in 1878 and married her in 1880. Their home then became a focal point for the artists, especially after King Christian IX bought Ancher's painting Will He Round the Point?. Anna Ancher first took a serious interest in painting after the artists began to stay in her family's inn, leaving their paintings to dry in their rooms when they left for the day. She studied them carefully and in 1875 attended Vilhelm Kyhn's art school in Copenhagen. She was later influenced by Christian Krohg, who taught her the art of painting people in their everyday lives and making full use of colour. Krohg first came to Skagen in the summer of 1878, encouraged by Georg Brandes, whom he had met in Berlin. He brought many of the latest international art trends with him, influencing the other members of the group. His encounters with the local population also exerted a strong influence on his own work. In 1882, the Anchers travelled abroad. While they were in Vienna, they met P.S. Krøyer, who informed them he would also be going to Skagen that year, despite the fact that Ancher was apparently not too keen to have him there. Krøyer, who had enjoyed close contacts with several Impressionist artists in Paris, immediately became the central member and unofficial leader of the artists' colony. In 1883, he created the "Evening Academy" where the artists gathered to paint and discuss each other's work, often enjoying champagne. In 1884, the German painter Fritz Stoltenberg took photographs of the artists celebrating in the Anchers' garden, just after the couple had moved into their new home. One of these photos in particular inspired Krøyer to paint Hip, Hip, Hurrah\!, which took him four years to complete. In 1890, the railway's arrival in Skagen not only led to the expansion of the village but also brought in considerable numbers of tourists. It was largely responsible for breaking up the regular summer meetings of the artists as they could no longer find suitable accommodation or venues for their meetings. However, some of them purchased homes in Skagen: P.S. Krøyer in 1894, Laurits Tuxen in 1901 and Holger Drachmann in 1903. Anna and Michael Ancher, Krøyer and Tuxen continued to paint in Skagen until well into the 20th century and were occasionally joined by their earlier friends. Two core members of the group, Drachmann and Krøyer, died in 1908 and 1909, bringing the traditional gatherings of the group to an end. There were nevertheless other painters, sometimes referred to as the younger group of Skagen painters, who continued to visit the area. They included Jørgen Aabye, Tupsy and Gad Frederik Clement, Ella Heide, Ludvig Karsten, Frederik Lange and Johannes Wilhjelm, some of whom settled in the area until the 1930s or even later. Skagens Museum has a number of their works in its collection. Another notable artist who visited Skagen from 1906 was J.F. Willumsen, who painted Children Bathing on Skagen Beach in 1909. ## Family relationships The Skagen painters quickly began to form a close-knit community as relationships grew between the artists and the young women from the area. In 1880, Michael Ancher married Anna Brøndum from the guest house, Viggo Johansen married Martha Møller, Anna's cousin, and Karl Madsen married Henriette Møller, Martha's sister. Henriette died the next year in giving birth to a boy, named Henry Sofus Madsen (1881–1921). Until Karl Madsen remarried, Martha helped to take care of the boy. The house the Anchers moved into in 1884 became a focus for the artists' colony, especially as the couple lived there all the year round. When their daughter Helga (the little girl in Hip, Hip, Hurrah\!) died in 1964, she left the house to a foundation which soon turned it into a museum. The Johansens acquired a large family between 1881 and 1886: Ellen Henriette (who became an artist and was presumably named after Martha's sister Henriette who died in childbirth three months earlier), Fritz, Lars, Gerda and Bodil. They can be seen dancing around the Christmas tree in Johansen's painting Merry Christmas. Another key figure in Skagen, P.S. Krøyer, married Marie Triepcke after falling in love with her in Paris in 1888. The daughter of a prosperous German loomery engineer, she was said to be the most beautiful woman in Copenhagen. However, as the years went by, Krøyer's health began to deteriorate and Marie was increasingly unhappy with their marriage. The marriage finally ended in a divorce in 1905 when Marie became pregnant after an affair with the composer Hugo Alfvén, whom she then married. Krøyer died in Skagen four years later, apparently as a result of mental illness. In 1901, after the death of his first wife Ursule, Laurits Tuxen married Frederikke Treschow, a Norwegian, and shortly afterwards purchased Madam Bendsen's house in Skagen where first Viggo and Martha Johansen and later Marie and P.S. Krøyer had stayed in the 1880s. He converted it into a stately summer residence. Michael Ancher and Laurits Tuxen died in 1927, Anna Ancher and Viggo Johansen in 1935. ## Members of the group The principal Danish painters included Karl Madsen, Laurits Tuxen, Marie Krøyer, Carl Locher, Viggo Johansen, Thorvald Niss, and most notably, Anna and Michael Ancher and Peder Severin Krøyer. There were also painters from the rest of Scandinavia including Oscar Björck and Johan Krouthén from Sweden and Christian Krohg and Eilif Peterssen from Norway. The gatherings in Skagen were not restricted to painters. The Danish writers Georg Brandes, Holger Drachmann and Henrik Pontoppidan and the Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén were also members of the group. A number of other artists also joined the Skagen Painters for shorter periods. From Denmark they included Vilhelm Kyhn, Einar Hein and Frederik Lange, from Norway Frits Thaulow, Charles Lundh and Wilhelm Peters, from Sweden Wilhelm von Gegerfelt and Anna Palm de Rosa, from Germany Fritz Stoltenberg and Julius Runge, and from England Adrian Stokes and his Austrian-born wife, Marianne Stokes. The Danish composer Carl Nielsen and his wife Anne Marie, a sculptor, also spent summers in Skagen and eventually bought a summerhouse there. ### Anna Ancher The only member of the group born in Skagen, Anna Ancher (1859–1935), was the daughter of Erik Brøndum, the owner of the grocery shop and guest house which later became Brøndums Hotel. Inspired by the artists who stayed there, she received her first lessons from Karl Madsen, Viggo Johansen and Michael Ancher. From 1875, she spent several winters in Copenhagen at Vilhelm Kyhn's school for women painters. As a result of her portraits of family and friends as well as her skills as a colourist, she is considered to be one of Denmark's finest artists although all her talents were not fully appreciated until after her death. Her works depict scenes from the home, children and women and religious life in Skagen. She now stands out as a pioneer at a time when women were not expected to become artists and were not admitted to the Royal Danish Academy. Unlike her husband, she adopted a style of Realism, inspired above all by Christian Krohg. Commenting on her Blind Woman (1882) in which the face is illuminated in an otherwise dark portrait, Madsen pointed out that she was the first Danish artist to depict a sunbeam. Her most cherished works include Girl in the Kitchen (1886), Sunlight in the Blue Room (1891) and A Mission Meeting (1903). ### Michael Ancher Michael Ancher (1849–1927), originally from the island of Bornholm, was invited to Skagen in 1874 by his friend Karl Madsen with whom he was studying at the academy. In 1880, he married Anna Brøndum and settled in Skagen. He achieved his artistic breakthrough in 1879 with the painting Will he Round the Point? which was bought by Christian IX. Several other works by Ancher depict Skagen's heroic fishermen and their dramatic experiences at sea, combining Realism and with classical composition. Key works include The Lifeboat is Carried Through The Dunes (1883), The Crew Are Saved (1894) and The Drowned Man (1896). He also painted portraits and landscapes, especially of Skagen's Østerby district. Many of his paintings can be seen in Skagens Museum. Michael Ancher has become one of Denmark's most cherished painters. ### P.S. Krøyer Born in Stavanger, Norway, but brought up in Copenhagen, Peder Severin Krøyer (1851–1909) came to Skagen in 1882 and returned almost every summer, finally settling there after marrying Marie Triepcke in 1889. He had already gained a reputation for his paintings of the fishermen in Hornbæk on the north coast of Zealand and had been influenced by the Impressionist movement in his travels to France. In Skagen, he became one of the central and most enthusiastic members of the group of painters, creating masterpieces emphasizing the special effects of the local light in his beach scenes while painting several memorable works recording the lively gatherings of the artists. Key works include Summer Evening on Skagen's Southern Beach (1893), In the Grocer's Store When There is No Fishing (1892), and Midsummer Eve Bonfire on Skagen Beach (1906) which shows many members of the community including Krøyer's daughter Vibeke, mayor Otto Schwartz and his wife Alba Schwartz, Michael Ancher, Degn Brøndum, Anna Ancher, Holger Drachmann and his third wife Soffi, Hugo Alfvén and Marie Krøyer. ### Viggo Johansen Viggo Johansen (1851–1935), who had studied at the Royal Academy with Michael Ancher (also without graduating), first went to Skagen in 1875. An active member of the group, he married Anna Ancher's cousin Martha Møller in 1880. From 1885, he exhibited in Paris where he was inspired by Claude Monet. His paintings took on lighter tones as he had noted the absence of black in the works of the French artists and considered his own earlier works too dark by comparison. Monet's use of colour is reflected in his painting Christian Bindslev is ill (1890). The work displays stronger contrasts than his earlier paintings, depicting the red-bearded Christian looking out towards the light at the foot of his bed where the flaming gold and white sunlight streams down onto the little blue cupboard on the wall. Among the works he painted in Skagen are Kitchen Interior (1884) which depicts his wife Martha arranging flowers, and the much brighter Dividing the Catch (1885) showing four fishermen who have pulled their boat up onto the beach while one of their wives hopes there will be something for the evening meal. After falling out with P.S. Krøyer in 1891, Johansen's relationship with the Anchers was strained and he and his family did not visit Skagen for several years but finally returned in 1903. In 1906, he became a professor at the Royal Academy where he was director from 1911 to 1914. ### Carl Locher Somewhat forgotten today, Carl Locher (1851–1915) was one of the earlier visitors to Skagen. Holgen Drachmann, who had taught him before he attended the Royal Academy, persuaded him to go there in 1872. Especially interested in marine painting, Locher adopted a realist impressionistic approach, influenced by the time he spent with Léon Bonnat in Paris during the 1870s. A stickler for perfection, especially in his drawings, his works cover the transition from sailing ships to steamships and from the original Skagen to the evolving tourist destination. His paintings include Fishing Cutters in the Moonlit Night, 1888, The Lightship at Skagen Reef (1892) and above all The Mail Coach (c. 1890) which depicts the horse-drawn carriage which until the railway reached Skagen in 1890 was the way travellers arrived there from Frederikshavn. In 1910, Locher built a house overlooking the beach at Skagen Østerby where he painted until he died of heart trouble in 1913. ### Laurits Tuxen Born and raised in Copenhagen, Laurits Tuxen (1853–1927) studied at the Royal Danish Academy together with P.S. Krøyer where he was considered to be one of the best painters. In 1875, he began to study in Paris in Léon Bonnat's studio with whom he also worked in subsequent years. His Suzanna i Badet (1878), first painted in Paris, was warmly received in the Copenhagen spring exhibition in 1879. He first visited Skagen in 1870 but after a few more visits in the 1870s, did not return until 1901. After his first wife died of tuberculosis, he married the Norwegian Frederikke Treschow and bought a house in Skagen. There he painted a number of pictures depicting family and friends as well as landscapes. Among the works from Skagen are The North Sea in Stormy Weather (1909), the powerful The Drowned Boy is Brought Ashore (1913) inspired by paintings of drownings he saw in France and Pouring the Morning Coffee (1906) depicting Tuxen's wife Frederikke and his daughters Yvonne and Nina in their Skagen home, Villa Dagminne. Through his use of colour, brushstrokes and backlighting through the window flowers, the artist creates a homely atmosphere. Tuxen's most famous paintings are however his portraits of European royal personalities, including Christian IX of Denmark, Queen Victoria and Czar Nicholas II. ### Christian Krohg The Norwegian Christian Krohg (1852–1925) first visited Skagen with Frits Thaulow in 1879. One of the most important figures in Norwegian art, he first studied law but his interest in art was triggered by his friendship with fellow student Eilif Peterssen. He attended J.F. Eckersberg's painting school in Christiania (now Oslo) before moving to Karlsruhe and Berlin where he studied under Karl Gussow, specializing in figure painting in the new idiom of Realism. In Berlin, he also developed a friendship with Georg Brandes. In 1879 he returned to Christiania before travelling to Skagen where he achieved his artistic breakthrough, attracted by the simple lives of the local fishermen. Depicting a fisherman at sea, his Babord litt (1879) is considered to be one of his early masterpieces. His association with Ancher, Krøyer and the other members of the colony had a marked effect on his style as can be seen in the works he painted on returning to Norway. He went to Paris in 1881–82, where was influenced by Édouard Manet and the Impressionist movement. His experience of French art can be seen in several of his later Skagen paintings, including Tired (1885) and Braiding Her Hair (1888) in which the mother and child unusually have their backs facing the observer. His lighter palette with bold brushstrokes and contrasting tones of blue, red and green give the painting a deeper texture. ### Marie Krøyer Marie Krøyer née Triepcke (1867–1940) came from a well-to-do German family living in Copenhagen. From an early age she aspired to become an artist and after training privately she went to Paris to continue her studies. It was there, in early 1889, that she met Krøyer, who immediately fell madly in love with her. Although he was 16 years her senior, the couple married that summer. In 1891, they settled in Skagen, giving Krøyer ample opportunity to paint portraits of Marie, both indoors and especially on the beach. The summers Krøyer spent together with his wife in the 1890s were clearly a source of inspiration for him, especially as Marie had a strong sense of beauty herself, often quoting Keats' "Beauty is truth, truth beauty". As a result of the periods of mental illness Krøyer experienced from 1900, the marriage fell apart. In 1912, she married Hugo Alfvén, who had also been taken by her beauty. It is believed Marie was reluctant to paint after meeting Krøyer, whom she looked up to as a far more competent artist. A few of her works have nevertheless survived, including Interior with Girl Sewing. ## Styles of painting Encouraged by the Modern Breakthrough movement led by Georg Brandes, the early painters were attracted by Skagen's village community, its seascapes and culture, all far removed from the effects of industrialization on city life. Their painting styles evolved from the formal Neoclassical approach of the Royal Academy in Copenhagen to embrace the evolving European trends in Realism and Impressionism, including the plein air approach adopted by the Barbizon School. The artists were especially attracted by the opportunities for painting en plein air, focusing on the activities of the local fishermen and their modest cottages. In the absence of any rules within the colony, the painters freely developed their individual styles. Nevertheless, one of the interests they shared was to paint scenes of their own social gatherings, whether playing cards, celebrating or simply eating together. By adopting the plein-air approach, the painters were able to create their works in the open, immediately capturing the special effects of light and colour on their subjects. Fishermen were considered an especially interesting group in view of their dangerous work and their heroic behaviour. Lars Kruse, depicted by Michael Ancher, was famous for his success in rescuing a number of sailors who would otherwise have drowned. P.S. Krøyer's works were less dramatic, depicting fishermen pulling their nets in after a day at sea. While some of the paintings portrayed authentic occurrences, the artists often paid the fishermen to act as models, supplementing their modest incomes. Krøyer's works also included scenes of walks on the beach, romantic evenings in the moonlight and portraits of his wife Marie. As time went by, Krøyer increasingly painted "moods", works which depicted the special atmosphere of the "Blue Hour" which developed in the evening as the sky merged with the sea. In addition to his commissions from the royal courts of Europe, Laurits Tuxen is remembered for painting the flowers in his garden. Anna Ancher's paintings, on the other hand, focused on interiors of the home, including women and children, in a more abstract, colouristic style. ## Skagens Museum Skagens Museum was founded in the dining room at Brøndums Hotel in October 1908. Victor Christian Klæbel, the local pharmacist, Degn Brøndum, proprietor of Brøndums Hotel and Anna Ancher's brother, and Michael Ancher, Krøyer and Tuxen were elected to form the first board of governors. After P.S. Krøyer's death in 1909, his house in Skagen Plantation was used as a museum. In 1919, Degn Brøndum donated the old hotel's garden to Skagens Museum as a site for a new building. Work started in 1926 and was completed in September 1928 when the new museum was officially opened. In 1982, the exhibition rooms were extended with an annex designed by the Royal Surveyor, architect Jacob Blegvad, who also planned the later extension to the museum inaugurated in 1989. In 1997, the museum administration moved into the Technical School. In 2014, the museum underwent a substantial, two-year extension of its main building, as well as a merger with the two historic house museums Anchers Hus and Drachmanns Hus. Today the collection now total almost 9,000 works. A selection of these works are on display at Skagens Museum. Many of the museum's paintings have been digitized under the Google Art Project and are accessible online. ## Films The Skagen artists were the subject of the 1987 film Hip Hip Hurra\! by the Swedish director Kjell Grede, inspired by Krøyer's famous painting. In 2012, the film The Passion of Marie, directed by Bille August, dramatized Marie's increasingly difficult relationship with her husband P.S. Krøyer. The film is based on the book Balladen om Marie by Anastassia Arnold. ## Exhibitions There have been a number of exhibitions of the Skagen Painters in recent years. In 2008, the Arken Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen presented "The Skagen Painters — In a New Light", contrasting the paintings depicting the artists with those of the fishermen. In 2011, the Hirschsprung Museum in Copenhagen succeeded in arranging the largest exhibition of Krøyer's work titled : "Krøyer—i internationalt lys" (Krøyer—in international light), with works from museums and private collections in France, Germany, the United States and Scandinavia. The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. presented "A World Apart: Anna Ancher and the Skagen Art Colony" in 2013. It was the largest exhibition of Anna Ancher's paintings ever held in the United States. In 2014, Skagens Museum, which frequently presents new aspects of the work of the Skagen Painters, concentrated its efforts on "Laurits Tuxen—colour, countryside and crown", presenting many works held in private collections illustrating the artist's involvement in establishing Kunstnernes Studieskole (The Artists' School of Study) in Copenhagen as well as his work as a court painter. A major exhibition of paintings by the Skagen Painters titled Michael Ancher – P.S. Krøyer: Venner og Rivaler (Friends and Rivals) is to be held at Arken, Copenhagen from 27 September 2014 to 12 April 2015. ## Gallery of paintings The gallery presents a selection of paintings by the Skagen artists, roughly in chronological order. ## See also - Art of Denmark - Bornholm school of painters - Funen Painters - Odsherred Painters - Artists' colony

1942 Belize hurricane

Category 2 Atlantic hurricane in 1942

The 1942 Belize hurricane was one of only two known hurricanes to strike Belize in the month of November, alongside Hurricane Lisa in 2022. The thirteenth observed tropical cyclone, eleventh tropical storm, and fourth hurricane of the 1942 Atlantic hurricane season, this storm was detected in the vicinity of Turks and Caicos Islands on November 5. Initially a tropical storm, it strengthened slowly while moving westward and then south-southwestward across the Bahamas. On November 6, the storm became a Category 1 hurricane on the modern day Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale. Later that day, it made landfall in Cayo Romano, Camagüey Province, Cuba. Impact in Cuba and the Bahamas was limited to lower barometric pressure readings and strong winds. While crossing Cuba, the system weakened to a tropical storm early on November 7, shortly before emerging into the Caribbean Sea. The storm re-strengthened into a hurricane later that day and headed southwestward. Late on November 8, this system curved westward and intensified into a Category 2 hurricane. Six hours later, it peaked with winds of 110 mph (175 km/h). Early on November 9, the storm struck Caye Caulker and northern Belize District. Rapidly weakening, the system fell to tropical storm status within 12 hours of landfall. By early on November 10, it emerged into the Bay of Campeche. The storm meandered erratically until striking the Yucatán Peninsula on November 11 and dissipating hours later. Strong winds were observed in Belize and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Severe damage was reported in the former. About 90% of structures in San Pedro Town were destroyed, while Newtown was obliterated, causing its residents to relocate and establish the village of Hopkins. Trees and crops such as coconuts also suffered heavy losses. Overall, nine deaths and approximately $4 million (1942 USD) in damage were reported. ## Meteorological history A tropical wave moved through the West Indies between November 3 and November 4. The wave reached the vicinity of Turks and Caicos Islands on November 5, where it developed into a tropical storm at 0000 UTC. The storm moved north-northwestward and then westward across the southern Bahamas. A ridge aloft blocked the storm's westward progress and caused it to re-curve west-southwestward on November 6. The system strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane at 1200 UTC on the modern day Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale. Around 1800 UTC on November 6, the storm made landfall on Cayo Romano in Camagüey Province with winds of 80 mph (130 km/h). The system quickly weakened while crossing the mountainous terrain of Cuba and fell to tropical storm intensity early on November 7, shortly before emerging into the northwestern Caribbean Sea. Later that day, the storm re-intensified into a Category 1 hurricane and continued on a southwestward path. Around midday on November 8, the storm curved westward while approaching Belize and strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane. Shortly thereafter, the hurricane attained its maximum sustained wind speed of 110 mph (175 km/h); this may be a conservative assessment, as it is possible the storm strengthened into a major hurricane, but there was no conclusive data. This storm was the only known hurricane to strike Belize in the month of November. At about 0000 UTC on November 9, the storm struck Caye Caulker and then northern Belize District at the same intensity. An observatory in Belize City recorded a barometric pressure of 991 mbar (29.3 inHg) – the lowest in association with this storm. The storm rapidly weakened inland and fell to tropical storm intensity by 1200 UTC on November 9. It then curved northwestward, reaching the Bay of Campeche early on November 10. The storm drifted erratically to the west of the Yucatán Peninsula and eventually curved southeastward. Around 1200 UTC on November 11, the system made another landfall near Campeche, Campeche with winds of 45 mph (75 km/h). Less than six hours later, the storm weakened to a tropical depression and dissipated shortly thereafter. ## Impact In the Bahamas, a barometric pressure reading of 997 mbar (29.4 inHg) and force 9 sustained winds on the Beaufort scale were observed on at Georgetown on Exuma. No damage was reported in that country. Strong winds were reported in some areas of Cuba. Cayo Paredon Grande in Camagüey Province recorded sustained winds of 70 mph (110 km/h), while the city of Camagüey observed wind gusts up to 46 mph (74 km/h). In Mexico, the storm struck the Gulf Coast of the Yucatan Peninsula near Campeche, Campeche, where wind gust of force 9 on the Beaufort scare were observed. In Quintana Roo, damaged vegetation fueled a large forest fire. Although the storm's intensity was equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane, sustained winds in Belize reached only 54 mph (87 km/h). Damage from the hurricane was mainly limited to an area along the coast about 100 miles (160 km) north to south and 40 to 50 miles (64 to 80 km) east to west. In San Pedro Town, about 90% of structures were destroyed. Newtown was completely demolished, causing its resident to establish the city of Hopkins further south. At Ambergris Caye, many houses and coconut plantations were damaged or destroyed. This forced many laborers and coconut plantation owners to seek new professions; most of them entered the fishing industry. Nine deaths were reported, though the toll may have been higher, as numerous small fishing boats were beached or swept out to sea. Widespread damage to vegetation and trees occurred. An assessment of damage after the storm indicated that more than 75% of the canopy species had been destroyed. Although the low bush was not badly damaged, about 25% to 50% of the pine trees were toppled. Damage on deep soils was largely from breakage while on shallow soils mostly from wind throw. Tides along the coast split Caye Caulker into three separate islands and swept away "everything in its path". Overall, damage totaled approximately $4 million, with $1 million to private and public property, including buildings and dwellings. The remaining $3 million in damage was incurred to coconuts and other crops; this total possibly includes damage to the mahogany and chicle industries. ## See also - Hurricane Hilda (1955) - Hurricane Richard - Hurricane Roxanne

HIV/AIDS

Spectrum of conditions caused by HIV infection

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. It is a preventable disease. There is no vaccine or cure for HIV. It can be managed with treatment and become a manageable chronic health condition. While there is no cure or vaccine, antiretroviral treatment can slow the course of the disease and enable people living with HIV to lead long and healthy lives. An HIV-positive person on treatment can expect to live a normal life, and die with the virus, not of it. Effective treatment for HIV-positive people (people living with HIV) involves a life-long regimen of medicine to suppress the virus, making the viral load undetectable. Without treatment it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Treatment is recommended as soon as the diagnosis is made. An HIV-positive person who has an undetectable viral load as a result of long-term treatment has effectively no risk of transmitting HIV sexually. Campaigns by UNAIDS and organizations around the world have communicated this as Undetectable = Untransmittable. Without treatment the infection can interfere with the immune system, and eventually progress to AIDS, sometimes taking many years. Following initial infection an individual may not notice any symptoms, or may experience a brief period of influenza-like illness. During this period the person may not know that they are HIV-positive, yet they will be able to pass on the virus. Typically, this period is followed by a prolonged incubation period with no symptoms. Eventually the HIV infection increases the risk of developing other infections such as tuberculosis, as well as other opportunistic infections, and tumors which are rare in people who have normal immune function. The late stage is often also associated with unintended weight loss. Without treatment a person living with HIV can expect to live for 11 years. Early testing can show if treatment is needed to stop this progression and to prevent infecting others. HIV is spread primarily by unprotected sex (including anal and vaginal sex), contaminated hypodermic needles or blood transfusions, and from mother to child during pregnancy, delivery, or breastfeeding. Some bodily fluids, such as saliva, sweat, and tears, do not transmit the virus. Oral sex has little risk of transmitting the virus. Ways to avoid catching HIV and preventing the spread include safe sex, treatment to prevent infection ("PrEP"), treatment to stop infection in someone who has been recently exposed ("PEP"), treating those who are infected, and needle exchange programs. Disease in a baby can often be prevented by giving both the mother and child antiretroviral medication. Recognized worldwide in the early 1980s, HIV/AIDS has had a large impact on society, both as an illness and as a source of discrimination. The disease also has large economic impacts. There are many misconceptions about HIV/AIDS, such as the belief that it can be transmitted by casual non-sexual contact. The disease has become subject to many controversies involving religion, including the Catholic Church's position not to support condom use as prevention. It has attracted international medical and political attention as well as large-scale funding since it was identified in the 1980s. HIV made the jump from other primates to humans in west-central Africa in the early-to-mid-20th century. AIDS was first recognized by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1981 and its cause—HIV infection—was identified in the early part of the decade. Between the first time AIDS was readily identified through 2024, the disease is estimated to have caused at least 42.3 million deaths worldwide. In 2023, 630,000 people died from HIV-related causes, an estimated 1.3 million people acquired HIV and about 39.9 million people worldwide living with HIV, 65% of whom are in the World Health Organization (WHO) African Region. HIV/AIDS is considered a pandemic—a disease outbreak which is present over a large area and is actively spreading. The United States' National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Gates Foundation have pledged $200 million focused on developing a global cure for AIDS. ## Signs and symptoms There are three main stages of HIV infection: acute infection, clinical latency, and AIDS. ### First main stage: acute infection The initial period following infection with HIV is called acute HIV, primary HIV or acute retroviral syndrome. Many individuals develop an illness like influenza, mononucleosis or glandular fever 2–4 weeks after exposure while others have no significant symptoms. Symptoms occur in 40–90% of cases and most commonly include fever, large tender lymph nodes, throat inflammation, a rash, headache, tiredness, and/or sores of the mouth and genitals. The rash, which occurs in 20–50% of cases, presents itself on the trunk and is maculopapular, classically. Some people also develop opportunistic infections at this stage. Gastrointestinal symptoms, such as vomiting or diarrhea may occur. Neurological symptoms of peripheral neuropathy or Guillain–Barré syndrome also occur. The duration of the symptoms varies, but is usually one or two weeks. These symptoms are not often recognized as signs of HIV infection. Family doctors or hospitals can misdiagnose cases as one of the many common infectious diseases with similar symptoms. Someone with an unexplained fever who may have been recently exposed to HIV should consider testing to find out if they have been infected. ### Second main stage: clinical latency The initial symptoms are followed by a stage called clinical latency, asymptomatic HIV, or chronic HIV. Without treatment, this second stage of the natural history of HIV infection can last from about three years to over 20 years (on average, about eight years). While typically there are few or no symptoms at first, near the end of this stage many people experience fever, weight loss, gastrointestinal problems and muscle pains. Between 50% and 70% of people also develop persistent generalized lymphadenopathy, characterized by unexplained, non-painful enlargement of more than one group of lymph nodes (other than in the groin) for over three to six months. Although most HIV-1 infected individuals have a detectable viral load and in the absence of treatment will eventually progress to AIDS, a small proportion (about 5%) retain high levels of CD4⁺ T cells (T helper cells) without antiretroviral therapy for more than five years. These individuals are classified as "HIV controllers" or long-term nonprogressors (LTNP). Another group consists of those who maintain a low or undetectable viral load without anti-retroviral treatment, known as "elite controllers" or "elite suppressors". They represent approximately 1 in 300 infected persons. ### Third main stage: AIDS Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is defined as an HIV infection with either a CD4⁺ T cell count below 200 cells per μL or the occurrence of specific diseases associated with HIV infection. In the absence of specific treatment, around half of people infected with HIV develop AIDS within ten years. The most common initial conditions that alert to the presence of AIDS are pneumocystis pneumonia (40%), cachexia in the form of HIV wasting syndrome (20%), and esophageal candidiasis. Other common signs include recurrent respiratory tract infections. Opportunistic infections may be caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites that are normally controlled by the immune system. Which infections occur depends partly on what organisms are common in the person's environment. These infections may affect nearly every organ system. People with AIDS have an increased risk of developing various viral-induced cancers, including Kaposi's sarcoma, Burkitt's lymphoma, primary central nervous system lymphoma, and cervical cancer. Kaposi's sarcoma is the most common cancer, occurring in 10% to 20% of people with HIV. The second-most common cancer is lymphoma, which is the cause of death of nearly 16% of people with AIDS and is the initial sign of AIDS in 3% to 4%. Both these cancers are associated with human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8). Cervical cancer occurs more frequently in those with AIDS because of its association with human papillomavirus (HPV). Conjunctival cancer (of the layer that lines the inner part of eyelids and the white part of the eye) is also more common in those with HIV. Additionally, people with AIDS frequently have systemic symptoms such as prolonged fevers, sweats (particularly at night), swollen lymph nodes, chills, weakness, and unintended weight loss. Diarrhea is another common symptom, present in about 90% of people with AIDS. They can also be affected by diverse psychiatric and neurological symptoms independent of opportunistic infections and cancers. ## Transmission HIV is spread by three main routes: sexual contact, significant exposure to infected body fluids or tissues, and from mother to child during pregnancy, delivery, or breastfeeding (known as vertical transmission). There is no risk of acquiring HIV if exposed to feces, nasal secretions, saliva, sputum, sweat, tears, urine, or vomit unless these are contaminated with blood. It is also possible to be co-infected by more than one strain of HIV—a condition known as HIV superinfection. ### Sexual The most frequent mode of transmission of HIV is through sexual contact with an infected person. However, an HIV-positive person who has an undetectable viral load as a result of long-term treatment has effectively no risk of transmitting HIV sexually, known as Undetectable = Untransmittable. The existence of functionally noncontagious HIV-positive people on antiretroviral therapy was controversially publicized in the 2008 Swiss Statement, and has since become accepted as medically sound. Globally, the most common mode of HIV transmission is via sexual contacts between people of the opposite sex; however, the pattern of transmission varies among countries. As of 2017, most HIV transmission in the United States occurred among men who had sex with men (82% of new HIV diagnoses among males aged 13 and older and 70% of total new diagnoses). In the US, gay and bisexual men aged 13 to 24 accounted for an estimated 92% of new HIV diagnoses among all men in their age group and 27% of new diagnoses among all gay and bisexual men. With regard to unprotected heterosexual contacts, estimates of the risk of HIV transmission per sexual act appear to be four to ten times higher in low-income countries than in high-income countries. In low-income countries, the risk of female-to-male transmission is estimated as 0.38% per act, and of male-to-female transmission as 0.30% per act; the equivalent estimates for high-income countries are 0.04% per act for female-to-male transmission, and 0.08% per act for male-to-female transmission. The risk of transmission from anal intercourse is especially high, estimated as 1.4–1.7% per act in both heterosexual and homosexual contacts. While the risk of transmission from oral sex is relatively low, it is still present. The risk from receiving oral sex has been described as "nearly nil"; however, a few cases have been reported. The per-act risk is estimated at 0–0.04% for receptive oral intercourse. In settings involving prostitution in low-income countries, risk of female-to-male transmission has been estimated as 2.4% per act, and of male-to-female transmission as 0.05% per act. Risk of transmission increases in the presence of many sexually transmitted infections and genital ulcers. Genital ulcers increase the risk approximately fivefold. Other sexually transmitted infections, such as gonorrhea, chlamydia, trichomoniasis, and bacterial vaginosis, are associated with somewhat smaller increases in risk of transmission. The viral load of an infected person is an important risk factor in both sexual and mother-to-child transmission. During the first 2.5 months of an HIV infection, a person's infectiousness is twelve times higher due to the high viral load associated with acute HIV. If the person is in the late stages of infection, rates of transmission are approximately eightfold greater. Commercial sex workers (including those in pornography) have an increased likelihood of contracting HIV. Rough sex can be a factor associated with an increased risk of transmission. Sexual assault is also believed to carry an increased risk of HIV transmission as condoms are rarely worn, physical trauma to the vagina or rectum is likely, and there may be a greater risk of concurrent sexually transmitted infections. ### Body fluids The second-most frequent mode of HIV transmission is via blood and blood products. Blood-borne transmission can be through needle-sharing during intravenous drug use, needle-stick injury, transfusion of contaminated blood or blood product, or medical injections with unsterilized equipment. The risk from sharing a needle during drug injection is between 0.63% and 2.4% per act, with an average of 0.8%. The risk of acquiring HIV from a needle stick from an HIV-infected person is estimated as 0.3% (about 1 in 333) per act and the risk following mucous membrane exposure to infected blood as 0.09% (about 1 in 1000) per act. This risk may, however, be up to 5% if the introduced blood was from a person with a high viral load and the cut was deep. In the United States, intravenous drug users made up 12% of all new cases of HIV in 2009, and in some areas more than 80% of people who inject drugs are HIV-positive. HIV is transmitted in about 90% of blood transfusions using infected blood. In developed countries the risk of acquiring HIV from a blood transfusion is extremely low (less than one in half a million) where improved donor selection and HIV screening is performed; for example, in the UK the risk is reported at one in five million and in the United States it was one in 1.5 million in 2008. In low-income countries, only half of transfusions may be appropriately screened (as of 2008), and it is estimated that up to 15% of HIV infections in these areas come from transfusion of infected blood and blood products, representing between 5% and 10% of global infections. It is possible to acquire HIV from organ and tissue transplantation, although this is rare because of screening. Unsafe medical injections play a role in HIV spread in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2007, between 12% and 17% of infections in this region were attributed to medical syringe use. The World Health Organization estimates the risk of transmission as a result of a medical injection in Africa at 1.2%. Risks are also associated with invasive procedures, assisted delivery, and dental care in this area of the world. People giving or receiving tattoos, piercings, and scarification are theoretically at risk of infection but no confirmed cases have been documented. It is not possible for mosquitoes or other insects to transmit HIV. ### Mother-to-child HIV can be transmitted from mother to child during pregnancy, during delivery, or through breast milk, resulting in the baby also contracting HIV. As of 2008, vertical transmission accounted for about 90% of cases of HIV in children. In the absence of treatment, the risk of transmission before or during birth is around 20%, and in those who also breastfeed 35%. Treatment decreases this risk to less than 5%. Antiretrovirals when taken by either the mother or the baby decrease the risk of transmission in those who do breastfeed. If blood contaminates food during pre-chewing it may pose a risk of transmission. If a woman is untreated, two years of breastfeeding results in an HIV/AIDS risk in her baby of about 17%. Due to the increased risk of death without breastfeeding in many areas in the developing world, the World Health Organization recommends either exclusive breastfeeding or the provision of safe formula. All women known to be HIV-positive should be taking lifelong antiretroviral therapy. ## Virology HIV is the cause of the spectrum of disease known as HIV/AIDS. HIV is a retrovirus that primarily infects components of the human immune system such as CD4⁺ T cells, macrophages and dendritic cells. It directly and indirectly destroys CD4⁺ T cells. HIV is a member of the genus Lentivirus, part of the family Retroviridae. Lentiviruses share many morphological and biological characteristics. Many species of mammals are infected by lentiviruses, which are characteristically responsible for long-duration illnesses with a long incubation period. Lentiviruses are transmitted as single-stranded, positive-sense, enveloped RNA viruses. Upon entry into the target cell, the viral RNA genome is converted (reverse transcribed) into double-stranded DNA by a virally encoded reverse transcriptase that is transported along with the viral genome in the virus particle. The resulting viral DNA is then imported into the cell nucleus and integrated into the cellular DNA by a virally encoded integrase and host co-factors. Once integrated, the virus may become latent, allowing the virus and its host cell to avoid detection by the immune system. Alternatively, the virus may be transcribed, producing new RNA genomes and viral proteins that are packaged and released from the cell as new virus particles that begin the replication cycle anew. HIV is now known to spread between CD4⁺ T cells by two parallel routes: cell-free spread and cell-to-cell spread, i.e. it employs hybrid spreading mechanisms. In the cell-free spread, virus particles bud from an infected T cell, enter the blood/extracellular fluid and then infect another T cell following a chance encounter. HIV can also disseminate by direct transmission from one cell to another by a process of cell-to-cell spread. The hybrid spreading mechanisms of HIV contribute to the virus' ongoing replication against antiretroviral therapies. Two types of HIV have been characterized: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is the virus that was originally discovered (and initially referred to also as LAV or HTLV-III). It is more virulent, more infective, and is the cause of the majority of HIV infections globally. The lower infectivity of HIV-2 as compared with HIV-1 implies that fewer people exposed to HIV-2 will be infected per exposure. Because of its relatively poor capacity for transmission, HIV-2 is largely confined to West Africa. ## Pathophysiology After the virus enters the body, there is a period of rapid viral replication, leading to an abundance of virus in the peripheral blood. During primary infection, the level of HIV may reach several million virus particles per milliliter of blood. This response is accompanied by a marked drop in the number of circulating CD4⁺ T cells. The acute viremia is almost invariably associated with activation of CD8⁺ T cells, which kill HIV-infected cells, and subsequently with antibody production, or seroconversion. The CD8⁺ T cell response is thought to be important in controlling virus levels, which peak and then decline, as the CD4⁺ T cell counts recover. A good CD8⁺ T cell response has been linked to slower disease progression and a better prognosis, though it does not eliminate the virus. Ultimately, HIV causes AIDS by depleting CD4⁺ T cells. This weakens the immune system and allows opportunistic infections. T cells are essential to the immune response and without them, the body cannot fight infections or kill cancerous cells. The mechanism of CD4⁺ T cell depletion differs in the acute and chronic phases. During the acute phase, HIV-induced cell lysis and killing of infected cells by CD8⁺ T cells accounts for CD4⁺ T cell depletion, although apoptosis may also be a factor. During the chronic phase, the consequences of generalized immune activation coupled with the gradual loss of the ability of the immune system to generate new T cells appear to account for the slow decline in CD4⁺ T cell numbers. Although the symptoms of immune deficiency characteristic of AIDS do not appear for years after a person is infected, the bulk of CD4⁺ T cell loss occurs during the first weeks of infection, especially in the intestinal mucosa, which harbors the majority of the lymphocytes found in the body. The reason for the preferential loss of mucosal CD4⁺ T cells is that the majority of mucosal CD4⁺ T cells express the CCR5 protein which HIV uses as a co-receptor to gain access to the cells, whereas only a small fraction of CD4⁺ T cells in the bloodstream do so. A specific genetic change that alters the CCR5 protein when present in both chromosomes very effectively prevents HIV-1 infection. HIV seeks out and destroys CCR5 expressing CD4⁺ T cells during acute infection. A vigorous immune response eventually controls the infection and initiates the clinically latent phase. CD4⁺ T cells in mucosal tissues remain particularly affected. Continuous HIV replication causes a state of generalized immune activation persisting throughout the chronic phase. Immune activation, which is reflected by the increased activation state of immune cells and release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, results from the activity of several HIV gene products and the immune response to ongoing HIV replication. It is also linked to the breakdown of the immune surveillance system of the gastrointestinal mucosal barrier caused by the depletion of mucosal CD4⁺ T cells during the acute phase of disease. ## Diagnosis HIV/AIDS is diagnosed via laboratory testing and then staged based on the presence of certain signs or symptoms. HIV screening is recommended by the United States Preventive Services Task Force for all people 15 years to 65 years of age, including all pregnant women. Additionally, testing is recommended for those at high risk, which includes anyone diagnosed with a sexually transmitted illness. In many areas of the world, a third of HIV carriers only discover they are infected at an advanced stage of the disease when AIDS or severe immunodeficiency has become apparent. ### HIV testing Most people infected with HIV develop seroconverted (antigen-specific) antibodies within three to twelve weeks after the initial infection. Diagnosis of primary HIV before seroconversion is done by measuring HIV-RNA or p24 antigen. Positive results obtained by antibody or PCR testing are confirmed either by a different antibody or by PCR. Antibody tests in children younger than 18 months are typically inaccurate, due to the continued presence of maternal antibodies. Thus HIV infection can only be diagnosed by PCR testing for HIV RNA or DNA, or via testing for the p24 antigen. Much of the world lacks access to reliable PCR testing, and people in many places simply wait until either symptoms develop or the child is old enough for accurate antibody testing. In sub-Saharan Africa between 2007 and 2009, between 30% and 70% of the population were aware of their HIV status. In 2009, between 3.6% and 42% of men and women in sub-Saharan countries were tested; this represented a significant increase compared to previous years. ### Classifications Two main clinical staging systems are used to classify HIV and HIV-related disease for surveillance purposes: the WHO disease staging system for HIV infection and disease, and the CDC classification system for HIV infection. The CDC's classification system is more frequently adopted in developed countries. Since the WHO's staging system does not require laboratory tests, it is suited to the resource-restricted conditions encountered in developing countries, where it can also be used to help guide clinical management. Despite their differences, the two systems allow a comparison for statistical purposes. The World Health Organization first proposed a definition for AIDS in 1986. Since then, the WHO classification has been updated and expanded several times, with the most recent version being published in 2007. The WHO system uses the following categories: - Primary HIV infection: May be either asymptomatic or associated with acute retroviral syndrome - Stage I: HIV infection is asymptomatic with a CD4⁺ T cell count (also known as CD4 count) greater than 500 per microlitre (μL or cubic mm) of blood. May include generalized lymph node enlargement. - Stage II: Mild symptoms, which may include minor mucocutaneous manifestations and recurrent upper respiratory tract infections. A CD4 count of less than 500/μL - Stage III: Advanced symptoms, which may include unexplained chronic diarrhea for longer than a month, severe bacterial infections including tuberculosis of the lung, and a CD4 count of less than 350/μL - Stage IV or AIDS: severe symptoms, which include toxoplasmosis of the brain, candidiasis of the esophagus, trachea, bronchi, or lungs, and Kaposi's sarcoma. A CD4 count of less than 200/μL The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also created a classification system for HIV, and updated it in 2008 and 2014. This system classifies HIV infections based on CD4 count and clinical symptoms, and describes the infection in five groups. In those greater than six years of age it is: - Stage 0: the time between a negative or indeterminate HIV test followed less than 180 days by a positive test - Stage 1: CD4 count ≥ 500 cells/μL and no AIDS-defining conditions - Stage 2: CD4 count 200 to 500 cells/μL and no AIDS-defining conditions - Stage 3: CD4 count ≤ 200 cells/μL or AIDS-defining conditions - Unknown: if insufficient information is available to make any of the above classifications. For surveillance purposes, the AIDS diagnosis still stands even if, after treatment, the CD4⁺ T cell count rises to above 200 per μL of blood or other AIDS-defining illnesses are cured. ## Prevention ### Sexual contact Consistent condom use reduces the risk of HIV transmission by approximately 80% over the long term. When condoms are used consistently by a couple in which one person is infected, the rate of HIV infection is less than 1% per year. There is some evidence to suggest that female condoms may provide an equivalent level of protection. Application of a vaginal gel containing tenofovir (a reverse transcriptase inhibitor) immediately before sex seems to reduce infection rates by approximately 40% among African women. By contrast, use of the spermicide nonoxynol-9 may increase the risk of transmission due to its tendency to cause vaginal and rectal irritation. Circumcision in sub-Saharan Africa "reduces the acquisition of HIV by heterosexual men by between 38% and 66% over 24 months". Owing to these studies, both the World Health Organization and UNAIDS recommended male circumcision in 2007 as a method of preventing female-to-male HIV transmission in areas with high rates of HIV. However, whether it protects against male-to-female transmission is disputed, and whether it is of benefit in developed countries and among men who have sex with men is undetermined. Programs encouraging sexual abstinence do not appear to affect subsequent HIV risk. Evidence of any benefit from peer education is equally poor. Comprehensive sexual education provided at school may decrease high-risk behavior. A substantial minority of young people continues to engage in high-risk practices despite knowing about HIV/AIDS, underestimating their own risk of becoming infected with HIV. Voluntary counseling and testing people for HIV does not affect risky behavior in those who test negative but does increase condom use in those who test positive. Enhanced family planning services appear to increase the likelihood of women with HIV using contraception, compared to basic services. It is not known whether treating other sexually transmitted infections is effective in preventing HIV. ### Pre-exposure Antiretroviral treatment among people with HIV whose CD4 count ≤ 550 cells/μL is a very effective way to prevent HIV infection of their partner (a strategy known as treatment as prevention, or TASP). TASP is associated with a 10- to 20-fold reduction in transmission risk. Pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV ("PrEP") with a daily dose of the medications tenofovir, with or without emtricitabine, is effective in people at high risk including men who have sex with men, couples where one is HIV-positive, and young heterosexuals in Africa. It may also be effective in intravenous drug users, with a study finding a decrease in risk of 0.7 to 0.4 per 100 person years. The USPSTF, in 2019, recommended PrEP in those who are at high risk. Universal precautions within the health care environment are believed to be effective in decreasing the risk of HIV. Intravenous drug use is an important risk factor, and harm reduction strategies such as needle-exchange programs and opioid substitution therapy appear effective in decreasing this risk. ### Post-exposure A course of antiretrovirals administered within 48 to 72 hours after exposure to HIV-positive blood or genital secretions is referred to as post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). The use of the single agent zidovudine reduces the risk of an HIV infection five-fold following a needle-stick injury. As of 2013, the prevention regimen recommended in the United States consists of three medications—tenofovir, emtricitabine and raltegravir—as this may reduce the risk further. PEP treatment is recommended after a sexual assault when the perpetrator is known to be HIV-positive, but is controversial when their HIV status is unknown. The duration of treatment is usually four weeks and is frequently associated with adverse effects—where zidovudine is used, about 70% of cases result in adverse effects such as nausea (24%), fatigue (22%), emotional distress (13%) and headaches (9%). ### Mother-to-child Programs to prevent the vertical transmission of HIV (from mothers to children) can reduce rates of transmission by 92–99%. This primarily involves the use of a combination of antiviral medications during pregnancy and after birth in the infant, and potentially includes bottle feeding rather than breastfeeding. If replacement feeding is acceptable, feasible, affordable, sustainable and safe, mothers should avoid breastfeeding their infants; however, exclusive breastfeeding is recommended during the first months of life if this is not the case. If exclusive breastfeeding is carried out, the provision of extended antiretroviral prophylaxis to the infant decreases the risk of transmission. In 2015, Cuba became the first country in the world to eradicate mother-to-child transmission of HIV. ### Vaccination Currently there is no licensed vaccine for HIV or AIDS. The most effective vaccine trial to date, RV 144, was published in 2009; it found a partial reduction in the risk of transmission of roughly 30%, stimulating some hope in the research community of developing a truly effective vaccine. ## Treatment There is currently no cure, nor an effective HIV vaccine. Treatment consists of highly active antiretroviral therapy (ART), which slows progression of the disease. As of 2022, 39 million people globally were living with HIV, and 29.8 million people were accessing ART. Treatment also includes preventive and active treatment of opportunistic infections. As of July 2022, four people have been successfully cleared of HIV. Rapid initiation of antiretroviral therapy within one week of diagnosis appear to improve treatment outcomes in low and medium-income settings and is recommend for newly diagnosed HIV patients. ### Antiviral therapy Current ART options are combinations (or "cocktails") consisting of at least three medications belonging to at least two types, or "classes", of antiretroviral agents. There are eight classes of antiretroviral agents (ARVs), and over 30 individual drugs: nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase, inhibitors (NNRTIs), protease inhibitors (PIs), integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs), a fusion inhibitor, a CCR5 antagonist, a CD4 T lymphocyte (CD4) post-attachment inhibitor, and a gp120 attachment inhibitor. There are also two drugs, ritonavir (RTV) and cobicistat (COBI) which can be used as pharmacokinetic (PK) enhancers (or boosters) to improve the PK profiles of PIs and the INSTI elvitegravir (EVG). Depending on the guidelines being followed, initial treatment generally consists of two nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors along with a third ARV, either an integrase strand transfer inhibitor (INSTI), a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI), or a protease inhibitor with a pharmacokinetic enhancer (also known as a booster). The World Health Organization and the United States recommend antiretrovirals in people of all ages (including pregnant women) as soon as the diagnosis is made, regardless of CD4 count. Once treatment is begun, it is recommended that it is continued without breaks or "holidays". Many people are diagnosed only after treatment ideally should have begun. The desired outcome of treatment is a long-term plasma HIV-RNA count below 50 copies/mL. Levels to determine if treatment is effective are initially recommended after four weeks and once levels fall below 50 copies/mL checks every three to six months are typically adequate. Inadequate control is deemed to be greater than 400 copies/mL. Based on these criteria treatment is effective in more than 95% of people during the first year. Benefits of treatment include a decreased risk of progression to AIDS and a decreased risk of death. In the developing world, treatment also improves physical and mental health. With treatment, there is a 70% reduced risk of acquiring tuberculosis. Additional benefits include a decreased risk of transmission of the disease to sexual partners and a decrease in mother-to-child transmission. The effectiveness of treatment depends to a large part on compliance. Reasons for non-adherence to treatment include poor access to medical care, inadequate social supports, mental illness and drug abuse. The complexity of treatment regimens (due to pill numbers and dosing frequency) and adverse effects may reduce adherence. Even though cost is an important issue with some medications, 47% of those who needed them were taking them in low- and middle-income countries as of 2010, and the rate of adherence is similar in low-income and high-income countries. Specific adverse events are related to the antiretroviral agent taken. Some relatively common adverse events include: lipodystrophy syndrome, dyslipidemia, and diabetes mellitus, especially with protease inhibitors. Other common symptoms include diarrhea, and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Newer recommended treatments are associated with fewer adverse effects. Certain medications may be associated with birth defects and therefore may be unsuitable for women hoping to have children. Treatment recommendations for children are somewhat different from those for adults. The World Health Organization recommends treating all children less than five years of age; children above five are treated like adults. The United States guidelines recommend treating all children less than 12 months of age and all those with HIV RNA counts greater than 100,000 copies/mL between one year and five years of age. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recommended the granting of marketing authorizations for two new antiretroviral (ARV) medicines, rilpivirine (Rekambys) and cabotegravir (Vocabria), to be used together for the treatment of people with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection. The two medicines are the first ARVs that come in a long-acting injectable formulation. This means that instead of daily pills, people receive intramuscular injections monthly or every two months. The combination of Rekambys and Vocabria injection is intended for maintenance treatment of adults who have undetectable HIV levels in the blood (viral load less than 50 copies/mL) with their current ARV treatment, and when the virus has not developed resistance to a certain class of anti-HIV medicines called non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) and integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INIs). Cabotegravir combined with rilpivirine (Cabenuva) is a complete regimen for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection in adults to replace a current antiretroviral regimen in those who are virologically suppressed on a stable antiretroviral regimen with no history of treatment failure and with no known or suspected resistance to either cabotegravir or rilpivirine. ### Opportunistic infections Measures to prevent opportunistic infections are effective in many people with HIV/AIDS. In addition to improving current disease, treatment with antiretrovirals reduces the risk of developing additional opportunistic infections. Adults and adolescents who are living with HIV (even on anti-retroviral therapy) with no evidence of active tuberculosis in settings with high tuberculosis burden should receive isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT); the tuberculin skin test can be used to help decide if IPT is needed. Children with HIV may benefit from screening for tuberculosis. Vaccination against hepatitis A and B is advised for all people at risk of HIV before they become infected; however, it may also be given after infection. Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole prophylaxis between four and six weeks of age, and ceasing breastfeeding of infants born to HIV-positive mothers, is recommended in resource-limited settings. It is also recommended to prevent PCP when a person's CD4 count is below 200 cells/uL and in those who have or have previously had PCP. People with substantial immunosuppression are also advised to receive prophylactic therapy for toxoplasmosis and MAC. Appropriate preventive measures reduced the rate of these infections by 50% between 1992 and 1997. Influenza vaccination and pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine are often recommended in people with HIV/AIDS with some evidence of benefit. ### Diet The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued recommendations regarding nutrient requirements in HIV/AIDS. A generally healthy diet is promoted. Dietary intake of micronutrients at RDA levels by HIV-infected adults is recommended by the WHO; higher intake of vitamin A, zinc, and iron can produce adverse effects in HIV-positive adults, and is not recommended unless there is documented deficiency. Dietary supplementation for people who are infected with HIV and who have inadequate nutrition or dietary deficiencies may strengthen their immune systems or help them recover from infections; however, evidence indicating an overall benefit in morbidity or reduction in mortality is not consistent. People with HIV/AIDS are up to four times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who are not tested positive with the virus. Evidence for supplementation with selenium is mixed with some tentative evidence of benefit. For pregnant and lactating women with HIV, multivitamin supplement improves outcomes for both mothers and children. If the pregnant or lactating mother has been advised to take anti-retroviral medication to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission, multivitamin supplements should not replace these treatments. There is some evidence that vitamin A supplementation in children with an HIV infection reduces mortality and improves growth. ### Alternative medicine In the US, approximately 60% of people with HIV use various forms of complementary or alternative medicine, whose effectiveness has not been established. There is not enough evidence to support the use of herbal medicines. There is insufficient evidence to recommend or support the use of medical cannabis to try to increase appetite or weight gain. ## Prognosis HIV/AIDS has become a chronic rather than an acutely fatal disease in many areas of the world. Prognosis varies between people, and both the CD4 count and viral load are useful for predicted outcomes. Without treatment, average survival time after infection with HIV is estimated to be 9 to 11 years, depending on the HIV subtype. After the diagnosis of AIDS, if treatment is not available, survival ranges between 6 and 19 months. ART and appropriate prevention of opportunistic infections reduces the death rate by 80%, and raises the life expectancy for a newly diagnosed young adult to 20–50 years. This is between two thirds and nearly that of the general population. If treatment is started late in the infection, prognosis is not as good: for example, if treatment is begun following the diagnosis of AIDS, life expectancy is \~10–40 years. Half of infants born with HIV die before two years of age without treatment. The primary causes of death from HIV/AIDS are opportunistic infections and cancer, both of which are frequently the result of the progressive failure of the immune system. Risk of cancer appears to increase once the CD4 count is below 500/μL. The rate of clinical disease progression varies widely between individuals and has been shown to be affected by a number of factors such as a person's susceptibility and immune function; their access to health care, the presence of co-infections; and the particular strain (or strains) of the virus involved. Tuberculosis co-infection is one of the leading causes of sickness and death in those with HIV/AIDS being present in a third of all HIV-infected people and causing 25% of HIV-related deaths. HIV is also one of the most important risk factors for tuberculosis. Hepatitis C is another very common co-infection where each disease increases the progression of the other. The two most common cancers associated with HIV/AIDS are Kaposi's sarcoma and AIDS-related non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Other cancers that are more frequent include anal cancer, Burkitt's lymphoma, primary central nervous system lymphoma, and cervical cancer. Even with anti-retroviral treatment, over the long term HIV-infected people may experience neurocognitive disorders, osteoporosis, neuropathy, cancers, nephropathy, and cardiovascular disease. Some conditions, such as lipodystrophy, may be caused both by HIV and its treatment. ## Epidemiology HIV/AIDS is considered a global pandemic. As of 2022, approximately 39.0 million people worldwide are living with HIV, the number of new infections that year being about 1.3 million. This is down from 2.1 million new infections in 2010. Among new infections, 46% are in women and are children globally. There were 630,000 AIDS related deaths in 2022, down from a peak of 2 million in 2005. The World Health Organization has reported that deaths from HIV and AIDS have "fallen by 61%, moving from the world’s seventh leading cause of death in 2000 to the twenty-first in 2021." Among persons living with HIV (PLWH), the largest proportion reside in eastern and southern Africa (20.6 million, 54.6%). This region also had the highest rate of adult and child deaths due to AIDS in 2020 (310,000, 46.6%). Sub-Saharan African adolescent girls and young women (aged 15–24 years) account for 77% of new infections among this age-range globally. Here, in contrast to other regions, adolescent girls and young women are three times more likely to acquire HIV than age-matched males. Despite these statistics, overall, new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths have substantially decreased in this region since 2010. Eastern Europe and central Asia has observed a 43% increase in new HIV infections and 32% increase in AIDS-related deaths since 2010, the highest of all global regions. These infections are predominantly distributed in persons who inject drugs, with gay men and other men who have sex with men or persons who engage in transaction sex the second and third populations most impacted in this region. At the end of 2019, United States indicated that approximately 1.2 million people aged ≥13 years were living with HIV, resulting in about 18,500 deaths in 2020. There were 34,800 estimated new infections in the US in 2019, 53% of which were in the southern region of the country. In addition to geographic location, significant disparities in HIV incidence exist among men, Black or Hispanic populations, and men who reported male-to-male sexual contact. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that in that year, 158,500 people or 13% of infected Americans were unaware of their infection. In the United Kingdom as of 2015, there were approximately 101,200 cases which resulted in 594 deaths. In Canada as of 2008, there were about 65,000 cases causing 53 deaths. Between the first recognition of AIDS (in 1981) and 2009, it has led to nearly 30 million deaths. Rates of HIV are lowest in North Africa and the Middle East (0.1% or less), East Asia (0.1%), and Western and Central Europe (0.2%). The worst-affected European countries, in 2009 and 2012 estimates, are Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Moldova, Portugal and Belarus, in decreasing order of prevalence. Groups at higher risk of acquiring HIV include persons who engage in transactional sex, gay men and other men who have sex with men, persons who inject drugs, transgender persons, and those who are incarcerated or detained. ## History ### Discovery The first news story on the disease appeared on May 18, 1981, in the gay newspaper New York Native. AIDS was first clinically reported on June 5, 1981, with five cases in the United States. The initial cases were a cluster of injecting drug users and gay men with no known cause of impaired immunity who showed symptoms of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), a rare opportunistic infection that was known to occur in people with very compromised immune systems. Soon thereafter, a large number of homosexual men developed a generally rare skin cancer called Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). Many more cases of PCP and KS emerged, alerting U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a CDC task force was formed to monitor the outbreak. In the early days, the CDC did not have an official name for the disease, often referring to it by way of diseases associated with it, such as lymphadenopathy, the disease after which the discoverers of HIV originally named the virus. They also used Kaposi's sarcoma and opportunistic infections, the name by which a task force had been set up in 1981. At one point the CDC referred to it as the "4H disease", as the syndrome seemed to affect heroin users, homosexuals, hemophiliacs, and Haitians. The term GRID, which stood for gay-related immune deficiency, had also been coined. However, after determining that AIDS was not isolated to the gay community, it was realized that the term GRID was misleading, and the term AIDS was introduced at a meeting in July 1982. By September 1982 the CDC started referring to the disease as AIDS. In 1983, two separate research groups led by Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier declared that a novel retrovirus may have been infecting people with AIDS, and published their findings in the same issue of the journal Science. Gallo claimed a virus which his group had isolated from a person with AIDS was strikingly similar in shape to other human T-lymphotropic viruses (HTLVs) that his group had been the first to isolate. Gallo's group called their newly isolated virus HTLV-III. At the same time, Montagnier's group isolated a virus from a person presenting with swelling of the lymph nodes of the neck and physical weakness, two characteristic symptoms of AIDS. Contradicting the report from Gallo's group, Montagnier and his colleagues showed that core proteins of this virus were immunologically different from those of HTLV-I. Montagnier's group named their isolated virus lymphadenopathy-associated virus (LAV). As these two viruses turned out to be the same, in 1986, LAV and HTLV-III were renamed HIV. ### Origins The origin of HIV / AIDS and the circumstances that led to its emergence remain unsolved. Both HIV-1 and HIV-2 are believed to have originated in non-human primates in West-central Africa and were transferred to humans in the early 20th century. HIV-1 appears to have originated in southern Cameroon through the evolution of SIV(cpz), a simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) that infects wild chimpanzees (HIV-1 descends from the SIVcpz endemic in the chimpanzee subspecies Pan troglodytes troglodytes). The closest relative of HIV-2 is SIV (smm), a virus of the sooty mangabey (Cercocebus atys atys), an Old World monkey living in coastal West Africa (from southern Senegal to western Ivory Coast). New World monkeys such as the owl monkey are resistant to HIV-1 infection, possibly because of a genomic fusion of two viral resistance genes. HIV-1 is thought to have jumped the species barrier on at least three separate occasions, giving rise to the three groups of the virus, M, N, and O. There is evidence that humans who participate in bushmeat activities, either as hunters or as bushmeat vendors, commonly acquire SIV. However, SIV is a weak virus which is typically suppressed by the human immune system within weeks of infection. It is thought that several transmissions of the virus from individual to individual in quick succession are necessary to allow it enough time to mutate into HIV. Furthermore, due to its relatively low person-to-person transmission rate, SIV can only spread throughout the population in the presence of one or more high-risk transmission channels, which are thought to have been absent in Africa before the 20th century. Specific proposed high-risk transmission channels, allowing the virus to adapt to humans and spread throughout society, depend on the proposed timing of the animal-to-human crossing. Genetic studies of the virus suggest that the most recent common ancestor of the HIV-1 M group dates back to c. 1910. Proponents of this dating link the HIV epidemic with the emergence of colonialism and growth of large colonial African cities, leading to social changes, including a higher degree of sexual promiscuity, the spread of prostitution, and the accompanying high frequency of genital ulcer diseases (such as syphilis) in nascent colonial cities. While transmission rates of HIV during vaginal intercourse are low under regular circumstances, they are increased manyfold if one of the partners has a sexually transmitted infection causing genital ulcers. Early 1900s colonial cities were notable for their high prevalence of prostitution and genital ulcers, to the degree that, as of 1928, as many as 45% of female residents of eastern Kinshasa were thought to have been prostitutes, and, as of 1933, around 15% of all residents of the same city had syphilis. An alternative view holds that unsafe medical practices in Africa after World War II, such as unsterile reuse of single-use syringes during mass vaccination, antibiotic and anti-malaria treatment campaigns, were the initial vector that allowed the virus to adapt to humans and spread. The earliest well-documented case of HIV in a human dates back to 1959 in the Congo. The virus may have been present in the U.S. as early as the mid-to-late 1950s, as a sixteen-year-old male named Robert Rayford presented with symptoms in 1966 and died in 1969. In the 1970s, there were cases of getting parasites and becoming sick with what was called "gay bowel disease", but what is now suspected to have been AIDS. The earliest retrospectively described case of AIDS is believed to have been in Norway beginning in 1966, that of Arvid Noe. In July 1960, in the wake of Congo's independence, the United Nations recruited Francophone experts and technicians from all over the world to assist in filling administrative gaps left by Belgium, who did not leave behind an African elite to run the country. By 1962, Haitians made up the second-largest group of well-educated experts (out of the 48 national groups recruited), that totaled around 4,500 in the country. Dr. Jacques Pépin, a Canadian author of The Origins of AIDS, stipulates that Haiti was one of HIV's entry points to the U.S. and that a Haitian may have carried HIV back across the Atlantic in the 1960s. Although there was known to have been at least one case of AIDS in the U.S. from 1966, the vast majority of infections occurring outside sub-Saharan Africa (including the U.S.) can be traced back to a single unknown individual who became infected with HIV in Haiti and brought the infection to the U.S. at some time around 1969. The epidemic rapidly spread among high-risk groups (initially, sexually promiscuous men who have sex with men). By 1978, the prevalence of HIV-1 among gay male residents of New York City and San Francisco was estimated at 5%, suggesting that several thousand individuals in the country had been infected. ## Society and culture ### Stigma AIDS stigma exists around the world in a variety of ways, including ostracism, rejection, discrimination and avoidance of HIV-infected people; compulsory HIV testing without prior consent or protection of confidentiality; violence against HIV-infected individuals or people who are perceived to be infected with HIV; and the quarantine of HIV-infected individuals. Stigma-related violence or the fear of violence prevents many people from seeking HIV testing, returning for their results, or securing treatment, possibly turning what could be a manageable chronic illness into a death sentence and perpetuating the spread of HIV. AIDS stigma has been further divided into the following three categories: - Instrumental AIDS stigma—a reflection of the fear and apprehension that are likely to be associated with any deadly and transmissible illness. - Symbolic AIDS stigma—the use of HIV/AIDS to express attitudes toward the social groups or lifestyles perceived to be associated with the disease. - Courtesy AIDS stigma—stigmatization of people connected to the issue of HIV/AIDS or HIV-positive people. Often, AIDS stigma is expressed in conjunction with one or more other stigmas, particularly those associated with homosexuality, bisexuality, promiscuity, prostitution, and intravenous drug use. In many developed countries, there is an association between AIDS and homosexuality or bisexuality, and this association is correlated with higher levels of sexual prejudice, such as anti-homosexual or anti-bisexual attitudes. There is also a perceived association between AIDS and all male-male sexual behavior, including sex between uninfected men. However, the dominant mode of spread worldwide for HIV remains heterosexual transmission. The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt was conceived in 1985 to celebrate the lives of those who had died of AIDS when stigma prevented many from receiving funerals. It is now cared for by the National AIDS Memorial in San Francisco. In 2003, as part of an overall reform of marriage and population legislation, it became legal for those diagnosed with AIDS to marry in China. In 2013, the U.S. National Library of Medicine developed a traveling exhibition titled Surviving and Thriving: AIDS, Politics, and Culture; this covered medical research, the U.S. government's response, and personal stories from people with AIDS, caregivers, and activists. Stigma has proved an obstacle to the update of PrEP. Within the MSM community, the greatest barrier to PrEP use has been the stigma surrounding HIV and gay men. Gay men on PrEP have experienced "slut-shaming". Numerous other barriers have been identified, including lack of quality LGBTQ care, cost, and adherence to medication use. ### Economic impact HIV/AIDS affects the economics of both individuals and countries. The gross domestic product of the most affected countries has decreased due to the lack of human capital. Without proper nutrition, health care and medicine, large numbers of people die from AIDS-related complications. Before death they will not only be unable to work, but will also require significant medical care. It is estimated that as of 2007 there were 12 million AIDS orphans. Many are cared for by elderly grandparents. Returning to work after beginning treatment for HIV/AIDS is difficult, and affected people often work less than the average worker. Unemployment in people with HIV/AIDS also is associated with suicidal ideation, memory problems, and social isolation. Employment increases self-esteem, sense of dignity, confidence, and quality of life for people with HIV/AIDS. Anti-retroviral treatment may help people with HIV/AIDS work more, and may increase the chance that a person with HIV/AIDS will be employed (low-quality evidence). By affecting mainly young adults, AIDS reduces the taxable population, in turn reducing the resources available for public expenditures such as education and health services not related to AIDS, resulting in increasing pressure on the state's finances and slower growth of the economy. This causes a slower growth of the tax base, an effect that is reinforced if there are growing expenditures on treating the sick, training (to replace sick workers), sick pay, and caring for AIDS orphans. This is especially true if the sharp increase in adult mortality shifts the responsibility from the family to the government in caring for these orphans. At the household level, AIDS causes both loss of income and increased spending on healthcare. A study in Côte d'Ivoire showed that households having a person with HIV/AIDS spent twice as much on medical expenses as other households. This additional expenditure also leaves less income to spend on education and other personal or family investment. ### Religion and AIDS The topic of religion and AIDS has become highly controversial, primarily because some religious authorities have publicly declared their opposition to the use of condoms. The religious approach to prevent the spread of AIDS, according to a report by American health expert Matthew Hanley titled The Catholic Church and the Global AIDS Crisis, argues that cultural changes are needed, including a re-emphasis on fidelity within marriage and sexual abstinence outside of it. Some religious organizations have claimed that prayer can cure HIV/AIDS. In 2011, the BBC reported that some churches in London were claiming that prayer would cure AIDS, and the Hackney-based Centre for the Study of Sexual Health and HIV reported that several people stopped taking their medication, sometimes on the direct advice of their pastor, leading to many deaths. The Synagogue Church Of All Nations advertised an "anointing water" to promote God's healing, although the group denies advising people to stop taking medication. ### Media portrayal One of the first high-profile cases of AIDS was the American gay actor Rock Hudson. He had been diagnosed during 1984, announced that he had had the virus on July 25, 1985, and died a few months later on October 2, 1985. Another notable British casualty of AIDS that year was Nicholas Eden, a gay politician and son of former prime minister Anthony Eden. On November 24, 1991, British rock star Freddie Mercury died from an AIDS-related illness, having revealed the diagnosis only on the previous day. One of the first high-profile heterosexual cases of the virus was American tennis player Arthur Ashe. He was diagnosed as HIV-positive on August 31, 1988, having contracted the virus from blood transfusions during heart surgery earlier in the 1980s. Further tests within 24 hours of the initial diagnosis revealed that Ashe had AIDS, but he did not tell the public about his diagnosis until April 1992. He died as a result on February 6, 1993, aged 49. Therese Frare's photograph of gay activist David Kirby, as he lay dying from AIDS while surrounded by family, was taken in April 1990. Life magazine said the photo became the one image "most powerfully identified with the HIV/AIDS epidemic." The photo was displayed in Life, was the winner of the World Press Photo, and acquired worldwide notoriety after being used in a United Colors of Benetton advertising campaign in 1992. Many famous artists and AIDS activists such as Larry Kramer, Diamanda Galás and Rosa von Praunheim campaign for AIDS education and the rights of those affected. These artists worked with various media formats. ### Criminal transmission Criminal transmission of HIV is the intentional or reckless infection of a person with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Some countries or jurisdictions, including some areas of the United States, have laws that criminalize HIV transmission or exposure. Others may charge the accused under laws enacted before the HIV pandemic. In 1996, Ugandan-born Canadian Johnson Aziga was diagnosed with HIV; he subsequently had unprotected sex with eleven women without disclosing his diagnosis. By 2003, seven had contracted HIV; two died from complications related to AIDS. Aziga was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. ### Misconceptions There are many misconceptions about HIV and AIDS. Three misconceptions are that AIDS can spread through casual contact, that sexual intercourse with a virgin will cure AIDS, and that HIV can infect only gay men and drug users. In 2014, some among the British public wrongly thought one could get HIV from kissing (16%), sharing a glass (5%), spitting (16%), a public toilet seat (4%), and coughing or sneezing (5%). Other misconceptions are that any act of anal intercourse between two uninfected gay men can lead to HIV infection, and that open discussion of HIV and homosexuality in schools will lead to increased rates of AIDS. A small group of individuals continue to dispute the connection between HIV and AIDS, the existence of HIV itself, or the validity of HIV testing and treatment methods. These claims, known as AIDS denialism, have been examined and rejected by the scientific community. However, they have had a significant political impact, particularly in South Africa, where the government's official embrace of AIDS denialism (1999–2005) was responsible for its ineffective response to that country's AIDS epidemic, and has been blamed for hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths and HIV infections. Several discredited conspiracy theories have held that HIV was created by scientists, either inadvertently or deliberately. Operation INFEKTION was a worldwide Soviet active measures operation to spread the claim that the United States had created HIV/AIDS. Surveys show that a significant number of people believed—and continue to believe—in such claims. ## Research HIV/AIDS research includes all medical research which attempts to prevent, treat, or cure HIV/AIDS, along with fundamental research about the nature of HIV as an infectious agent, and about AIDS as the disease caused by HIV. Many governments and research institutions participate in HIV/AIDS research. This research includes behavioral health interventions such as sex education, and drug development, such as research into microbicides for sexually transmitted diseases, HIV vaccines, and antiretroviral drugs. Other medical research areas include the topics of pre-exposure prophylaxis, post-exposure prophylaxis, and circumcision and HIV. Public health officials, researchers, and programs can gain a more comprehensive picture of the barriers they face, and the efficacy of current approaches to HIV treatment and prevention, by tracking standard HIV indicators. Use of common indicators is an increasing focus of development organizations and researchers.

Aphid

Superfamily of insects

Aphids are small sap-sucking insects and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea. Common names include greenfly and blackfly, although individuals within a species can vary widely in color. The group includes the fluffy white woolly aphids. A typical life cycle involves flightless females giving live birth to female nymphs—who may also be already pregnant, an adaptation scientists call telescoping generations—without the involvement of males. Maturing rapidly, females breed profusely so that the number of these insects multiplies quickly. Winged females may develop later in the season, allowing the insects to colonize new plants. In temperate regions, a phase of sexual reproduction occurs in the autumn, with the insects often overwintering as eggs. The life cycle of some species involves an alternation between two species of host plants, for example between an annual crop and a woody plant. Some species feed on only one type of plant, while others are generalists, colonizing many plant groups. About 5,000 species of aphid have been described, all included in the family Aphididae. Around 400 of these are found on food and fiber crops, and many are serious pests of agriculture and forestry, as well as an annoyance for gardeners. So-called dairying ants have a mutualistic relationship with aphids, tending them for their honeydew and protecting them from predators. Aphids are among the most destructive insect pests on cultivated plants in temperate regions. In addition to weakening the plant by sucking sap, they act as vectors for plant viruses and disfigure ornamental plants with deposits of honeydew and the subsequent growth of sooty moulds. Because of their ability to rapidly increase in numbers by asexual reproduction and telescopic development, they are a highly successful group of organisms from an ecological standpoint. Large-scale control of aphids is not easy. Insecticides do not always produce reliable results, because of resistance to several classes of insecticide, and because aphids often feed on the undersides of leaves, and are thus shielded. On a small scale, water jets and soap sprays are quite effective. Natural enemies include predatory ladybugs, hoverfly larvae, parasitic wasps, aphid midge larvae, crab spiders, lacewing larvae, and entomopathogenic fungi. An integrated pest management strategy using biological pest control can work, but is difficult to achieve except in enclosed environments such as greenhouses. ## Distribution Aphids are distributed worldwide, but are most common in temperate zones. In contrast to many taxa, aphid species diversity is much lower in the tropics than in the temperate zones. They can migrate great distances, mainly through passive dispersal by winds. Winged aphids may also rise up in the day as high as 600 m where they are transported by strong winds. For example, the currant-lettuce aphid, Nasonovia ribisnigri, is believed to have spread from New Zealand to Tasmania around 2004 through easterly winds. Aphids have also been spread by human transportation of infested plant materials, making some species nearly cosmopolitan in their distribution. ## Evolution ### Fossil history Aphids, and the closely related adelgids and phylloxerans, probably evolved from a common ancestor some , in the Early Permian period. They probably fed on plants like Cordaitales or Cycadophyta. With their soft bodies, aphids do not fossilize well, and the oldest known fossil is of the species Triassoaphis cubitus from the Triassic. They do however sometimes get stuck in plant exudates which solidify into amber. In 1967, when Professor Ole Heie wrote his monograph Studies on Fossil Aphids, about sixty species have been described from the Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous and mostly the Tertiary periods, with Baltic amber contributing another forty species. The total number of species was small, but increased considerably with the appearance of the angiosperms , as this allowed aphids to specialise, the speciation of aphids going hand-in-hand with the diversification of flowering plants. The earliest aphids were probably polyphagous, with monophagy developing later. It has been hypothesized that the ancestors of the Adelgidae lived on conifers while those of the Aphididae fed on the sap of Podocarpaceae or Araucariaceae that survived extinctions in the late Cretaceous. Organs like the cornicles did not appear until the Cretaceous period. One study alternatively suggests that ancestral aphids may have lived on angiosperm bark and that feeding on leaves may be a derived trait. The Lachninae have long mouth parts that are suitable for living on bark and it has been suggested that the mid-Cretaceous ancestor fed on the bark of angiosperm trees, switching to leaves of conifer hosts in the late Cretaceous. The Phylloxeridae may well be the oldest family still extant, but their fossil record is limited to the Lower Miocene Palaeophylloxera. ### Taxonomy Late 20th-century reclassification within the Hemiptera reduced the old taxon "Homoptera" to two suborders: Sternorrhyncha (aphids, whiteflies, scales, psyllids, etc.) and Auchenorrhyncha (cicadas, leafhoppers, treehoppers, planthoppers, etc.) with the suborder Heteroptera containing a large group of insects known as the true bugs. The infraorder Aphidomorpha within the Sternorrhyncha varies with circumscription with several fossil groups being especially difficult to place but includes the Adelgoidea, the Aphidoidea and the Phylloxeroidea. Some authors use a single superfamily Aphidoidea within which the Phylloxeridae and Adelgidae are also included while others have Aphidoidea with a sister superfamily Phylloxeroidea within which the Adelgidae and Phylloxeridae are placed. Early 21st-century reclassifications substantially rearranged the families within Aphidoidea: some old families were reduced to subfamily rank (e.g., Eriosomatidae), and many old subfamilies were elevated to family rank. The most recent authoritative classifications have three superfamilies Adelgoidea, Phylloxeroidea and Aphidoidea. The Aphidoidea includes a single large family Aphididae that includes all the \~5000 extant species. ### Phylogeny #### External Aphids, adelgids, and phylloxerids are very closely related within the suborder Sternorrhyncha, the plant-sucking bugs. They are either placed in the insect superfamily Aphidoidea or into the superfamily Phylloxeroidea which contains the family Adelgidae and the family Phylloxeridae. Like aphids, phylloxera feed on the roots, leaves, and shoots of grape plants, but unlike aphids, do not produce honeydew or cornicle secretions. Phylloxera (Daktulosphaira vitifoliae) are insects which caused the Great French Wine Blight that devastated European viticulture in the 19th century. Similarly, adelgids or woolly conifer aphids, also feed on plant phloem and are sometimes described as aphids, but are more properly classified as aphid-like insects, because they have no cauda or cornicles. The treatment of the groups especially concerning fossil groups varies greatly due to difficulties in resolving relationships. Most modern treatments include the three superfamilies, the Adelogidea, the Aphidoidea, and the Phylloxeroidea within the infraorder Aphidomorpha along with several fossil groups. #### Internal The phylogenetic tree, based on Papasotiropoulos 2013 and Kim 2011, with additions from Ortiz-Rivas and Martinez-Torres 2009, shows the internal phylogeny of the Aphididae. It has been suggested that the phylogeny of the aphid groups might be revealed by examining the phylogeny of their bacterial endosymbionts, especially the obligate endosymbiont Buchnera. The results depend on the assumption that the symbionts are strictly transmitted vertically through the generations. This assumption is well supported by the evidence, and several phylogenetic relationships have been suggested on the basis of endosymbiont studies. ## Anatomy Most aphids have soft bodies, which may be green, black, brown, pink, or almost colorless. Aphids have antennae with two short, broad basal segments and up to four slender terminal segments. They have a pair of compound eyes, with an ocular tubercle behind and above each eye, made up of three lenses (called triommatidia). They feed on sap using sucking mouthparts called stylets, enclosed in a sheath called a rostrum, which is formed from modifications of the mandible and maxilla of the insect mouthparts. They have long, thin legs with two-jointed, two-clawed tarsi. The majority of aphids are wingless, but winged forms are produced at certain times of year in many species. Most aphids have a pair of cornicles (siphunculi), abdominal tubes on the dorsal surface of their fifth abdominal segment, through which they exude droplets of a quick-hardening defensive fluid containing triacylglycerols, called cornicle wax. Other defensive compounds can also be produced by some species. Aphids have a tail-like protrusion called a cauda above their rectal apertures. They have lost their Malpighian tubules. When host plant quality becomes poor or conditions become crowded, some aphid species produce winged offspring (alates) that can disperse to other food sources. The mouthparts or eyes can be small or missing in some species and forms. ## Diet Many aphid species are monophagous (that is, they feed on only one plant species). Others, like the green peach aphid, feed on hundreds of plant species across many families. About 10% of species feed on different plants at different times of the year. A new host plant is chosen by a winged adult by using visual cues, followed by olfaction using the antennae; if the plant smells right, the next action is probing the surface upon landing. The stylus is inserted and saliva secreted, the sap is sampled, the xylem may be tasted and finally, the phloem is tested. Aphid saliva may inhibit phloem-sealing mechanisms and has pectinases that ease penetration. Non-host plants can be rejected at any stage of the probe, but the transfer of viruses occurs early in the investigation process, at the time of the introduction of the saliva, so non-host plants can become infected. Aphids usually feed passively on sap of phloem vessels in plants, as do many of other hemipterans such as scale insects and cicadas. Once a phloem vessel is punctured, the sap, which is under pressure, is forced into the aphid's food canal. Occasionally, aphids also ingest xylem sap, which is a more dilute diet than phloem sap as the concentrations of sugars and amino acids are 1% of those in the phloem. Xylem sap is under negative hydrostatic pressure and requires active sucking, suggesting an important role in aphid physiology. As xylem sap ingestion has been observed following a dehydration period, aphids are thought to consume xylem sap to replenish their water balance; the consumption of the dilute sap of xylem permitting aphids to rehydrate. However, recent data showed aphids consume more xylem sap than expected and they notably do so when they are not dehydrated and when their fecundity decreases. This suggests aphids, and potentially, all the phloem-sap feeding species of the order Hemiptera, consume xylem sap for reasons other than replenishing water balance. Although aphids passively take in phloem sap, which is under pressure, they can also draw fluid at negative or atmospheric pressure using the cibarial-pharyngeal pump mechanism present in their head. Xylem sap consumption may be related to osmoregulation. High osmotic pressure in the stomach, caused by high sucrose concentration, can lead to water transfer from the hemolymph to the stomach, thus resulting in hyperosmotic stress and eventually to the death of the insect. Aphids avoid this fate by osmoregulating through several processes. Sucrose concentration is directly reduced by assimilating sucrose toward metabolism and by synthesizing oligosaccharides from several sucrose molecules, thus reducing the solute concentration and consequently the osmotic pressure. Oligosaccharides are then excreted through honeydew, explaining its high sugar concentrations, which can then be used by other animals such as ants. Furthermore, water is transferred from the hindgut, where osmotic pressure has already been reduced, to the stomach to dilute stomach content. Eventually, aphids consume xylem sap to dilute the stomach osmotic pressure. All these processes function synergetically, and enable aphids to feed on high-sucrose-concentration plant sap, as well as to adapt to varying sucrose concentrations. Plant sap is an unbalanced diet for aphids, as it lacks essential amino acids, which aphids, like all animals, cannot synthesise, and possesses a high osmotic pressure due to its high sucrose concentration. Essential amino acids are provided to aphids by bacterial endosymbionts, harboured in special cells, bacteriocytes. These symbionts recycle glutamate, a metabolic waste of their host, into essential amino acids. ## Carotenoids and photoheterotrophy Some species of aphids have acquired the ability to synthesise red carotenoids by horizontal gene transfer from fungi. They are the only animals other than two-spotted spider mites and the oriental hornet with this capability. Using their carotenoids, aphids may well be able to absorb solar energy and convert it to a form that their cells can use, ATP. This is the only known example of photoheterotrophy in animals. The carotene pigments in aphids form a layer close to the surface of the cuticle, ideally placed to absorb sunlight. The excited carotenoids seem to reduce NAD to NADH which is oxidized in the mitochondria for energy. ## Reproduction The simplest reproductive strategy is for an aphid to have a single host all year round. On this it may alternate between sexual and asexual generations (holocyclic) or alternatively, all young may be produced by parthenogenesis, eggs never being laid (anholocyclic). Some species can have both holocyclic and anholocyclic populations under different circumstances but no known aphid species reproduce solely by sexual means. The alternation of sexual and asexual generations may have evolved repeatedly. However, aphid reproduction is often more complex than this and involves migration between different host plants. In about 10% of species, there is an alternation between woody (primary hosts) on which the aphids overwinter and herbaceous (secondary) host plants, where they reproduce abundantly in the summer. A few species can produce a soldier caste, other species show extensive polyphenism under different environmental conditions and some can control the sex ratio of their offspring depending on external factors. When a typical sophisticated reproductive strategy is used, only females are present in the population at the beginning of the seasonal cycle (although a few species of aphids have been found to have both male and female sexes at this time). The overwintering eggs that hatch in the spring result in females, called fundatrices (stem mothers). Reproduction typically does not involve males (parthenogenesis) and results in a live birth (viviparity). The live young are produced by pseudoplacental viviparity, which is the development of eggs, deficient in the yolk, the embryos fed by a tissue acting as a placenta. The young emerge from the mother soon after hatching. Eggs are parthenogenetically produced without meiosis and the offspring are clonal to their mother, so they are all female (thelytoky). The embryos develop within the mothers' ovarioles, which then give birth to live (already hatched) first-instar female nymphs. As the eggs begin to develop immediately after ovulation, an adult female can house developing female nymphs which already have parthenogenetically developing embryos inside them (i.e. they are born pregnant). This telescoping of generations enables aphids to increase in number with great rapidity. The offspring resemble their parent in every way except size. Thus, a female's diet can affect the body size and birth rate of more than two generations (daughters and granddaughters). This process repeats itself throughout the summer, producing multiple generations that typically live 20 to 40 days. For example, some species of cabbage aphids (like Brevicoryne brassicae) can produce up to 41 generations of females in a season. Thus, one female hatched in spring can theoretically produce billions of descendants, were they all to survive. In autumn, aphids reproduce sexually and lay eggs. Environmental factors such as a change in photoperiod and temperature, or perhaps a lower food quantity or quality, causes females to parthenogenetically produce sexual females and males. The males are genetically identical to their mothers except that, with the aphids' X0 sex-determination system, they have one fewer sex chromosome. These sexual aphids may lack wings or even mouthparts. Sexual females and males mate, and females lay eggs that develop outside the mother. The eggs survive the winter and hatch into winged (alate) or wingless females the following spring. This occurs in, for example, the life cycle of the rose aphid (Macrosiphum rosae), which may be considered typical of the family. However, in warm environments, such as in the tropics or a greenhouse, aphids may go on reproducing asexually for many years. Aphids reproducing asexually by parthenogenesis can have genetically identical winged and non-winged female progeny. Control is complex; some aphids alternate during their life-cycles between genetic control (polymorphism) and environmental control (polyphenism) of production of winged or wingless forms. Winged progeny tend to be produced more abundantly under unfavorable or stressful conditions. Some species produce winged progeny in response to low food quality or quantity. e.g. when a host plant is starting to senesce. The winged females migrate to start new colonies on a new host plant. For example, the apple aphid (Aphis pomi), after producing many generations of wingless females gives rise to winged forms that fly to other branches or trees of its typical food plant. Aphids that are attacked by ladybugs, lacewings, parasitoid wasps, or other predators can change the dynamics of their progeny production. When aphids are attacked by these predators, alarm pheromones, in particular beta-farnesene, are released from the cornicles. These alarm pheromones cause several behavioral modifications that, depending on the aphid species, can include walking away and dropping off the host plant. Additionally, alarm pheromone perception can induce the aphids to produce winged progeny that can leave the host plant in search of a safer feeding site. Viral infections, which can be extremely harmful to aphids, can also lead to the production of winged offspring. For example, Densovirus infection has a negative impact on rosy apple aphid (Dysaphis plantaginea) reproduction, but contributes to the development of aphids with wings, which can transmit the virus more easily to new host plants. Additionally, symbiotic bacteria that live inside of the aphids can also alter aphid reproductive strategies based on the exposure to environmental stressors. In the autumn, host-alternating (heteroecious) aphid species produce a special winged generation that flies to different host plants for the sexual part of the life cycle. Flightless female and male sexual forms are produced and lay eggs. Some species such as Aphis fabae (black bean aphid), Metopolophium dirhodum (rose-grain aphid), Myzus persicae (peach-potato aphid), and Rhopalosiphum padi (bird cherry-oat aphid) are serious pests. They overwinter on primary hosts on trees or bushes; in summer, they migrate to their secondary host on a herbaceous plant, often a crop, then the gynoparae return to the tree in autumn. Another example is the soybean aphid (Aphis glycines). As fall approaches, the soybean plants begin to senesce from the bottom upwards. The aphids are forced upwards and start to produce winged forms, first females and later males, which fly off to the primary host, buckthorn. Here they mate and overwinter as eggs. ## Ecology ### Ant mutualism Some species of ants farm aphids, protecting them on the plants where they are feeding, and consuming the honeydew the aphids release from the terminations of their alimentary canals. This is a mutualistic relationship, with these dairying ants milking the aphids by stroking them with their antennae. Although mutualistic, the feeding behaviour of aphids is altered by ant attendance. Aphids attended by ants tend to increase the production of honeydew in smaller drops with a greater concentration of amino acids. Some farming ant species gather and store the aphid eggs in their nests over the winter. In the spring, the ants carry the newly hatched aphids back to the plants. Some species of dairying ants (such as the European yellow meadow ant, Lasius flavus) manage large herds of aphids that feed on roots of plants in the ant colony. Queens leaving to start a new colony take an aphid egg to found a new herd of underground aphids in the new colony. These farming ants protect the aphids by fighting off aphid predators. Some bees in coniferous forests collect aphid honeydew to make forest honey. An interesting variation in ant–aphid relationships involves lycaenid butterflies and Myrmica ants. For example, Niphanda fusca butterflies lay eggs on plants where ants tend herds of aphids. The eggs hatch as caterpillars which feed on the aphids. The ants do not defend the aphids from the caterpillars, since the caterpillars produce a pheromone which deceives the ants into treating them like ants, and carrying the caterpillars into their nest. Once there, the ants feed the caterpillars, which in return produce honeydew for the ants. When the caterpillars reach full size, they crawl to the colony entrance and form cocoons. After two weeks, the adult butterflies emerge and take flight. At this point, the ants attack the butterflies, but the butterflies have a sticky wool-like substance on their wings that disables the ants' jaws, allowing the butterflies to fly away without being harmed. Another ant-mimicking gall aphid, Paracletus cimiciformis (Eriosomatinae), has evolved a complex double strategy involving two morphs of the same clone and Tetramorium ants. Aphids of the round morph cause the ants to farm them, as with many other aphids. The flat morph aphids are aggressive mimics with a "wolf in sheep's clothing" strategy: they have hydrocarbons in their cuticle that mimic those of the ants, and the ants carry them into the brood chamber of the ants' nest and raise them like ant larvae. Once there, the flat morph aphids behave like predators, drinking the body fluids of ant larvae. ### Bacterial endosymbiosis Endosymbiosis with micro-organisms is common in insects, with more than 10% of insect species relying on intracellular bacteria for their development and survival. Aphids harbour a vertically transmitted (from parent to its offspring) obligate symbiosis with Buchnera aphidicola, the primary symbiont, inside specialized cells, the bacteriocytes. Five of the bacteria genes have been transferred to the aphid nucleus. The original association is estimated to have occurred in a common ancestor and enabled aphids to exploit a new ecological niche, feeding on phloem-sap of vascular plants. B. aphidicola provides its host with essential amino acids, which are present in low concentrations in plant sap. The metabolites from endosymbionts are also excreted in honeydew. The stable intracellular conditions, as well as the bottleneck effect experienced during the transmission of a few bacteria from the mother to each nymph, increase the probability of transmission of mutations and gene deletions. As a result, the size of the B. aphidicola genome is greatly reduced, compared to its putative ancestor. Despite the apparent loss of transcription factors in the reduced genome, gene expression is highly regulated, as shown by the ten-fold variation in expression levels between different genes under normal conditions. Buchnera aphidicola gene transcription, although not well understood, is thought to be regulated by a small number of global transcriptional regulators and/or through nutrient supplies from the aphid host. Some aphid colonies also harbour secondary or facultative (optional extra) bacterial symbionts. These are vertically transmitted, and sometimes also horizontally (from one lineage to another and possibly from one species to another). So far, the role of only some of the secondary symbionts has been described; Regiella insecticola plays a role in defining the host-plant range, Hamiltonella defensa provides resistance to parasitoids but only when it is in turn infected by the bacteriophage APSE, and Serratia symbiotica prevents the deleterious effects of heat. ### Predators Aphids are eaten by many bird and insect predators. In a study on a farm in North Carolina, six species of passerine bird consumed nearly a million aphids per day between them, the top predators being the American goldfinch, with aphids forming 83% of its diet, and the vesper sparrow. Insects that attack aphids include the adults and larvae of predatory ladybirds, hoverfly larvae, parasitic wasps, aphid midge larvae, "aphid lions" (the larvae of green lacewings), and arachnids such as spiders. Among ladybirds, Myzia oblongoguttata is a dietary specialist which only feeds on conifer aphids, whereas Adalia bipunctata and Coccinella septempunctata are generalists, feeding on large numbers of species. The eggs are laid in batches, each female laying several hundred. Female hoverflies lay several thousand eggs. The adults feed on pollen and nectar but the larvae feed voraciously on aphids; Eupeodes corollae adjusts the number of eggs laid to the size of the aphid colony. Aphids are often infected by bacteria, viruses, and fungi. They are affected by the weather, such as precipitation, temperature and wind. Fungi that attack aphids include Neozygites fresenii, Entomophthora, Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium anisopliae, and entomopathogenic fungi such as Lecanicillium lecanii. Aphids brush against the microscopic spores. These stick to the aphid, germinate, and penetrate the aphid's skin. The fungus grows in the aphid's hemolymph. After about three days, the aphid dies and the fungus releases more spores into the air. Infected aphids are covered with a woolly mass that progressively grows thicker until the aphid is obscured. Often, the visible fungus is not the one that killed the aphid, but a secondary infection. Aphids can be easily killed by unfavourable weather, such as late spring freezes. Excessive heat kills the symbiotic bacteria that some aphids depend on, which makes the aphids infertile. Rain prevents winged aphids from dispersing, and knocks aphids off plants and thus kills them from the impact or by starvation, but cannot be relied on for aphid control. #### Anti-predator defences Most aphids have little protection from predators. Some species interact with plant tissues forming a gall, an abnormal swelling of plant tissue. Aphids can live inside the gall, which provides protection from predators and the elements. A number of galling aphid species are known to produce specialised "soldier" forms, sterile nymphs with defensive features which defend the gall from invasion. For example, Alexander's horned aphids are a type of soldier aphid that has a hard exoskeleton and pincer-like mouthparts. A woolly aphid, Colophina clematis, has first instar "soldier" nymphs that protect the aphid colony, killing larvae of ladybirds, hoverflies and the flower bug Anthocoris nemoralis by climbing on them and inserting their stylets. Although aphids cannot fly for most of their life cycle, they can escape predators and accidental ingestion by herbivores by dropping off the plant onto the ground. Others species use the soil as a permanent protection, feeding on the vascular systems of roots and remaining underground all their lives. They are often attended by ants, for the honeydew they produce and are carried from plant to plant by the ants through their tunnels. Some species of aphid, known as "woolly aphids" (Eriosomatinae), excrete a "fluffy wax coating" for protection. The cabbage aphid, Brevicoryne brassicae, sequesters secondary metabolites from its host, stores them and releases chemicals that produce a violent chemical reaction and strong mustard oil smell to repel predators. Peptides produced by aphids, Thaumatins, are thought to provide them with resistance to some fungi. It was common at one time to suggest that the cornicles were the source of the honeydew, and this was even included in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary and the 2008 edition of the World Book Encyclopedia. In fact, honeydew secretions are produced from the anus of the aphid, while cornicles mostly produce defensive chemicals such as waxes. There also is evidence of cornicle wax attracting aphid predators in some cases. Some clones of Aphis craccivora are sufficiently toxic to the invasive and dominant predatory ladybird Harmonia axyridis to suppress it locally, favouring other ladybird species; the toxicity is in this case narrowly specific to the dominant predator species. ### Parasitoids Aphids are abundant and widespread, and serve as hosts to a large number of parasitoids, many of them being very small (c. 0.1 inches (2.5 mm) long) parasitoid wasps. One species, Aphis ruborum, for example, is host to at least 12 species of parasitoid wasps. Parasitoids have been investigated intensively as biological control agents, and many are used commercially for this purpose. ### Plant-aphid interactions Plants mount local and systemic defenses against aphid attack. Young leaves in some plants contain chemicals that discourage attack while the older leaves have lost this resistance, while in other plant species, resistance is acquired by older tissues and the young shoots are vulnerable. Volatile products from interplanted onions have been shown to prevent aphid attack on adjacent potato plants by encouraging the production of terpenoids, a benefit exploited in the traditional practice of companion planting, while plants neighboring infested plants showed increased root growth at the expense of the extension of aerial parts. The wild potato, Solanum berthaultii, produces an aphid alarm pheromone, (E)-β-farnesene, as an allomone, a pheromone to ward off attack; it effectively repels the aphid Myzus persicae at a range of up to 3 millimetres. S. berthaultii and other wild potato species have a further anti-aphid defence in the form of glandular hairs which, when broken by aphids, discharge a sticky liquid that can immobilise some 30% of the aphids infesting a plant. Plants exhibiting aphid damage can have a variety of symptoms, such as decreased growth rates, mottled leaves, yellowing, stunted growth, curled leaves, browning, wilting, low yields, and death. The removal of sap creates a lack of vigor in the plant, and aphid saliva is toxic to plants. Aphids frequently transmit plant viruses to their hosts, such as to potatoes, cereals, sugarbeets, and citrus plants. There are two types of virus transmission between plant-aphid interactions: non-circulative transmission and circulative transmission. In non-circulative transmission, the virus attaches itself to the aphids mouthparts and is released when the aphids feed on a different plant. These non-circulatory transmitted viruses promotes rapid dispersion of the vector, or aphids. In circulative transmission, the virus is ingested and passes through the gut lining to enter the hemolymph, where it is then circulated throughout the entire body. After reaching the salivary glands, the virus is then released into the saliva upon transmission sites in plants. Circulatory transmitted viruses allows for long-term feeding by the aphids and increases the chances of being infected with the virus. The green peach aphid, Myzus persicae, is a vector for more than 110 plant viruses. Cotton aphids (Aphis gossypii) often infect sugarcane, papaya and peanuts with viruses. In plants which produce the phytoestrogen coumestrol, such as alfalfa, damage by aphids is linked with higher concentrations of coumestrol. The coating of plants with honeydew can contribute to the spread of fungi which can damage plants. Honeydew produced by aphids has been observed to reduce the effectiveness of fungicides as well. A hypothesis that insect feeding may improve plant fitness was floated in the mid-1970s by Owen and Wiegert. It was felt that the excess honeydew would nourish soil micro-organisms, including nitrogen fixers. In a nitrogen-poor environment, this could provide an advantage to an infested plant over an uninfested plant. However, this does not appear to be supported by observational evidence. ## Sociality Some aphids show some of the traits of eusociality, joining insects such as ants, bees, and termites. However, there are differences between these sexual social insects and the clonal aphids, which are all descended from a single female parthenogenetically and share an identical genome. About fifty species of aphid, scattered among the closely related, host-alternating lineages Eriosomatinae and Hormaphidinae, have some type of defensive morph. These are gall-creating species, with the colony living and feeding inside a gall that they form in the host's tissues. Among the clonal population of these aphids, there may be several distinct morphs and this lays the foundation for a possible specialization of function, in this case, a defensive caste. The soldier morphs are mostly first and second instars with the third instar being involved in Eriosoma moriokense and only in Smythurodes betae are adult soldiers known. The hind legs of soldiers are clawed, heavily sclerotized and the stylets are robust making it possible to rupture and crush small predators. The larval soldiers are altruistic individuals, unable to advance to breeding adults but acting permanently in the interests of the colony. Another requirement for the development of sociality is provided by the gall, a colonial home to be defended by the soldiers. The soldiers of gall-forming aphids also carry out the job of cleaning the gall. The honeydew secreted by the aphids is coated in a powdery wax to form "liquid marbles" that the soldiers roll out of the gall through small orifices. Aphids that form closed galls use the plant's vascular system for their plumbing: the inner surfaces of the galls are highly absorbent and wastes are absorbed and carried away by the plant. ## Interactions with humans ### Pest status About 5000 species of aphid have been described and of these, some 450 species have colonized food and fiber crops. As direct feeders on plant sap, they damage crops and reduce yields, but they have a greater impact by being vectors of plant viruses. The transmission of these viruses depends on the movements of aphids between different parts of a plant, between nearby plants, and further afield. In this respect, the probing behavior of an aphid tasting a host is more damaging than lengthy aphid feeding and reproduction by stay-put individuals. The movement of aphids influences the timing of virus epidemics. They are major pests of greenhouse crops and species often encountered in greenhouses include: green peach aphid (Myzus persicae), cotton or melon aphid (Aphis gossypii), potato aphid (Macrosiphum euphorbiae), foxglove aphid (Aulacorthum solani) and chrysanthemum aphid (Macrosiphoniella sanborni) and others, which cause leaf yellowing, distorted leaves, and plant stunting; the excreted honeydew is a growing medium for a number of fungal pathogens including black sooty molds from the genera Capnodium, Fumago, and Scorias which then infect leaves and inhibit growth by reducing photosynthesis. Aphids, especially during large outbreaks, have been known to trigger allergic inhalant reactions in sensitive humans. Dispersal can be by walking or flight, appetitive dispersal, or by migration. Winged aphids are weak fliers, lose their wings after a few days and only fly by day. Dispersal by flight is affected by the impact, air currents, gravity, precipitation, and other factors, or dispersal may be accidental, caused by the movement of plant materials, animals, farm machinery, vehicles, or aircraft. ### Control Insecticide control of aphids is difficult, as they breed rapidly, so even small areas missed may enable the population to recover promptly. Aphids may occupy the undersides of leaves where spray misses them, while systemic insecticides do not move satisfactorily into flower petals. Finally, some aphid species are resistant to common insecticide classes including carbamates, organophosphates, and pyrethroids. For small backyard infestations, spraying plants thoroughly with a strong water jet every few days may be sufficient protection. An insecticidal soap solution can be an effective household remedy to control aphids, but it only kills aphids on contact and has no residual effect. Soap spray may damage plants, especially at higher concentrations or at temperatures above 32 °C (90 °F); some plant species are sensitive to soap sprays. Aphid populations can be sampled using yellow-pan or Moericke traps. These are yellow containers with water that attract aphids. Aphids respond positively to green and their attraction to yellow may not be a true colour preference but related to brightness. Their visual receptors peak in sensitivity from 440 to 480 nm and are insensitive in the red region. Moericke found that aphids avoided landing on white coverings placed on soil and were repelled even more by shiny aluminium surfaces. Integrated pest management of various species of aphids can be achieved using biological insecticides based on fungi such as Lecanicillium lecanii, Beauveria bassiana or Isaria fumosorosea. Fungi are the main pathogens of aphids; Entomophthorales can quickly cut aphid numbers in nature. Aphids may also be controlled by the release of natural enemies, in particular lady beetles and parasitoid wasps. However, since adult lady beetles tend to fly away within 48 hours after release, without laying eggs, repeated applications of large numbers of lady beetles are needed to be effective. For example, one large, heavily infested rose bush may take two applications of 1500 beetles each. The ability to produce allomones such as farnesene to repel and disperse aphids and to attract their predators has been experimentally transferred to transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants using an Eβf synthase gene in the hope that the approach could protect transgenic crops. Eβ farnesene has however found to be ineffective in crop situations although stabler synthetic forms help improve the effectiveness of control using fungal spores and insecticides through increased uptake caused by movements of aphids. ### In human culture Aphids are familiar to farmers and gardeners, mainly as pests. Peter Marren and Richard Mabey record that Gilbert White described an invading "army" of black aphids that arrived in his village of Selborne, Hampshire, England, in August 1774 in "great clouds", covering every plant, while in the unusually hot summer of 1783, White found that honeydew was so abundant as to "deface and destroy the beauties of my garden", though he thought the aphids were consuming rather than producing it. Infestation of the Chinese sumac (Rhus chinensis) by Chinese sumac aphids (Schlechtendalia chinensis) can create "Chinese galls" which are valued as a commercial product. As "Galla Chinensis", they are used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat coughs, diarrhea, night sweats, dysentery and to stop intestinal and uterine bleeding. Chinese galls are also an important source of tannins. ## See also - Aeroplankton - Economic entomology - Pineapple gall

Death of Patrick Cronin

2016 incident in Melbourne, Australia

Patrick John Cronin (24 September 1996 – 18 April 2016) was a 19-year-old Australian man who died following a brawl at the Windy Mile Hotel in Diamond Creek, Victoria in 2016. Cronin was killed by a single strike to the back of his head (described as a coward punch) while he attempted to pull his friend out of the fight. It is believed the brawl involved up to thirty individuals, several of whom were charged in relation to the brawl. The main offender, Andrew William Lee, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Cronin and received a prison term of eight years with a five-year non-parole period. Following his sentencing, Lee sought to appeal his original sentence twice but was refused. In addition to his sentence, Lee was ordered to pay Cronin's family $170,972 by the Supreme Court of Victoria following a compensation claim by Cronin's family. Of the other individuals who were charged in relation to Cronin's death, one had his charge dismissed, two received a criminal conviction and had to pay fines of $2,000 and $3,000, two were offered diversions, and one was ordered to be of good behaviour and make a $2,000 donation to the Pat Cronin Foundation. Cronin's family set up the foundation which aims to end the coward punch and educate people on the consequences of violence. The foundation presents its "Be Wise Education Program" to school students across Victoria in an effort to promote responsible decision-making from a young age. ## Circumstances of death On 16 April 2016 at 9:45 p.m., Patrick Cronin met with friends at the bar of the Windy Mile Hotel in Diamond Creek, Victoria, Australia. Earlier in the day, Cronin and his older brother Lucas had both played their first senior match at their local football club. Andrew Lee arrived at the hotel at 10:21 p.m. and proceeded to have a few drinks with his friends. At around 11 p.m., a fight broke out just outside the hotel after a man named Joseph Hitchcock confronted a group of four patrons who yelled "fuck off, you fatty" to him. Shortly thereafter, Patrick Cronin was seen on CCTV to have left his seat at the bar and proceeded outside to where the fight was taking place. He was seen trying to remove his friend, Anthony Hopkins, from the brawl. Lee also proceeded outside to the location of the altercation and watched for approximately a minute before deciding to get involved. Lee approached the brawl, out of Cronin's view, towards his right side. Lee threw three punches, all of which were aimed at Cronin's friend, Hopkins. The first punch struck the right side of Hopkins' head, the second punch struck Cronin near his ear (the force of the blow caused Cronin to stumble sideways), and the third punch did not strike anyone. From that point, Lee continued to engage in the brawl while Cronin removed Hopkins and other friends from the area. Police arrived at the hotel soon afterwards; the brawl subsided, and the participants scattered. Cronin explained to friends that he had been punched on the right of his head and could be seen rubbing the area on CCTV. Cronin then left the hotel to stay at a friend's house; he complained of a headache and feeling unwell during the rest of the evening. By 12:30 a.m., Cronin's condition had become considerably worse, and he was found vomiting in the bathroom by Hopkins. Cronin said that he suspected he had a concussion. At around 1 a.m., Cronin's mother, Robyn Cronin, was called to pick him up due to his poor condition. As his condition further deteriorated, Cronin began convulsing and suffered a seizure; an ambulance was called. By the time paramedics arrived, Cronin was unconscious. The MICA staff had to intervene in order to assist Cronin's breathing and to stabilise his condition for the trip to the hospital. Upon his arrival at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, doctors determined that Cronin "suffered a significant haemorrhage on the right side of his brain" and that the "injury was not survivable". Cronin died at 8:25 p.m. on 18 April 2016 from what was described as an "acute extra-dural haemorrhage following blunt force trauma." A post mortem was conducted by forensic pathologist Yeliena Baber. She concluded that Cronin had been struck at the "weakest point of the skull", only four millimetres (0.16 in) thick. She described the area as the "achilles tendon of the skull." She reported that the punch Cronin suffered caused a two-centimetre (0.79 in) hairline fracture in his skull and it was a "lacerated artery that produced the haemorrhage." ## Criminal proceedings Police suspected that as many as thirty individuals were engaged in the altercation that took Cronin's life; ultimately, charges were filed against seven individuals involved in the brawl. ### Andrew William Lee On 19 April 2016, police released an image of "a man they would like to speak to," the following day, Lee turned himself in, was arrested, and charged with Cronin's murder. In May 2017, Lee's initial charge of murder was downgraded to the lesser charge of manslaughter. On 8 September 2017, Lee pleaded guilty to one charge of manslaughter in relation to his involvement in the brawl. His plea of guilty occurred one day after his trial had started and with a jury already being empanelled. On 10 November 2017, in sentencing Lee, Justice Lex Lasry concluded that despite the seriousness of Lee's actions, several factors helped mitigate the imposed sentence. The judge cited Lee's plea of guilty (which spared the Cronin family from the trauma involved with a trial), his remorse for his actions, previous good character, and good prospects for rehabilitation. Lasry sentenced Lee to eight years' imprisonment, fixed with a five-year non-parole period, for the manslaughter of Cronin. Lee made two attempts to appeal against his sentence, but both failed. On the first occasion, in March 2018, the matter was refused by a justice of the Court of Appeal. On the second occasion, in December 2018, the matter was refused by three Court of Appeal justices. In 2019, Lee was ordered to pay $170,972 in compensation to Cronin's family after they sought financial compensation for Lee's actions. In Victoria, all victims of crime are able to seek compensation from offenders through the Sentencing Act 1991; however, the process is costly, complex, and lengthy. In August 2018, it was revealed that Lee had been speaking to VCE legal studies students as part of a Corrections Victoria education program. While the program had existed for twenty years, Cronin's father raised concerns and others that students were receiving talks from someone guilty of manslaughter and that there was the potential for Lee to meet with someone who may have known Cronin. Following a furore, Lee was removed from the program. ### Other charges Aron John Burns, a man who had a prior criminal conviction for "intentionally causing injury", was convicted of unlawfully flighting and affray and fined $2,000 after pleading guilty. Gerrard O'Connor had his charge dismissed after pleading not guilty. O'Connor claimed he was acting in self-defence despite admitting to punching co-accused Samuel Judd in the face. Magistrate Lance Martin acquitted O'Connor after concluding that his actions were necessary in the course of protecting his friend, who was also involved in the brawl. Joseph Hitchcock, the man involved in the inception of the fight, was charged over his actions in the brawl, which included criminal damage for breaking the phone of a person who was recording the incident and affray. Hitchcock pleaded guilty to both charges. Showing remorse and with no prior convictions, Hitchcock received a $4,000 fine and a criminal conviction. Luke Sheahan, whose involvement in the fight lasted 12 seconds, pleaded guilty to affray. Sheahan received a 12-month good behaviour bond and was ordered to donate $2,000 to the Pat Cronin Foundation. Samuel Judd was charged in relation to the matter and was offered a diversion. Simon Jeffrey Buchanan, with no prior convictions, was offered a diversion, ordered to donate $2,000 to the Pat Cronin Foundation and be of good behaviour after he pleaded guilty to unlawfully fighting and affray. He did not receive a criminal conviction. Wayne Gilbert McManus, a man who had "two relevant prior convictions", was found guilty, received a $3,000 fine, and a criminal conviction after pleading not guilty and claiming he "acted in defence of others" as he attempted to break up smaller fights within the brawl. ## Legacy ### Pat Cronin Foundation Roughly two years after his death, Cronin's family launched a foundation in his honour to educate, raise awareness and conduct research in relation to the coward punch. The foundation has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in Victorian state government funding directed at the rollout of the Be Wise Education Program across 200 schools. The program promotes good decision-making and the dangers of social violence to students, with the ultimate goal being to end the coward punch. In addition to the presentations that are run throughout the year, the Foundation hosts events such as the Be Wise Ball and the Be Wise Walk to the Valley where people walk from Heidelberg to Lower Plenty in memory of Cronin. The foundation's symbol, an owl, was drawn by Cronin shortly before his passing and has since been used as a symbol for Be Wise. ### Proposed law reforms Cronin's family has been vocal in their desire for new laws in dealing with coward punch cases and victim's rights. This has included a call for crime compensation law reform. They describe the process for victims of crime to access compensation from an offender as very onerous, consuming a lot of time and money. Cronin's family argue that even after being ordered to pay compensation, the offender may decide to ignore the order, which then requires the victim to pursue the matter in a civil lawsuit. Cronin's father has suggested that an order of compensation be imposed at the time of sentencing as an alternative. Legislation introduced in 2014 that imposed a ten-year mandatory minimum sentence for manslaughter as a result of a coward punch was unable to be applied in Lee's case after Justice Lasry determined that Lee's intention to strike Cronin could not be proven. As a result, Cronin's family has called for the current legislation to be reformed, labelling it "poor and ambiguous" as the mandatory sentence is difficult to apply to manslaughter cases (as proving manslaughter does not require proof of intent). ## See also - Sucker punch - Crime in Victoria - Death of Thomas Kelly - Rabbit punch

Mandy Carter (Ackley Bridge)

Fictional character from Ackley Bridge

Mandy Carter is a fictional character from the Channel 4 school drama Ackley Bridge, portrayed by Jo Joyner. Mandy first appeared in the pilot episode of the series, first broadcast on 7 June 2017. Mandy was initially introduced as the headteacher of the fictional Ackley Bridge school, and her storylines in the series have included the breakdown of her marriage to Steve Bell (Paul Nicholls), trying to help her mother escape from an abusive marriage to her father, trying to save her school and becoming pregnant. Prior to her first appearance on the series, Mandy has dedicated several years to starting the school, which has led to her neglecting her marriage and having fun. Joyner has expressed her admiration for Mandy having a good professional life and a messy personal life, since she felt the contradiction is typically seen in great women. Joyner asked writers to explore Mandy's backstory in the second series; they responded by revealing that she has grown up with an abusive father. Joyner departed from Ackley Bridge in the fourth series. Mandy's exit was written as her feeling that the school no longer needed her, and Joyner stated that she felt the same way as her character. Joyner has been praised for her portrayal of Mandy, with Rianne Houghton of Digital Spy describing her as the "queen of Ackley Bridge". ## Storylines Mandy is introduced as the headteacher of the multicultural academy school Ackley Bridge, a newly formed school built from the merging of a majority-white school and a majority-Asian school. Mandy is married to PE teacher Steve Bell (Paul Nicholls), who previously had an affair with netball teacher Claire Butterworth (Kimberley Walsh). While struggling with the challenges of the new school, Mandy has sex with Sadiq Nawaz (Adil Ray), the school sponsor, and the father of students Alya (Maariah Hussain) and Riz (Nohail Mohammed). She tells Steve, who is initially angry with Mandy, but later forgives her and reconciles their marriage. Mandy later discovers that she is pregnant and that Steve is the father of the child. Steve proposes that they get back together to support the child, but Mandy states that they do not work well as a couple. When a drunk man is found in the toilets of the school, Mandy affirms that she will handle the situation. The man is revealed to be her abusive father Ray (Ted Robbins), who is claiming to have dementia. She offers to use her savings to put Ray in a residential care home, in order to give her mother Dianne (Lin Blakley) a more peaceful life. Mandy explains to her best friend Emma Keane (Liz White) that her dream as a child was to get a successful job, and save her mother from Ray. Mandy later learns that her parents were lying to her in order to use her money for a camper van to go travelling in. Sadiq informs Mandy that as a result of his mattress company collapsing, he can no longer afford to fund the school, but pleads to continue as the school's sponsor due to the years of effort he has put into Ackley Bridge. Mandy convinces the school governors to allow Sadiq to stay on as the sponsor rather than be taken over by a trust, but when the placements for the new school year are 36 students down, it means that they lack approximately £250,000 in government funding. Mandy meets with the Valley Trust to discuss the future of the school, but when they cannot guarantee her the safety of staff members' job positions, she initially declines their offer, but later accepts. The trust asks Mandy to continue as headteacher, to which she accepts. Following the Valley Trust taking over the school, a number of employees are dismissed and replaced by new staff members, which Mandy expresses her annoyance with. When the time for Mandy to take her maternity leave arises, she is temporarily replaced by Sian Oakes (Ty Glaser). However, while on maternity leave, she learns that Sian has groomed student Cory Wilson (Sam Retford) and manipulated him into lying about it. Mandy then returns early to prove Cory's innocence. Mandy lets Martin have the role of acting headteacher and later informs him that she has no plans to return as headteacher, only as a teacher. The job is advertised, and Mandy informs Martin that he has received the role. Mandy later tells the staff at Ackley Bridge College that she has received the opportunity to start an all-girls school in Nepal. She explains that the opportunity feels similar to when she started Ackley Bridge College, which leads her to accept. She reminisces with Kaneez on their friendship and leaves. ## Development Upon her casting, actress Joyner described her character Mandy as "hard working", and stated that prior to the pilot episode, Mandy has "dedicated the last few years to getting this school off the ground". She explained that in order to have a successful work career, Mandy has neglected areas of her life, such as having fun and her relationship with Steve. She added that Mandy is a perfectionist who "relishes the chance to do something great for the community and truly believes in the opportunities that good education can bring". Joyner noted that there is a contradiction between Mandy's personal and professional life, since she is "strong and capable when it comes to leadership and work", but her personal life is the "complete opposite". Joyner stated that she loves the contradiction, since it makes her a well-developed character, and added that the contradiction is often seen in great women. Joyner expressed her joy at the headteacher of the school being a woman, and liked that she is driven to achieve her goals. Upon the renewal of Ackley Bridge for a second series, Joyner asked the writers to delve into her character's backstory. She told the writers: "I'd really like to know why she's so driven and why education means so much to her". Following this, her backstory was explored in a centric episode which revealed that she has an abusive father and grew up as an only child. Joyner appreciated the writers developing Mandy's past, since it shows "how hard she's worked to get out of her own home environment, which wasn't particularly fabulous". She described education as an escape for Mandy and said that her high expectations for students may initially look "unsympathetic" to viewers, but that the development will add more depth to her personality. Joyner explained that Mandy has a working class background, which means that she is "no push over" and does not "take any excuses" in regards to people not achieving at the school. She praised Mandy's drive to achieve, as she felt that Mandy's troubled past made it easy for her to be an underachiever. However, she used her life events as motivation to "climb up the ladder". She admitted that Mandy may not always be the most liked character, but felt that Mandy's actions have "good reason". Joyner explained that Mandy always prioritises the pupils at Ackley Bridge and what they can achieve, adding that Mandy is not as concerned with the figures at the school. When asked if Mandy is lonely due to being promoted to headteacher above her colleagues, Joyner confirms that she is, describing her as a "lone wolf". She felt that being an old child added to her loneliness. Joyner explained that since Mandy has been "forging ahead on her own ever since she was tiny", she became used to being on her own. This led to people having difficulty getting close to her. Speaking about Mandy's marriage with Steve, Joyner stated that in the first few episodes, Mandy and Steve are seen to be "getting on well", but that it becomes "clear that they have had some issues that they've been dealing with from the past", in regards to his former affair with Claire. Joyner noted that despite Steve being Mandy's "rock", she feels resentment towards him due to his history with Claire. She added that Steve is "feeling quite insecure" due to Mandy spending time with Sadiq. Due to this, their relationship has lots of "ups and downs", and when they decide to live apart, they still miss each other. After Mandy and Sadiq have sex, Joyner described Mandy's mindset as having "got even" with Steve. Joyner noted that working with co-star Nicholls, whom she previously worked with on the BBC series Candy Cabs, was "really great", and she deemed herself lucky to work with him again. She added that they "work really well together", and that Nicholls aids the ease of being an on-screen partnership. Joyner was also able to work with former No Angels co-star Sunetra Sarker, and despite Mandy having a small number of scenes with her character Kaneez Paracha, Joyner stated that the decision was "probably for the best", since the two would make each other laugh during filming. Whilst filming the fourth series, Joyner entered a "bubble" due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on television with Sarker to be able to film scenes with her. In April 2021, Sarker revealed to Inside Soap that Joyner would be leaving Ackley Bridge in the fourth series. Joyner was grateful to be bubbled with Sarker since it meant they could hug when Joyner announced her exit from the series. Joyner felt proud to be involved with Ackley Bridge due to the well-written diversity. She stated that she would miss Mandy's drive to "bring people together and to believe that education was a route out for anyone who truly wanted it". When asked about her favourite moments of her character from the fourth series, Joyner replied that one is when she helped the Booth family in series one, since it showed "a lot of good teachers are so much more than just that to their students". Joyner also stated that she loved her scenes with Nicholls, as she felt that Mandy's scenes with Steve showed her "less in control". Joyner appeared on the ITV talk show Lorraine, where she was asked why she chose to leave the series. Joyner explained that Mandy leaves due to the school as it is "up and running" and does not need her anymore. Joyner likened her own feelings to Mandy's as she felt that the programme is established and therefore "it's time to move on". ## Reception Following the episode that aired on 24 July 2018 which focused on Mandy's relationship with her parents, Joyner was praised for her portrayal of the role by viewers. Rianne Houghton of Digital Spy billed Joyner as "the queen of Ackley Bridge" and said that fans of the series are "claiming her as their own". Houghton noted that Twitter users were "singing [her] praises" and felt that she deserved awards for her portrayal of Mandy. Houghton agreed with the comments and wrote that the BBC soap opera EastEnders would benefit from Joyner returning to her previous role as Tanya Branning due to her acting capabilities. Joyner appeared on the ITV talk show Lorraine to discuss the scenes, where she explained that viewers would tell her every day how much they liked and admired the character. She noted that the messages were from people of all ages, which she appreciated. In an episode broadcast on 30 July 2019, the character was complimented by viewers due to her part in exposing a student-teacher affair, a storyline that viewers had previously reacted negatively to. She was also described as being "the most caring teacher ever" by Stephanie Chase of Digital Spy, with viewers adding that she is the "best teacher" on the series.

Cathedral of Ani

Abandoned 11th century cathedral

The Cathedral of Ani (, Anii mayr tačar; ) is the largest standing building in Ani, the capital city of medieval Bagratid Armenia, located in present-day eastern Turkey, on the border with modern Armenia. Its construction was completed in the early 11th century by the architect Trdat and it was the seat of the Catholicos, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, for nearly half a century. In 1064, following the Seljuk conquest of Ani, the cathedral was converted into a mosque. It later returned to being used as an Armenian church. It eventually suffered damage in a 1319 earthquake when its conical dome collapsed. Subsequently, Ani was gradually abandoned and the church fell into disrepair. The north-western corner of the church was heavily damaged by a 1988 earthquake. The cathedral is considered the largest and most impressive structure in Ani. It is a domed basilica with a rectangular plan, though the dome and most of its supporting drum are now missing. Its use of pointed arches and cluster piers has been widely cited by scholars to have possibly influenced, or at least preceded, Gothic architecture. The cathedral, along with the entire site of Ani, was declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 2016. ## Names In modern Armenian, the cathedral is usually referred to as Անիի մայր տաճար, Anii mayr tačar and in Turkish as Ani Katedrali, both meaning "cathedral of Ani". Historically, however, it was known in Armenian as Անիի Կաթողիկե, Anii Kat'oghike. The cathedral is also known as Holy Mother of God Church of Ani (, Anii Surb Astvatsatsni yekeghetsi; ) and the Great/Grand Cathedral of Ani (Մեծ Կաթողիկե, Mets Kat'oghike; Büyük Katedral). ## History ### Foundation and early history Following more than two centuries of Arab rule, Armenia gained independence under the Bagratid (Bagratuni) dynasty around 885. King Ashot III made Ani capital in 961, after which the city emerged as a prosperous urban center with 100,000 residents at its height. The construction of the cathedral began in 989. The architect Trdat was commissioned by Bagratid King Smbat II to build a cathedral in the new capital of the Armenian kingdom. The construction was halted when Smbat died in 989, according to an inscription on the south wall. Meanwhile, Trdat was hired to direct the repairs of the dome of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, which had collapsed in an earthquake. Trdat returned from Constantinople in 993. The construction was continued and completed by Queen Katranide (Katramide), the wife of King Gagik I, Smbat's brother and successor. It was completed either in 1001 or 1010. According to Christina Maranci the generally accepted date of completion is 1001, but it may have extended until 1010. The contradiction is based on the reading of the inscription of the cathedral's northern wall. The cathedral served as the seat of the catholicos, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church from its foundation in 1001 until the mid-11th century (1046 or 1051). Thus, for around half a century Ani was both the religious and secular (political) center of Armenia. A silver cross originally stood on its conical dome and a crystal chandelier, bought by King Smbat II from India, hang in the cathedral. In the 1010s, during the reign of Catholicos Sarkis I, a mausoleum dedicated to the Hripsimean virgins was erected next to the cathedral. The mausoleum was built on some of the remnants of the virgins brought from Vagharshapat (Etchmiadzin). In the 1040s–1050s inscriptions were left on the cathedral's eastern and western walls about urban projects, such as restoration of defensive walls, installation of water pipes and easing of the tax burden on the residents of Ani. ### Later history Ani surrendered to the Byzantine Empire in 1045, who held it until 1064, when the city was captured by the Seljuks, led by Alp Arslan. Alp Arslan and his soldiers performed their first prayer in Ani at the cathedral. Consequently, the cathedral was converted into a mosque and called Fethiye Mosque (). Official Turkish sources often refer to it by that name. According to Matthew of Edessa, its silver cross was removed by the Seljuks and transferred to a mosque in Nakhchivan, where it was placed under the threshold, destined to be trodden upon. A crescent was placed on its dome according to Vardan Areveltsi. In 1124 a crescent was placed on the cathedral's dome by the Shaddadid amir of Ani. In response, Ani's Armenians appealed to King David IV of Georgia to capture Ani, after which the cathedral returned to Christian usage. Vardan Areveltsi celebrated the brief reversal. Only two years later, in 1126, Ani came under the control of the Shaddadids. During the 12th century historians Mkhitar Anetsi, Samuel Anetsi and philosopher Hovhannes Sarkavag served at the cathedral in various capacities. Mkhitar was an elder priest at the cathedral in the second half of the century. In 1198 Ani was conquered by the Georgian-Armenian Zakarid (Mkhargrdzeli) princes, under whose control the cathedral prospered. In 1213 the wealthy merchant Tigran Honents restored the cathedral's steps. ### Decay Ani's long-term decline began in 1239 when Mongols sacked the city and massacred its population. In 1319 a devastating earthquake struck Ani. It resulted in the collapse of the cathedral's conical roof. Ani was completely deserted by the 18th century. The drum reportedly collapsed during an 1832 or 1840 earthquake. Varazdat Harutyunyan insists that the entire dome had collapsed in 1319. The north-western corner of the cathedral was heavily damaged by a 1988 earthquake with its epicenter in modern Armenia's north. It resulted in a large gaping hole. According to VirtualAni it also caused "a serious rent in the south-west corner; by 1998 parts of the roof here had started to fall." Lavrenti Barseghian wrote in 2003 that the damage from the earthquake was so great that the entire building would collapse unless strengthened and restored. Explosions in a quarry on the Armenian side of the border, across the Akhurian River, reportedly caused some damage to the cathedral in the early 2000s. In mid-June 2001 an "ear-splitting explosion rocked the site just as a group of Armenian Americans had gathered to pray at the cathedral." Samvel Karapetyan, who witnessed the explosions on the Armenian side during his visit to Ani in July 2000, stated that the explosions continued until 2004/2005. However, Turkish accusations continued until 2008. Vercihan Ziflioğlu wrote for Hürriyet that that it was only in 2009 that Armenia halted blasting activities, reportedly, after Turkey's complaint at the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). In the mid-2000s, Turkish guards had dug a large hole in their quest for treasure on the floor of the apse of the cathedral. Moreover, treasure hunters dug out the grave of what may have been that of Queen Katranide beside the west façade of the cathedral. It had been uncovered by French archaeologists in 2002–03. Additional gravestones with Armenian inscriptions nearby were upturned. ## Preservation efforts Ani has been listed on the World Monuments Watch by World Monuments Fund (WMF) since 1996. In May 2011 the WMF and the Turkish Ministry of Culture launched a conservation project focusing on the cathedral and the nearby Church of the Redeemer. The project is funded by the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation of the U.S. State Department. Before the project, a steel structure was installed around the cathedral, in order to prevent its cracked sandstone walls from collapsing. The WMF and its Turkish partner, Anadolu Kültür, said they will work on "stabilization and protection" of the cathedral. Turkey's Minister of Culture Ertuğrul Günay stated "We hope that giving new life to the remains of once-splendid buildings, such as the Ani Cathedral and church, will bring new economic opportunities to the region." Armenian officials responded with skepticism. According to Gagik Gyurjyan, president of ICOMOS-Armenia, the Turkish Culture Ministry rejected the preliminary agreement between Anadolu Kültür and the Armenian side to engage Armenian experts in restoration works. Osman Kavala, president of Anadolu Kültür, stated that the lack of formal bilateral relations between Armenia and Turkey may have prevented Armenian experts from being included in the project. Kavala stated in a 2011 interview that an estimated $1 million would be spent on the project, which was scheduled to start in 2012 and end in 4 years. Yavuz Özkaya, an architect who participated in the projects carried out in Ani, stated in March 2014 that studies on preservation and restoration of the cathedral were completed and they had begun to be implemented. These works included clearing the roofs, installing a temporary structure at the separation point between the western and southern walls, strengthening, proper completion of roof tiles and taking preventative measures. The archaeological site of Ani was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on July 15, 2016. According to art historian Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh the addition "would secure significant benefits in protection, research expertise, and funding." In April 2018 Necmettin Alp, director of the Kars Museum, stated that restoration works on the cathedral would start later that month. In 2019 World Monuments Fund (WMF) and Anadolu Kültür began an "emergency temporary intervention" for the preservation of the cathedral. In 2021 WMF, with the support of the International alliance for the protection of heritage in conflict areas (ALIPH Foundation), began a second phase "focusing on the implementation of a long-term intervention plan for the restoration of the entire cathedral." ## Architecture ### Overview The cathedral is a domed, centrally-planned basilica. Varazdat Harutyunyan argues that in its plan and dimensions, it reproduces two 7th century domed basilicas—Cathedral of Mren and Saint Gayane Church. The dome was supported on pendentives and stood atop the "intersection of four barrel vaults elevated to a cruciform design and topped with gabled roofs." In the interior, "freestanding piers divide the space into three aisles, the nave of which terminates in an eastern apse flanked by two story side chapels." Sirarpie Der Nersessian noted that its interior is imposing "through the harmony of the proportions." She added, "The blind arcade with slender columns and ornate arches, the delicate interlaces carved around the door and windows add to the beauty of the exterior." The cathedral is built, primarily, of yellow, but also black and red polished tuff. It has three entrances. The main one is on the western side. The entrances on the northern and southern sides, though secondary, are richly decorated. Its windows are narrow and long, with ornamented frames. Grigoris Balakian opined that its interior, built of large polished stones, "appears to be more impressive than the outside." ### Dimensions The cathedral is 34.3 m (113 ft) long and 21.9 m (72 ft) wide. Originally standing around 38 m (125 ft) high, it was Ani's tallest structure, and its conical dome dominated the city's skyline. It is very large by the standards of Armenian architecture. Murad Hasratyan argues that its large size and rich ornaments symbolize the revived Armenian statehood under the Bagratids. Christina Maranci suggested what she describes as an "extremely tentative" hypothesis that the relatively large proportion of the cathedral may have reflected architect Trdat's memory of the "vast continuous spaces" of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, the dome of which he had repaired. Westerners have found it small. Karl Schnaase disparagingly described it as "hardly the size of a village church", while H. F. B. Lynch argued that it is small if judged by European standards, but is "nevertheless a stately building." Luigi Villari wrote in his 1906 book on travels in the Caucasus: "From a distance it seems to be merely a plain rectangular structure with no architectural pretensions. But on closer inspection it proves to be a building of really great beauty and of the most perfect proportions." ### Scholarly assessment The cathedral is widely regarded as a masterpiece of Armenian architecture. It is the largest and most impressive structure of Ani. Armen Kazaryan describes it as the most significant structure of the entire Bagratid period. Recognized for its innovative design elements, it has garnered high praise from several scholars. The authors of Global History of Architecture (2010) wrote that it "deserves to be listed among the principal monuments of the time because of its pointed arches and clustered columns and piers." Similarly, Sirarpie Der Nersessian argued that it "deserves to be listed among the important examples of medieval architecture", while David Roden Buxton suggested that it "is worthy ... of far greater renown that actually surrounds it." H. F. B. Lynch described it as a "monument of the highest artistic merit, denoting a standard of culture which was far in advance of the contemporary standards in the West." Josef Strzygowski argued that the cathedral is the most valuable achievement of Armenian architecture from the European viewpoint. David Marshall Lang wrote that the cathedral's building techniques are "far ahead of the contemporary Anglo-Saxon and Norman architecture of western Europe." Richard Phené Spiers wrote in the 11th century of Encyclopædia Britannica (1911): ### Imitations in Armenian architecture The main church of Marmashen monastery (dated 988–1029), believed to have been built by the same architect, Trdat, is considered a miniature of Ani Cathedral. Richard Krautheimer wrote that the exterior walls of both the church of Marmashen and the cathedral of Ani are "articulated by blind arcades resting on slender colonnettes, single or in pairs." There are significant structural differences between the two. Stepan Mnatsakanian noted that the similarities are limited to the exterior decorations because there are significant differences in their floor plans. The ground plan of Holy Saviour's Church in Gyumri, completed in 1873, is based on that of Ani Cathedral. However, the church is significantly larger than the cathedral and is not an exact replica of the latter. The blind arcades on the three apses of the Armenian Cathedral of Lviv—added sometime before 1902—are a "surprisingly faithful reproduction of an analogous decoration" on the external walls of cathedral of Ani. ## Association with Gothic architecture Some European scholars, especially scholars of the Near East, have suggested that the use of pointed arches and clustered piers in the cathedral influenced the development of Gothic architecture. The theory was popularized by Josef Strzygowski, who was the first European to thoroughly study Armenian architecture and placed Armenia in the center of European architecture. Strzygowski wrote in the Origin of Christian Church Art (1920): "It is a delight, in a church earlier than AD 1000, to see the builder, the court architect Trdat, carrying Armenian art so logically and so successfully past 'Romanesque' to 'Gothic'." Several others had proposed this view before him, including H. F. B. Lynch (1901), William Lethaby (1912), and others. Lynch suggested that the cathedral has "many of the characteristics of the Gothic style, of which it establishes the Oriental origin." Lethaby found the cathedral "strangely western." In examining the possible influence of Caucasian architecture in the West, David Roden Buxton wrote on the cathedral of Ani in 1934: Arthur Upham Pope suggested that the Ani Cathedral "antedate[s] any comparable construction in Europe" and argued that its interior is "so completely in the Gothic manner and mood that the relation between Ani and the French Gothic lacks but little of proof." Cecil Stewart noted that the most interesting features of the cathedral are its "pointed arches and vaults and the clustering or coupling of the columns in the Gothic manner." For David Talbot Rice the cathedral is "astonishingly Gothic in every detail." David Marshall Lang argued that the appearance of pointed arches and clustered piers together is "considered one of the hallmarks of mature Gothic architecture." Christina Maranci argues that the cathedral, with it "profiled piers and arches ... anticipate, in their linear elegance, the Gothic styles of buildings like Notre-Dame." Rouben Paul Adalian wrote, "the interior with its pointed arches and clustered piers rising to the ribbed ceiling vaults, included innovations whose parallels would appear in Gothic architecture in Western Europe a century later." The theory has found support among Armenian architecture historians, such as Toros Toramanian, Tiran Marutian, Murad Hasratyan. The hypothesized influence on the Gothic has also been noted by World Monuments Fund and the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. James Stevens Curl noted that the influence of Armenian architecture on Western European buildings remains "unclear", but "certainly by the early 11th century domed basilicas, such as the Ani Cathedral, "began to acquire bundle-like piers, vaulting systems, and architectural features reminiscent of Western Romanesque and Gothic forms." - Criticism and response Art historian Sirarpie Der Nersessian rejected the postulated "proto-Gothic" character of the ogival arches of the cathedral of Ani which, she argued, "do not serve the same function in supporting the vault." Although Adrian Stokes saw the cathedral as holding "some balance between wall architecture and the linear Gothic to come," he did not find "the feeling for mass and space that transfixes him at Rimini or Luciano Laurana's Quattro Cento courtyard in the Palace of Urbino." The website Virtual Ani writes that there is "no evidence to indicate that there was a connection between Armenian architecture and the development of the Gothic style in Western Europe." Lucy Der Manuelian argues that there is a documented evidence of the presence of Armenians in Western Europe during the Middle Ages, who could have carried this information to the West. ## Symbolism and significance for Armenians In 1989 a series of events under the title "The Glory of Ani" commemorating the millennium of the Cathedral of Ani took place in the United States, sponsored by the Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America. A symposium took place at the New-York Historical Society on October 21, 1989. In intendent Armenia, it has been depicted on a 2002 stamp and, in 2011, on an uncirculated silver commemorative coin issued by the Central Bank of Armenia dedicated to Ani. In June 2011 the graduation ceremony of history students of the Yerevan State University (YSU) was held at the cathedral. Since then graduation ceremonies of some departments of the YSU have taken place at the cathedral. Folk dance director Gagik Ginosyan and his wife, along with their friends, staged a wedding ceremony at the cathedral. In September 2011 researchers of the Shirak Armenology Research Center of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia made a pilgrimage to the cathedral, where they performed scientific readings on the history of Ani. ## In Turkish politics Turkish President Abdullah Gül visited the cathedral on July 23, 2008 during his visit to Ani. ### 2010 Muslim prayer On October 1, 2010 a Muslim prayer was performed at the cathedral by members and supporters of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The formal occasion was to commemorate the 1064 Seljuk conquest of Ani, but it was widely seen as a nationalist retaliation for the Christian mass—the first since the Armenian Genocide of 1915—at the Cathedral of Aghtamar at Lake Van on September 19. Some two thousand people, including senior members of the MHP, such as party leader Devlet Bahçeli, participated in the prayer. The crowd waved Turkish flags and chanted Allahu Akbar before saying prayers in and around the cathedral. They were accompanied by an Ottoman-style military marching band. The prayer was authorized by the Turkish Ministry of Culture, and was attended by believers from Azerbaijan and broadcast live by three Azerbaijani TV channels. The prayer was widely denounced for its political nature. An MP from the ruling AKP called it an illegal "political show" connected with the Aghtamar mass, while art historian Heghnar Watenpaugh described the event as an example of "political stagecraft." According to Aris Nalcı of the Turkish-Armenian daily Agos it was "addressed to Turks, rather than Armenians." According to commentary prepared by the Yapı Kredi Bank Economic Research, "the scene looked awkward to a large majority of Turks." Hürriyet Daily News columnist Yusuf Kanlı described it as an "attempt [by Bahçeli] to woo and win back the lost nationalist-conservative vote." Turkish-Armenian journalist Markar Esayan wrote in Taraf that what Bahçeli did at Ani was "in fact exploitation of religion." The Armenian Apostolic Church accused the Turkish authorities in "destroying Armenian monuments and misappropriating historical Armenian holy sites and cultural treasures." Architecture scholar Samvel Karapetyan commented sarcastically: "We now have reason to be happy. For centuries, our churches were desecrated and turned into toilets, whereas now they are only doing a namaz [sic]." ### 2020 incident In February 2020 a video appeared online in which a woman sang meyhane music on the bema of the cathedral while Pervin Ersoy, the wife of Mehmet Ersoy, Turkey's Minister of Culture and Tourism, was shown standing in the crowd and clapping. ## Gallery - Historic and artistic depictions

Digging for Fire

2015 film by Joe Swanberg

Digging for Fire is a 2015 American comedy-drama film directed by Joe Swanberg and co-written by Swanberg and Jake Johnson. It stars an ensemble cast led by Johnson, Rosemarie DeWitt, Brie Larson, Sam Rockwell, Anna Kendrick, Orlando Bloom and Mike Birbiglia. Johnson and DeWitt play a married couple who find a gun and a bone in the backyard of a house they are staying in. The film's plot was inspired by a similar incident in which Johnson discovered a gun and a bone in his backyard. Instead of a traditional script, he and Swanberg wrote an outline that summarized the plot but included no dialogue. They cast the film mainly by contacting their friends and other actors who they knew had enjoyed their previous work. It was filmed over 15 days in Los Angeles County, California. Swanberg dedicated the film to filmmaker Paul Mazursky. Digging for Fire premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2015. It was released in theaters on August 21, 2015, by The Orchard and on video on demand on August 25, 2015. The film was generally well received by critics. ## Plot Lee, a yoga instructor, brings her husband Tim, a gym teacher, and their 3-year-old son Jude to house-sit in a client's house for a few weeks while the client is away. While walking around the property, Tim finds a gun and a bone in the backyard. At first he wants to dig up the surrounding ground to see if a body is buried there, but Lee convinces him it is a bad idea. When Lee and Jude leave for the weekend to stay with her parents so that Tim can work without distraction on the family's taxes, he invites a group of friends—including Ray, Phil, Adam, and Paul—to the house for the night. After a few drinks, they decide to dig up the backyard together, quickly finding another bone and a license plate. Phil, who is skeptical about the digging, leaves with Adam and Paul as Tim's friend Billy and call girls Alicia and Max arrive at the house. Billy pairs off with Alicia and Ray with Max while Tim continues to dig. He finds a shoe before deciding to go to sleep. The next morning, Tim is visited by a neighbor who warns him that digging for buried items in the backyard is a bad idea and says that the site was once the "Chicano Hall of Fame". Soon afterwards, Max returns to pick up her purse and finds Tim digging again. She joins him and discovers a plastic bag filled with bones. Meanwhile, Lee goes to visit her sister Squiggy and brother-in-law Bob for an afternoon after complaining to her mother that she no longer feels she has an identity outside of being a mother and wife. Phil returns to the house and, seeing Tim with Max, assumes that Tim is cheating on Lee. Tim and Max go out to dinner and Tim confesses that he feels his marriage to Lee has deteriorated since they had a child. Lee goes to a bar alone, where she meets Ben. When Ben is punched by another man at the bar, she accompanies him to visit Alicia, who is a medical student and a friend of his, so that Alicia can suture his wound. As Tim and Max smoke marijuana together at the house, Ben cooks dinner for Lee. Max leaves the house when Ray reappears and Tim accuses Ray of ruining his night. Lee and Ben make their way to the beach and share a kiss. Tim returns to the backyard and uncovers a ring and what appears to be a human hand before he decides to stop digging. He throws everything he has found back into the hole he has dug before starting to fill it in. He walks back up to the house and, finding Lee waiting for him, kisses her. The next morning, they pack up their belongings and go to pick up Jude. ## Cast ## Production Digging for Fire was based on a real incident in which Jake Johnson and his wife dug up a bone and a gun in the garden of a house they had rented. Over a couple of weeks, he and a group of his friends dug up various objects before deciding to bury them again. Johnson described the experience to Joe Swanberg about three years later and they decided to make a film about it. They wrote a two-and-a-half–page outline that summarized the plot but included no dialogue or detailed character descriptions. Swanberg wanted the actors to improvise the details of each scene and allowed them to make choices about their characters: for instance, Orlando Bloom decided that his character would ride a motorcycle, Chris Messina suggested that his character go swimming naked, and Brie Larson persuaded Johnson and Swanberg that her character would not be sexually attracted to Tim. Digging for Fire features an ensemble cast, the largest Swanberg had worked with at the time. He and Johnson cast the film by contacting friends and other actors who they knew had enjoyed their previous film together, Drinking Buddies. Rosemarie DeWitt and Swanberg decided to work together after her husband, Ron Livingston, starred in Drinking Buddies. Unlike the other actors, Orlando Bloom was cast through an agent. Swanberg cast his own son, Jude, as the three-year-old son of the lead characters. The film was shot over 15 days in Los Angeles and Malibu, California. Swanberg and cinematographer Ben Richardson decided to shoot on 35 mm film rather than digitally, as most of Swanberg's previous films had been made. They decided to shoot on film, Richardson said, because "there is a certain visual integrity to a film-derived image that is still lacking for me in most of the digitally-derived imagery that we see". Although the film's dialogue was improvised, the actors rehearsed each scene before filming so that the scene could be blocked out due to the constraints of working with film rather than digital. Swanberg found the process of editing Digging for Fire more difficult than for his previous films, since there were many different possibilities of how to integrate the separate storylines involving Tim and Lee. He dedicated the film to Paul Mazursky, who died in 2014, because of the influence Mazursky had on Swanberg's work and because of the thematic similarities between Mazursky's work (particularly the 1969 film Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice) and Digging for Fire. ## Release The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2015. Shortly after its premiere, The Orchard and Sony Pictures Worldwide acquired North American and international distribution rights respectively. The film went to be shown at the Chattanooga Film Festival, Sarasota Film Festival, Chicago Critics Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival, and Traverse City Film Festival. The film was given a limited release in American theaters on August 21, 2015, earning $25,000 from three locations on its opening weekend. It later expanded to 30 theaters and earned a total of $119,364 from its 38-day run. It was released on video on demand on August 25, 2015. ## Reception Digging for Fire has been met with generally positive reviews from critics. On the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 66% approval rating, based on 67 reviews with an average rating of 6.15/10. The site's consensus states: "Digging for Fire finds director/co-writer Joe Swanberg working from a familiar palette, but in ways that suggest he's taking new and exciting strides as a filmmaker." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 69 out of 100 based on reviews from 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Film critic Richard Roeper described Digging for Fire as "a movie made by someone who clearly loves the art of movies" and praised the casting and editing. A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote of the film's "appealing honesty" and its "tight, satisfying narrative". Variety Ben Kenigsberg characterized the film as "a lovely slice of everything and nothing" and gave particular praise to the cinematography, editing and improvisation. Peter Travers, who awarded the film 3 out of 4 stars in a review for Rolling Stone, highlighted the performances, cinematography and score, and felt that Digging for Fire showed Swanberg to be "a true filmmaker". Screen International critic Tim Grierson found the film to be honest and insightful, and drew particular attention to Johnson and DeWitt's "nimble, low-key performances". An Banh of Indiewire opined that the film was the most "emotionally mature" of Swanberg's works and that each of the actors gave "purposeful, plot-driven performances" in spite of the large cast. The Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones, on the other hand, felt that the story suffered because of the large cast and wrote that "mostly it's just a toe listlessly pushing dirt around". Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune praised Ben Richardson's cinematography and "natural tone" of the acting but felt that the dialogue was lacking, giving the film 2 out of 4 stars. The San Francisco Chronicle G. Allen Johnson also criticized the "forced and uninteresting" dialogue and thought that the story and characters felt "phony". The Boston Globe critic Ty Burr found the film uninsightful, writing that "Swanberg is tilling soil here that has been churned since humanity began", and felt that the plot focused too much on Tim rather than Lee. Chris Nashawaty gave the film a C+ grade in Entertainment Weekly, dismissing it as "Joe Swanberg's latest meditation on aging-hipster malaise".

Percy Statton

Australian Victoria Cross recipient

Percy Clyde Statton, (21 October 1890 – 5 December 1959) was an Australian farmer, soldier, and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for gallantry "in the face of the enemy" that can be awarded to members of the British and Commonwealth armed forces. Serving as a sergeant during the First World War, Statton was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1918 following his assault on four German machine guns. With three men, Statton rushed the posts armed with only a revolver and succeeded in capturing the first gun. Moving to the second, he killed the crew of five himself before the two remaining gun crews were forced to retreat. Born in Tasmania, Statton was married and working as a farmer when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1916. Posted to the 40th Battalion, he was shipped to England, where he spent three months training. Arriving on the Western Front in 1917, Statton was awarded the Military Medal during the Battle of Messines for leading carrying parties to the front line under heavy artillery and machine gun fire. Wounded twice during the war, Statton returned to Australia in 1919 and was discharged the following year. In 1934, he took part in rescue work aiding families isolated by severe bushfires in the Derwent Valley. Following a period of service during the Second World War, Statton died of stomach cancer in 1959. ## Early life Statton was born in Beaconsfield, Tasmania, on 21 October 1890 to Edward Statton, a miner, and his wife Maggie Lavinia (née Hoskins). He was educated at Zeehan State School, before gaining employment as a farmer in Tyenna. Giving his age as twenty-one, Statton married Elsie May Pearce in a Methodist ceremony on 12 September 1907; the couple later had a son and two daughters. ## First World War Despite his wife's disapproval, Statton enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 29 February 1916, and was allotted to the newly raised 40th Battalion as a private. Appointed lance corporal on 22 May, Statton embarked from Hobart aboard HMAT Berrima on 1 July, bound for England. The troopship disembarked at Devonport a little over seven weeks later, where the 40th Battalion spent the next three months training. Promoted to corporal on 19 November 1916, Statton embarked along with the rest of the 40th Battalion for France and the Western Front four days later. Initially posted to Le Havre, the battalion was transferred to Flanders in Belgium in early 1917. Statton was promoted to temporary sergeant on 16 January 1917, which was made substantive from 26 April. In June, the 40th Battalion took part in the Battle of Messines. Over a three-day period during the engagement at Messines from 7–9 June, Statton was placed in charge of supervising and leading carrying parties to the front line. Throughout this work, he was subject to heavy German artillery and machine gun fire, and on several occasions the party was decimated by shellfire. Despite this, the parties managed to reach the front line on every occasion. For his actions, Statton was awarded the Military Medal, the recommendation for which cited his "exceptional fine work and gallant conduct". The notification of the award was published in a supplement to the London Gazette on 16 August 1917. On 12 October 1917, Statton was involved in operations during the First Battle of Passchendaele when he suffered a gunshot wound to his right shoulder. First admitted to the 22nd General Hospital, Douane, Statton was transferred to the VAD Hospital, Tonbridge, as the wound required treatment in England. Having sufficiently recovered after a period of hospitalisation at the Fort Pitt Military Hospital, Chatham, and 3rd Auxiliary Hospital, Dartford, Statton was granted two weeks' leave from 28 January 1918. Returning to duty, he was attached to the Overseas Training Brigade at Longbridge Deverill prior to re-embarking on 1 May for France, where he rejoined the 40th Battalion. While in action around the village of Villers-Bretonneux on 10 June, Statton was wounded in a gas attack on his position. Initially admitted to the 10th Australian Field Ambulance, he was transferred to the 40th Casualty Clearing Station six days later, before returning to the 40th Battalion on 24 June. Beginning on 8 July, Statton was placed on a five-day attachment to a demonstration platoon at the 10th Brigade Headquarters. Returning to his battalion, he was attached to the United States 3rd Battalion, 130th Regiment, for service over a seven-day period later that month. He rejoined the 40th Battalion on 27 July. ### Victoria Cross Between 10–12 August 1918, the 3rd Australian Division—of which the 40th Battalion was part—was ordered to attack from an easterly direction against the southern bank of the Somme River, and advance along the road past Proyart. On 12 August, the 40th Battalion was tasked with the objective of seizing and holding a valley to the south of the Proyart–Chuignes road. The advance entailed moving the battalion across approximately 1,300 metres (1,400 yd) of open ground, while under the direct observation of German forces on high ground to the east of Proyart. At the same time, the 37th Battalion was to move through the village of Proyart itself, and proceed to a line just beyond the railway to the north of the Proyart–Chuignes road. It was during this action that Statton was to earn the Victoria Cross. The 40th Battalion began its attack at approximately 07:30, and by 08:30 had successfully advanced 800 metres (870 yd). It was at this point, however, that the unit came under an intense barrage from German artillery, and were prevented from moving further forward. With assistance from a Lewis Gun team under Statton's command, the battalion's A Company managed to reach the centre of Proyart village an hour later. The remainder of the 40th Battalion attempted to follow, but soon became subject to heavy machine gun fire. With his Lewis Gun, Statton engaged two German machine gun posts and thus enabled the remainder of his battalion to continue its advance. The battalion was later able to reach its objectives. At 18:00, the 40th Battalion received a message that the 37th Battalion was about to attempt to advance from the village to its own objective. From his position, Statton observed a line of German machine gunners firing on the 37th Battalion and preventing its advance. He turned his Lewis Guns on them in an attempt to assist a party of men from the 37th as they attacked. Having failed, a party of thirteen men were assembled and rushed the position soon after, but the group was wiped out before they reached the first gun. Gathering Corporal Upchurch and Privates Leslie Styles and Beard, Statton worked his way along under the cover of the Chuignes road embankment. Reaching within 75 metres (82 yd) of the machine gunners and armed with only a revolver, Statton led the three men as they rushed across the open ground towards the German strongpoint. Reaching the position, the party was able to dispose of the first gun and its crew before moving onto the second, where Statton personally shot four of the five crew members and bayoneted the fifth with his own rifle. Seeing this, the two remaining gun teams began to retreat but were killed by Statton's Lewis Gunners. Soon after, another German machine gun opened up, killing Private Styles and wounding Corporal Upchurch. With Private Beard, Statton began to crawl back to his own lines, while the inspired 37th Battalion continued its advance and cheered the pair as they went past. Later that evening, Statton, while under heavy machine gun fire, went out and retrieved the badly wounded Upchurch and the body of Styles. By 20:00, both battalions had reached and consolidated their positions, and were relieved by the British 17th Division the following day. At 09:00 on 27 September 1918, the 40th Battalion was ordered onto parade by the unit's Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel John Lord. Addressing the assembled crowd, Lord announced that that same day, the name of Sergeant Percy Statton would appear in the London Gazette announcing that he had been awarded the Victoria Cross. Described by the battalion's history as a "reluctant hero", Statton was granted three cheers before he was carried shoulder high through the ranks while the battalion band played. The full citation for Statton's Victoria Cross appeared in a supplement to the London Gazette later that day, reading: > War Office, 27th September 1918. > > His Majesty the KING has been graciously pleased to approve of the award of the Victoria Cross to the undermentioned Officers, N.C.O.'s and Man: — > > No. 506 Sjt. Percy Clyde Statton, M.M., A.I.F. > > For most conspicuous bravery and initiative in action when in command of a platoon which reached its objective, the remainder of the battalion being held up by heavy machine-gun fire. He skilfully engaged two machine-gun posts with Lewis gun fire, enabling the remainder of his battalion to advance. > > The advance of the battalion on his left had been brought to a standstill by heavy enemy machine-gun fire, and the first of our assaulting detachments to reach the machine-gun posts were put out of action in taking the first gun. Armed only with a revolver, in broad daylight, Sjt. Statton at once rushed four enemy machine-gun posts in succession, disposing of two of them, and killing five of the enemy. The remaining two posts retired and were wiped out by Lewis-gun fire. > > Later in the evening, under heavy machine-gun fire, he went out again and brought in two badly wounded men. > > Sjt. Station set a magnificent example of quick decision, and the success of the attacking troops was largely due to his determined gallantry. ### Later war service From 20 October 1918, Statton was granted ten days' leave to Paris. Returning to the 40th Battalion, he was sent to Amiens the following day and attached to 4th Army Guard for special duties over a three-day period. Briefly re-joining his battalion, Statton was shipped to England on 5 November for special duties. During this time, the Armistice was signed officially declaring the war's end, and Statton was granted two weeks' leave in December. Returning to France on 27 January 1919, Statton was attached to the Headquarters of the Australian Base Depot from 25 March. Shipped to England in June, Statton attended an investiture ceremony in the Quadrangle of Buckingham Palace, where he was presented with his Victoria Cross by King George V. During his time in England, Statton undertook a course at the Motor Training Institute in preparation for non-military employment, before he was granted a month's leave. Returning to duty on 24 September, Statton boarded HT Pakeha'' twelve days later and departed for Australia. The troopship arrived in Tasmania on 26 November and Statton was discharged from the Australian Imperial Force on 19 January 1920. ## Later life Following his discharge, Statton settled in Fitzgerald, Tasmania, where he gained employment in the timber industry. True to her word that she would leave him if he went off to war, Statton's wife divorced him on 1 October 1920. Five years later, on 21 December 1925, he married Eliza Grace Hudson (née Parker) at the Registrar General's Office, Hobart. In 1934, severe bushfires broke out in the Derwent Valley, and Statton took a prominent role in rescue work aiding families isolated by the fire. During the Second World War, Statton enlisted for service with the Volunteer Defence Corps of the Australian Military Forces. Commissioned as a lieutenant on 18 June 1942, he served throughout the war with the 5th Battalion, Volunteer Defence Corps, until his discharge on 9 January 1946. Statton's wife died in 1945, and on 16 December 1947, he married Monica Enid Effie Kingston; the pair later had a son. The couple lived at Ouse, where Statton worked as a commercial agent and was a member of the local council. In 1956, Statton joined the Australian contingent of Victoria Cross recipients who attended the parade in London's Hyde Park to commemorate the centenary of the institution of the award. At the Repatriation General Hospital, Hobart, on 5 December 1959, Statton died of stomach cancer. Accorded a full military funeral, Statton was cremated and his ashes interred at the Cornelian Bay Cemetery. His Victoria Cross is currently on display at the Australian War Memorial.

Old Bridge, Pontypridd

Grade I listed bridge in Pontypridd, UK

The Old Bridge (), which is now also known as the William Edwards Bridge or Pontypridd Bridge, was originally known as the New Bridge or Newbridge, is an arched single-span footbridge that spans the River Taff at Pontypridd in Wales. The bridge was built by William Edwards and was completed in 1756. The bridge now has statutory protection as a scheduled ancient monument and is grade I listed. ## Pontypridd In the early 18th century Pontypridd, then known as Pont-y-tŷ-pridd ('The bridge of the earthen house'), was a tiny hamlet. Pont-y-tŷ-pridd took its name from the original bridge of the same name, however very little is known of that ancient ford with stepping stones, which ran alongside the current Old Bridge, and was used only when the river ran low. Possibly in 1744 or after the bridge was built, Pont-y-tŷ-pridd became known as Newbridge or New Bridge after the William Edwards Bridge. By 1856, Newbridge had been renamed Pontypridd. In 1746 when William Edwards was just 27 years of age, he was commissioned by the Hundreds of Miskin and Caerphilly to build a three-arch bridge across the River Taff. For this he was paid £500, on condition that he would maintain it for seven years. ## Construction ### The first bridge The first bridge to be constructed was a three-arch stone bridge, which was built in 1746. It was destroyed by a heavy storm which caused the River Taff to flood about two years later. A large amount of debris came down the river, which then become trapped against the two abutments supporting the bridge. The weight and force of the debris ultimately destroyed the bridge, which was then swept away down the river. ### The second bridge After the destruction of the first bridge over the fast-flowing River Taff, Edwards designed a more radical 140 ft (43 m) single-arch bridge that would eliminate the possibility of debris destroying the bridge due to the flooding of the River Taff. The second bridge was built from 1748, however two reports differ as to what actually happened during this second attempt. Thomas Morgan, a contemporary of Edwards, said that "...when he (Edwards) had almost finished the arch, the centre timber work gave way and all fell to the bottom." However, The National Library of Wales has a contemporary work known as the Plasybrain manuscript which says, "Just after the first single arch was finished and before the centre was struck, a flood came and carried all away." It is not clear which account is accurate, although it is clear that the attempt failed. ### The third bridge The single-arch bridge was rebuilt and was completed. It stood for about six weeks before it failed again. The weight of the materials in the bridge was not balanced on either side of the keystone, which gradually forced the stone out of position as traffic on the bridge created small vibrations and movement, and the bridge collapsed. In the Theory of Arches and Pontypridd, it states that "the weight of the bridge was either too great on the haunches or too little on the crown." At this stage Edwards was either encouraged or forced to try again with extra money being provided to cover his losses for the earlier attempts. ### The fourth bridge The final design of the bridge included three cylindrical voids (holes) of 2.7 m (8.9 ft), 1.7 m (5.6 ft) and 1.1 m (3.6 ft) on each side on the bridge. This reduced the weight and pressure on the crown and the bridge is still in operation today, although it is now only used for foot traffic. The Theory of Arches and Pontypridd states that as a bridge for commerce, it was a failure, as it was "only eleven feet wide between the parapets and so steep that wagons had to use a 'chain and drag' to descend from the crown." The 140 ft Old Bridge surpassed the 130 ft (40 m) Old Walton Bridge as the longest single-span bridge in Great Britain and remained the longest bridge for another 40 years. It was also one of the few bridges in Europe at the time, and indeed worldwide, whose span exceeded the 40 m mark. The whole project (including the three failed attempts) cost Edwards a total of £1,153 18s. 2d. (approximately £1,153.91), and consequently his loss exceeded £600. It was reported that Edwards' attempts to build the bridge over the River Taff left him in considerable debt; Thomas Morgan reported that "...the mason was considerably in debt and greatly discouraged. But the Lords Talbot and Windsor, who have estates in the neighbourhood, pitied his case, and being willing to encourage such an enterprising genius, most generously promoted a subscription among the gentry in those parts." ## Subsequent history The Old Bridge was so steep that horse carts had difficulty crossing it. By 1857, a new bridge, the Victoria Bridge, was built next to the Old Bridge, which was paid for by the people of Pontypridd. The Victoria Bridge is a three-arch bridge, built by Thomas Jenkins, that did not have a problem with roadway steepness. Since the bridge was opened in 1756, it has been the subject for many landscape artists, including Richard Wilson and Turner. The Old Bridge is now a scheduled monument and is also depicted in emblems of local sport teams, including Pontypridd F.C. Pontypridd RFC and Cilfynydd RFC. Artist Lulu Quinn was commissioned by Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council to illuminate the Old Bridge as part of a regeneration programme for Pontypridd called the Monument Illumination Scheme. Initial tests to illuminate the bridge took place on 19 August 2008, and the project was officially launched after successful testing. ## Bridge imagery Representations of Old Bridge can be seen in local heraldic and civic stationery, including the crest of Pontypridd Rugby Football Club, Pontypridd Football Club and Cilfynydd Rugby Football Club. The community-to-community organisation PONT (Partnerships Overseas Networking Trust), also bases its logo upon the Bridge. Pontypridd High School in Cilfynydd incorporates the bridge design into the school shield, as does Pontypridd Town Council with its logo representing the South Wales Valleys and a section of the Old Bridge in the foreground. Pontypridd Male Voice Choir also incorporates the Old Bridge in the choir logo. ## See also - List of bridges in Wales - Old Bridge for other bridges with the same name.

1986 Atlantic hurricane season

The 1986 Atlantic hurricane season was a very inactive season that produced 10 depressions, 6 named storms, 4 hurricanes, and no major hurricanes. The season officially began on June 1, 1986, and lasted until November 30, 1986. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin. During the 1986 season, the first subtropical depression formed in the first week of June, while the last tropical cyclone dissipated at the end of the third week of November. The 1986 season had lower than average activity because of an ongoing El Niño event, and was the least active season in the North Atlantic since the 1983 Atlantic hurricane season. This was also the first season since 1972 to have no major hurricanes. The season started on June 5 when Subtropical Depression One formed near the Bahamas, which would later gain tropical characteristics and become the first tropical storm of the season; Tropical Storm Andrew. On June 9, Andrew would later be absorbed by a larger low pressure system. On June 23, the season's first hurricane formed; Bonnie, although it attained hurricane status on June 25, just two days after Bonnie's formation. Two more tropical depressions followed suit later in the season. On August 13, the season's fifth tropical depression formed and would later become Hurricane Charley four days later. After Charley dissipated, two more tropical depressions formed on August 31 and September 1. Both dissipated on September 4. On September 7, Tropical Storm Danielle formed and would dissipate on September 10. Just after Danielle dissipated, Hurricane Earl formed and would later become the strongest system of the 1986 Atlantic hurricane season, peaking as a 105 mph Category 2 hurricane and 979 mbars in lowest pressure. No tropical cyclones formed during the months of October and the first half of November. That is, until Hurricane Frances became the latest sixth named storm on record since tropical cyclones were first named in 1950. The season came to a close on November 21, which was when Frances dissipated. ## Seasonal forecast Dr. William M. Gray of Colorado State University issued forecasts on May 29 and July 28 indicating within both forecasts the anticipation of a below normal hurricane season. In May, a total of 8 named tropical storms were expected, with four hurricanes expected, 15 days with hurricanes, and a total of 35 days with a tropical storm active in the northern Atlantic Ocean. In July, the numbers were dropped to a total of 7 named storms, 4 hurricanes, 10 hurricane days, and 25 days with a named tropical storm, which almost perfectly verified. ## Season summary - June 1 - 0000 UTC (8:00 p.m. EDT May 31) – The 1986 Atlantic hurricane season officially begins. - June 5 - 0000 UTC (8:00 p.m. EDT June 4) – Subtropical Depression One formed near the Bahamas. - June 6 - 0000 UTC (8:00 p.m. EDT June 5) – Subtropical Depression One acquired tropical characteristics and strengthened into Tropical Storm Andrew. - June 7 - 1200 UTC (8:00 a.m. EDT June 6) – Tropical Storm Andrew attained its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (80 km/h) and a minimum barometric pressure of 999 mbar (29.5 inHg). - June 9 - 0000 UTC (8:00 p.m. EDT June 8) – Tropical Storm Andrew was absorbed by a low pressure system. - June 23 - 1800 UTC (1:00 p.m. CDT) – Tropical Depression Two formed in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. - June 24 - 1800 UTC (1:00 p.m. CDT) – Tropical Depression Two strengthened into Tropical Storm Bonnie. - June 25 - 1800 UTC (1:00 p.m. CDT) – Tropical Storm Bonnie strengthened into Category 1 hurricane. - June 26 - 0900 UTC (4:00 a.m. CDT) – Hurricane Bonnie attained its peak intensity with winds of 85 mph (135 km/h) and a minimum pressure of 990 mbar (hPa; 29.23 inHg). - 1000 UTC (5:00 a.m. CDT) – Hurricane Bonnie made landfall near High Island, Texas with winds of 85 mph (135 km/h). - 1800 UTC (1:00 p.m. CDT) – Hurricane Bonnie weakened back to a tropical storm. - June 27 - 0000 UTC (7:00 p.m. CDT June 26) – Tropical Storm Bonnie weakened back to a tropical depression. - June 28 - 1200 UTC (7:00 a.m. CDT) - Tropical Depression Bonnie dissipated in Missouri. - July 23 - 1200 UTC (8:00 a.m. EDT) – Tropical Depression Three formed 180 miles (290 km) north of Bermuda. - July 28 - 1200 UTC (8:00 a.m. EDT) – Tropical Depression Three dissipated. - August 4 - 0600 UTC (1 a.m. CST) – A tropical depression developed in the western Gulf of Mexico. - August 5 - 1200–1800 UTC (7:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. CST) – The tropical depression made landfall in North Padre Island, Texas. - 1800 UTC (1:00 p.m. CST) – The tropical depression dissipated over southern Texas. - August 13 - 1200 UTC (8:00 a.m. EDT) – A subtropical depression formed over the Florida Panhandle. - August 15 - 1200 UTC (8:00 a.m. EDT) – The subtropical depression transitioned into a tropical depression 70 miles (110 km) southeast of Charleston, South Carolina. - 1200 UTC (2:00 p.m. EDT) – The tropical depression strengthened into Tropical Storm Charley. - August 17 - 1200 UTC (8:00 a.m. EDT) – Tropical Storm Charley strengthened into Category 1 hurricane. - 1400 UTC (10:00 a.m. EDT) – Hurricane Charley made landfall near Cape Fear, North Carolina with winds of 75 mph (120 km/h). - 2200 UTC (6:00 p.m. EDT) – Hurricane Charley attained its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 km/h) and a minimum barometric pressure of 987 mbar (29.1 inHg). - August 18 - 1200 UTC (8:00 a.m. EDT) – Hurricane Charley weakened back to a tropical storm. - August 21 - 0000 UTC (8:00 p.m. EDT) – Tropical Storm Charley transitioned into an extratropical storm. - August 30 - 1200 UTC (8:00 a.m. EDT) – Tropical Depression Five formed in the mid-Atlantic. - September 1 - 1200 UTC (8:00 a.m. EDT) – Tropical Depression Six formed in the Gulf of Mexico. - September 4 - Around 0600 UTC (1:00 a.m. CST) – Tropical Depression Six made landfall near Altamira, Tamaulipas, Mexico. - 1200 UTC (8:00 a.m. EDT) – Tropical Depression Five dissipated east-southeast of Bermuda. - 1200 UTC (7:00 a.m. EDT) – Tropical Depression Six dissipated over Mexico. - September 7 - 2:00 a.m. EDT (0600 UTC) - Tropical Depression Seven formed several hundred miles east of the Windward Islands. - 2:00 p.m. EDT (1800 UTC) - Tropical Depression Seven strengthened into Tropical Storm Danielle. - September 8 - 0600 UTC (2:00 a.m. EDT) – Tropical Storm Danielle attained its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 km/h) and a minimum barometric pressure of 1,000 mbar (30 inHg). - September 9 - 1800 UTC (2:00 p.m. EDT) – Tropical Storm Danielle weakened back to a tropical depression. - September 10 - 1200 UTC (8:00 a.m. EDT) – Tropical Depression Danielle dissipated in the western Caribbean. - 1800 UTC (2:00 p.m. EDT) – Tropical Depression Eight developed 1240 miles (2000 km) east-northeast of Puerto Rico. - September 11 - 0000 UTC (8:00 p.m. EDT September 10) – Tropical Depression Eight strengthened into Tropical Storm Earl. - 1800 UTC (2:00 p.m. EDT) – Tropical Storm Earl strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane. - September 12 - 1200 UTC (8:00 a.m. EDT) – Hurricane Earl strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane. - September 14 - 1200 UTC (8:00 a.m. EDT) – Hurricane Earl attained its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (170 km/h) and a minimum barometric pressure of 979 mbar (28.9 inHg). - September 16 - 0000 UTC (8:00 p.m. EDT September 15) – Hurricane Earl weakened back to a Category 1 hurricane. - September 19 - 0000 UTC (98:00 p.m. EDT September 18) – Hurricane Earl transitioned into an extratropical cyclone. - There was no tropical cyclone activity in the Atlantic basin during October 1986. - November 18 - 1800 UTC (2:00 p.m. EDT) – Tropical Depression Nine formed north of the Leeward Islands. - November 19 - 0600 UTC (2:00 a.m. EDT) – Tropical Depression Nine strengthened into Tropical Storm Frances. - November 20 - 0600 UTC (2:00 a.m. EDT) – Tropical Storm Frances strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane. - 1200 UTC (8:00 a.m. EDT) – Hurricane Frances attained its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (135 km/h) and a minimum pressure of 1,000 mbar (30 inHg). - November 21 - 1200 UTC (8:00 a.m. EDT) – Hurricane Frances weakened back into a tropical storm. - November 22 - 0000 UTC (8:00 p.m. EDT) – Tropical Storm Frances merged with an extratropical storm. - November 30 - 2359 UTC (7:59 p.m. EDT) – The 1986 Atlantic hurricane season officially ended. The season's activity was reflected with a cumulative accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) rating of 36, which is classified as "below normal". ACE is, broadly speaking, a measure of the power of the hurricane multiplied by the length of time it existed, so storms that last a long time, as well as particularly strong hurricanes, have high ACEs. ACE is only calculated for full advisories on tropical systems at or exceeding 34 knots (39 mph, 63 km/h) or tropical storm strength. Subtropical cyclones are excluded from the total. ## Systems ### Tropical Storm Andrew In early June, a large area of disturbed weather persisted over the Greater Antilles, bringing heavy rains to the islands. The area moved northward, developing a circulation over the Bahamas. Strong upper-level winds caused when satellite imagery showed a circulation developing over the Bahamas. Strong upper-level winds caused the structure to resemble a subtropical cyclone, and as a result, the system was classified as a subtropical depression on June 5. The depression moved to the northwest and transitioned into a tropical storm on June 6; it was named Andrew about 258 mi (415 km) southeast of Charleston, South Carolina. The tropical storm approached the South Carolina coast within 115 mi (185 km) before recurving to the northeast on June 7. The storm passed within 70 mi (110 km) of Cape Hatteras while recurving, while near its peak intensity of 50 mph (80 km/h). The storm accelerated to the northeast, briefly crossing into the forecasting territory of Environment Canada, the first of three storms of the season to do so, before ultimately being absorbed by a low pressure system over Canada on June 8. While active, Andrew posed a threat to the Carolinas. Gale warnings were posted from an area ranging from Cape Lookout to south of Virginia Beach, Virginia on June 7. Waves reached heights of 12-foot (3.7 m) off the coast of the Carolinas, which killed a person on Ocracoke Island. Three companions were also swept out, all of whom made it back to shore. At Wrightsville Beach and Carolina Beach, at least 40 swimmers were caught in the currents, four of whom were hospitalized. The precursor to the storm produced heavy rainfall across Jamaica that caused a deadly flood event. ### Hurricane Bonnie During late June, a frontal trough drifted into the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, and by June 22 a surface circulation formed. Tracking west-northwestward, it developed into Tropical Depression Two on June 23 while located about 330 miles (535 km) south of Pensacola, Florida. The next day, it attained tropical storm status, and with continued favorable conditions attained hurricane status on June 25 to the south of Louisiana. Bonnie turned to the northwest and made landfall near Sea Rim State Park in Texas. The storm quickly weakened over land as it turned to the north and northeast, and on June 28 it was absorbed by an approaching frontal zone in southeastern Missouri. Prior to moving ashore, 22,000 people were evacuated. Upon making landfall, Hurricane Bonnie produced a storm surge peaking at 5.2 feet (1.5 m) at Sabine Pass. Rainfall from the storm peaked at 13 inches (330 mm) in Ace, Texas, which caused some street flooding and destroyed a small dam in Liberty County, Texas. The hurricane also spawned eleven tornadoes, which, in combination with moderate winds, destroyed about 25 residencies in southwestern Louisiana. Three storm deaths occurred in the Port Arthur, Texas area; two deaths occurred from separate car accidents, and another occurred after a partially paralyzed woman died in a house fire. Hurricane Bonnie caused minor damage totaling $2 million (1986 USD, $3.5 million 2006 USD). ### Tropical Depression Three The third tropical depression of the season was detected early on July 27 in the open waters of the Atlantic, north of Bermuda. While about 180 miles (290 km) north of the island, the storm was moving northward at 15 mph (24 km/h) while its maximum sustained winds were about 30 mph (48 km/h). Later that afternoon, aircraft reconnaissance found no well-defined circulation and the storm's status was reduced from a depression. The depression never threatened any land areas. ### Unnumbered tropical depression A tropical disturbance was detected on August 4 in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico along the lower Texas coast. The low-pressure system moved slowly toward land, limiting the system's development. On August 5, the system became organized enough to be considered a tropical depression. The storm moved inland overnight, dumping several inches of rain over South Texas and causing street flooding in Brownsville and nearby South Padre Island. The system caused rainfall up to 4.45 inches (113 mm) in some areas but had no major problems attributed to it. This storm was not carried as a depression operationally, and thus has no assigned number. ### Hurricane Charley Hurricane Charley was the first hurricane to threaten the east-central United States since Hurricane Gloria in the previous year. The third tropical storm and second hurricane of the season, Charley formed as a subtropical low on August 13 along the Florida panhandle. A few days later intensified it into a tropical storm off the coast of South Carolina, and Charley attained hurricane status before moving across eastern North Carolina. It gradually weakened over the north Atlantic Ocean before transitioning into an extratropical cyclone, though its remnants remained identifiable for over a week until after crossing the British Isles and dissipating on August 30. The storm brought light to moderate precipitation along its path through the southeastern United States. In Georgia and South Carolina, the rainfall alleviated drought conditions. In North Carolina, where the hurricane made landfall, tidal flooding and downed trees were the primary impact. The storm brought high winds to southeastern Virginia, where 110,000 people were left without power. Minor damage extended along the Atlantic coastline northward through Massachusetts. One traffic fatality was reported each in North Carolina and Virginia. Three people in Maryland died due to a plane crash related to the storm. Throughout the United States, Hurricane Charley caused an estimated $15 million in damage (1986 US$, $29 million 2008 USD). As an extratropical cyclone, Charley brought heavy rainfall and strong winds to Ireland and the United Kingdom, causing at least 11 deaths. In Ireland, the rainfall set records for 24‐hour totals, including an accumulation of more than 7.8 in (200 mm) which set the record for the greatest daily rainfall total in the country. In the country, the rainfall caused widespread flooding, resulting in two rivers overflowing their banks. In the Dublin area, 451 buildings were flooded, some up to a depth of 8 ft (2.4 m). In the United Kingdom, the storm caused downed trees and power lines, as well as flooded rivers. ### Tropical Depression Five This tropical depression formed in the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean on August 31. The depression moved west-northwest, then northwest away from the Caribbean Sea without further development before dissipating east-southeast of Bermuda on September 4. ### Tropical Depression Six A tropical wave crossed the Caribbean sea, moving into a favorable upper environment in the western Caribbean sea on August 31. The system formed into a weak tropical depression before crossing the Yucatán peninsula, becoming better organized as it moved into the south-central and western Gulf of Mexico between September 1 and 3. The system moved ashore east-central Mexico before quickly dissipating as a tropical cyclone on September 4. Satellite imagery revealed that its residual cloud pattern persisted over Mexico for an additional couple of days before degenerating. Heavy rainfall fell primarily north of its track, with the maximum across northeast Mexico falling at El Barranco/Altamira, where a total of 9.33 inches (237 mm) was measured. ### Tropical Storm Danielle On September 1, a tropical wave moved off the coast of Africa and headed westward. The disturbance was below the 10 degree latitude as it organized into a tropical depression on September 7 and then a tropical storm later that day. Danielle peaked as a 60 mph (97 km/h) storm on September 8, while Reconnaissance Aircraft reported gusts of up to hurricane force. After passing through the Lesser Antilles, Danielle encountered vertical wind shear, and on September 10 it dissipated in the central Caribbean. The remnants continued westward and ultimately regenerated into Tropical Storm Lester. The islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines experienced wind gusts up to hurricane force, causing severe power outages and causing roof damage. In the Grenadines, the storm drove a coast guard ship aground, while five people were injured and hundreds of homes were destroyed. Torrential rainfall produced several mudslides, which, in turn, damaged roads, bridges, electricity, and water services. Danielle also destroyed twelve homes on the island of Barbados. In Trinidad and Tobago, strong flooding of up to four feet caused 27 landslides, destroying four bridges. The storm caused $8 million in damage in Tobago. Total damage from the storm amounted to $9.2 million (1986 USD), mostly to crops, though no deaths were reported. ### Hurricane Earl The strongest storm of the season began as a tropical wave off Africa on September 4. After moving across the tropical Atlantic Ocean it developed into Tropical Depression Eight on September 10 while about 1240 miles (2000 km) east of Puerto Rico. The depression quickly strengthened and reached hurricane strength on September 11, peaked as a Category 2 hurricane on September 12 as it made a half circle, weakened to a Category 1 on September 16 and bounced back the way it came. Earl then turned north and became extratropical southeast of Newfoundland on September 19. At its peak, Earl had sustained winds of 105 mph (170 km/h) and a minimum central pressure of 979 mbar. ### Hurricane Frances First spotted as a tropical disturbance near the Lesser Antilles on November 15, the system moved generally northward while slowly developing. The system organized into a tropical depression on November 18 and quickly strengthened into a tropical storm. The storm curved northeast and strengthened further, reaching hurricane strength on November 20. However, a surface high-pressure system to the north caused the storm to weaken as the vertical wind shear increased over its center. Frances was later absorbed by an extratropical cyclone on November 21. ## Storm names The following list of names was used for named storms that formed in the north Atlantic in 1986. This is the same list used for the 1980 season except for Andrew, which replaced Allen, and was used for the first time in 1986. No names were retired from this list following the season, and it was used again for the 1992 season. ## Season effects This is a table of all of the tropical cyclones that formed in the 1986 Atlantic hurricane season. It includes their name, duration, peak classification and intensities, areas affected, damage, and death totals. Deaths in parentheses are additional and indirect (an example of an indirect death would be a traffic accident), but were still related to that storm. Damage and deaths include totals while the storm was extratropical, a wave, or a low, and all of the damage figures are in 1986 USD. ## See also - 1986 Pacific hurricane season - 1986 Pacific typhoon season - 1986 North Indian Ocean cyclone season - South-West Indian Ocean cyclone seasons: 1985–86, 1986–87 - Australian region cyclone seasons: 1985–86, 1986–87 - South Pacific cyclone seasons: 1985–86, 1986–87 - South Atlantic tropical cyclone - Mediterranean tropical-like cyclone

WTC Cortlandt station

New York City Subway station in Manhattan

The WTC Cortlandt station (signed as World Trade Center on walls and historically known as Cortlandt Street and Cortlandt Street–World Trade Center) is a station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line of the New York City Subway in the Financial District of Manhattan. The station is located under the intersection of Greenwich Street and Cortlandt Way within the World Trade Center. It is served by the 1 train at all times. The original Cortlandt Street station was built by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) and opened in 1918 as part of the Dual Contracts. The station was renovated in the 1960s when the original World Trade Center was built. Around that time, the portion of Cortlandt Street above the station was demolished to make way for the World Trade Center. The Cortlandt Street station was destroyed in the September 11, 2001 attacks. Although service on the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line through the area was restored in September 2002, the station's reconstruction was delayed until 2015 because the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey had to first rebuild the World Trade Center PATH station beneath it. After an extensive reconstruction, the Cortlandt Street station reopened on September 8, 2018, as WTC Cortlandt. The station contains connections to PATH at the World Trade Center station, as well as an out-of-system passageway to the Chambers Street–World Trade Center/Park Place/Cortlandt Street and Fulton Street subway complexes via the World Trade Center Transportation Hub. ## History ### Early history The Dual Contracts, which were signed on March 19, 1913, were contracts for the construction and/or rehabilitation and operation of rapid transit lines in the City of New York. The contracts were "dual" in that they were signed between the city and two separate private companies (the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company), all working together to make the construction of the Dual Contracts possible. The Dual Contracts promised the construction of several lines in Brooklyn. As part of Contract 4, the IRT agreed to build a branch of the original subway line south down Seventh Avenue, Varick Street, and West Broadway to serve the West Side of Manhattan. The construction of this line, in conjunction with the construction of the Lexington Avenue Line, would change the operations of the IRT system. Instead of having trains go via Broadway, turning onto 42nd Street, before finally turning onto Park Avenue, there would be two trunk lines connected by the 42nd Street Shuttle. The system would be changed from looking like a "Z" system on a map to an "H" system. One trunk would run via the new Lexington Avenue Line down Park Avenue, and the other trunk would run via the new Seventh Avenue Line up Broadway. In order for the line to continue down Varick Street and West Broadway, these streets needed to be widened, and two new streets were built, the Seventh Avenue Extension and the Varick Street Extension. It was predicted that the subway extension would lead to the growth of the Lower West Side, and to neighborhoods such as Chelsea and Greenwich Village. Cortlandt Street opened as part of an extension of the line from 34th Street–Penn Station to South Ferry on July 1, 1918. Initially, the station was served by a shuttle running from Times Square to South Ferry. The new "H" system was implemented on August 1, 1918, joining the two halves of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line and sending all West Side trains south from Times Square. An immediate result of the switch was the need to transfer using the 42nd Street Shuttle in order to retrace the original layout. The completion of the "H" system doubled the capacity of the IRT system. The station was built at the intersection of Cortlandt and Greenwich Streets, in a part of Lower Manhattan nicknamed "Radio Row" because of the many electronics dealers on the street. It had a standard two side platform layout with two tracks. There were mosaic decorations by Squire J. Vickers or Herbert Dole depicting ships along each platform's wall. Red I-beam columns ran along the entire length of both platforms at regular intervals with every other column having the standard black station name plate in white lettering; the name plates alternated between "Cortlandt Street" and "World Trade Center". ### 20th century The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940. On August 9, 1964, the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) announced the letting of a $7.6 million contract to lengthen platforms at stations from Rector Street to 34th Street–Penn Station on the line, including Cortlandt Street, and stations from Central Park North–110th Street to 145th Street on the Lenox Avenue Line to allow express trains to be lengthened from nine-car trains to ten-car trains, and to lengthen locals from eight-car trains to ten-car trains. With the completion of this project, the NYCTA project to lengthen IRT stations to accommodate ten-car trains would be complete. Work on the platform extension project took place in 1965 and 1966. During the project, old tiling and mosaics were removed and replaced with the 1970s-style varnished, tan-colored brick tiles. One of the mosaics was preserved in the New York Transit Museum. In 1965, Cortlandt Street west of Church Street was demolished to create the superblock of the World Trade Center. The station, with entrances at Vesey Street and inside the World Trade Center concourse, was separated from the remaining block of Cortlandt Street. During the 1980s, when service levels across the subway system were decreased greatly from their heyday in the 1910s, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority installed the system's first train-frequency schedules at the Cortlandt Street station. Older timetables and maps elsewhere had been removed since they had become inaccurate. Trains bypassed the station in the aftermath of the February 26, 1993, World Trade Center bombing. Soon after, 1 trains were back to Chambers Street. In 2001, just prior to the September 11 attacks, the Cortlandt Street station saw 19,446 riders per day. ### September 11, 2001, attacks The station and the surrounding subway tunnels were severely damaged in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks following the collapse of Two World Trade Center, resulting in the closure of the line south of Chambers Street. During the September 11 attacks in 2001, a train operator reported an "explosion" to the MTA's Subway Control Center one minute after the first plane struck the World Trade Center's North Tower at 8:46 a.m. Subway service was halted shortly afterward and, as a result, no one in the subway system died. The steel I-beams of the station were crumpled and the station roof collapsed, as the tunnel had been located 40 feet (12 m) underground, relatively close to ground level. The original tunnel had measured 30 feet (9.1 m) wide and 18 feet (5.5 m) high, with columns between the two tracks spaced at intervals of 5 feet (1.5 m). Soon after the attacks, two options were considered: either the existing line would be repaired, or the tunnel would be diverted westward just to the north of the World Trade Center site before heading to a new terminal at South Ferry. The first option was chosen, and to quickly restore service to Rector Street and South Ferry stations to the south, workers demolished the remainder of the station and built walls where the platforms used to be. 975 feet (297 m) of tunnels and trackage, including 575 feet (175 m) of totally destroyed tunnels and tracks in the vicinity of the station site as it traversed Ground Zero, were entirely rebuilt. However, officials wanted only to reopen Rector and South Ferry stations at the time, and the Cortlandt Street station was to be closed completely, with no replacement. Eventually, it was decided that the Cortlandt Street station was to be rebuilt as part of the greater World Trade Center reconstruction project; since the station was such a vital one in the area, a permanent closure was infeasible. As part of the project, the East Bathtub was extended under the line to the eastern boundary of the site at Church Street. George Pataki, who was the governor of New York at the time, stated, "This is going to help more than a million people by restoring service, help the recovery of lower Manhattan and sends a powerful message that New York City can't be stopped." The Port Authority's chief engineer and others tried to convince him to temporarily shut down the line while the new transportation hub at the World Trade Center was under construction. The Governor's decision to keep the line open increased the cost of the project because the subway structure had to be underpinned. The new tunnel measured 100 feet (30 m) wide to accommodate the future reconstruction of the Cortlandt Street station; it was otherwise designed to the same specifications as the original tunnel, with columns placed every 5 feet (1.5 m). The line reopened on September 15, 2002, with trains bypassing the site of the Cortlandt Street station. The northern entrance at Vesey Street was under a staircase to the plaza above. After the attacks, the staircase still stood and became known as the Survivors' Staircase. The stairs were moved into the National September 11 Museum in July 2008. ### Reconstruction and delays #### PANYNJ cleanup In 2007, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), in the Environmental Impact Statement for the World Trade Center PATH terminal, expected the Cortlandt Street station to reopen in 2009. In October 2008, the PANYNJ stated in a report that it had come to an agreement with the MTA on reconstructing the Cortlandt Street station. The MTA would pay the Port Authority to rebuild the station as part of the Port Authority's World Trade Center Transportation Hub contract, in order to make the construction process more efficient. The Port Authority was set to complete underpinning and excavation under the tunnel structure by the second quarter of 2010, and start basic construction of the Cortlandt Street station during the 3rd quarter. In the second quarter report for 2010, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey confirmed that excavation under the tunnel structure of the World Trade Center site was nearly complete, and that construction of the Cortlandt Street station would begin during the third quarter of 2010. Station finishes were set to start during the second quarter of 2011, and work began on the station mezzanine and platforms in September 2011. The tracks were walled off for the protection of the workers while the construction progressed. From 2008 to 2011, the used an enclosed structure for a short distance when passing the site of the station, as a result of the massive excavation in the World Trade Center site. When the site was filled back in, the developers of the new World Trade Center rebuilt Cortlandt Street across the site as one of the primary roads, resulting in the rebuilt Cortlandt Street station again serving its namesake. Disputes between the PANYNJ and the MTA over who would pay for the renovation had caused the planned opening of the station to be delayed from 2014 to 2018. In 2013, the PANYNJ awarded a contract to rebuild the station. The first phase of the demolition of the original station cost $19 million. The area was still being rebuilt in December 2013, and in February 2015, the PANYNJ and the MTA agreed to finish the station. The part of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line on which the Cortlandt Street station is located, south of Chambers Street, was intermittently closed between May 2015 and 2018. This allowed construction at the station, which included station finishes, tiles and lighting, to resume. #### MTA rebuild The MTA gained control of the Cortlandt Street station's reconstruction project in 2015. However, in January 2017, an independent engineer for the MTA said that the station's reopening could potentially be pushed back due to disagreements with station contractor Judlau Contracting. At that time, the MTA had spent $800,000 per month on the project, but it would need to spend four times as much money in order to meet the projected August 2018 deadline. The PANYNJ agreed to grant the MTA "full access" to the Cortlandt Street station in June 2017 once the temporary World Trade Center PATH entrance was demolished and the station's foundation was poured. The renovation included new Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant entrances with elevators, track-intrusion systems, fire alarms, Help Points, CCTV cameras, countdown clocks and air conditioning. A $1 million text-based marble mural by Ann Hamilton was installed in the station. By September 2017, much of the communications, power, and ventilation infrastructure was being installed, but contractor work and Port Authority utility relocation were significantly delayed. According to the MTA's Capital Program Oversight Committee, the contractor had to more than double its productivity to ensure an October 2018 opening, with substantial completion in December 2018. In April 2018, several news sources affirmed the possible reopening date of October 2018. By June, the station wiring was complete, architectural finishes and turnstiles were being installed, and elevators and escalators were being installed. Station name signs with the text "World Trade Center" were being installed along the platform walls by August 2018. The reconstruction of the station ultimately cost $181 million, up from earlier projections of $158 million and $101 million. At that point, the television station WCBS-TV estimated that over a million trains had passed through the station without stopping. On September 7, 2018, several news sources reported that the station would reopen the next day in time for the seventeenth anniversary of the attacks. The following day, the station indeed reopened with a ceremony. A new name, "WTC Cortlandt", was chosen for the station because of its location under the World Trade Center, in addition to paying homage to its historic name of Cortlandt Street. However, work on the station had yet to be complete. As of September 2018, the MTA still had to complete the art on the northbound platform's wall, replace temporary ceilings, floodproof the station, and complete the north end of the station. The MTA projected that the work would be substantially complete by the end of December 2018. As of July 2019, the station's reconstruction was 95% complete but some work remained to be done. ## Station layout The rebuilt station is located under Greenwich Street, at the same location as the original station. The 1 train stops here at all times. The station is between the Chambers Street stop to the north and the Rector Street stop to the south. It retains the two-track, two-side-platform layout, and is 20 feet (6.1 m) below the ground level. There are columns between the tracks, except where the station passes over the World Trade Center Transportation Hub toward its north end. There is also a crossunder between the two platforms at the north end of the station, north of the hub. The platforms feature gray I-beam columns with signs reading "WTC Cortlandt" on every other column. "World Trade Center" name signs are installed on the station's walls. The station also contains an air-conditioning system. The 2018 artwork in this station is CHORUS, a $1 million, 4,350-square-foot (404 m²) weaving-based artwork by Ann Hamilton. This artwork features words from several documents, including from the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and United States Declaration of Independence, embossed onto the station walls. - Note: The following diagram depicts multiple lines; transfer to or from the WTC Cortlandt station (i.e., 1 service) requires payment of an additional fare. ### Exits The rebuilt station is connected to the Chambers Street–World Trade Center/Park Place/Cortlandt Street and World Trade Center PATH stations within the World Trade Center Transportation Hub. The WTC Cortlandt station is located just west to the World Trade Center Hub's head house, which is known as the "Oculus". There are a total of four entrances from the World Trade Center Transportation Hub. Two mezzanines underneath the tracks, at the north and south ends of the station, give direct access from the subway to the PATH. The northern mezzanine contains access to both platforms, while the southern mezzanine only connects to the southbound platform. There are additional entrances to the uptown platform from the Oculus building's upper balcony, as well as from the South Concourse, which connects to the basement of 3 World Trade Center. There is an out-of-system connection to the Fulton Center via the WTC Hub. The southbound platform has two direct exits to the street. The first is an elevator and stair at Vesey Street at the platform's extreme north end, and the second is a pair of staircases to Cortlandt Way at the station's extreme south end. The station is ADA-accessible via the elevator at Vesey Street, as well as existing elevators to the World Trade Center Transportation Hub. Additional elevators lead from each platform to the crossunder beneath the station. Prior to 9/11, the station's full-time entrance was located at the north end of the station at Vesey Street and West Broadway, where there was a turnstile bank and one full height turnstile. The token booth at this exit was still intact until the last remnants of the station were removed in 2007. The entrance to the World Trade Center Concourse consisted of full height turnstiles at the center of each platform and was only open on weekdays between 6:40 a.m. and 10 p.m. At the station's southern end, there was an exit to Liberty Street through Four World Trade Center.

Demi's Birthday Suit

Photograph by Annie Leibovitz

Demi's Birthday Suit, or The Suit, was a trompe-l'œil body painting by Joanne Gair photographed by Annie Leibovitz that was featured on the cover of the Vanity Fair August 1992 issue to commemorate and exploit the success of Leibovitz's More Demi Moore cover photo of Demi Moore one year earlier. As an example of modern body painting artwork, it raised the profile of Gair in pop culture as an artist in that genre. The work is considered to be groundbreaking by some, although there is controversy surrounding its originality. The converse of this image serves as the dust jacket art to Gair's second bodypainting book, Body Painting. The photo shoot also let Moore show off the results of her fitness regimen. ## Artistic perspective Gene Newman considers the body painting of Moore to be the introduction of modern body painting to the world. Although willing to credit Moore and Gair with the rebirth of bodypainting in a San Francisco Chronicle story, the "makeup artist, wig maker and stylist" Jim Ponder had difficulty calling interest in bodypainting a trend because it traces back to the "beginnings of man." Joanne Gair has described the painting as a stylized reference to Botticelli, since the sinuous pose is reminiscent of the central figures in both Primavera and The Birth of Venus. The Amazon.com product description for Gair's book calls her participation in this photoshoot as her "defining moment." Soon after the release of the magazine Gair became such a pop culture icon that she was considered for an Absolut Vodka Absolut Gair ad campaign according to a story in The New York Times. The work is considered to be an example from the most sophisticated end of the bodypainting spectrum which extends all the way to Henna tattoos. Some sources have claimed that the work is a derivative of preceding works. Playboy published a photo with similar bodypainting, with a necktie, suit jacket and similar pose, in its March 1968 issue, as part of a feature on bodypainting. ## Details Gair had worked with Leibovitz and Moore on More Demi Moore. Departing Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown felt "The only thing to do for the anniversary cover was to reprise it." According to a Houston Chronicle story that quotes both Moore and Brown, about 100 million people had seen the earlier cover, and this cover capitalized on the anniversary. They decided to attempt a body painting during the week-long shoot at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, California in 1992. Gair was provided with a pinstriped three-piece suit by Richard Tyler as a model to paint onto Moore. Since in those days she did not generally work with assistants, the day started at 6:30 A.M. and Demi Moore slept that night in the painted-on suit in case they needed to resume the next day. It took 15 hours to apply the suit because it was difficult for Gair to build the proper paint density. Moore's body heat melted the paint. For the 1992 cover, which required a full-day sitting for Gair and her team of make-up artists, Leibovitz could not decide where to shoot, and "reserved two mobile homes, four hotel rooms and five houses". Stylist Lori Goldstein assisted with the application. Having started rigorous workouts in the final trimester of her pregnancy the year before to prepare for her role in A Few Good Men, Moore was physically fit for the photoshoot. Thus she appeared in additional nude photos within the magazine's cover story. Moore viewed the photos as a chance to show off the results of her workouts: "I said I would get better with each baby and I have." The weeklong effort also involved shots taken in Kauai, Hawaii that are included in Gair's second book, Body Painting. Moore felt she looked better on the cover at age 29 than she had in a bikini nine years earlier in Blame It on Rio. ## More Demi Moore Demi Moore had appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair exactly one year earlier in the August 1991 edition in Leibovitz's photograph, More Demi Moore. As a groundbreaking work, the photograph of her pregnant pose was an iconic one for Moore, Leibovitz and women in general who now view public representation of pregnancy as socially acceptable. It had a cultural impact by causing numerous celebrities to pose for photographs in advanced pregnancy, which has made pregnancy photos fashionable and created a profitable business for photographers such as Jennifer Loomis. The American Society of Magazine Editors regards it as one of the best U.S. magazine covers ever, and it is one of Leibovitz' best-known works. Additionally, the photo served as a litmus test when Internet decency standards were first being legislated and adjudicated.

Irene Vanbrugh

English actress (1872–1949)

Dame Irene Boucicault DBE (2 December 1872 – 30 November 1949), née Barnes, known professionally as Irene Vanbrugh (/aɪˈrini ˈvænbrə/) was an English actress. The daughter of a clergyman, Vanbrugh followed her elder sister Violet into the theatrical profession and sustained a career for more than 50 years. After appearing in supporting roles with J. L. Toole, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, George Alexander and others, she graduated to leading roles in the 1890s, creating such roles as Gwendolyn in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), and establishing her reputation in Arthur Pinero's The Gay Lord Quex (1899). In her early days as a leading lady she was particularly associated with Pinero's plays and later had parts written for her by James Barrie, Bernard Shaw, Somerset Maugham, A. A. Milne and Noël Coward. More famous for comic than for dramatic roles, Vanbrugh nevertheless played many of the latter both in modern works and in the classics. Her stage début was in Shakespeare, but she seldom acted in his plays later in her career; exceptions were her Queen Gertrude in Hamlet in 1931 and her Meg Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor, opposite her sister Violet as Alice Ford, in 1934. Best known as a stage performer, Vanbrugh appeared in three silent films in the 1910s but did not return to the cinema until the mid-1930s; she made ten films over the following decade. She appeared frequently in fundraising shows for various charities, and was active over many years in the support of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, of which her brother Kenneth was principal. After her death the academy's new theatre was named the Vanbrugh Theatre in honour of her and her sister. ## Life and career ### Early years Vanbrugh was born in Exeter, Devon, on 2 December 1872, the youngest daughter and fifth child of six of the Rev Reginald Henry Barnes, Prebendary of Exeter Cathedral and Vicar of Heavitree, and his wife, Frances Mary Emily, née Nation, daughter of a barrister. Irene's eldest sister Violet and younger brother Kenneth also made theatrical careers. Irene was educated at Exeter High School and at schools in Paris. When the Barnes family moved to London in the mid-1880s, she attended a school near Earls Court recommended by the actress Ellen Terry, a family friend. After seeing Vanbrugh in a school play, Terry commented, "Irene, you seem to be a professional acting with amateurs". It was also at Terry's suggestion that Violet, on starting a theatrical career, adopted the stage name Vanbrugh. Irene was encouraged by her sister's early success to follow her into the theatrical profession, also with the stage name Vanbrugh. In his memoir An Actor in His Time (1979) Sir John Gielgud described the two: As her elder sister had done, Irene joined Sarah Thorne's repertory company at the Theatre Royal, Margate, as a student. For a fee Thorne would take pupils into her company, but the Vanbrugh girls showed such promise they were accepted free of charge. Violet was playing leading roles by the time Irene arrived at Margate two years after her, in August 1888. Irene recalled Thorne as an excellent teacher, adding, "We played every kind of play there; comedy, farce, and drama of the deepest dye; while at Christmas there came the pantomime, so that the Juliet of a week ago might be the Prince Paragon of the Yule-tide extravaganza." As a student her first appearance on stage was in August 1888, as the capricious shepherdess Phoebe in As You Like It at the Theatre Royal, in a cast led by Violet as Rosalind. ### Early roles Lewis Carroll, a college friend of Vanbrugh's father, saw her performing in Margate and was impressed. On his recommendation she made her London début in December 1888, playing the White Queen and the Knave of Hearts in a revival of Alice in Wonderland at the old Globe Theatre. Her sister Edith joined her in this production. Some of Violet's early theatrical work had been with J. L. Toole. Irene emulated her and joined his company in 1889, playing in established comedy successes including Dion Boucicault's Dot and H. J. Byron's Uncle Dick's Darling. When Toole toured Australia and New Zealand in 1890–91 Vanbrugh was a member of his company, acting in every play in its repertoire. She later commented: After nearly a year the company returned to London. Vanbrugh remained a member and played her first original roles as Thea Tesman in James Barrie's burlesque Ibsen's Ghost (1891), and as Bell Golightly in Barrie's comedy Walker, London (1892), which ran for 497 performances. ### First West End successes Although she was happy in Toole's company, by 1893 Vanbrugh felt the need to widen her experience. She joined Herbert Beerbohm Tree at the Haymarket Theatre as the serving-maid Lettice in The Tempter (1893) by Henry Arthur Jones. The play was not popular and was taken off after 73 performances; in 1894, after three more productions in Tree's company, she was engaged by George Alexander at the St James's Theatre. There she had more success in Jones's next play, The Masqueraders, in a supporting role to Alexander and Mrs Patrick Campbell in the leads. In Alexander's company she played Fanny in Henry James's drama Guy Domville, which closed after 32 performances, and in 1895 created the role of the Honourable Gwendolen Fairfax in The Importance of Being Earnest. When Arthur Bourchier, who had married Violet Vanbrugh, launched himself as an actor-manager in 1895, Irene joined them at the Royalty Theatre and on tour, winning good notices as Dulcie in The Chili Widow and in the title role of the comedy Kitty Clive. She went with the Bourchier company to America, making her Broadway début in November 1896 in The Chili Widow. After her return to London in 1898 she appeared at the Criterion Theatre with Charles Wyndham in October 1897, as Lady Rosamund Tatton in Jones's comedy The Liars. In January 1898 she joined John Hare's company at the Court Theatre, where she created the roles of Rose Trelawny in Trelawny of the Wells by Arthur Pinero, and Stella de Gex in Robert Marshall's His Excellency the Governor. A fellow member of Hare's company was Dion Boucicault Jr. (known as "Dot" to family and friends), son of his more famous namesake. They had met while Vanbrugh was in Australia with Toole's touring company, and for six months they were together in Hare's highly successful American tour, playing in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington and Chicago. Boucicault proposed to her while Trelawny of the Wells was playing in London, but she did not accept him straight away and they were not married until three years later. In 1899 Vanbrugh played the role that made her name – Sophy Fullgarney in Pinero's The Gay Lord Quex. This part, a Cockney manicurist, was quite different from any she had played before, but Pinero was insistent that she should play it. In the words of the biographer S. R. Littlewood, "Vanbrugh's intelligence, sympathy, and alertness avoided extravagance in a subtle expression of class-contrast. This gave the character an intensity of appeal that was at the time something quite new." A contemporary critic commented, "She has sprung all at once into the ranks of the leading actresses of our day". The play was regarded as risqué, and one critic commented that had Lewis Carroll still been alive, he would have approved of "Miss Vanbrugh's greatest triumph" but probably not of the play. By the turn of the century Vanbrugh's reputation was established. In Boyle Lawrence's 1900 survey of leading stage performers the chapter on Vanbrugh begins: ### Early 20th century In July 1901 Vanbrugh and Boucicault married, at a private ceremony in Buxton, where her uncle was the vicar of St John's Church. The couple frequently appeared together for the rest of Boucicault's life, and he became her manager in 1915. They had no children. Between the turn of the century and the First World War Vanbrugh had leading roles in new plays by J. M. Barrie, Pinero and Somerset Maugham. The Barrie plays were The Admirable Crichton (1902), Alice-Sit-by-the Fire (1905), and Rosalind (1912). In the second of these she had an adverse review. In The Saturday Review Max Beerbohm contrasted Vanbrugh with her co-star, Ellen Terry, whom Beerbohm thought more attuned to Barrie's childlike innocence, whereas with Vanbrugh, "Her personality is in no way Barrieish. She looks, indeed, quite young enough for her part; but her soul is not childish enough." The three Pinero plays starring Vanbrugh in this period had mixed fortunes. Her own notices for Letty (1903) were excellent, but the play closed after 64 performances. His House in Order (1906) was a considerable success for Vanbrugh, Alexander and Pinero, running for 430 performances. Her performance in Mid-Channel (1909) was highly praised, but the play was not, and closed after 58 performances. Vanbrugh's Maugham roles were in the drama Grace (1910) and the romance The Land of Promise (1914). The critics were more complimentary about the acting than the plays, which ran for 72 and 76 performances respectively. She also starred in new plays by Charles Haddon Chambers (Passers-By, 1911) and A. E. W. Mason (Open Windows, 1913). Away from the West End theatre, Vanbrugh went on the music-hall stage with Barrie's one-act play The Twelve-Pound Look in 1911, co-starring with Edmund Gwenn in a variety bill in which W. C. Fields also appeared. Over the next four years she appeared in other Barrie pieces – Half an Hour and Rosalind – and Maugham's The Land of Promise, written with her in mind. In 1913 Vanbrugh played Lady Gay Spanker in a revival of Boucicault senior's London Assurance in an all-star cast including Herbert Tree, Charles Hawtrey, Arthur Bourchier, Weedon Grossmith and Marie Tempest. This was one of the many charity fund-raising productions in which Vanbrugh appeared throughout her career, such as a starrily cast The School for Scandal in 1915 in which she played Lady Teazle to Tree's Sir Peter. ### First World War During the war Vanbrugh played a succession of leading roles in the West End, beginning with The Spirit of Culture in Barrie's war play Der Tag (1914). Following this, she played Lady Falkland in a melodrama, The Right to Kill (1915); the title role in Maugham's comedy Caroline (1916); Mrs Lytton in a crime drama, The Riddle (1916); Emily Ladew in the comedy Her Husband's Wife (1916); Leonora in Barrie's Seven Women (1917); and the title role in A. A. Milne's Belinda (1918). In 1916 Vanbrugh appeared in a film, The Real Thing at Last (1916); the following year she starred in two more silent films, Masks and Faces, playing Peg Woffington, and The Gay Lord Quex, as Sophy, with Ben Webster as Quex and a supporting cast that included Lilian Braithwaite, Margaret Bannerman and Donald Calthrop. She told a journalist, "Film acting is a delightful experience, but for me it can never take the place of the stage." She did not return to films until 1933. From its early days, Vanbrugh was closely connected with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Her younger brother, Kenneth Barnes, had been its principal since 1909. The 1917 film of Masks and Faces had been made at her instigation to raise funds for the academy's partly completed theatre and she gathered a star cast, including not only leading actors but the playwrights Bernard Shaw, Pinero and Barrie in cameo appearances. Vanbrugh was a governor of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in the Euston Road, London, and in June 1918 she organised a matinee concert at the London Palladium to raise funds for the endowment of a bed at the hospital for the use of any woman connected to the theatrical profession. ### Inter-war years Vanbrugh's first big stage success of the post-war years was in Milne's Mr Pim Passes By in 1920. She and her husband opened it in Manchester, and such was its reception that they brought it into the West End. In early 1923 they sailed to South Africa and then Australia and New Zealand for a tour which included a repertory of twelve plays, among which were Belinda, Miss Nell o' New Orleans, The Truth About Blayds, The Second Mrs Tanqueray, His House in Order, The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith, Trelawney of the Wells, and Mr Pim Passes By. The couple returned to Britain in January 1926. After a pre-London tour in the comedy All the King’s Horses, Vanbrugh and Allan Aynesworth starred in the piece at the Globe Theatre. At the Playhouse in June she resumed the title part in a revival of Caroline and at the Comedy Theatre the following January she played the Baroness della Rocca in Alfred Sutro's comedy The Desperate Lovers. Returning to music hall in April 1927 she played Clarissa Marlow in a short comedy by Milne, at the London Coliseum, Miss Marlow at Play. She and Boucicault then returned to Australia for another tour, but he became ill and the couple returned to England, where he died at their house in Hurley, Berkshire, on 25 June 1929. Vanbrugh's other appearances in the inter-war years included Gertrude to Henry Ainley's Hamlet in 1931, Millicent Jordan in Dinner at Eight (1933) and Mistress Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor with Violet as Mistress Ford (1934). This was the first time the sisters had acted together since 1895. The following year she played the role of the Duchess of Marlborough in Norman Ginsbury's historical drama Viceroy Sarah (1935). Vanbrugh returned to films in 1933, as Mrs Powis-Porter in Head of the Family; between then and 1945 she appeared in Catherine the Great, Girls Will Be Boys, The Way of Youth, Youthful Folly, Escape Me Never, Wings of the Morning, Knight Without Armour, It Happened One Sunday, and I Live in Grosvenor Square. In 1938 Vanbrugh played Lady Messiter in Noël Coward's Operette at His Majesty's Theatre, London. It was a short but pivotal role with a single scene described by the critic Sheridan Morley as "a very difficult ten-minute scene", and by Coward himself as a boring scene that Vanbrugh played "with impeccable dignity". During the run of Operette Vanbrugh celebrated her golden jubilee as an actress with a gala charity matinee at His Majesty's attended by the Queen. Violet Vanbrugh, Coward, Edith Evans, Gladys Cooper, Seymour Hicks and many other leading performers took part. The matinee raised , which Vanbrugh donated to the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital and the Theatrical Ladies' Guild. The following year Vanbrugh created the role of Catherine of Braganza in Shaw's In Good King Charles's Golden Days. ### Later years During the Battle of Britain in 1940 the Vanbrugh sisters carried out what Littlewood calls "a characteristic piece of war work" by giving, with Donald Wolfit, lunchtime performances of extracts from The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Strand Theatre. Throughout the war, Vanbrugh appeared in the West End and on tour in new plays, revivals of her earlier successes, and classics. Almost 50 years after her first appearance in a Wilde play, she played Lady Markby in An Ideal Husband in 1943–1944, giving a performance characterised by The Times as "comic perfection". Vanbrugh was working to the end of her life. In early November 1949 she appeared in Mary Bonaventure in its pre-London run but was taken ill before the West End opening and died on 30 November 1949, shortly before her 77th birthday. ### Honours and commemorations Vanbrugh was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1941. After her death, the new theatre for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art was named the Vanbrugh Theatre in honour of Vanbrugh and her sister. The theatre, located in Gower Street, London, was opened in 1954 by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. At a matinee marking RADA's golden jubilee in 1954, in the presence of Irene Vanbrugh's brother, Sir Kenneth Barnes, who was still the principal of the academy, Edith Evans read a poem by A. P. Herbert in which Vanbrugh was celebrated among the leading names of British theatre. Herbert wrote: > ` All the great names that give our past a glow,` > ` Bancroft and Irving, Barrie and Boucicault,` > ` Vanbrugh and Playfair, Terry, Kendal, Maude,` > ` Gilbert and Grossmith loudly we applaud.` ## Notes, references and sources

Johnny Roepke

American football player (1905–1962)

John Peter Roepke (December 28, 1905 – February 26, 1962) was an American football halfback who played one season in the National Football League (NFL) for the Frankford Yellow Jackets as well as four seasons in minor leagues with the Atlantic City Tornadoes, Clifton Heights Orange & Black, Upper Darby Greenbacks, and Paterson Night Hawks. A native of New Jersey, he attended Penn State University, playing football, baseball, and basketball before graduating in 1928. He was selected to the College Football All-America Team following his senior season of 1927. Roepke also briefly played professional baseball for the Scranton Miners in 1928. ## Early life Roepke was born on December 28, 1905, in Jersey City, New Jersey. He attended William L. Dickinson High School there, playing football, baseball, and basketball. Following his third season of high school, where he was named all state as a halfback, Roepke was elected team captain for his senior year of 1923. Shortly before his last sports game with the high school, the state championship baseball game against Plainfield High School on June 23, 1924, Roepke announced that he would attend Penn State University. As his team's pitcher, he threw a no-hitter versus Plainfield, only letting two people get to a base through a walk. ## College career During his freshman year of 1924, Roepke did not see much action for the Penn State athletic teams. As a sophomore in 1925, he earned a varsity letter and got his first action as a football player. After their game against West Virginia, Roepke was given drills to replace Bas Gray as team punter. He also was given the starting left halfback position for their season finale against Pittsburgh, replacing Bill Pritchard. Roepke was described by The Wilkes-Barre Record as a "good punter, the best forward passer on the squad and a shifty man with the ball [which] makes him a triple threat player." With Roepke starting at halfback during the season finale, Penn State lost 7–23 before 50,000 fans. The Penn State team ended the year with a record of 4–4–1. In basketball, Roepke earned a starting position for the 1925–26 team, replacing Mike Hamas, who retired due to injury. He played the forward position. Roepke was injured playing football during their game against Lebanon Valley on October 2, 1926, forcing him to miss their games against Marietta College, Notre Dame, Syracuse, and George Washington. It left the team without a punter, as he was "the best kicking regular on the squad." His injury required an operation, and sidelined him for "at least a month." "Bus" Harrington was shifted to left halfback as a replacement for Roepke. He returned for their game against Bucknell, where he scored three of nine points, contributing to the other six, and helped shut them out 9–0. Following the season finale, a loss against Pittsburgh, Roepke was mentioned on several all-Eastern teams for his performance, as well as earned the team captain position for his senior season of 1927. By the end of week two in 1927, Roepke had already scored 36 points and was the leader in the eastern United States. He scored eight against Lebanon Valley in week one, and "ran wild" versus Gettysburg the following week, scoring 28 out of his team's 34 points. Against Syracuse during week five, Roepke kicked the game-winning field goal in the fourth quarter to win 9–6. It was Penn State's first ever win in their rivalry with Syracuse. By mid-November, Roepke was "considered by many as an outstanding candidate for the all-America team," according to the Ohio News Journal. By November 21, Roepke was third in the eastern United States in scoring with 89 points, only behind Bob Nork of Georgetown and Myles Lane of Dartmouth. He finished the season ranked fourth in the eastern U.S., after dropping one spot to Jack Conner. He made a total of 12 touchdowns, one field goal, and 14 extra points, earning a third-team All-America selection by Walter Eckersall at the end of the season. ## Professional career ### Baseball Following his graduation from Penn State, Roepke began a professional baseball career in the New York–Pennsylvania League with the Scranton Miners as a pitcher. He played his first game on June 13, 1928, allowing nine hits in two innings pitched before being benched. The Miners lost the game, 4–10, against the York White Roses. It was his only appearance with the team. The Miners finished the season with a record of 55–78, placing seventh in the league. ### Football After the baseball season ended, Roepke tried out professional football, playing for the Frankford Yellow Jackets of the National Football League (NFL). He appeared in 10 out of the team's 16 games, starting three of them at a "back" position. In week three of the season, a 10–6 victory over the Providence Steam Roller, Roepke scored his first career points on a field goal. In a 19–0 shutout over the Pottsville Maroons, he scored his first professional touchdown, on a 12-yard rush in the first quarter. In week ten, he threw a touchdown pass to Carl Waite. He also kicked one extra point during the season, as the Yellow Jackets placed second in the league. Roepke left Frankford after the season to join the Atlantic City Tornadoes, the first 1929 opponents of his former team. After the first game, a 0–6 loss for Atlantic City, Roepke left the team and joined the Clifton Heights Orange & Black. He finished the season with Clifton before joining the Upper Darby Greenbacks the following year. He returned with the Greenbacks for the 1931 season. In October 1932, Roepke was signed by the Paterson Night Hawks prior to their game against the New York Giants. He made two appearances for the Night Hawks before retiring. ## Later life and death Roepke was married on December 22, 1928, to Anne Kost of Tyrone, Pennsylvania. Roepke later worked for the Manhattan Rubber Division of Raybestos, Inc. He died on February 26, 1962, at the age of 56, following a short illness.

Hurricane Alex (2010)

Category 2 Atlantic hurricane

Hurricane Alex was the first tropical cyclone of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, and a rare June Atlantic hurricane. Originating from an area of disturbed weather on June 25, 2010, it slowly developed in the western Caribbean Sea and struck Belize as a strong tropical storm. After entering the Gulf of Mexico, Alex became very large and encountered conditions favorable for gradual development. Early on June 30, the cyclone attained hurricane status as it approached northeastern Mexico, the first June hurricane in the Atlantic basin since Hurricane Allison in 1995, and the storm rapidly intensified just off the coast of Tamaulipas. Alex made landfall near Soto la Marina as a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Alex rapidly weakened after landfall, with the storm losing its tropical status on July 2, before fully dissipating on July 6. Alex caused the deaths of at least 51 people along its path, and produced over $1.5 billion (2010 USD) in damage. The precursor of the hurricane produced substantial rainfall across the Greater Antilles, causing one death in the Dominican Republic. Fourteen people were killed in Central America as a result of flooding during the first landfall of Alex. In Mexico, the storm's outer rainbands killed three people in Acapulco, one person in Oaxaca, and another in Chiapas. At its final landfall, Alex caused at least fifteen deaths in Nuevo León, eight in Coahuila, six in Guanajuato, and one in both Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosí; an additional twenty persons were reported missing. Alex triggered widespread power outages throughout northeastern Mexico and southern Texas. Damage was most evident in the Monterrey metropolitan area, which faced what Nuevo León governor Rodrigo Medina de la Cruz described as, "the worst weather phenomenon in its history." Following Alex's final landfall, a state of emergency was declared for most of Nuevo León, portions of Tamaulipas, and Texas. Widespread flooding from the storm affected 500,000 people throughout northeast Mexico, and ruined over 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres) of crops in the region, equivalent to 11% of the region's total farmland. Despite the significant damage and death toll, the name Alex was not retired following the season. ## Meteorological history The weather system from which Hurricane Alex developed was first discernible as a disturbance in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) over the central Atlantic, on June 17, 2010. Over the next few days, most of the disturbance's associated thunderstorm activity was embedded within the ITCZ. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) first mentioned the system as a candidate for tropical cyclone formation on June 20, while it was crossing the Windward Islands into the southeastern Caribbean Sea; at the time, some upper-level wind shear was present, leading to conditions only marginally favorable for development. The system moved through the Caribbean, and on June 21, it developed to the extent that the NHC assessed a 50% chance of development into a tropical depression within 48 hours. The next day, however, the feature deteriorated, as thunderstorm activity spread across the Greater Antilles, although the upper-level regime remained favorable for eventual redevelopment. On June 24, a low-level circulation had gradually become better established to the south of Jamaica, although it was displaced from its poorly organized convection. By 18:00 UTC, a surface low-pressure area had formed about 105 miles (169 km) to the northeast of Cabo Gracias a Dios, Nicaragua, but due to a lack of persistent thunderstorm activity, it was not yet considered a tropical cyclone. Later that day, convection increased over the center of circulation, and atmospheric pressures dropped across the region. Late on June 25, Hurricane Hunters verified the development of a surface low pressure area, which, combined with the increase of thunderstorm activity, indicated the system was a tropical depression. Accordingly, the cyclone was classified as Tropical Depression One at 22:00 UTC, while located about 345 miles (555 km) to the east-southeast of Chetumal, Quintana Roo. After the end of the hurricane season, the National Hurricane Center revised their analysis and estimated that the system had actually become a tropical depression at around 18:00 UTC. At the time of its formation, the depression was moving to the west-northwest, steered by a high pressure system over the northern Gulf of Mexico. An anticyclone positioned over the storm created an environment of minimal wind shear, and the depression quickly intensified. At 09:00 UTC on June 26, the system obtained tropical storm status and was given the name Alex. As Tropical Storm Alex progressed through the western Caribbean Sea towards the Yucatán Peninsula, it developed a large field of clouds accompanied by well-established outflow throughout its circulation. Its inner structure was initially disorganized, although by late on June 26, it became better defined. At about 21:00 UTC, as the tropical storm approached the Belize coast, a Hurricane Hunters flight reported winds of 65 mph (105 km/h); early on June 27, Alex made landfall just north of Belize City at this intensity. Upon moving ashore, an area of convection increased over the center, and the convection initially became better defined as it crossed the Yucatán Peninsula. While most tropical cyclones weaken and become disorganized after landfall, Alex seemed to become stronger when viewed on radar and satellite imagery—the National Hurricane Center noted in one of its forecast discussions that the cyclone's structure more closely resembled a hurricane than a deteriorating storm. Still, after enough time over land, convective activity markedly decreased. Operationally, Alex was downgraded to a tropical depression as it approached the peninsula's western coastline; however post-analysis determined that Alex remained a minimal tropical storm. Late on June 27, the storm emerged into the Gulf of Mexico with a large overall convective structure but little thunderstorm activity near the center due to the interaction with land. When Alex was still located over the Yucatán Peninsula, the NHC remarked upon the potential for significant strengthening. Because of low wind shear and very warm water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, the possibility existed that Alex could intensify into a major hurricane—a Category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale—before its next landfall. Early on June 28, thunderstorm activity had reformed over the center, but over the following day, the combination of dry air, increasing wind shear and slightly cooler water temperatures prevented significant convection from developing over the center. At the same time, Alex was moving slowly off the northwest coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, and the environment's conditions became more favorable for intensification as the tropical storm tracked away from the coast. The circulation envelope of Alex remained very large, and by June 29, the storm's rainbands covered the entire western half of the Gulf of Mexico; rainfall was reported along the Texas and Louisiana coasts, even while the center was still several hundred miles offshore. The tropical storm continued to strengthen, and based on reports from Hurricane Hunters, it is estimated that Alex attained Category 1 hurricane status at 03:00 UTC on June 30, about 255 miles (410 km) southeast of Brownsville, Texas. Upon becoming a hurricane, Alex was located in a moist, low shear environment, which led to steady intensification on June 30. The pressure continued to fall—a sign of an intensifying cyclone—with a more rapid drop occurring that afternoon and evening. The hurricane strengthened into a Category 2 storm late on June 30, as it approached the northeastern Mexican coast. At 02:00 UTC on July 1, Alex made landfall at peak strength, with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph (180 km/h) and an unusually low central pressure of 946 millibars (27.9 inHg) in the municipality of Soto la Marina in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. Operationally, the National Hurricane Center had the landfall intensity estimate as 105 mph (169 km/h), gusts of 125 mph (201 km/h) and a of 947 millibars (28.0 inHg) when it struck the Mexican coast. Several hours after moving ashore, the storm weakened to Category 1 status, and its structure began to deteriorate. However, deep convection persisted around the center. By 12:00 UTC, Alex had weakened into a tropical storm; by 00:00 UTC July 2, the Sierra Madre Oriental disrupted Alex's core, causing the storm to weaken into a tropical depression. Soon afterward, the storm's low-level circulation center dissipated over San Luis Potosí. However, the interaction with the mountain range caused orographic lift on the eastern side of the storm after the low-level circulation center had ceased to exist, producing torrential rainfall throughout northern and central Mexico. Following the dissipation of Alex, divergence at the 200 mb atmospheric pressure level (approximately at 10 km (6.2 mi) of altitude), a ridge of high pressure located over southern Texas, and Alex's residual moisture interacted to produce intense convection over Nuevo León, Tamaulipas and Coahuila for the next 72 hours. Alex's mid-level circulation persisted for another several days, with the remnants turning northeastward and slowly moving towards Texas. On July 6, Alex's remnants dissipated near the border of southwestern Texas. ## Preparations ### Caribbean Immediately after the storm formed on June 25, a tropical storm warning was issued for the entire east coast of Quintana Roo on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. Shortly thereafter, the tropical storm warning was extended to include the east coast of Belize. Late on June 25, the Government of Honduras issued a tropical storm warning for the islands of Roatan, Guanaja and Utila. A tropical storm watch was also issued from Limón to the border with Guatemala. ### Western Gulf Coast As Alex neared hurricane strength on the evening of June 28, a hurricane warning was issued for the coast of Texas south of Baffin Bay to the mouth of the Rio Grande. The Mexican government also issued a hurricane warning from the Rio Grande south to La Cruz. A tropical storm warning was posted for coastal Texas from Baffin Bay northward to Port O'Connor. Governor of Texas Rick Perry declared a state of disaster in 19 counties and ordered the deployment of Texas Military Forces personnel (including 80 citizen-soldiers of the Texas State Guard Medical Brigade) to the Rio Grande Valley. President Barack Obama also declared a state of emergency, freeing federal funds for 25 counties in Texas. On June 29, authorities began evacuations of residents of coastal areas in the Tamaulipas municipalities of Soto la Marina, Matamoros and San Fernando municipalities. On June 30, the state's civil defense agency and education secretary announced that schools would be closed throughout the state during the storm. Thirteen shelters were opened in Reynosa, twenty-two in Matamoros, and ten in San Fernando; a total of 3,000 people sought protection from the storm in the three municipalities. Throughout the state, 20,000 people were asked to evacuate to safer areas. Nuevo León schools were also ordered to be closed for at least 24 hours; the Universidad Regiomontana, Universidad de Monterrey and Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León followed suit. In Monterrey, mandatory evacuations alongside the Santa Catarina River were ordered, as well as the evacuation of 5,000 families in the highlands of the city. Throughout the state, a total of 90 shelters were opened. Coahuila did not close its schools, expecting Alex to reach the state as a tropical depression or weaker, but asked its schools to not take attendance. Prior to Alex making landfall, the Brownsville, Texas National Weather Service issued a flood watch for the southernmost region of the state. The storm was expected to produce heavy rainfall for up to 18 hours, which had the potential to cause significant flooding in poor drainage areas, especially those flooded by Hurricane Dolly in 2008. Officials opened hurricane shelters, and voluntary evacuations were put into place for South Padre Island; at least 1,000 people sought shelter in Cameron and Hidalgo counties. ## Impact ### Caribbean and Central America The tropical wave from which Alex developed produced rainfall across the Greater Antilles in the central Caribbean Sea. In the Dominican Republic, the rainfall triggered flooding that prompted the evacuations of over 3,000 people, mostly due to swollen rivers. In the capital city of Santo Domingo, 160 houses were flooded, and one person was killed by the storm; one additional person was reported missing. In nearby San Juan de la Maguana, more than 500 homes were inundated. In neighboring Haiti, minor flooding was reported in Gonaïves. The Jamaica Meteorological Service issued a flash flood warning for its entire island in response to the tropical wave producing thunderstorms across the nation. Fourteen people were killed in Central America as a result of flooding related to Alex: six in Nicaragua, six in El Salvador, and two in Guatemala. In El Salvador, the national chapter of the Red Cross evacuated over 150 families from La Paz and Sonsonate departments. The El Salvador government reported nine injuries, and 5,000 people in the country evacuated their residences; the majority of the evacuees was temporarily relocated to 55 shelters. Alex inflicted damage to 349 homes, 31 schools and 10 bridges, and 27 highways were compromised or blocked. In Guatemala, 350 homes and eight highways were damaged, affecting 9,000 people; 2,000 sought shelter in the country. A landslide was reported in a village in Santa Lucía Utatlán, along with flooding in Flores. Corn, bean, and potato crops were damaged in Suchitepéquez, San Marcos and Jutiapa departments. The National Emergency Management Organization of Belize reported that property damage in the country was minimal. ### Gulf of Mexico According to the Mexican government, Alex stopped the production of 420,000 barrels (67,000 m³) of oil per day from the Gulf of Mexico, which corresponds to a quarter of the country's total oil production. Pemex evacuated 66 personnel from oil rigs offshore of Tamaulipas and Veracruz, Petrobras evacuated its oil rig in the Gulf, while Royal Dutch Shell evacuated 930 personnel from its rigs in the area. In total, six rigs and 69 production platforms faced evacuations, causing 21% of U.S. Gulf oil output and 14% of U.S. Gulf natural-gas flows to remain offline. The storm was expected to impact operations regarding the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, with both containment and cleanup operations being affected by repercussions from the storm (such as wave action and wind direction). Although Alex stayed relatively away from the site, the storm caused BP to delay plans to increase oil capture from the leak by a week. Tarballs from the spill as large as apples washed onshore around Grand Isle, as well as other parts of Louisiana, Alabama and Florida, from high storm tides created by the hurricane. ### Southern Mexico In Chiapas, one person from Guatemala died and four others were injured when their bus rolled over as it traveled over a damaged highway. The state's civil defense system reported that 984 families from 17 municipalities were evacuated to shelters, and that Alex's torrential rainfall also produced 23 landslides in six counties of the state. On June 30, a mudslide knocked down a tree onto a 115-kV transmission line near El Vergel, causing 82 cities and towns in the municipalities of Villaflores and Villa Corzo to lose power; 32,000 residents were left without electricity from this outage alone. Power was restored the same evening. In Yucatán, a boat carrying seven passengers capsized; all were eventually rescued. In Campeche, 937 dwellings suffered minor damage as a result of the storm. Prior to its second landfall, Alex caused one death in the state of Oaxaca when a wall collapsed on a dwelling in San Juan Chapultepec, killing the woman who was sleeping inside. Near San Francisco Ixhuatán, the Ostuta river breached its banks, flooding 1,000 homes. Farther upstream, in Reforma de Pineda, over 100 families were affected by the river's rise, which flooded their homes with 3.3 ft (1 m) of water. Overall, 3,500 families were affected by the storm in the state. The outer rainbands of Alex caused three deaths in Acapulco, Guerrero, after a retaining wall collapsed over the occupants of an improvised shack in a vacant lot. The investigation that followed found that the wall had been built without structural enforcements, and that the torrential rainfall had weakened the wall's foundation. ### Northeastern Mexico The storm's most significant effect in Northeastern Mexico was excessive rainfall, which was reported throughout the region. In Tamaulipas, between 3.829 to 12.421 in (97.25 to 315.5 mm) of precipitation were reported at weather stations statewide. In Nuevo León, an average of 9.5 in (242 mm) of rain was reported statewide up to July 1. The pluviometer at Estanzuela reported that a total of 35 in (890 mm) of rainfall were recorded; in Arroyo Seco, in San Pedro Garza García, a total of 23.1 in (588 mm) of precipitation was recorded between June 29 and 6 a.m. on July 1. Other rainfall stations in Monterrey recorded between 14.163 and 24.370 in (359.75 and 619 mm) of rain, while Santa Catarina recorded 23.297 in (591.75 mm) of precipitation. The Comisión Nacional del Agua (CNA) noted that the storm rainfall totals greatly exceed the totals produced by Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, which only produced 11 in (280 mm) of rain in the city. The historic rainfall caused several dams to fill throughout northeast Mexico. In Nuevo León, due to the heavy rainfall, CNA also began water discharges of 25,200 cubic feet per second (713 m³/s) from the La Boca Dam in Santiago, 58,200 cu ft/s (1,648 m³/s) from Cerro Prieto in Linares, and 109,000 cu ft/s (3,080 m³/s) from Cuchillo Dam in China; the dams were at 98%, 114%, and 124% of operating maximum capacity, respectively. Cuchillo Dam saw water inflows of 145,400 cu ft/s (4,118 m³/s). The water releases from these dams raised a state of alert in Tamaulipas, which was slated to receive the discharged water. In Coahuila, the rainfall caused La Frakcjhuto release 35,000 cu ft/s (1,000 m³/s) of water into the Rio Grande, and Amistad Dam to reach 119% of normal operating capacity. In the case of the latter dam, the excess storage in Amistad Lake sparked fears of flooding in downstream municipalities, although the possibility of overtopping of the dam was discarded by the Mexican section of the International Boundary and Water Commission. However, contingency plans were put in place to prepare for the crest of the Sabinas River, a tributary of the Rio Grande, and the subsequent crest on the Rio Grande itself, which was expected to carry at least 140,000 cu ft/s (4,000 m³/s) due to additional inflows from other tributaries. At one point, the Rio Grande was clocked at 195,000 cu ft/s (5,530 m³/s) due to its many flooded tributaries. The river's rise forced the evacuation of 40 families in Piedras Negras, and required the closure of the Gateway to the Americas International Bridge and Colombia–Solidarity International Bridge between Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas and Laredo, Texas on July 8. The bridges were expected to be closed until at least July 10. The rise of the Escondido River forced the evacuation of 1,000 families in Villa de Fuente, as the river rose to carry 23,000 cu ft/s (650 m³/s) through the town. The rainfall also caused Venustiano Carranza Dam in Coahuila to fill completely; the large water pressure in the dam forced the dam's gates shut, and cranes were employed to open them. The rest of the gates were unable to be opened due to lack of electrical power, sparking fears of a potential dam overtopping or rupture. The municipality of Anáhuac in Nuevo León was evacuated after reports early on July 6 that the dam had overtopped; Anáhuac's municipal president stated that the flood could cause the "total destruction" of the city. On July 7, as water releases from the dam were increased to 120,000 cu ft/s (3,300 m³/s), the town was reported to be 9.8 ft (3 m) underwater, with more discharge expected. Personnel from the Mexican Army and the city's prison population were evacuated from Anáhuac that same day. In San Luis Potosí, the rainfall from Alex was beneficial, as it caused increases in dam water levels of up to 20% in very dry areas. #### Tamaulipas Along the coast, 13 ft (4 m) waves were reported when the storm came ashore. Following the hurricane's landfall in Tamaulipas, a 25-year-old man was rescued from a storm drain. 60,000 people in San Fernando lost power, as did all of Ciudad Victoria, the capital of the state. Throughout the state, 256,000 people were left without electricity. Heavy winds and rainfall knocked down billboards and trees in the capital, but no injuries were reported in the city. The storm dropped 10 inches (250 mm) of rainfall in Matamoros, flooding 120 colonias, and leaving six of the 120 underwater. About 400 neighborhoods of Matamoros, comprising 80% of the city, were flooded. Some areas of the city were under 1 ft (0.30 m) of water, forcing 4,000 people to shelters. In Reynosa, 80 colonias were flooded, and 15 trees were uprooted; in Río Bravo, seven neighborhoods were flooded. In Nuevo Laredo, three young persons were rescued from a flooded arroyo. The San Fernando River also breached its banks, flooding communities in San Fernando and Méndez. The overflow of the Rio Grande following water discharges from Nuevo León isolated two communities in Miguel Alemán. One death was reported in the state on July 7 when a man died while trying to cross a flooded river. Throughout the state, the storm and resultant floods damaged at least 6,000 homes, 202 schools, and 500 businesses. Additionally, 28 roadways and bridges were damaged, and left over 193,000 power consumers lost electric service. Property damage was placed at $1.084 billion (2010 MXN; US$83.8 million) in the 19 municipalities of the state that were declared federal disaster areas. #### Nuevo León In Nuevo León, fifteen people were confirmed to have died: one bricklayer who died after a housing unit under construction collapsed on top of him; two men and a woman who died after their vehicle rolled over and crashed into a semi-trailer truck due to the intense rainfall; a 25-year-old who was swept away by swift currents and pinned against a fence; an elderly man who died after a wall toppled over him, a woman who died after a large boulder from a rock slide fell on her home, and a young man who fell onto the Arroyo Topo Chico. Eight more bodies were found after floodwaters began receding, although one is believed to have been washed away from a cemetery. Twenty people in Nuevo León were reported missing. According to the Comisión Federal de Electricidad, 4,000 customers lost electric power in the Monterrey metropolitan area, as did 61,000 people statewide. 18 wells lost power, leaving 110,000 without water service in the municipalities of Santa Catarina and García. Heavy flooding occurred along the Santa Catarina River in Monterrey, normally a dry river bed that flows into the Rio Grande, causing it to reach a record flow of 88,000 cu ft/s (2,500 m³/s). The flooded stream washed away multiple parked vehicles, a popular flea market, and sport facilities built within a riverside greenway. The Santa Catarina River also destroyed about 45 kilometres (28 mi) of Monterrey's main arterial streets. Multiple washouts caused the closure of the divided highway between Monterrey and Saltillo, Coahuila. In San Nicolás de los Garza, the Arroyo Topo Chico exceeded its banks, forcing multiple street closures. An explosion and fire occurred on a bridge in the Guadalupe municipality when a transformer fell on an old gas pipe. No injuries were reported due to the fire. In Linares, the rainfall from Alex's remnants caused a wing of the municipal townhouse, which was built in 1896, to collapse. The building was listed as a protected historic building. A bridge on the Pilón River collapsed in Montemorelos, rupturing a 24-inch oil pipeline in the process. However, the valves on both ends of the pipeline section were closed, minimizing the leak over the river, and the leak was not expected to adversely impact drinking water supplies in El Cuchillo Dam. Hurricane Alex affected the infrastructure of 1,077 schools in the state, 60 of which were severely damaged and 552 held intermediate damage. Nationwide disruption in Internet connection and cell phone services was caused by damage to optical fibers, backbone nodes and telephonic central stations in Monterrey. Additionally, Telefónica reported damage to its network in Monterrey and Saltillo, causing intermittent unavailability of telecommunication services. Preliminary estimates of the damage in the state rose to $10 billion (2010 MXN; US$762 million); final damage estimates released on August 5 totaled $16.9 billion (2010 MXN; US$1.35 billion) statewide. #### Coahuila In Coahuila, rainfall from Alex's remnants caused a small dam in an ejido in Castaños to overtop, forcing the evacuation of 50 people in the municipality's seat. The ensuing flood rose 3.3 ft (1 m) and damaged 15 homes. The coal-producing region of the state was left isolated after the Álamos River broke its banks. Hundreds of residents in Nueva Rosita and Sabinas were evacuated; in the latter case, the Sabinas River flooded to become 980 ft (300 m) in width, causing 400–500 homes to go underwater. Some bridges on Mexican Federal Highway 57 were covered in water. Thousands of citizens in Ciudad Acuña were evacuated when the Arroyo Las Vacas flooded after 40 in (1,000 mm) of rain fell on nearby mountain ranges. The flood damaged 1,000 homes, damaging urban infrastructure, power, water and telecommunication services; 500 people sought refuge in shelters. The loss of power caused 40 maquiladoras to suspend their activities, stopping 16,000 workers. The rainfall caused damage in 15 municipalities of Coahuila, affecting 10,000 people, and causing at least $1 billion (2010 MXN; US$76 million) in damage in the state. ### United States In southern Texas, the feeder bands on the northern side of the hurricane began producing tropical-storm-force winds throughout Cameron, Willacy and Kenedy Counties starting on June 30. The highest reported sustained wind was of 51 mph (82 km/h) at the southeast tip of Port Isabel. The strongest gust occurred over the Queen Isabella Causeway, where a wind speed of 66 mph (106 km/h) was measured. Sustained winds of 39 mph (63 km/h) and gusts of 53 mph (85 km/h) were measured in Bayview. The feeder bands also produced heavy rainfall, leading to flooding on South Padre Island. A storm surge of 3.5 feet (1.1 m) was reported on the island, causing moderate beach erosion. However, more significant damage was avoided as the bulk of the 4 feet (1.2 m) storm tide hit South Padre and Port Isabel at low tide. Nine tornadoes were confirmed to have touched down in the state in association with the storm, one of which overturned a mobile home. Other tornadoes caused mainly minimal damages to trees and shrubbery. About 9,000 customers lost power throughout Texas. Large amounts of precipitation fell throughout the Lower Rio Grande Valley, with 6 to 9 inches (150 to 230 mm) of rainfall recorded throughout the region. Brownsville Airport had 6.80 inches (173 mm) of precipitation in a 36-hour period. The 5.86 inches (149 mm) of rain that fell alone on June 30 broke the daily rainfall record of 3.80 inches (97 mm) from 1995. McAllen, Texas, measured 6.66 inches (169 mm) of rain on June 30, which now constitutes the city's wettest June day on record. In Houston, more rain fell on the first two days of July than the average rainfall for the entire month of July. Some parts of the city received nearly 12 inches (300 mm) of rain over three days, causing scattered street flooding. Flooding caused by the rainfall from the remnants of Alex caused the Rio Grande at Foster Ranch, in far western Texas, to exceed 31 ft (9.4 m), well above the flood stage at 14 ft (4.3 m) and the record stage at 25.9 ft (7.9 m). Combined with the rainfall produced by Tropical Depression Two, the Rio Grande was under flood conditions for much of the month of July. About $10 million (2010 USD) of agricultural damage was reported in Hidalgo County from Alex. ## Aftermath and records ### Government response Following the storm's final landfall, Mexico's Secretariat of National Defense deployed 800 troops to Nuevo León and Tamaulipas under Plan DN-III-E to help aid operations. The troops enforced mandatory evacuations of 3,337 residents of San Fernando and Soto la Marina in Tamaulipas. Throughout Nuevo León, 60,000 people were evacuated from their homes. In Tamaulipas, 263,000 people were affected by Hurricane Alex, and 2,260 homes were flooded. In Coahuila, 80,000 were affected by Alex's remnants, leaving 30% of the municipalities of the state without communication with the outside world. 20,000 were considered total losses, most of them in Sabinas. Approximately 500,000 people were affected by floods throughout northeastern Mexico. The Secretaría de Gobernación declared a state of emergency in 21 of Nuevo León's 51 municipalities, freeing federal disaster funds for use in aid operations. An additional 10 municipalities were placed under the state of emergency on July 8. A similar declaration was made for 8 municipalities in Oaxaca, and for 14 municipalities in Tamaulipas; the state of emergency in Tamaulipas was later expanded to 30 municipalities. Mexican President Felipe Calderón requested adding resources to the federal disaster fund, as the $3 billion (2010 MXN; US$235 million) it held would not be sufficient to face the damage in Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas. In the months following the storm, a total of $4.8 billion (2010 MXN; US$375 million) was released by the federal and state governments to aid in the reconstruction of the disaster areas in Nuevo León and Tamaulipas. In Texas, Governor Rick Perry activated the state's search and rescue capabilities in Laredo and San Antonio. This activation was due to the flooding on the Rio Grande Valley, which was expected to worsen due to the approach of Tropical Depression Two to the area affected by Alex. Even after its dissipation, Alex continued causing deaths throughout Mexico, particularly due to flooding. One death was reported in Tamaulipas and another one in San Luis Potosí; another six were reported to have died in Guanajuato as a result of Alex. In Coahuila, eight people died after a plane crashed while surveying the water discharges from dams in the state; the Coahuila secretary of public works and the municipal president of Piedras Negras were among the victims. ### Infrastructure The storm caused severe devastation in Nuevo León, and in particular throughout the Monterrey metropolitan area. State governor Rodrigo Medina de la Cruz noted that the city of Monterrey had "collapsed due to the worst weather phenomenon in its history." In the municipality of Santa Catarina alone, 50,000 people were affected, with property damage being estimated at $1.2 billion (2010 MXN; US$93.5 million). Residents from three colonias in García had to be permanently relocated as 800 homes were destroyed; the storm caused $900 million (2010 MXN; US$70 million) in damage in the municipality. The flooding Santa Catarina River destroyed four bridges in Monterrey; at least 60 bridges were damaged statewide. Governor Medina also announced on July 3 the allocation of $1.4 billion (2010 MXN; US$107 million) for repairs to Monterrey's arterial streets. Municipalities in the metropolitan area used contraflow during part of the day to re-establish traffic in sections where the arterial streets bordering the Santa Catarina River were damaged only in one direction. The repairs to Monterrey's main roadways were estimated to take up to three months to complete. Railway traffic throughout the state was paralyzed, as some train bridges collapsed, and extensive damage was found in the track ballast in multiple rail lines. Kansas City Southern Railway reported it expected a net loss of five cents per share on its annual earnings due to the stoppage affecting its Mexican subsidiary. The company later reported a drop of $33 million (2010 USD) in revenue due to hurricane damage. The damage to the railway infrastructure caused automotive part shortages throughout North America. General Motors was forced to cancel shifts at plants in Michigan, Missouri and Kansas. Ford also idled production in its Oakville, Ontario assembly plant, and suffered two-week delays in U.S. deliveries of its Fiesta model due to the rail track damage. The damage to the road system paralyzed a route used by 40% of the trade between the United States and Mexico, as 22,000 trucks were stalled after damage to the Nuevo Laredo–Monterrey highway. Alex destroyed the potable water infrastructure in portions of Nuevo León, causing widespread shortages of water. The damage to the water infrastructure was described as being of "unexpected magnitude," with 160,000 left without water a week after the storm made landfall. The standing water left following the rainfall caused concern of outbreaks of various diseases, including cholera. Consequently, the population was warned to boil or otherwise disinfect water to prevent disease. In areas where the storm's impact made it difficult to boil water due to the unavailability of gas or stoves, 70,000 jars with colloidal silver were distributed. Additionally, laboratory testing of refuse coming from individuals with gastrointestinary illnesses commenced as a precaution to identify outbreaks of cholera and other diseases, and over 82,000 vaccines were applied throughout the region. Following the storm's passage, PROFECO announced fines of up to $2.5 million (2010 MXN; US$191,000) to merchants guilty of price gouging when selling bottled water. This occurred after the agency received complaints of 1500% markups when compared to bottled water's pre-storm price. On July 7, the agency announced it had applied sanctions to 20 businesses who were found overcharging for bottled water. ### Economic and environmental effects According to estimates from the Mexican Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA), 504,000 acres (203,800 ha) of farmland were damaged as a result from Alex in northeastern Mexico, corresponding to 11% of the total farmland in Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and Coahuila. Most of the agricultural damage occurred in Tamaulipas, where 270,000 acres (110,000 ha) of sorghum and 200,000 acres (80,000 ha) of maize were damaged, corresponding to 15.6% of the entirety of the state's farmland, and 76% of the state's maize crop; 1,700 acres (700 ha) of grapefruit and limes were also damaged, corresponding to 15% of the state's citrus production. Two thousand heads of cattle were also lost in Nuevo Laredo. In Nuevo León and Coahuila, most of the damage was to animal husbandry; in Nuevo León, 3,645 heads of cattle, 3,580 goats, 7,265 sheep and 194 horses were lost, while in Coahuila, 3,709 goats, 258 cattle and 56 sheep were killed. The storm also affected commerce throughout the region. The Mexican Secretariat of Economy calculated that Alex affected 2,500 small and medium enterprises in Nuevo León, 500 in Tamaulipas, and 500–700 in Coahuila. In Monterrey, the local chapter of the Confederation of National Chambers of Commerce reported that in the first two days after Hurricane Alex affected the city, businesses in the city lost $750 million (2010 MXN; US$58 million). Overall, the lost business due to Alex is expected to total about $2 billion (2010 MXN; US$156 million). As floodwaters receded from the Pesquería River in Escobedo, Nuevo León, the remnants of a 15,000-year-old mammoth were discovered by local residents. It is believed that the remains were carried from the state of Coahuila to Escobedo by the floodwaters. The remnants were identified and dated by personnel from the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. ### Records Alex equaled the lowest recorded barometric pressure for a June Atlantic hurricane set by Hurricane Audrey in 1957. It was also the first June Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Allison in 1995, and the strongest in terms of sustained wind speed since Hurricane Alma in 1966. ## See also - Other storms named Alex - Timeline of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season

Rudolf Abel

Soviet intelligence officer (1903–1971)

Rudolf Ivanovich Abel () is the alias of William August Fisher (11 July 1903 – 15 November 1971), a Soviet intelligence officer, created to alert his Soviet KGB handlers when Fisher was arrested in the USA on charges of espionage by the FBI in 1957. Fisher was born and grew up in Newcastle upon Tyne in the North East of England in the United Kingdom to Russian émigré parents. He moved to Russia in the 1920s, and served in the Soviet military before undertaking foreign service as a radio operator in Soviet intelligence in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He later served in an instructional role before taking part in intelligence operations against the Germans during World War II. After the war, he began working for the KGB, which sent him to the United States where he worked as part of a spy ring based in New York City. In 1957, Fisher was convicted in US federal court on three counts of conspiracy as a Soviet spy for his involvement in what became known as the Hollow Nickel Case and sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment at Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in Georgia. He served just over four years of his sentence before he was exchanged for captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers. Back in the Soviet Union, he lectured on his experiences. He died in 1971 at the age of 68. His real identity and country of birth were only revealed after his death. ## Early life Fisher was born William August Fisher on 11 July 1903, in the Benwell area of Newcastle upon Tyne, the second son of Heinrich and Lyubov Fisher. Revolutionary activists of the Tsarist era, his father was of German origins and his mother was of Russian descent. Fisher's father taught and agitated with Vladimir Lenin at Saint Petersburg Technological Institute. In 1896, he was arrested for sedition and sentenced to three years internal exile. As Heinrich Fisher had served a sentence for offenses against the Russian Imperial Crown, he was forced to flee to the United Kingdom in 1901, the alternative being deportation to Germany or imprisonment in Russia for avoidance of military service. While living in the United Kingdom, Fisher's father, a keen Bolshevik, took part in gunrunning, shipping arms from northeast England to Russia's Baltic coast. Fisher and his brother, Henry, won scholarships to Whitley Bay High School and Monkseaton High School. Though Fisher was not as hard-working as Henry, he showed aptitude for science, mathematics, languages, art and music, inherited in part from his father's abilities. Encouraging their son's love of music, Fisher's parents gave him piano lessons; he also learned to play the guitar. It was during this period that Fisher developed an interest in amateur radio, constructing rudimentary spark transmitters and receivers. Fisher became an apprentice draughtsman at Swan Hunter, Wallsend, and attended evening classes at Rutherford College before being accepted into London University in 1920. Though Fisher qualified for university, the costs prohibited him from attending. In 1921, following the Russian Revolution, the Fisher family left Newcastle upon Tyne to return to Moscow. ## Early career Fluent in English, Russian, German, Polish and Yiddish, Fisher worked for the Comintern as a translator following his family's return to the Soviet Union. Trained as a radio operator, he served in a Red Army radio battalion in 1925 and 1926. He then worked briefly in the radio research institute before being recruited by the OGPU, a predecessor of the KGB, in May 1927. That year he married Elena Lebedeva, a harp student at Moscow Conservatoire. They had one child together, a daughter named Evelyn who was born on 8 October 1929. During his interview with the OGPU, it was determined he should adopt a Russian-sounding name and William August Fisher became Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher. Following his recruitment, he worked for the OGPU as a radio operator in Norway, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and France. He returned to the Soviet Union in 1936, as head of a school that trained radio operators destined for duty in illegal residences. One of the students was the Canadian-born Russian spy Kitty Harris, who was later more widely known as "The Spy with Seventeen Names". Despite his foreign birth and the accusation that his brother-in-law was a Trotskyist, Fisher narrowly escaped the Great Purge. However, in 1938 he was dismissed from the NKVD, the moniker the OGPU had adopted in 1934. During World War II, he again trained radio operators for the clandestine work behind German lines. Having been adopted as a protégé by Pavel Sudoplatov, he took part in Operation Scherhorn (Операция Березино, Operatsiya Berezino) in August 1944. Sudoplatov later described this operation as "the most successful radio deception game of the war". Fisher's role in this operation was rewarded with what his superiors regarded as one of the most prestigious postings in Soviet foreign intelligence, the United States. ## KGB service After rejoining the KGB in 1946, Fisher was trained as a spy for entry into the United States. In October 1948, using a Soviet passport, he travelled from Leningradsky Station to Warsaw. In Warsaw, he discarded his Soviet passport and using a U.S. passport travelled from Czechoslovakia and Switzerland to Paris. His new passport bore the name Andrew Kayotis, the first of Fisher's false identities. The real Andrew Kayotis was Lithuanian born and had become an American citizen after migrating to the United States. Kayotis had applied for and received a visa to visit the Soviet Union. However, the Soviets retained his passport, which Fisher eventually used. Kayotis had been in poor health and died while visiting relatives in Vilnius, Lithuania. Fisher, as Kayotis, then travelled aboard the from Le Havre, France, to North America, disembarking at Quebec. Still using Kayotis' passport, he went to Montreal and crossed into the United States on 17 November. On 26 November, Fisher met with Soviet "illegal" Iosif Grigulevich (codenamed "MAKS" or "ARTUR"). Grigulevich gave Fisher a genuine birth certificate, a forged draft card and a forged tax certificate, all under the name of Emil Robert Goldfus, along with $1,000. After handing back Kayotis's passport and documents, Fisher assumed the name Goldfus. His codename was "MARK". The real Goldfus had died at only 14 months, having been born on August 2, 1902, in New York. Goldfus's birth certificate was obtained by the NKVD at the end of the Spanish Civil War, when the Centre would collect identity documents from International Brigades members for use in espionage operations. In July 1949, Fisher met with a "legal" KGB resident from the Soviet consulate general, who provided him with money. Shortly afterwards Fisher was ordered to reactivate the "Volunteer" network to smuggle atomic secrets to Russia. Members of the network had stopped cooperating after postwar security was tightened at Los Alamos. Lona Cohen (codenamed "LESLE") and her husband Morris Cohen (codenamed "LUIS" and "VOLUNTEER") had run the Volunteer network and were seasoned couriers. Theodore "Ted" Hall (codenamed "MLAD"), a physicist, was the most important agent in the network in 1945, passing atomic secrets from Los Alamos. The Volunteer network grew to include "Aden" and "Serb", nuclear physicists contacted by Hall, and "Silver". Fisher spent most of his first year organizing his network. While it is not known for certain where Fisher went or what he did, it is believed he travelled to Santa Fe, New Mexico, the collection point for stolen diagrams from the Manhattan Project. Kitty Harris, a former pupil of Fisher's, had spent a year in Santa Fe during the war, where she passed secrets from physicists to couriers. During this period, Fisher received the Order of the Red Banner, an important Soviet decoration normally reserved for military personnel. In 1950, Fisher's illegal residency was endangered by the arrest of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, for whom Lona Cohen had been a courier. The Cohens were quickly spirited to Mexico before moving on to Moscow. They were to resurface in the United Kingdom using the identities of Peter and Helen Kroger. Fisher was relieved when the Rosenbergs did not disclose any information about him to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), but the arrests heralded a bleak outlook for his new spy network. However, on 21 October 1952, as instructed by Moscow, Reino Häyhänen left a thumbtack on a signpost in New York's Central Park. The thumbtack signaled to Fisher that Häyhänen, his new assistant, had arrived. Codenamed "VIK", Häyhänen arrived in New York on the RMS Queen Mary, under the alias Eugene Nikolai Maki. The real Maki had been born in the United States to a Finnish-American father and a New York mother in 1919. In 1927, the family migrated to Estonia. In 1948, the KGB had called Häyhänen to Moscow where they issued him a new assignment. In 1949, Häyhänen freely obtained Maki's birth certificate. He had then spent three years in Finland taking over Maki's identity. After arriving in New York, Häyhänen spent the next two years establishing his identity. During that time he received money from his superiors left in dead-letter boxes in the Bronx and Manhattan. It is known he occasionally drew attention to himself by indulging in heavy drinking sessions and heated arguments with his Finnish wife Hannah. For six months Häyhänen checked the thumbtack and no one had made contact. He also checked a dead-drop location he had memorized. There he found a hollowed-out nickel. However, prior to opening the coin Häyhänen had misplaced it, either buying a newspaper with it or using it as a subway token. For the next seven months the hollow nickel travelled around the New York City economy, unopened. The trail of the hollow nickel ended when a thirteen-year-old newsboy was collecting for his weekly deliveries. The newsboy accidentally dropped the nickel and it broke in half, revealing a microphotograph containing a series of numbers. The newsboy handed the nickel to a New York detective, who in turn forwarded it to the FBI, whose investigation became known as the Hollow Nickel Case. From 1953 to 1957, though every effort was made to decipher the microphotograph, the FBI was unable to solve the mystery. Late in 1953, Fisher moved to Brooklyn and rented a room in a boarding house on Hicks Street. He also rented a fifth-floor studio at the Ovington Studios Building on Fulton Street. Since he was posing as an artist and photographer, nobody questioned his irregular working hours and frequent disappearances. Over time his artistic technique improved and he became a competent painter, though he disliked abstract painting, preferring more conventional styles. He mingled with New York artists, who were surprised by his admiration for the Russian painter Isaak Levitan, although Fisher was careful not to discuss Stalinist "socialist realism". The only visitors to Fisher's studio were artist friends with whom he felt safe from suspicion. In particular, he became a friend of Burton Silverman. Fisher sometimes related made-up stories of previous lives, as a Boston accountant and a lumberjack in the Pacific Northwest. In 1954, Häyhänen began working as Fisher's assistant. He was to deliver a report from a Soviet agent at the United Nations secretariat, to a dead-letter box for collection. However the report never arrived. Fisher was disturbed by Häyhänen's lack of work ethics and his obsession with alcohol. In the spring of 1955, Fisher and Häyhänen visited Bear Mountain Park, and buried $5,000 (), destined for the wife of the Soviet spy Morton Sobell, who in 1951 was sentenced to thirty years in jail. In 1955, Fisher, exhausted by the constant pressure, returned to Moscow for six months of rest and recuperation, leaving Häyhänen in charge. While in Moscow, Fisher informed his superiors of his dissatisfaction with Häyhänen. Upon his return to New York in 1956, he found that his carefully constructed network had been left to disintegrate in his absence. Fisher checked his drop points only to find messages several months old, while Häyhänen's radio transmissions had routinely been sent from the same location using incorrect radio frequencies. The money Häyhänen received from the KGB to support the network was instead spent on alcohol and prostitutes. By early 1957, Fisher had lost patience with Häyhänen and demanded that Moscow recall his deputy. In January 1957, Häyhänen received a message from Moscow promoting him to Lieutenant Colonel and granting him leave in the Soviet Union. Upon hearing he was due to return to Moscow, Häyhänen was fearful that he would be severely disciplined or even executed. Häyhänen fabricated stories to justify his delay, claiming to Fisher that the FBI had taken him off the RMS Queen Mary. Fisher, unsuspecting, advised Häyhänen to leave the U.S. immediately to avoid FBI surveillance and handed him $200 for travel expenses. Prior to his departure, Häyhänen returned to Bear Mountain Park and retrieved the buried $5,000 for his own use. Häyhänen arrived in Paris on May Day, having sailed from the U.S. aboard La Liberté. Making contact with the KGB residency he received another $200 for his journey to Moscow. Four days later, instead of continuing his journey to the Soviet Union he entered the American embassy in Paris, announcing that he was a KGB officer and asking for asylum. When Häyhänen announced himself at the embassy on 4 May, he appeared drunk. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials at the Paris embassy did not find Häyhänen's story credible. They were not convinced he might actually be a Russian spy until he produced a hollow Finnish 5-mark coin. Upon opening the coin a square of microfilm was revealed. On 11 May, the CIA returned him to the United States and handed him over to the FBI. As a member of a Soviet spy ring operating on American soil, Häyhänen came under the FBI's jurisdiction and they began verifying his story. Upon his arrival in the United States, Häyhänen was interrogated by the FBI and proved very cooperative. He admitted his first Soviet contact in New York had been "MIKHAIL" and upon being shown a series of photographs of Soviet officials identified "MIKHAIL" as Mikhail Svirin. Svirin, however, had returned to Moscow two years previously. The FBI then turned its attention to Svirin's replacement. Häyhänen was able only to provide Fisher's codename, "MARK", and a description. He was, however, able to tell the FBI about Fisher's studio and its location. Häyhänen was also able to solve the mystery of the "hollow nickel," which the FBI had been unable to decipher for four years. The KGB did not discover Häyhänen's defection until August, although it is more than likely they notified Fisher earlier when Häyhänen failed to arrive in Moscow. As a precaution, Fisher was ordered to leave the United States. Escape was complicated because, if "MARK" had been compromised by Häyhänen, Fisher's other identities could have been compromised as well. Fisher could not leave the country as Martin Collins, Emil Goldfus, or even the long-forgotten Andrew Kayotis. The KGB Center, with the help of KGB's Ottawa resident, set about procuring two new passports for Fisher in the names of Robert Callan and Vasili Dzogol, but this process would take time. The Canadian Communist Party succeeded in obtaining a new passport for Fisher in the name of Robert Callan. Fisher, however, was arrested before he could adopt his new identity and leave the United States. ## Capture In April 1957, Fisher told his artist friends he was going south on a seven-week holiday. Less than three weeks later, acting on Häyhänen's information, surveillance was established near Fisher's photo studio. On 28 May 1957, in a small park opposite Fulton Street, FBI agents spotted a man acting nervously. From time to time the man got up, walked around, and eventually left. FBI agents were convinced he fit the description of "MARK". The surveillance continued on "MARK" and, on the night of 13 June, a light was seen to go on in Fisher's studio at 10:00 pm. On 15 June 1957, Häyhänen was shown a photograph of Fisher taken by the FBI with a hidden camera. Häyhänen confirmed that it was "MARK" in the photograph. Once the FBI had a positive identification, they stepped up surveillance, following Fisher from his studio to the Hotel Latham. Fisher was aware of the "tail" but, as he had no passport to leave the country, he devised a plan to be used upon his capture. Fisher decided that he would not turn traitor as Häyhänen had done because he still trusted the KGB and he knew that if he cooperated with the FBI, he would not see his wife and daughter again. At 7:00 am on 21 June 1957, Fisher answered a knock on the door to his room, Room 839. Upon opening the door, he was confronted by FBI agents who addressed him as "colonel" and stated that they had "information concerning [his] involvement in espionage." Fisher knew that the FBI's use of his rank could have only come from Häyhänen. Fisher said nothing to the FBI and, after spending twenty-three minutes staring at Fisher, the FBI agents called in the waiting Immigration and Naturalization Service officers who arrested Fisher and detained him under section 242 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Fisher was then flown to the Federal Alien Detention Facility in McAllen, Texas, and held there for six weeks. During this period Fisher stated that his "real" name was Rudolf Ivanovich Abel and that he was a Soviet citizen, although he refused to discuss his intelligence activities. The name "Rudolf Ivanovich Abel" was that of a deceased friend and a KGB colonel; Fisher knew as soon as The Centre saw the name Abel on the front pages of American newspapers they would realize he had been captured. During Fisher's detainment the FBI had been searching his hotel room and photo studio, where they discovered espionage equipment including shortwave radios, cipher pads, cameras and film for producing microdots, a hollow shaving brush, and numerous "trick" containers including hollowed-out bolts. In Fisher's New York hotel room the FBI found $4,000, a hollow ebony block containing a 250-page Russian codebook, a hollow pencil containing encrypted messages on microfilm and a key to a safe-deposit box containing another $15,000 in cash. Also discovered were photographs of the Cohens and recognition phrases to establish contact between agents who had never met before. As Fisher was no longer considered an alleged illegal alien, but rather an alleged spy, he was flown from Texas to New York on 7 August 1957, to answer the indictment. Fisher was subsequently indicted to stand trial as a Soviet spy. The Brooklyn Bar Association approached several prominent trial lawyers with political ambitions, all of whom declined the case. They then contacted James B. Donovan. Because he had served as a wartime counsel in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and had years of courtroom experience, the Bar Association believed Donovan was uniquely qualified to act as Fisher's defense lawyer. At Donovan's initial meeting with Fisher, the latter accepted Donovan as his defense counsel. Donovan subsequently brought in attorney Thomas M. Debevoise to assist him; Fisher was tried in Federal Court at New York City during October 1957, on three counts: - Conspiracy to transmit defense information to the Soviet Union – 30 years imprisonment; - Conspiracy to obtain defense information – 10 years imprisonment; and - Conspiracy to act in the United States as an agent of a foreign government without notification to the Secretary of State – 5 years imprisonment. Häyhänen, Fisher's former assistant, testified against him at the trial. The prosecution failed to find any other alleged members of Fisher's spy network, if there were any. The jury retired for three and a half hours and returned on the afternoon of October 25, 1957, finding Fisher guilty on all three counts. On 15 November 1957, Judge Mortimer W. Byers imposed on Fisher a total sentence of thirty years and fines of $3,000. In Abel v. United States, the United States Supreme Court upheld his conviction by a vote of 5–4. Fisher, or "Rudolf Ivanovich Abel", was to serve his sentence (as prisoner 80016–A) at Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, Georgia. He occupied himself with painting, learning silk-screening, playing chess, and writing logarithmic tables for the sheer enjoyment of it. He became friends with two other convicted Soviet spies. One of these was Morton Sobell, whose wife had failed to receive the $5,000 embezzled by Häyhänen. The other prisoner was Kurt Ponger, an Austrian who had been sentenced for conspiracy to commit espionage. ## Release and later life Fisher served just over four years of his sentence. On 10 February 1962, he was exchanged for the shot-down American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers. The exchange took place on the Glienicke Bridge that linked West Berlin with Potsdam, which became famous during the Cold War as the "Bridge of Spies". At precisely the same time, at Checkpoint Charlie, Frederic Pryor was released by the East German Stasi into the waiting arms of his father. A few days later Fisher, reunited with his wife Elena and daughter Evelyn, flew home. For the sake of its own reputation it suited the KGB to reveal "Abel's" nine years of being an undetected agent in the United States as a triumph by a dedicated NKVD member. The idea that the name of the master spy was Rudolf Abel replaced the reality of Fisher. During his eight years as an illegal resident, Fisher was one of the most successful KGB agents in the United States. Even though he appears not to have recruited a single agent, he identified potential spies and managed and expanded the existing network so well that the head of the CIA, Allen Dulles, said that he wished that he had even one agent as good as Abel operating within the USSR. After his return to Moscow, Fisher was employed by the Illegals Directorate of the KGB's First Chief Directorate, giving speeches and lecturing school children on intelligence work, but became increasingly disillusioned. He made a notable appearance in the foreword to the Soviet spy film Dead Season and also worked as a consultant on the film. Fisher, who was a heavy smoker, died of lung cancer on 15 November 1971. His ashes were interred at the Donskoye Cemetery under his real name, next to Konon Molody who had died the previous year. A few Western correspondents were invited there to view for themselves the true identity of the spy who never "broke". ## Legacy - His fate inspired Vadim Kozhevnikov to write the adventure novel Shield and Sword. Although the name of the main character is Alexander Belov and is associated with Abel's name, the plot of the book is significantly different from the real fate of William August Fisher. - For the first time Abel showed himself to the general public in 1968, when he addressed his compatriots with an introductory speech to the film The Dead Season (as an official consultant to the picture). - In 2008, Yuri Linkevich shot the documentary "Unknown Abel". - In 2009, the Channel One Russia created an artistic two-part biographical film The US Government against Rudolf Abel (starring Yury Belyayev). - In Steven Spielberg's 2015 film Bridge of Spies, Fisher/Abel is portrayed by Mark Rylance. For his performance, Rylance won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. - On 18 December 2015, on the eve of the Day of State Security Officers (a professional holiday), a grand opening ceremony of the memorial plaque to William Genrikhovich Fisher took place in Samara. The plaque, authored by Samara architect Dmitry Khramov, appeared on 8, Molodogvardeyskaya Street. It is believed that exactly here the family of the intelligence officer lived during the years of World War II. William Genrikhovich himself at that time taught radio business at a secret intelligence school, and later led counterintelligence radio operation against German intelligence from Kuibyshev. - In 1990 the USSR released a stamp depicting Rudolf Abel as part of series: "Intelligence Agents".

American Samoa at the 1994 Winter Olympics

American Samoa sent a delegation to compete at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway from February 12–27, 1994. This was the territory's first, and as of the conclusion of the 2018 Winter Olympics, only Winter Olympics they have competed in. The delegation consisted of two athletes, Faauuga Muagututia and Brad Kiltz, who competed in the two-man bobsleigh event where they finished 39th. ## Background The American Samoa National Olympic Committee was recognized by the International Olympic Committee on January 1, 1987, and the territory made its Olympic debut the next year at the 1988 Seoul Olympics in South Korea. They have competed in every Summer Olympics since, but have only participated in the Winter Olympic Games this once, in 1994 in Lillehammer. For the 1994 Winter Olympics, the territory's delegation consisted of one two-man bobsleigh team. Faauuga Muagututia was chosen as the flag bearer for the opening ceremony. ## Competitors The following is the list of number of competitors in the Games. ## Bobsleigh Brad Kiltz, who was 36 years old at the time of the Games, is a native of Evansville, Indiana, able to compete for American Samoa because the American territory has the same nationality as the United States. Faauuga Muagututia, who was 35 years old at the time of the Games, is a native of American Samoa. Muagututia, as the driver, was the only one required to be from American Samoa. At the time of the Games, Muagututia was serving in the United States Navy as a SEAL, while Kiltz was working as a carpenter. The two-man bobsleigh event was held in four runs over two days, on February 19–20, 1994. Final standings were based on the sum of all four runs for each team. On the 19th, in runs 1 and 2, they posted a time of 55.57 seconds and 55.25 seconds, respectively. At the end of the first day, they were ranked 42nd out of 43 sleds. On the second day, they posted run times of 55.06 and 55.16 seconds. Their faster times on the second day allowed them to finish with a time of 3 minutes and 41.04 seconds, which placed them 39th out of 42 sleds which completed all four runs. ## See also - American Samoa at the Olympics

Rust (programming language)

General-purpose programming language

Rust is a general-purpose programming language emphasizing performance, type safety, and concurrency. It enforces memory safety, meaning that all references point to valid memory. It does so without a traditional garbage collector; instead, memory safety errors and data races are prevented by the "borrow checker", which tracks the object lifetime of references at compile time. Rust does not enforce a programming paradigm, but was influenced by ideas from functional programming, including immutability, higher-order functions, algebraic data types, and pattern matching. It also supports object-oriented programming via structs, enums, traits, and methods. It is popular for systems programming. Software developer Graydon Hoare created Rust as a personal project while working at Mozilla Research in 2006. Mozilla officially sponsored the project in 2009. In the years following the first stable release in May 2015, Rust was adopted by companies including Amazon, Discord, Dropbox, Google (Alphabet), Meta, and Microsoft. In December 2022, it became the first language other than C and assembly to be supported in the development of the Linux kernel. Rust has been noted for its rapid adoption, and has been studied in programming language theory research. ## History ### Early years (2006–2009) Rust began as a personal project in 2006 by Mozilla employee Graydon Hoare. Hoare has stated that Rust was named for the group of fungi that are "over-engineered for survival". During the time period between 2006 and 2009, Rust was not publicized to others at Mozilla and was written in Hoare's free time; Hoare began speaking about the language around 2009 after a small group at Mozilla became interested in the project. Hoare emphasized prioritizing good ideas from old languages over new development, citing languages including CLU (1974), BETA (1975), Mesa (1977), NIL (1981), Erlang (1987), Newsqueak (1988), Napier (1988), Hermes (1990), Sather (1990), Alef (1992), and Limbo (1996) as influences, stating "many older languages [are] better than new ones", and describing the language as "technology from the past come to save the future from itself." Early Rust developer Manish Goregaokar similarly described Rust as being based on "mostly decades-old research." During the early years, the Rust compiler was written in about 38,000 lines of OCaml. Early Rust contained features such as explicit object-oriented programming via an keyword (later removed), and a system for something called typestates that would allow variables of a type to be tracked along with state changes (such as going from uninitialized to initialized). Functions were pure by default, meaning that side effects (such as reading or writing to a file) were not allowed without an explicit annotation. ### Mozilla sponsorship (2009–2012) Mozilla officially sponsored the Rust project in 2009. Brendan Eich and other executives, intrigued by the possibility of using Rust for a safe web browser engine, placed engineers on the project including Patrick Walton, Niko Matsakis, Felix Klock, and Manish Goregaokar. A conference room taken by the project developers was dubbed "the nerd cave," with a sign placed outside the door. During this time period, work had shifted from the initial OCaml compiler to a self-hosting compiler, i.e., written in Rust, based on LLVM. The Rust ownership system was also in place by 2010. The Rust logo was developed in 2011 based on a bicycle chainring. The first public release, Rust 0.1 was released in January 2012. The early 2010s saw increasing involvement from open source volunteers outside of Mozilla and outside of the United States. At Mozilla, executives would eventually employ over a dozen engineers to work on Rust full time over the next decade. ### Evolution (2012–2015) The years from 2012 to 2015 were marked by substantial changes to the Rust type system, especially, removal of the typestate system, consolidation of other language features, and the removal of the garbage collector. Memory management through the ownership system was gradually consolidated and expanded to prevent memory-related bugs. By 2013, the garbage collector feature was rarely used, and was removed by the team in favor of the ownership system. Other changes during this time included the removal of pure functions, which were declared by an explicit annotation, in March 2013. Specialized syntax support for channels and various pointer types were removed to simplify the language. Rust's expansion and consolidation was influenced by developers coming from C++ (e.g., low-level performance of features), scripting languages (e.g., Cargo and package management), and functional programming (e.g., type systems development). Graydon Hoare stepped down from Rust in 2013. This allowed it to evolve organically under a more federated governance structure, with a "core team" of initially 6 people, 30-40 developers total across various other teams, and a Request for Comments (RFC) process for new language features added in March 2014. The core team would grow to 9 people by 2016 with over 1600 proposed RFCs. In January 2014, the editor-in-chief of Dr. Dobb's Journal, Andrew Binstock, commented on Rust's chances of becoming a competitor to C++, along with D, Go, and Nim (then Nimrod). According to Binstock, while Rust was "widely viewed as a remarkably elegant language", adoption slowed because it radically changed from version to version. Rust development at this time was focused on finalizing the language features and moving towards 1.0 so it could achieve backward compatibility and productize the language for potential industry adoption. Six years after Mozilla sponsored its development, the first stable release, Rust 1.0, was published on May 15, 2015. A year after the release, the Rust compiler had accumulated over 1,400 contributors and there were over 5,000 third-party libraries published on the Rust package management website Crates.io. ### Servo and early adoption (2015–2020) The development of the Servo browser engine continued in parallel with Rust, jointly funded by Mozilla and Samsung. The teams behind the two projects worked in close collaboration; new features in Rust were tested out by the Servo team, and new features in Servo were used to give feedback back to the Rust team. The first version of Servo was released in 2016. The Firefox web browser shipped with Rust code as of 2016 (version 45);, but components of Servo did not appear in Firefox until September 2017 (version 57) as part of the Gecko and Quantum projects. Improvements were made to the Rust toolchain ecosystem during the years following 1.0 including Rustfmt, integrated development environment integration, a regular compiler testing and release cycle, a community code of conduct, and community discussion organized through an IRC chat. The earliest adoption outside of Mozilla was by individual projects at Samsung, Facebook (now Meta Platforms), Dropbox, and others including Tilde, Inc. (the company behind ember.js). Amazon Web Services followed in 2020. Engineers cited performance, lack of a garbage collector, safety, and pleasantness of working in the language as reasons for the adoption, while acknowledging that it was a risky bet as Rust was new technology. Amazon developers cited the fact that Rust uses half as much electricity as similar code written in Java, behind only C, as found by a study at the University of Minho, NOVA University Lisbon, and the University of Coimbra. ### Mozilla layoffs and Rust Foundation (2020–present) In August 2020, Mozilla laid off 250 of its 1,000 employees worldwide, as part of a corporate restructuring caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The team behind Servo was disbanded. The event raised concerns about the future of Rust, due to the overlap between the two projects. In the following week, the Rust Core Team acknowledged the severe impact of the layoffs and announced that plans for a Rust foundation were underway. The first goal of the foundation would be to take ownership of all trademarks and domain names, and take financial responsibility for their costs. On February 8, 2021, the formation of the Rust Foundation was announced by five founding companies: Amazon Web Services, Google, Huawei, Microsoft, and Mozilla. The foundation, led by Shane Miller for its first two years, offered $20,000 grants and other support for programmers working on major Rust features. In a blog post published on April 6, 2021, Google announced support for Rust within the Android Open Source Project as an alternative to C/C++. On November 22, 2021, the Moderation Team, which was responsible for enforcing the community code of conduct, announced their resignation "in protest of the Core Team placing themselves unaccountable to anyone but themselves". In May 2022, the Rust Core Team, other lead programmers, and certain members of the Rust Foundation board implemented governance reforms in response to the incident. The Rust Foundation posted a draft for a new trademark policy on April 6, 2023, including rules for how the Rust logo and name can be used, which resulted in negative reactions from Rust users and contributors. ## Syntax and features Rust's syntax is similar to that of C and C++, although many of its features were influenced by functional programming languages such as OCaml. Hoare has described Rust as targeted at frustrated C++ developers and emphasized features such as safety, control of memory layout, and concurrency. Safety in Rust includes the guarantees of memory safety, type safety, and lack of data races. ### Hello World program Below is a "Hello, World\!" program in Rust. The keyword denotes a function, and the macro (see ) prints the message to standard output. Statements in Rust are separated by semicolons. ``` rust fn main() { println!("Hello, World!"); } ``` ### Variables Variables in Rust are defined through the keyword. The example below assigns a value to the variable with name . ``` rust fn main() { let foo = 10; println!("The value of foo is {foo}"); } ``` Variables are immutable by default, and adding the keyword allows the variable to be mutated. The following example uses , which denotes the start of a comment. ``` rust fn main() { let mut foo = 10; // This code would not compile without adding "mut". println!("The value of foo is {foo}"); foo = 20; println!("The value of foo is {foo}"); } ``` Multiple expressions can define multiple variables with the same name, known as variable shadowing. Variable shadowing allows transforming variables without having to name the variables differently. The example below declares a new variable with the same name that is double the original value: ``` rust fn main() { let foo = 10; println!("The value of foo is {foo}"); let foo = foo * 2; println!("The value of foo is {foo}"); } ``` Variable shadowing is also possible for values of different types, going from a string to its length: ``` rust fn main() { let spaces = " "; let spaces = spaces.len(); } ``` ### Keywords and control flow In Rust, blocks of code are delimited by curly brackets. #### blocks An conditional expression executes code based on whether the given value is . can be used for when the value evaluates to , and can be used for combining multiple expressions. ``` rust fn main() { let x = 10; if x > 5 { println!("value is greater than five"); } if x % 7 == 0 { println!("value is divisible by 7"); } else if x % 5 == 0 { println!("value is divisible by 5"); } else { println!("value is not divisible by 7 or 5"); } } ``` #### loops `while` can be used to repeat a block of code while a condition is met. ``` rust fn main() { // Iterate over all integers from 4 to 10 let mut value = 4; while value <= 10 { println!("value = {value}"); value += 1 } } ``` #### loops and iterators For loops in Rust loop over elements of a collection. "For" expressions work over any iterator type. ``` rust fn main() { // Using `for` with range syntax for the same functionality as above for value in 4..=10 { println!("value = {value}"); } } ``` In the above code, `4..=10` is a value of type `Range` which implements the `Iterator` trait. The code within the curly braces is applied to each element returned by the iterator. Iterators can be combined with functions over iterators like `map`, `filter`, and `sum`. For example, the following adds up all numbers between 1 and 100 that are multiples of 3: ``` rust (1..=100).filter(|&x| x % 3 == 0).sum() ``` #### and statements More generally, the keyword allows repeating a portion of code until a occurs. may optionally exit the loop with a value. Labels denoted with can be used to break an outer loop when loops are nested. ``` rust fn main() { let value = 456; let mut x = 1; let y = loop { x *= 10; if x > value { break x / 10; } }; println!("largest power of ten that is smaller than or equal to value: {y}"); let mut up = 1; 'outer: loop { let mut down = 120; loop { if up > 100 { break 'outer; } if down < 4 { break; } down /= 2; up += 1; println!("up: {up}, down: {down}"); } up *= 2; } } ``` ### Expressions Rust is expression-oriented, with nearly every part of a function body being an expression, including control-flow operators. The `if` expression is used to provide the ternary conditional operator. With returns being implicit, a function does not need to end with a `return` expression; if the semicolon is omitted, the value of the last expression in the function is used as the return value, as seen in the following recursive implementation of the factorial function: ``` rust fn factorial(i: u64) -> u64 { if i == 0 { 1 } else { i * factorial(i - 1) } } ``` The following iterative implementation uses the `..=` operator to create an inclusive range: ``` rust fn factorial(i: u64) -> u64 { (2..=i).product() } ``` ### Pattern matching The and expressions can be used for pattern matching. For example, can be used to double an optional integer value if present, and return zero otherwise: ``` rust fn double(x: Option<u64>) -> u64 { match x { Some(x) => x * 2, None => 0, } } ``` Equivalently, this can be written with and : ``` rust fn double(x: Option<u64>) -> u64 { if let Some(x) = x { x * 2 } else { 0 } } ``` ### Types Rust is strongly typed and statically typed. The types of all variables must be known at compilation time; assigning a value of a particular type to a differently typed variable causes a compilation error. Type inference is used to determine the type of variables if unspecified. The default integer type is , and the default floating point type is . If the type of a literal number is not explicitly provided, either it is inferred from the context or the default type is used. #### Primitive types Integer types in Rust are named based on the signedness and the number of bits the type takes. For example, is a signed integer that takes 32 bits of storage, whereas is unsigned and only takes 8 bits of storage. and take storage depending on the architecture of the computer that runs the code, for example, on computers with 32-bit architectures, both types will take up 32 bits of space. By default, integer literals are in base-10, but different radices are supported with prefixes, for example, for binary numbers, for octals, and for hexadecimals. By default, integer literals default to as its type. Suffixes such as can be used to explicitly set the type of a literal. Byte literals such as are available to represent the ASCII value (in ) of a specific character. The Boolean type is referred to as which can take a value of either or . A takes up 32 bits of space and represents a Unicode scalar value: a Unicode codepoint that is not a surrogate. IEEE 754 floating point numbers are supported with for single precision floats and for double precision floats. #### User-defined types User-defined types are created with the `struct` or `enum` keywords. The `struct` keyword is used to denote a record type that groups multiple related values. `enum`s can take on different variants at runtime, with its capabilities similar to algebraic data types found in functional programming languages. Both structs and enums can contain fields with different types. Alternative names for the same type can be defined with the `type` keyword. The `impl` keyword can define methods for a user-defined type. Data and functions are defined separately. Implementations fulfill a role similar to that of classes within other languages. #### Standard library `Option` values are handled using syntactic sugar, such as the `if let` construction, to access the inner value (in this case, a string): ``` rust fn main() { let name1: Option<&str> = None; // In this case, nothing will be printed out if let Some(name) = name1 { println!("{name}"); } let name2: Option<&str> = Some("Matthew"); // In this case, the word "Matthew" will be printed out if let Some(name) = name2 { println!("{name}"); } } ``` #### Pointers Rust does not use null pointers to indicate a lack of data, as doing so can lead to null dereferencing. Accordingly, the basic `&` and `&mut` references are guaranteed to not be null. Rust instead uses `Option` for this purpose: `Some(T)` indicates that a value is present, and `None` is analogous to the null pointer. `Option` implements a "null pointer optimization", avoiding any spatial overhead for types that cannot have a null value (references or the `NonZero` types, for example). Unlike references, the raw pointer types `*const` and `*mut` may be null; however, it is impossible to dereference them unless the code is explicitly declared unsafe through the use of an `unsafe` block. Unlike dereferencing, the creation of raw pointers is allowed inside of safe Rust code. #### Type conversion ### Ownership Rust's ownership system consists of rules that ensure memory safety without using a garbage collector. At compile time, each value must be attached to a variable called the owner of that value, and every value must have exactly one owner. Values are moved between different owners through assignment or passing a value as a function parameter. Values can also be borrowed, meaning they are temporarily passed to a different function before being returned to the owner. With these rules, Rust can prevent the creation and use of dangling pointers: ``` rust fn print_string(s: String) { println!("{}", s); } fn main() { let s = String::from("Hello, World"); print_string(s); // s consumed by print_string // s has been moved, so cannot be used any more // another print_string(s); would result in a compile error } ``` Because of these ownership rules, Rust types are known as linear or affine types, meaning each value can be used exactly once. This enforces a form of software fault isolation as the owner of a value is solely responsible for its correctness and deallocation. When a value goes out of scope, it is dropped by running its destructor. The destructor may be programmatically defined through implementing the trait. This helps manage resources such as file handles, network sockets, and locks, since when objects are dropped, the resources associated with them are closed or released automatically. ### Lifetimes Object lifetime refers to the period of time during which a reference is valid; that is, the time between the object creation and destruction. These lifetimes are implicitly associated with all Rust reference types. While often inferred, they can also be indicated explicitly with named lifetime parameters (often denoted , , and so on). Lifetimes in Rust can be thought of as lexically scoped, meaning that the duration of an object lifetime is inferred from the set of locations in the source code (i.e., function, line, and column numbers) for which a variable is valid. For example, a reference to a local variable has a lifetime corresponding to the block it is defined in: ``` rust fn main() { let x = 5; // ------------------+- Lifetime 'a // | let r = &x; // -+-- Lifetime 'b | // | | println!("r: {}", r); // | | // | | // -+ | } // ------------------+ ``` The borrow checker in the Rust compiler then enforces that references are only used in the locations of the source code where the associated lifetime is valid. In the example above, storing a reference to variable in is valid, as variable has a longer lifetime () than variable (). However, when has a shorter lifetime, the borrow checker would reject the program: ``` rust fn main() { let r; // ------------------+- Lifetime 'a // | { // | let x = 5; // -+-- Lifetime 'b | r = &x; // | | // ERROR here: x does not live long enough } // -| | // | println!("r: {}", r); // | } // ------------------+ ``` Since the lifetime of the referenced variable () is shorter than the lifetime of the variable holding the reference (), the borrow checker errors, preventing from being used from outside its scope. Lifetimes can be indicated using explicit lifetime parameters on function arguments. For example, the following code specifies that the reference returned by the function has the same lifetime as (and not necessarily the same lifetime as ): ``` rust fn remove_prefix<'a>(mut original: &'a str, prefix: &str) -> &'a str { if original.starts_with(prefix) { original = original[prefix.len()..]; } original } ``` When user-defined types hold references to data, they also need to use lifetime parameters. The example below parses some configuration options from a string and creates a struct containing the options. The function `parse_config` also showcases lifetime elision, which reduces the need for explicitly defining lifetime parameters. ``` rust use std::collections::HashMap; // This struct has one lifetime parameter, 'src. The name is only used within the struct's definition. #[derive(Debug)] struct Config<'src> { hostname: &'src str, username: &'src str, } // The '_ lifetime parameter, in this case, refers to the anonymous lifetime attached to the type // of the argument `config`. fn parse_config(config: &str) -> Config<'_> { let key_values: HashMap<_, _> = config .lines() .filter(|line| !line.starts_with('#')) .filter_map(|line| line.split_once('=')) .map(|(key, value)| (key.trim(), value.trim())) .collect(); Config { hostname: key_values["hostname"], username: key_values["username"], } } fn main() { let config = parse_config( r#"hostname = foobar username=barfoo"#, ); println!("Parsed config: {:#?}", config); } ``` In the compiler, ownership and lifetimes work together to prevent memory safety issues such as dangling pointers. ### Polymorphism #### Generics Rust's more advanced features include the use of generic functions. A generic function is given generic parameters, which allow the same function to be applied to different variable types. This capability reduces duplicate code and is known as parametric polymorphism. The following program calculates the sum of two things, for which addition is implemented using a generic function: ``` rust use std::ops::Add; // sum is a generic function with one type parameter, T fn sum<T>(num1: T, num2: T) -> T where T: Add<Output = T>, // T must implement the Add trait where addition returns another T { num1 + num2 // num1 + num2 is syntactic sugar for num1.add(num2) provided by the Add trait } fn main() { let result1 = sum(10, 20); println!("Sum is: {}", result1); // Sum is: 30 let result2 = sum(10.23, 20.45); println!("Sum is: {}", result2); // Sum is: 30.68 } ``` At compile time, polymorphic functions like `sum` are instantiated with the specific types the code requires; in this case, sum of integers and sum of floats. Generics can be used in functions to allow implementing a behavior for different types without repeating the same code. Generic functions can be written in relation to other generics, without knowing the actual type. #### Traits Rust's type system supports a mechanism called traits, inspired by type classes in the Haskell language, to define shared behavior between different types. For example, the `Add` trait can be implemented for floats and integers, which can be added; and the `Display` or `Debug` traits can be implemented for any type that can be converted to a string. Traits can be used to provide a set of common behavior for different types without knowing the actual type. This facility is known as ad hoc polymorphism. Generic functions can constrain the generic type to implement a particular trait or traits; for example, an `add_one` function might require the type to implement `Add`. This means that a generic function can be type-checked as soon as it is defined. The implementation of generics is similar to the typical implementation of C++ templates: a separate copy of the code is generated for each instantiation. This is called monomorphization and contrasts with the type erasure scheme typically used in Java and Haskell. Type erasure is also available via the keyword `dyn` (short for dynamic). Because monomorphization duplicates the code for each type used, it can result in more optimized code for specific-use cases, but compile time and size of the output binary are also increased. In addition to defining methods for a user-defined type, the `impl` keyword can be used to implement a trait for a type. Traits can provide additional derived methods when implemented. For example, the trait `Iterator` requires that the `next` method be defined for the type. Once the `next` method is defined, the trait can provide common functional helper methods over the iterator, such as `map` or `filter`. #### Trait objects Rust traits are implemented using static dispatch, meaning that the type of all values is known at compile time; however, Rust also uses a feature known as trait objects to accomplish dynamic dispatch (also known as duck typing). Dynamically dispatched trait objects are declared using the syntax `dyn Tr` where `Tr` is a trait. Trait objects are dynamically sized, therefore they must be put behind a pointer, such as `Box`. The following example creates a list of objects where each object can be printed out using the `Display` trait: ``` Rust use std::fmt::Display; let v: Vec<Box<dyn Display>> = vec![ Box::new(3), Box::new(5.0), Box::new("hi"), ]; for x in v { println!("{x}"); } ``` If an element in the list does not implement the `Display` trait, it will cause a compile-time error. ### Memory safety Rust is designed to be memory safe. It does not permit null pointers, dangling pointers, or data races. Data values can be initialized only through a fixed set of forms, all of which require their inputs to be already initialized. Unsafe code can subvert some of these restrictions, using the `unsafe` keyword. Unsafe code may also be used for low-level functionality, such as volatile memory access, architecture-specific intrinsics, type punning, and inline assembly. ### Memory management Rust does not use garbage collection. Memory and other resources are instead managed through the "resource acquisition is initialization" convention, with optional reference counting. Rust provides deterministic management of resources, with very low overhead. Values are allocated on the stack by default, and all dynamic allocations must be explicit. The built-in reference types using the `&` symbol do not involve run-time reference counting. The safety and validity of the underlying pointers is verified at compile time, preventing dangling pointers and other forms of undefined behavior. Rust's type system separates shared, immutable references of the form `&T` from unique, mutable references of the form `&mut T`. A mutable reference can be coerced to an immutable reference, but not vice versa. ### Macros It is possible to extend the Rust language using macros. #### Declarative macros A declarative macro (also called a "macro by example") is a macro, defined using the `macro_rules!` keyword, that uses pattern matching to determine its expansion. An example is the `println!()` macro. #### Procedural macros Procedural macros are Rust functions that run and modify the compiler's input token stream, before any other components are compiled. They are generally more flexible than declarative macros, but are more difficult to maintain due to their complexity. Procedural macros come in three flavors: - Function-like macros `custom!(...)` - Derive macros `#[derive(CustomDerive)]` - Attribute macros `#[custom_attribute]` The `rsx!` macro in the Dioxus front-end framework is an example of a function-like macro. The`serde_derive` macro provides a commonly used library for generating code for reading and writing data in many formats, such as JSON. Attribute macros are commonly used for language bindings, such as the `extendr` library for Rust bindings to R. The following code shows the use of the `Serialize`, `Deserialize`, and `Debug`-derived procedural macros to implement JSON reading and writing, as well as the ability to format a structure for debugging. ``` rust use serde::{Serialize, Deserialize}; #[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Debug)] struct Point { x: i32, y: i32, } fn main() { let point = Point { x: 1, y: 2 }; let serialized = serde_json::to_string(&point).unwrap(); println!("serialized = {}", serialized); let deserialized: Point = serde_json::from_str(&serialized).unwrap(); println!("deserialized = {:?}", deserialized); } ``` #### Variadic macros ### Interface with C and C++ Rust has a foreign function interface (FFI) that can be used both to call code written in languages such as C from Rust and to call Rust code from those languages. As of 2024, an external library called CXX exists for calling to or from C++. Rust and C differ in how they lay out structs in memory, so Rust structs may be given a `#[repr(C)]` attribute, forcing the same layout as the equivalent C struct. ## Ecosystem The Rust ecosystem includes its compiler, its standard library, and additional components for software development. Component installation is typically managed by , a Rust toolchain installer developed by the Rust project. ### Compiler The Rust compiler, , translates Rust code into low-level LLVM IR. LLVM is then invoked as a subcomponent to apply optimizations and translate the resulting IR into object code. A linker is then used to combine the objects into a single executable image or binary file. Other than LLVM, the compiler also supports using alternative backends such as GCC and Cranelift for code generation. The intention of those alternative backends is to increase platform coverage of Rust or to improve compilation times. ### Standard library The Rust standard library defines and implements many widely used custom data types, including core data structures such as , , and , as well as smart pointer types. Rust also provides a way to exclude most of the standard library using the attribute ; this enables applications, such as embedded devices, which want to remove dependency code or provide their own core data structures. Internally, the standard library is divided into three parts, , , and , where and are excluded by . ### Cargo Cargo is Rust's build system and package manager. It downloads, compiles, distributes, and uploads packages—called crates—that are maintained in an official registry. It also acts as a front-end for Clippy and other Rust components. By default, Cargo sources its dependencies from the user-contributed registry crates.io, but Git repositories and crates in the local filesystem, and other external sources can also be specified as dependencies. ### Rustfmt Rustfmt is a code formatter for Rust. It formats whitespace and indentation to produce code in accordance with a common style, unless otherwise specified. It can be invoked as a standalone program, or from a Rust project through Cargo. ### Clippy Clippy is Rust's built-in linting tool to improve the correctness, performance, and readability of Rust code. As of 2024, it has more than 700 rules. ### Versioning system Following Rust 1.0, new features are developed in nightly versions which are released daily. During each six-week release cycle, changes to nightly versions are released to beta, while changes from the previous beta version are released to a new stable version. Every two or three years, a new "edition" is produced. Editions are released to allow making limited breaking changes, such as promoting to a keyword to support async/await features. Crates targeting different editions can interoperate with each other, so a crate can upgrade to a new edition even if its callers or its dependencies still target older editions. Migration to a new edition can be assisted with automated tooling. ### IDE support rust-analyzer is a collection of utilities that provides Integrated development environments (IDEs) and text editors with information about a Rust project through the Language Server Protocol. This enables features including autocompletion, and the display of compilation errors while editing. ## Performance In general, Rust's memory safety guarantees do not impose a runtime overhead. A notable exception is array indexing which is checked at runtime, though this often does not impact performance. Since it does not perform garbage collection, Rust is often faster than other memory-safe languages. Rust provides two "modes": safe and unsafe. Safe mode is the "normal" one, in which most Rust is written. In unsafe mode, the developer is responsible for the code's memory safety, which is used by developers for cases where the compiler is too restrictive. Many of Rust's features are so-called zero-cost abstractions, meaning they are optimized away at compile time and incur no runtime penalty. The ownership and borrowing system permits zero-copy implementations for some performance-sensitive tasks, such as parsing. Static dispatch is used by default to eliminate method calls, with the exception of methods called on dynamic trait objects. The compiler also uses inline expansion to eliminate function calls and statically-dispatched method invocations. Since Rust utilizes LLVM, any performance improvements in LLVM also carry over to Rust. Unlike C and C++, Rust allows for reordering struct and enum elements to reduce the sizes of structures in memory, for better memory alignment, and to improve cache access efficiency. ## Adoption Rust is used in software across different domains. Components from the Servo browser engine (funded by Mozilla and Samsung) were incorporated in the Gecko browser engine underlying Firefox. In January 2023, Google (Alphabet) announced support for using third party Rust libraries in Chromium. Rust is used in several backend software projects of large web services. OpenDNS, a DNS resolution service owned by Cisco, uses Rust internally. Amazon Web Services uses Rust in "performance-sensitive components" of its several services. In 2019, AWS open-sourced Firecracker, a virtualization solution primarily written in Rust. Microsoft Azure IoT Edge, a platform used to run Azure services on IoT devices, has components implemented in Rust. Microsoft also uses Rust to run containerized modules with WebAssembly and Kubernetes. Cloudflare, a company providing content delivery network services, used Rust to build a new web proxy named Pingora for increased performance and efficiency. The npm package manager used Rust for its production authentication service in 2019. In operating systems, the Rust for Linux project, launched in 2020, merged initial support into the Linux kernel version 6.1 in late 2022. The project is active with a team of 6-7 developers, and has added additional Rust code with kernel releases from 2022 to 2024, aiming to demonstrate the minimum viability of the project and resolve key compatibility blockers. The first drivers written in Rust were merged into the kernel for version 6.8. The Android developers used Rust in 2021 to rewrite existing components. Microsoft has rewritten parts of Windows in Rust. The r9 project aims to re-implement Plan 9 from Bell Labs in Rust. Rust has been used in the development of new operating systems such as Redox, a "Unix-like" operating system and microkernel, Theseus, an experimental operating system with modular state management, and most of Fuchsia. Rust is also used for command-line tools and operating system components, including stratisd, a file system manager and COSMIC, a desktop environment by System76. In web development, Deno, a secure runtime for JavaScript and TypeScript, is built on top of V8 using Rust and Tokio. Other notable adoptions in this space include Ruffle, an open-source SWF emulator, and Polkadot, an open source blockchain and cryptocurrency platform. Discord, an instant messaging software company, rewrote parts of its system in Rust for increased performance in 2020. In the same year, Dropbox announced that its file synchronization had been rewritten in Rust. Facebook (Meta) used Rust to redesign its system that manages source code for internal projects. In the 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, 12.6% of respondents had recently done extensive development in Rust. The survey named Rust the "most admired programming language" every year from 2016 to 2024 (inclusive), based on the number of existing developers interested in continuing to work in the same language. In 2024, Rust was the 6th "most wanted technology", with 28.7% of developers not currently working in Rust expressing an interest in doing so. ## In academic research Rust has been studied in academic research, both for properties of the language itself as well as the utility the language provides for writing software used for research. Its features around safety and performance have been examined. In a journal article published to Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, astrophysicists Blanco-Cuaresma and Bolmont re-implemented programs responsible for simulating multi-planet systems in Rust, and found it to be a competitive programming language for its "speed and accuracy". Likewise, an article published on Nature shared several stories of bioinformaticians using Rust for its performance and safety. However, both articles have cited Rust's unique concepts, including its ownership system, being difficult to learn as one of the main drawbacks to adopting Rust. ## Community Rust has been noted as having an inclusive community, and particularly welcomed people from the queer community, partly due to its code of conduct which outlined a set of expectations for Rust community members to follow. One MIT Technology Review article described the Rust community as "unusually friendly" to newcomers. ### Rust Foundation The Rust Foundation is a non-profit membership organization incorporated in United States, with the primary purposes of backing the technical project as a legal entity and helping to manage the trademark and infrastructure assets. It was established on February 8, 2021, with five founding corporate members (Amazon Web Services, Huawei, Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla). The foundation's board is chaired by Shane Miller. Starting in late 2021, its Executive Director and CEO is Rebecca Rumbul. Prior to this, Ashley Williams was interim executive director. ### Governance teams The Rust project is composed of teams that are responsible for different subareas of the development. The compiler team develops, manages, and optimizes compiler internals; and the language team designs new language features and helps implement them. The Rust project website lists 6 top-level teams as of July 2024. Representatives among teams form the Leadership council, which oversees the Rust project as a whole. ## See also - Comparison of programming languages - History of programming languages - List of programming languages - List of programming languages by type

Moritz Wagner (basketball)

German basketball player (born 1997)

Victor Moritz "Mo" Wagner (born 26 April 1997) is a German professional basketball player for the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played for Alba Berlin before moving to the US to play college basketball for the Michigan Wolverines from 2015 through his junior season for the 2017–18 Wolverines team. Wagner entered his name for the 2017 NBA draft without hiring an agent, but withdrew and returned to Michigan. He was selected with the 25th overall pick in the 2018 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. He was a 2018 All-Big Ten second team selection by both the coaches and the media. Following the season, he was the 2018 Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament MVP helping the team earn the Big Ten tournament championship for the second time in a row. He was also named to the West Region All-Tournament Team and Final Four All-Tournament Team during the 2018 NCAA basketball tournament. He has represented the Germany national team. His younger brother Franz Wagner is also an NBA player as well as his teammate, playing small forward for the Orlando Magic. ## Early career Wagner started his basketball career in the youth ranks of Alba Berlin. In 2013–14, Wagner played for the club's under-19 Bundesliga squad, which won the German championship. In 2014–15, he played on Alba Berlin's Bundesliga roster, appearing in four games of the German league, scoring 2.3 points per contest. He also played in two Euroleague games during the 2014–15 season. ## College career Wagner first came to the attention of University of Michigan head coach John Beilein in 2014 through an email from a former coaching acquaintance in Germany. Wagner also used social contacts to forward a self-made highlight video to Beilein. Ultimately, Beilein flew to Berlin to recruit Wagner. In April 2015, Wagner announced his decision to attend the University of Michigan and play for the Michigan Wolverines. By opting to go to college, he turned down an offer to play professionally. ### Freshman season On March 16, 2016, in the First Four round of the 2016 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, Michigan defeated Tulsa, 67–62. After blocking two shots all season, Wagner posted four blocks and had a season-high eight rebounds against Tulsa. ### Sophomore season Wagner's five steals in the March 9, 2017 Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament opener against Illinois was a single-game high for the tournament. Three days later, Michigan won its first Big Ten tournament championship since 1998. On March 19, Wagner's career-high 26 points helped Michigan defeat Louisville 73–69 to advance to the Sweet 16 of the 2017 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. For the season, Wagner started all 38 games and averaged 12.1 points and 4.2 rebounds per game, while shooting 39.5% on three-pointers. He finished the season as the team's leading rebounder. Following the season, he was an honorable mention All-Big Ten selection by both the coaches and the media. On April 10, 2017, both Wagner and teammate D. J. Wilson declared for the 2017 NBA draft, but did not hire agents, which gave them until May 24 to withdraw their names and retain their athletic eligibility to return to Michigan. Declaring early enabled him to participate in workouts with NBA teams and made him eligible for an invitation to the May 9–14 NBA Draft Combine. On April 30, 2017, Jeff Goodman of ESPN reported that he was invited to the NBA Draft Combine. On May 24, 2017, Wagner decided to pull out of the 2017 draft and return to Michigan for the 2017–18 season. ### Junior season Wagner was selected to the 2017 10-man preseason All-Big Ten team. He was also one of two Big Ten players named to the 21-man Karl Malone Award watch list. He was a preseason John R. Wooden Award and Naismith College Player of the Year watchlist honoree. On January 13, 2018, Wagner scored a career-high 27 points as Michigan defeated the fourth-ranked Michigan State Spartans 82–72 in East Lansing; Wagner shot 8-for-13 from the field, including 3-for-4 from three-point range and 8-for-8 from the free-throw line. Following the 2017–18 Big Ten Conference men's basketball regular season, Wagner had accumulated more three-point field goals (47) than any NCAA player or taller and was a second team All-Big Ten selection by the coaches and the media. On March 2, Michigan defeated Nebraska 77–58 in the quarterfinals of the 2018 Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament. Wagner recorded his seventh double-double of the season with 20 points and 13 rebounds. His 13 rebounds marked a single-game high for the 2018 tournament through the first two rounds. The following day, in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament Wagner scored his 1,000th career point, becoming the 54th Wolverine to reach the milestone. He finished the game with a team-high 15 points and eight rebounds in a 75–64 victory over the second-ranked Michigan State Spartans. In the March 4, 2018 Big Ten tournament championship game against Purdue, Wagner scored 17 points to help lead Michigan to their second consecutive Big Ten tournament championship. Wagner was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. In the 2018 tournament, Wagner averaged 15.8 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. Wagner, who averaged 12.5 points and 5.5 rebounds in the first four games of the 2018 NCAA basketball tournament, was joined by Wolverines teammates Matthews and Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman on the West Region All-tournament team. Having reached the Final Four, Michigan defeated Loyola–Chicago 69–57 in the national semifinals on March 31. Wagner recorded his eighth double-double of the season with a game-high 24 points and a career-high 15 rebounds. Wagner became the first player with at least 20 points and 15 rebounds in a national semifinal game since Hakeem Olajuwon in 1983. On April 2, Michigan lost to (\#2 Coaches Poll/\#2 AP Poll) Villanova 62–79 in the National Championship Game. Wagner recorded 16 points and seven rebounds, and was named to the Final Four All-Tournament Team. For the tournament he averaged 15.0 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 1.2 steals, while shooting 38.5% on his three-point shots. For the season, Wagner averaged 14.6 points and 7.1 rebounds and shot 52.8% overall and a team-best 39.4% on his three-point shots. On March 21, Wagner became an Academic All-Big Ten honoree. On April 14, 2018, Wagner announced that he would enter the 2018 NBA draft and hire an agent. On May 1, Wagner signed with Roc Nation's Joe Branch, who has represented former Michigan teammate Caris LeVert. Later that day, he received an invitation to the NBA draft combine. ## Professional career ### Los Angeles Lakers (2018–2019) On June 21, 2018, Wagner was selected with the 25th overall pick in the 2018 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. On July 1, he signed his rookie scale contract with the Lakers. On July 10, Wagner injured both his left knee and left ankle in the Las Vegas Summer League. He was sidelined for all of training camp and the preseason by the knee injury. Wagner was assigned to the G League South Bay Lakers on rehab assignment on October 26. Wagner made his G-League debut for the South Bay Lakers on November 3, scoring 17 points in 29 minutes in a 108–106 loss to the Stockton Kings. He made his NBA debut on November 17 against the Orlando Magic. On December 2, in a 120–96 victory against the Phoenix Suns, Wagner scored his first NBA points (a pair of free throws) and finished the game with 10 points. On March 9, 2019, Wagner scored a season-high 22 points with six rebounds, three assists and a block in his first career start in a 107–120 loss to the Boston Celtics. ### Washington Wizards (2019–2021) On July 6, 2019, Wagner was traded to the Washington Wizards, along with Isaac Bonga, Jemerrio Jones, and a 2022 second-round pick, in a three-team trade where the Lakers acquired Anthony Davis. On November 15, playing against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Wagner became the first NBA player to score 30 points and obtain 15 rebounds coming off the bench since Yao Ming in 2002 and the first to post such numbers in under 26 minutes played in since Len Chappell in 1967. Wagner also drew three charges in the game and was the first NBA player to ever post 30 points and 15 rebounds (both career highs) with 4 three-point shots off the bench. Wagner missed 24 games with an ankle sprain before returning to the lineup on February 3 against the Golden State Warriors. He was named to the Rising Stars Challenge at the 2020 NBA All-Star Weekend, where he scored 16 points for the world team. ### Boston Celtics (2021) On March 25, 2021, Wagner was traded to the Boston Celtics in a three-team trade involving the Chicago Bulls. On March 26, Wagner made his debut for the Celtics in a 122–114 win over the Milwaukee Bucks, finishing with three points and five rebounds across 10 minutes of play. On April 16, he was waived by the Celtics. ### Orlando Magic (2021–present) Wagner signed with the Orlando Magic for the rest of the 2020-21 NBA season on April 27, 2021. On April 28, he debuted for the Magic against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Wagner scored two points, grabbed two rebounds and dished out an assist across nine minutes in a 109–104 win. On May 1, he logged a season-high 24 points in his third game with the Magic. Wagner knocked down a 3-pointer that tied the game at 109 with 1 minute and 16 seconds left to play, contributing to the Magic's 112–111 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. On August 23, 2021, he re-signed with Orlando. On December 29, 2022, Wagner was suspended by the NBA for two games without pay due to an altercation with Detroit Pistons guard Killian Hayes the day before. On July 6, 2023, Wagner signed a two-year, $16 million deal to return to the Orlando Magic. ## National team career ### Junior national team Wagner won gold with the Germany U18 national team at the 2014 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship Division B in Bulgaria. Averaging 16.1 points per contest, Wagner was Germany's leading scorer at the 2017 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship. ### Senior national team Wagner helped Germany qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics, where he earned the MVP award in the Olympic qualifying tournament in Split, Croatia. During the event in Tokyo, he averaged 11 points per game. A few years later, in September 2023, Wagner helped Germany win their first world title at the 2023 FIBA World Cup. He finished with averages of 11.9 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. ## Career statistics ### NBA #### Regular season |- | style="text-align:left;"|2018–19 | style="text-align:left;"|L.A. Lakers | 43 || 5 || 10.4 || .415 || .286 || .811 || 2.0 || .6 || .3 || .3 || 4.8 |- | style="text-align:left;"|2019–20 | style="text-align:left;"|Washington | 45 || 5 || 18.6 || .545 || .313 || .821 || 4.9 || 1.2 || .6 || .4 || 8.7 |- | style="text-align:left;"|2020–21 | style="text-align:left;"|Washington | 25 || 13 || 15.0 || .508 || .310 || .788 || 2.9 || 1.3 || .9 || .3 || 7.1 |- | style="text-align:left;"|2020–21 | style="text-align:left;"|Boston | 9 || 1 || 6.8 || .286 || .333 || .500 || 2.1 || .7 || .0 || .1 || 1.2 |- | style="text-align:left;"|2020–21 | style="text-align:left;"|Orlando | 11 || 10 || 26.0 || .409 || .372 || .879 || 4.9 || 1.1 || .4 || .8 || 11.0 |- | style="text-align:left;"|2021–22 | style="text-align:left;"|Orlando | 63 || 3 || 15.2 || .497 || .328 || .806 || 3.7 || 1.4 || .3 || .2 || 9.0 |- | style="text-align:left;"|2022–23 | style="text-align:left;"|Orlando | 57 || 18 || 19.5 || .500 || .313 || .841 || 4.5 || 1.5 || .6 || .2 || 10.5 |- | style="text-align:left;"|2023–24 | style="text-align:left;"|Orlando | 80 || 1 || 17.7 || .601 || .330 || .814 || 4.3 || 1.2 || .5 || .3 || 10.9 |- class="sortbottom" | style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career | 333 || 56 || 16.5 || .521 || .320 || .820 || 3.9 || 1.2 || .5 || .3 || 8.8 #### Playoffs |- | style="text-align:left;"|2024 | style="text-align:left;"|Orlando | 7 || 0 || 15.0 || .444 || .222 || .588 || 4.4 || .3 || .9 || .4 || 6.3 |- class="sortbottom" | style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career | 7 || 0 || 15.0 || .444 || .222 || .588 || 4.4 || .3 || .9 || .4 || 6.3 ### College |- | style="text-align:left;"|2015–16 | style="text-align:left;"|Michigan | 30 || 0 || 8.6 || .607 || .167 || .556 || 1.6 || .1 || .2 || .2 || 2.9 |- | style="text-align:left;"|2016–17 | style="text-align:left;"|Michigan | 38 || 38 || 23.9 || .560 || .395 || .726 || 4.2 || .5 || 1.0 || .4 || 12.1 |- | style="text-align:left;"|2017–18 | style="text-align:left;"|Michigan | 39 || 39 || 27.6 || .528 || .394 || .694 || 7.1 || .8 || 1.0 || .5 || 14.6 |- class="sortbottom" | style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career | 107 || 77 || 21.0 || .547 || .385 || .698 || 4.5 || .5 || .8 || .4 || 10.4 ## Personal life Wagner has a younger brother, Franz, who is his teammate on the Orlando Magic and played basketball for Michigan.

Crimes Act of 1790

US bill

The Crimes Act of 1790 (or the Federal Criminal Code of 1790), formally titled An Act for the Punishment of Certain Crimes Against the United States, defined some of the first federal crimes in the United States and expanded on the criminal procedure provisions of the Judiciary Act of 1789. The Crimes Act was a "comprehensive statute defining an impressive variety of federal crimes". As an enactment of the First Congress, the Crimes Act is often regarded as a quasi-constitutional text. The punishment of treason, piracy, counterfeiting, as well as crimes committed on the high seas or against the law of nations, followed from relatively explicit constitutional authority. The creation of crimes within areas under exclusive federal jurisdiction followed from the plenary power of Congress over the "Seat of the Government", federal enclaves, and federal territories. The creation of crimes involving the integrity of the judicial process derived from Congress's authority to establish such courts. The Crimes Act also established a statute of limitations for federal crimes, provided for criminal venue, ensured procedural protections for treason and capital defendants, simplified the pleading requirements for perjury, and provided protections broader than those in the Constitution against corruption of blood. Further, the act provided for punitive dissection of murderers and codified diplomatic immunity. ## Background Even after the passage of the Judiciary Act of 1789, "the definition of crimes and the establishment of punishments" remained a "missing link of the criminal system". The Judiciary Act of 1789 divided original jurisdiction for the trial of federal crimes between the district courts and the circuit courts. The district courts were given jurisdiction over all federal crimes "where no other punishment than whipping, not exceeding thirty stripes, a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, or a term of imprisonment not exceeding six months, is to be inflicted". The circuit courts were given concurrent jurisdiction over these crimes, and exclusive jurisdiction over all other federal crimes. The circuit courts also exercised appellate jurisdiction over the district courts, but only in civil cases. The Judiciary Act of 1789 also placed the responsibility for prosecuting federal crimes in the United States Attorney for each federal judicial district. The Act provided that "there shall be appointed in each district" a "person learned in the law to act as attorney for the United States in such district, who shall be sworn or affirmed to the faithful execution of his office, whose duty it shall be to prosecute in such district all delinquents for crimes and offences, cognizable under the authority of the United States." Prior to the Crimes Act, Congress had established very few federal crimes. Among Congress's earlier criminal statutes were: - The renewal of the Northwest Ordinance, which authorized the executive to adopt state law within the Northwest Territory; and - A prohibition on unloading ships in the dark or without a license, as well as customs bribery and false statements; and - A prohibition on census takers failing to report their findings. ## Drafting The Senate passed an act to define a variety of federal crimes on August 31, 1789, but the House did not act on that bill. Like the Judiciary Act of 1789 and the Process Act of 1789, the Crimes Act was primarily authored by Senator (and future Chief Justice) Oliver Ellsworth as the chair of the Senate committee. The committee examined the state criminal laws of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina at the beginning of the drafting process. The Crimes Act generated "little reported debate" on the floor of Congress. The act was passed on April 30, 1790. ## Crimes established Due to the seriousness of the authorized sentences, under the Judiciary Act of 1789, original jurisdiction for the trial of all of the crimes created by the Crimes Act would have rested with the circuit courts; none of the crimes created could have been tried in the district courts. ### Treason Article Three provides that: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court. The Congress shall have power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted." As to misprision of treason, according to David P. Currie, because "[t]he Constitution said nothing of this offense", "the legislators must have interpreted the narrow definition of treason in Article III not to preclude it from creating lesser related offenses that might otherwise fall within federal purview—although nothing in the misprision provision suggested that Congress had yet considered the possible impact of the Treason Clause on its efforts to punish seditious expression." ### Piracy and the high seas Article One provides that Congress shall have the power "[t]o define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas". Five sections in the Crimes Act "were devoted to the subject". Currie notes that the various piracy offenses "take an exceedingly broad view of what constituted piracy", but that "[f]rom a constitutional standpoint no harm was done, since all of the acts punished were felonious and Congress's power extended to all felonies on the high seas." "The principal provisions with respect to piracy were incorporated in section 8." Section 8 applied not only to the "high Seas", but also to "any river, haven, basin, or bay, out of the jurisdiction of any particular State". Currie notes a variety of constitutional theories which Congress might have espoused in order to justify this provision: "Whether Congress thought authority over such places included within the ostensibly narrower term 'high Seas', necessary and proper to the regulation of commerce or to the exercise of admiralty jurisdiction, or implicit in a central government responsible for external affairs is not clear." Currie also argues that the phrase "offence, which, if committed within the body of a county, would, by laws of the United States, be punishable with death" is vague. He suggests that it could refer to any federal law, to any state or federal law, or only to federal laws applicable to places under exclusive federal jurisdiction. ### Counterfeiting Article One provides that Congress shall have the power "[t]o provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States." Currie argues that section 14's somewhat broad reading of the word "Securities" is fair enough. Currie suggests that "[n]othing was said of counterfeiting coins" because the United States Mint had not yet been established. Some members of the House, including Theodore Sedgwick of Massachusetts, spoke against the prescribing death penalty for counterfeiting, viewing it as too harsh. ### Crimes against the law of nations Article One provides that Congress shall have the power "[t]o define and punish ... Offenses against the Law of Nations." According to Currie: "No reliance on inherent on implied powers over foreign affairs was necessary to justify" sections 26 and 28 as each "plausibly described" offenses against the law of nations. Congress had also created a civil offense against the law of nations in the Alien Tort Statute of the Judiciary Act of 1789. ### Exclusive federal jurisdiction Several offenses were limited to acts committed in places "under the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the United States". Such regulations would have applied in the "Seat of the Government", federal enclaves, and federal territories. Article One provides that Congress shall have the power "[t]o exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings." And Article Four provides that "Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory ..." With reference to the "arms, ordnance, munition, shot, powder, or habiliments of war belonging to the United States" provision of section 16, Currie argues that it could have been justified under Congress's Article One power to "raise and support armies" or Congress's Article Four power to make needful rules respecting "property belonging to the United States". In United States v. Bevans (1818), although the defendant had only been charged under § 8 of the Crimes Act, Chief Justice Marshall proceeded to consider whether the offense would have been cognizable under § 3. Following the canon of noscitur a sociis, Marshall interpreted the jurisdictional phrase "any fort, arsenal, dockyard, magazine, or in any other place, or district of country" to be limited to places that are "fixed and territorial" (i.e. not to include a navy vessel). - Crimes against persons ### Integrity of the judicial process The constitutional authorization of these crimes was less explicit, but Article One does provide that Congress shall have the power "[t]o constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court." According to Currie: > This is the point at which explicit constitutional authority for the creation of federal crimes runs out. But the statute went on to define additional crimes: theft or falsification of court records, perjury, bribery of federal judges, interference with judicial process, and liberation of federal prisoners. All of these were plainly necessary and proper to the operation of the federal courts; Marshall was to cite the perjury section as precedent for the existence of implicit powers in McCulloch v. Maryland. According to Stacy and Dayton, these provision are "compelling evidence that the founders did not intend the national role in criminal law to be limited to crimes expressly mentioned in the Constitution". ## Criminal procedure ### Statute of limitations Section 32 provided for the following statutes of limitations: no statute of limitations for wilful murder or forgery; no statute of limitations for fugitives from justice; three (3) years for capital offenses (other than wilful murder and forgery); two (2) years for non-capital offenses. In United States v. Cook (1872), the Court held that indictments need not plead facts establishing that these limitations periods have not run. ### Venue Section 8 provided that "the trial of crimes committed on the high seas, or in any place out of the jurisdiction of any particular State, shall be in the district where the offender is apprehended, or into which he may first be brought". Thus, section 8 was an exercise of Congress's authority under Article Three to define criminal venue for all crimes "not committed within any State". But, the Supreme Court did not interpret section 8 as exercising the full extent of Congress's authority under Article Three. In Ex parte Bollman (1807), the Court held that the statutory term "any place out of the jurisdiction of any particular state" applied only to "any river, haven, bason or bay, not within the jurisdiction of any particular state", and only in "those cases there is no court which has particular cognizance of the crime". ### Treason and capital cases The Crimes Act prescribed death as the exclusive punishment for the crimes of treason, counterfeiting, wilful murder, and aiding the escape of a death row prisoner, as well as piracy, murder, and robbery on the high seas. Section 29 provided treason and capital defendants a right to a copy of the indictment, a list of the jury (and, in treason cases, witnesses), appointed counsel, and compulsory process: > [A]ny person who shall be accused and indicted of treason, shall have a copy of the indictment, and a list of the jury and witnesses, to be produced on the trial for proving the said indictment, mentioning the names and places of abode of such witnesses and jurors, delivered unto him at least three entire days before he shall be tried for the same; and in other capital offences, shall have such copy of the indictment and list of the jury two entire days at least before the trial: And that every person so accused and indicted for any of the crimes aforesaid, shall also be allowed and admitted to make his full defence by counsel learned in the law; and the court before whom such person shall be tried, or some judge thereof, shall, and they are hereby authorized and required immediately upon his request to assign to such person such counsel, not exceeding two, as such person shall desire, to whom such counsel shall have free at all reasonable hours; and every such person or persons accused or indicted of the crimes aforesaid, shall be allowed and admitted in his said defence to make any proof that he or they can produce, by lawful witness or witnesses, and shall have the like process of the court where he or they shall be tried, to compel his or their witnesses to appear at his or their trial, as is usually granted to compel witnesses to appear on the prosecution against them. Most of the provisions of section 29 are plainly similar to those of the Sixth Amendment, namely the Information Clause, the Assistance of Counsel Clause, and the Compulsory Process Clause. The Sixth Amendment (and the remainder of the Bill of Rights) had not yet been ratified at the time of the Crimes Act's passage. Section 30 provided treason and capital defendants with peremptory challenges and provided for a plea of not guilty in the case that the defendant refused to enter a plea: > if any person or persons be indicted of treason against the United States, and shall stand mute or refuse to plead, or shall challenge peremptorily above the number of thirty-five of the jury; or if any person or persons be indicted of other of the offences herein for which the punishment is declared to be death, if he or they shall also stand mute or will not answer to the indictment, or challenge peremptorily above the number of twenty persons of the jury; the court, in any of the cases aforesaid, shall notwithstanding proceed to the trial of the person or persons so standing mute or challenging, as if he or they had pleaded not guilty, and render judgment thereon accordingly. In United States v. Shackleford (1855), the Court held that the section 30's allocation of peremptory challenges controlled, rather than an 1840 statute that required federal jury selection to generally follow state law (and, thus, the prosecutor was given no peremptory challenges in such cases). Ten years later, Congress abrogated Shackleford, granting prosecutors five peremptory challenges in treason and capital cases (and two in non-capital felony cases); the 1865 act left the defendant's number of peremptory challenges unchanged. Section 31 eliminated the benefit of clergy for capital crimes. Section 33 designated the means of execution as "hanging ... by the neck until dead". ### Perjury indictments Section 19, applicable to perjury prosecutions under section 18, provided that > in every presentment or indictment to be prosecuted against any person for wilful and corrupt perjury, it shall be sufficient to set forth the substance of the offence charged upon the defendant, and by what court, or before whom the oath or affirmation was taken, (averring such court, or person or persons to have a competent authority to administer the same) together with the proper averment or averments to falsify the matter or matters wherein the perjury or perjuries is or are assigned; without setting forth the bill, answer, information, indictment, declaration, or any part of any record or proceeding, either in law or equity, other than as aforesaid, and without setting forth the commission or authority of the court, or person or persons before whom the perjury was committed. and section 20 provided that > in every presentment or indictment for subornation of perjury, or for corrupt bargaining or contracting with others to commit wilful and corrupt perjury, it shall be sufficient to set forth the substance of the offence charged upon the defendant, without setting forth the bill, answer, information, indictment, declaration, or any part of any record or proceeding, either in law or equity, and without setting forth the commmsion or authority of the court, or person or persons before whom the perjttry was committed, or was agreed or promised to be committed. ### Sentencing Section 24 provided that "no conviction or judgment of any of the offences aforesaid, shall work corruption of blood, or any forfeiture of estate". This generalized the guarantee of Article Three that "no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted". The Crimes Act made no provision for the creation of federal prisons. Instead, a September 21, 1789 concurrent resolution asked the state legislatures to authorize their prisons to imprison federal prisoners. The first federal prison was not opened until 1894 at Fort Leavenworth. ## Other provisions ### Dissection Section 4 authorized a court to order the post-execution dissection of the corpse of convicted murderers. According to David P. Currie, this was the "most controversial provision of the entire statute". Dissection as punishment had its roots in a 1789 New York statute and a 1752 English law. Rep. Michael J. Stone of Maryland argued against the inclusion of this provision as cruel. Currie argues that Congress was on a firm constitutional footing in enacting this provision in relation to murders committed in areas under exclusive federal jurisdiction, but perhaps less so for murders committed on the high seas. ### Diplomatic immunity Section 25 provided: > [I]f any writ or process shall at any time hereafter be sued forth or prosecuted by any person or persons, in any of the courts of the United States, or in any of the courts of a particular state, or by any judge or justice therein respectively, whereby the person of any ambassador or other public minister of any foreign prince or state, authorized and received as such by the President of the United States, or any domestic or domestic servant of any much ambassador or other public minister, may be arrested or imprisoned, or his or their goods or chattels be distrained, seized or attached, such writ or process shall be deemed and adjudged to be utterly null and void to all intents, construction and purposes whatsoever. Section 27 provided a limited exception for private debts contracted by ambassadors prior to the passage of the act. ## Prosecutions Between 1790 and 1797, only 147 criminal cases were brought in the circuit courts, and more than half of those cases were brought in the Pennsylvania circuit court concerning the Whiskey Rebellion. And, between 1790 and 1801, only 426 criminal cases were brought in all federal courts (the district courts and the circuit courts combined). ## Amendments and repeals Section 1 was supplemented by an omnibus treason law during the Civil War, which, inter alia, provided for punishments other than death and additional lesser offenses. The offense of treason, and the punishment thereof, were codified in consecutive sections of the Revised Statutes. Both were repealed and replaced by the Criminal Code of 1909. During the 1948 re-codification of the Criminal Code, the treason offense was amended and moved to 18 U.S.C. § 2381, where it remains. It was amended in 1994. Section 2 was codified in the Revised Statutes, and re-codified by the Criminal Code of 1909, and the 1948 re-codification. It was amended in 1994. Section 3 was amended by § 4 of the Crimes Act of 1825 and codified in the Revised Statutes. Sections 4, 5 and 6 were codified in the Revised Statutes. Section 7 was amended in 1857 and 1875 and codified in the Revised Statutes. Section 8 was amended in 1820, 1835, and 1846 and codified in five sections of the Revised Statutes. Further, § 8 was supplemented by additional prohibitions in § 5 of an 1819 act and § 3 of an 1820 act. Despite the similarity of the provisions, all three were all separately codified in the Revised Statutes in 1874. Section 8 was repealed by the Criminal Code of 1909. Section 8's venue provision was re-enacted by § 14 of the Crimes Act of 1825, with minor changes. Sections 9 and 10 were codified in the Revised Statutes. Section 11 was codified in two sections. Section 12 was amended in 1835 and codified in two sections of the Revised Statutes. Section 13 was codified in the Revised Statutes. Section 14 was repealed by § 17 of the Crimes Act of 1825, which broadened the offense of counterfeiting and reduced authorized the punishment from death to 10 years hard labor and a $5000 fine. Sections 18 through 21 of the 1825 Act created additional counterfeiting offenses. Section 15 was amended in 1874 and codified in the Revised Statutes. Section 16 was amended in 1842 and codified in the Revised Statutes. Section 17 was amended by § 8 of the Crimes Act of 1825 and codified in the Revised Statutes. Section 18 was amended by § 13 of the Crimes Act of 1825—which defined the term "perjury" and increased the authorized punishment to 5 years hard labor and a $3000 fine—and further amended in 1874 and 1876. Perjury and subornation were separately codified in the Revised Statutes. Section 19 was codified in three sections of the Revised Statutes, and Section 21 was codified in two. Section 22 was amended in 1866 and codified in the Revised Statutes. Sections 23 and 24 were codified in the Revised Statutes. Sections 25 through 29 were not codified in Title LXX of the Revised Statutes. Section 30, with regard to peremptory challenges, was re-enacted and supplemented in 1865. Section 30, with regard to a defendant's failure to enter a plea, was extended from capital to all crimes by § 14 of the Crimes Act of 1825. Section 31 and 33 were codified in the Revised Statutes. ## Constitutionality According to Taylor: "Like the Judiciary Act of 1789, the Process Act of 1789, and the Crimes Act of 1790, having been passed by the First Congress, are perhaps the statutes most informative of an original understanding of Congress's constitutional power over the federal judiciary." According to Kurland, "for the most part, Congress enacted statutes that closely tracked the specific constitutional grants of federal criminal authority. However, Congress continued to venture slightly, but significantly, into areas outside the specific constitutional grants." As examples in the later category, Kurland cites the provisions concerning the integrity of the federal criminal process, bribery, misprison of treason, and the revenue provisions. Currie notes that the Crimes Act "resolved a number of interesting constitutional questions". For example, with reference to the punishments of "stripes" and disqualification from office, Currie argues that: "These provisions suggest not only that Congress viewed neither of these punishments as cruel and unusual, but also that they did not understand impeachment to be the sole avenue for the future disqualification of current officeholders." Taylor goes further in arguing the disqualification provision was not merely prospective: "The Crimes Act of 1790 indicates that, beyond its plenary power over federal court jurisdiction and procedure, the First Congress believed it had the constitutional power to make conviction by a court an alternative means of removing a federal judge, outside the impeachment context, and it sheds light on the First Congress's understanding of its own powers to discipline federal judges." Similarly, the Supreme Court and individual justices have cited the Crimes Act's authorization of the death penalty as evidence that the founders believed it was constitutional.

Tupolev Tu-75

Military transport version of Tu-4 bomber

The Tupolev Tu-75 () was a military transport variant of the Tu-4 bomber, an unlicensed, reverse engineered copy of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. The Tu-75 was similar to the Tu-70 airliner, both using a new, purpose-designed fuselage. The first Soviet military machine of this class, it was equipped with a rear fuselage loading ramp. It was not placed into production because the VVS decided it would be cheaper to modify its existing Tu-4s for the transport mission and to use its existing Lisunov Li-2 and Ilyushin Il-12 transports. ## Design and development The Tupolev OKB began work in September 1946 on a military transport version of the Tupolev Tu-70 airliner and this was confirmed by the Council of Ministers on 11 March 1947 with state trials to begin in August 1948. To expedite the process, maximum use was made of components of the Tu-70. Its engines were the uprated Shvetsov ASh-73TKFN or TKNV fuel-injected version. A new, narrower fuselage was designed, which included a rear cargo hatch, a vehicle loading ramp and paratroop exit doors. Three gun turrets (dorsal, ventral and tail), were to be adapted from the Tu-4, although they were not fitted on the prototype. It had a crew of six (two pilots, three gunners, a radio operator, and a navigator). The aircraft was intended for three different roles; transport, parachute transport and aerial ambulance. In the first role it was designed to carry two ASU-76 assault guns, two STZ NATI artillery tractors, six or seven GAZ-67B jeeps or five 85 mm (3.3 in) guns without their prime movers or any combination of equipment up to 12,000 kg (26,000 lb). To facilitate the loading of cargo, a winch was mounted on the ceiling of the cargo hold with a capacity of 3,000 kg (6,600 lb). It could carry either 120 troops, 96 fully loaded paratroopers or 64 standard parachute loads. As an aerial ambulance it could carry 31 stretchers and four medical attendants. ## Operational history Construction of the first prototype was quite prolonged; the aircraft was not finished until November 1949, with its first flight taking place on 21 January 1950. It finished its manufacturer's trials the following May, but Tupolev decided not to submit it for the State acceptance trials as the Soviet Air Force had already decided that it would be cheaper to rely on its existing transports and to modify Tu-4 bombers for the cargo role. The prototype was used by the MAP ( – Ministry of Aviation Industry) until it crashed in October 1954. ## Specifications ## See also

Death of Linda Norgrove

2010 aid worker kidnapping in Afghanistan

On 26 September 2010, British aid worker Linda Norgrove and three Afghan colleagues were kidnapped by members of the Taliban in the Kunar Province of eastern Afghanistan. She was working in the country as regional director for Development Alternatives Incorporated, a contractor for US and other government agencies. The group were taken to the nearby Dewegal Valley area. United States and Afghan forces began a search of the area, placing roadblocks to prevent the group from being moved east into Pakistan. Norgrove's captors demanded the release of Aafia Siddiqui in exchange for her return. The Taliban released the three Afghans on 3 October 2010 during negotiations. The United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group conducted a predawn rescue attempt five days later on the Taliban mountain hideout where Norgrove was held captive, amid concerns that she would be killed or moved by her kidnappers. US forces killed several kidnappers and three local farmers during the assault. They subsequently located Norgrove, badly wounded in a nearby gully, and she died later from her injuries, which were inflicted by a fragmentation grenade used by the American special forces operators. Initial reports said that she had been killed by an explosion set off by one of her captors. A joint official investigation by the United Kingdom and the United States later concluded that her fatal injuries were inflicted by a grenade thrown by one of her attempted rescuers. A February 2011 coroner's narrative verdict reported that Norgrove died during the failed rescue attempt. In October 2012, one of her colleagues said in an interview that the captors had told Norgrove that they had no intention of killing her. ## Early life, education and work Norgrove was born in Altnaharra, Scotland, in 1974 to John and Lorna Norgrove. She grew up on a croft on the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles, attending a primary school in Uig. She later attended the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway. Norgrove attended the University of Aberdeen, receiving a first-class honours degree in tropical environmental science; her coursework included postgraduate research at the University of Chiapas in Mexico and a year of study at the University of Oregon (1993–94). She attended the University of London, receiving a MA with distinction in rural resources and environmental policy in 1997. In 2002, Norgrove received a PhD from the University of Manchester in development policy and management. From 2002 to 2005, she worked for the World Wide Fund in Peru, supporting (and later supervising) the WWF's Forest Programme in the Peruvian Andes. At the time of her death, in addition to her aid work, Norgrove was working towards an MBA from the University of Warwick through distance learning. She worked in Afghanistan for the United Nations from 2005 to 2008, and as regional director of an international development company based in Jalalabad beginning in February 2010. She also worked in Laos as an environmental specialist for the UN in 2008–09, Mexico and Uganda where Norgrove researched the effects of national park management on the indigenous population near Mount Elgon National Park. ## Kidnapping On 26 September 2010, Norgrove and three Afghan colleagues were travelling in the Chawkay District (also known as Tsawkay and Sawkay) of eastern Kunar Province when they were kidnapped by local insurgents. They were ambushed while driving on the main highway from Jalalabad to Asadabad, in the Dewagal valley, in two unarmoured, unmarked Toyota Corollas. A US military convoy was ambushed two months earlier on the same stretch of road. Norgrove wore a burqa to disguise her foreign appearance. According to four sources within the United States military and intelligence services, at the time Norgrove was working for Development Alternatives Incorporated and was secretly employed by MI6. However, this claim cannot be fully substantiated due to the confidential nature of its sources. Her family has regarded the claims as "ridiculous." They have also claimed, "Linda was passionately against war, disliked the military with a vengeance and mostly sided with Afghans rather than western governments." Dressed in men's clothing by her captors, she was taken first into the mountains and then brought to the Dewegal Valley in Chowkai District (which crosses the Korengal Valley). US Army troops from Bravo Company, 2/327 Infantry, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division began a 12-day search supported by Afghan army, police and commando units under the codename "Enterprise". A house-to-house search was conducted and roadblocks posted at the valley entrance to prevent Norgrove's captors from transferring her eastward into Pakistan. The difficult terrain (with few roads) complicated and slowed the process; the search efforts succeeded in containing the kidnappers in the vicinity and several local Taliban members were killed. ### Negotiations It was unclear at first who had kidnapped Norgrove and her colleagues. A Taliban commander, the Pakistan-based Mohammed Osman, was reported to demand the release of Aafia Siddiqui in return for Norgrove's freedom. Siddiqui, known as "Lady al-Qaeda", had received an 86-year prison sentence in the US on 26 September. "We are lucky that we abducted this British woman soon after the ruthless ruling by an American court on Aafia Siddiqui. We will demand the release of Aafia Siddiqui in exchange for her", said Osman. Other Afghan sources denied any link to Osman. US military sources identified Norgrove's captors as Kunar Taliban, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague said they were from a Salafist group affiliated with the local Taliban, known as Jamaat al Dawa al Quran. An Afghan intelligence official later identified her captors as local commanders Mullah Basir and Mullah Keftan. Negotiations for Norgrove's release were conducted through local tribal elders. The three Afghans captured with Norgrove were released on 3 October. British Prime Minister David Cameron said that the primary fear was that she "was going to be passed up the terrorist chain, which would increase further the already high risk that she would be killed." The British foreign office asked the media not to release details about Norgrove's personal life while she was in captivity to avoid attaching "trophy value" to her kidnapping. ### Rescue attempt and death Intelligence reports indicated that a group of local elders were calling for Norgrove to be executed "like the Russian" (a possible reference to the Russian war in Afghanistan). The intelligence prompted Cameron and Hague to approve a United States special operations effort to rescue Norgrove during her 13th night of captivity. The operation was spearheaded by "SEAL Team Six", Navy SEALs from the Naval Special Warfare Development Group. The SEALs staged a predawn raid on the Taliban hillside compound hideout, where Norgrove was held in a shack, on 8 October 2010. The stronghold was surrounded by 5-metre (16 ft) high, 1-metre (3 ft) thick perimeter walls in a densely wooded area in the village of Dineshgal, 2,400 metres (8,000 ft) up a steep mountain in the Korengal Valley. At approximately 3:30 am, 20 SEALs and about 24 US Army Rangers from the 75th Ranger Regiment (wearing night-vision goggles) approached the compound, fast roping from two CH-47 Chinook helicopters. They were fired on from the compound and from a nearby position by Taliban armed with AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades, and suicide vests. Two American snipers aboard a helicopter killed two guards using sound-suppressed rifles. An AC-130 Spectre gunship provided the US troops on the ground with close air support, killing two fleeing Taliban. The Rangers secured enemy positions on the nearby hills, and all six Taliban gunmen who fought the US forces were killed. During the gunfight, Norgrove's captors dragged her outside the building where she was being held, but she apparently broke away from them. Video footage of the raid showed an explosion in her vicinity; Norgrove was then found, injured, in a fetal position in a gully. Norgrove was removed from the scene via helicopter and received medical care, but she died. It was reported initially that she had been killed by one of her captors setting off a suicide vest. According to The Guardian, insurgents often put on suicide vests if they think they are in danger of being attacked. Taliban commanders Mullah Basir and Mullah Keftan (who were holding Norgrove) were among those killed in the raid, according to an Afghan intelligence official. Other women and children in the compound were uninjured, and no members of the rescue team were wounded. ## Joint investigation The British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, announced Norgrove's death. In a written statement, he said that after receiving information on her location it was "decided that, given the danger she was facing, her best chance of safe release was to act on that information." David Cameron, the UK Prime Minister, defended the rescue attempt: "Decisions on operations to free hostages are always difficult. But where a British life is in such danger, and where we and our allies can act, I believe it is right to try". On 10 October, an unnamed Afghan intelligence officer said that Norgrove was killed by a grenade thrown by one of her captors. The following day, Cameron said that new information indicated Norgrove may have accidentally been killed by a US grenade. A US military statement read: "Subsequent review of surveillance footage and discussions with members of the rescue team do not conclusively determine the cause of her death". US President Barack Obama promised "to get to the bottom" of the failed rescue attempt. General David Petraeus, commander of the NATO security force in Afghanistan, ordered an investigation into the incident. US Major General Joseph Votel (then Chief of Staff of the US Special Operations Command) and British Brigadier Robert Nitsch (Head of Joint Force Support, UK Forces Afghanistan) were appointed to lead a joint UK and US investigation. It was reported on 12 October that the results were expected within days, and Norgrove's family was kept informed of the investigation's progress. While the military investigation was conducted, Norgrove's body was returned to the United Kingdom on 14 October on a Royal Air Force flight to RAF Lyneham. A humanist funeral ceremony, attended by hundreds of people, was held on 26 October at the Uig Community Centre in the Western Isles. Norgrove was buried at Ardroil cemetery. On 2 December, Hague announced the results of the joint investigation, which concluded that Norgrove was accidentally killed by a grenade thrown by a US sailor. Navy SEALs did not immediately notify senior officers about throwing the grenade; this breached military law, and a number of sailors were disciplined. A post-mortem examination of Norgrove's body was conducted by British coroner Russell Delaney on 19 October 2010. Detective Chief Inspector Colin Smith of the Metropolitan Police told an inquest, opened 22 October in the Salisbury coroner's court, that the examination identified the cause of death as "penetrating fragment injuries to the head and chest." In February 2011, the coroner recorded a narrative verdict confirming the earlier military investigations' findings that Norgrove was killed by a member of the US rescue team, noting that a gunshot wound to the leg Norgrove received during the rescue did not contribute to her death. In October 2012, Abdul Wadood, Norgrove's colleague and fellow captive, told the BBC that she asked the kidnappers if they were going to kill her and that they assured her they would not. ## Tributes James Boomgard, regional director for Development Alternatives Inc., the company employing Norgrove when she was kidnapped, released a statement: "We are saddened beyond words by the death of a wonderful woman whose sole purpose in Afghanistan was to do good – to help the Afghan people achieve a measure of prosperity and stability in their everyday lives as they set about rebuilding their country". United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator Robert Watkins praised Norgrove: "She was a true advocate for the people of Afghanistan and was dedicated to bringing improvements to their lives", and "her spirit and compassion will be greatly missed". First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond said: "Ms Norgrove was a dedicated aid worker who was doing everything she could to help people in Afghanistan—hopefully that legacy of service in a humanitarian cause can be of some comfort to her loved ones in their time of grief". Norgrove received the 2011 Robert Burns Humanitarian Award posthumously for her work in Afghanistan. Her family has established the Linda Norgrove Foundation to continue her relief work. In 2024, the Norgrove Foundation sponsored 19 female Afghan medical students to complete their education in Scotland after their studies were halted by the Taliban in 2021. ## See also - 2010 Badakhshan massacre - List of solved missing person cases

Rene Bourque

Canadian ice hockey player (born 1981)

Rene Gary Wayne Bourque (born December 10, 1981) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey right winger who played in the National Hockey League (NHL). An undrafted player, Bourque was signed by the Chicago Blackhawks as a free agent in 2004 and made his NHL debut in 2005–06. He spent three years in Chicago before a 2008 trade sent him to the Calgary Flames where he established himself as a key offensive player. He was traded to the Montreal Canadiens before stints with the Anaheim Ducks, Columbus Blue Jackets and Colorado Avalanche. Bourque is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, where he played four seasons of hockey and served as a co-captain in his senior year. He turned professional in 2004 when he joined the Norfolk Admirals of the American Hockey League (AHL). He won the Dudley "Red" Garrett Memorial Award as the league's rookie of the year in 2004–05 before beginning his NHL career. Bourque has played for the Canadian national team at the 2010 IIHF World Championship and the 2018 Winter Olympics. Of Métis heritage, Bourque has initiated several charitable causes dedicated to encouraging aboriginal children and helping youth from rural Northern Alberta afford the cost of playing hockey. His efforts have led to a major increase in sport participation with aboriginal children. ## Early life Bourque was born December 10, 1981, and spent his early childhood in Edmonton. His father, Gary, works in the Canadian oil patch near Fort McMurray, while his mother, Barbara, is a social worker in Lac La Biche. Bourque has a fraternal twin sister, Chantal, and two elder sisters, Kim and Nadia, who are also fraternal twins. He is of Métis heritage, and his first cousin, Wayne Bourque, is a three-time North American native boxing champion. The family returned to Lac La Biche when Bourque was seven. As his father was sometimes away from home for weeks at a time due to his job, Bourque's mother raised the kids while also studying for her diploma in social work and later working full-time for the Alberta Government. He grew up in a community with many Metis children. His parents encouraged him in hockey, and after a season of minor hockey in Fort McMurray, he attended the Athol Murray College of Notre Dame south of Regina, Saskatchewan, where he was an honours student. He was recruited to play major junior hockey for the Saskatoon Blades of the Western Hockey League (WHL), though he declined to join the Blades as it would have cost him his eligibility to play for a National Collegiate Athletic Association school. Bourque felt that his education was paramount, and it wasn't until he had earned a full scholarship to play at the University of Wisconsin–Madison that he believed he could make a career in hockey. At Wisconsin, he earned a degree in Consumer Behaviour and Business. ## Playing career ### Junior, college and minor-professional Instead of the WHL, Bourque opted to play one season of Junior A hockey with the St. Albert Saints of the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL), retaining his NCAA eligibility. He scored 44 goals and 81 points to finish second in team scoring in 1999–2000. He was named to the AJHL All-Rookie team and finished as a runner-up for the rookie of the year award. In spite of this, he went undrafted by any National Hockey League (NHL) team. Bourque then moved onto the college game, playing four seasons with the Wisconsin Badgers. He led the Badgers in goals (19) and points (27) as a junior in 2002–03 and was named the team's most valuable player. He again led the Badgers in scoring with 16 goals and 34 points in 2003–04 as Wisconsin reached the regional final of the 2004 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament. He was named the recipient of the Ivan B. Williamson Scholastic Award as the team's scholastic player of the year. He served as a tri-captain of the team in his final year and reached a double-digit goal total in each of his four seasons with the Badgers. Following his graduation, on July 29, 2004, Bourque signed a free agent contract with the Chicago Blackhawks. He was assigned to the Hawks' American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Norfolk Admirals, for the 2004–05 season. He scored a franchise record 33 goals for the Admirals, also leading the team with 60 points, and was named the Dudley "Red" Garrett Memorial Award winner as the AHL's rookie of the year. Additionally, he made the All-Rookie Team and played for Team Canada at the 2005 AHL All-Star Game where he won the hardest shot competition. ### National Hockey League #### Chicago Blackhawks Bourque joined the Blackhawks to start the 2005–06 season, and scored his first NHL goal against goaltender Jean-Sébastien Giguère in his first game, a 5–3 loss to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. He finished his rookie season with 16 goals and 34 points, good for fourth place in team scoring. The Hawks subsequently signed Bourque to a two-year contract extension. He endured an injury-plagued season in 2006–07, appearing in only 44 games and scoring 7 goals. He was rushed to hospital during a November 12, 2006, game against the Columbus Blue Jackets after suffering a deep cut to the neck from Nikolai Zherdev's skate during a scrum in the crease. The Blackhawks announced that he would miss 3–6 weeks following surgery to repair the laceration. Bourque considered himself fortunate that the injury was not worse, stating upon his return to action four weeks later that he might not have survived if the cut was a couple of millimetres deeper. Just over two weeks after his return, Bourque was again sidelined when he suffered a cracked bone in his ankle on December 31, 2006. He returned to action on February 21, 2007, after missing nearly two months. Injuries again hampered Bourque in 2007–08. He missed time early in the season with a groin pull, then was knocked out of the line-up for a month after breaking his thumb in a November game against the Detroit Red Wings. He remained healthy upon his return, finishing the season with 10 goals and 14 assists in 62 games for Chicago. #### Calgary Flames On July 1, 2008, Bourque was traded to the Calgary Flames in exchange for a second round selection at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. The Flames quickly signed the restricted free agent to a two-year contract. He enjoyed a career year in Calgary that included his first hat trick, against the Ottawa Senators, on December 27, 2008. He suffered a high ankle sprain that sidelined him for the final two months of the regular season. Although he was limited to 58 games, he topped the 20-goal plateau for the first time (21) and scored a career high 40 points. He returned in time to play in the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Blackhawks, though he missed one game in the series after re-aggravating the injury. Following the season, he opted for surgery to repair the damage to his ankle. Bourque continued to provide offence for the Flames early in 2009–10; he was leading the Flames in scoring in late November when he was again knocked out of the line-up by an undisclosed injury. He returned to action after two weeks, having missed six games. Bourque remained an offensive catalyst throughout the season, amassing a new career high in goals (27), assists (31) and points (58), and a +7 rating. Signing him to a six-year contract extension worth $3.3 million per season in February 2010, the Flames looked to Bourque to be a top player for the organization. Though prone to inconsistent play, he was considered one of the Flames' top offensive threats, and a player looked at as potentially succeeding captain Jarome Iginla as the team's scoring leader. He played in the 2011 Heritage Classic, scoring two goals in a 4–0 win over the Montreal Canadiens, and finished the season second on the team with 27 goals. Bourque was a frequent lightning rod for attention in 2011–12. Following a slow start to his season offensively, Bourque was criticized on national television by Hockey Night in Canada commentator Kelly Hrudey, who questioned the player's dedication and suggested Bourque didn't care about the game. Bourque expressed his offence at Hrudey's comments, while his teammates spoke out in his defence. He was then suspended twice within a month for illegal hits. Borque received a two-game ban on December 19, 2011, for a check from behind against Chicago's Brent Seabrook, and then earned a five-game suspension on January 4, 2012, for an elbow to the head of Washington's Nicklas Bäckström. It was the last game he played with the Flames. #### Montreal Canadiens Bourque was sent to Montreal with prospect Patrick Holland and a second round draft pick on January 12 in exchange for Michael Cammalleri, Karri Rämö and a fifth round draft pick. Combined between Calgary and Montreal, Bourque's 18 goals and 24 points were his lowest totals in four seasons. His start to the 2012–13 season was delayed by injury. Bourque suffered an abdominal wall tear during off-season training that required surgery to repair. On November 9, 2014, goalless and 13 games into the 2014–15 season, Bourque was placed on waivers by the Canadiens after recording 2 assists and a -9. This was the first season of his NHL career where he didn't score a goal. After clearing waivers on November 10, 2014, Bourque was subsequently sent to Montreal's AHL team, the Hamilton Bulldogs. #### Anaheim Ducks Bourque's tenure with the Canadiens came to an end when he was traded to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Bryan Allen on November 20, 2014. Bourque featured in 30 games with the high-flying Ducks, but struggled to regain his scoring touch in producing just 2 goals. #### Columbus Blue Jackets After clearing waivers upon the trade deadline, Bourque was included in his second trade for the season along with William Karlsson and 2nd-round pick in 2015 to the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for James Wisniewski and a third-round selection in 2015. Bourque was then immediately assigned to AHL affiliate, the Springfield Falcons on March 2, 2015. Before appearing with the Falcons, Bourque was recalled to the Blue Jackets as a replacement for injury. #### Colorado Avalanche At the conclusion of his long-term contract after the 2015–16 season with the Blue Jackets, Bourque went through the off-season as a free agent before agreeing to a professional try-out offer to join the Colorado Avalanche training camp on August 25, 2016. After a successful training camp and pre-season Bourque solidified his position on the roster and extended his NHL career in signing a one-year, one-way deal for the 2016–17 season on October 10, 2016. Bourque experienced a productive start to his Avalanche career, scoring 8 goals in his first 19 games. Bourque later cooled off offensively with the decline of the Avalanche over the course of the season, he still however, finished with a respectable rebound year in compiling 12 goals and 18 points in 65 games. ### Swedish Hockey League On August 29, 2017, it was announced the Bourque had signed a one-year contract with Djurgårdens IF Hockey of the Swedish Hockey League. At 35 years old, Bourque finished his NHL career after recording 163 goals and 153 assists in 725 games with the Blackhawks, Flames, Canadiens, Ducks, Blue Jackets and Avalanche. In the 2017–18 season, Bourque found early success on Djurgården scoring line recording 13 goals and 22 points in 35 games. After his absence from the team due to his participation at the Olympics, Bourque was later ruled out for the remainder of the season due to the health of his son. He announced that this would be the final season of his professional career. ## International play Following the 2009–10 season, Bourque was invited to make his international debut and play for Team Canada at the 2010 IIHF World Championship. He scored one goal and one assist in seven games for the seventh-place Canadians. During the 2017–18 season, Bourque was selected to represent Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Used in an offensive role, he contributed with 3 goals and 4 points in 6 games to help Canada claim the Bronze medal. ## Off the ice Bourque has been involved in many charitable endeavours both in Calgary and Lac La Biche. He says this lifestyle was tough growing up, which is why he started the Bourque Buddies charity to help Metis children have something to look forward to and work towards. “You see the effects of stuff that goes on in small towns or even in reserves and it’s a tough life for a lot of those kids,” Bourque says. He started the Rene Bourque Hockey Fund with the goal of providing hockey equipment to underprivileged kids, and has appeared as a spokesman for Native Americans in sport at youth symposiums. His fund led to the donation of 50 sets of equipment to underprivileged children in Northern Alberta during the 2008–09 season, and over 100 sets in 2010–11. Also in 2010–11, he started a program called "Bourque's Buddies" that rewards kids from the Tsuu T'ina Nation who have made positive contributions in their schools with tickets to Flames games. ## Career statistics ### Regular season and playoffs ### International ## Awards and honours

Roman Quinn

American baseball player (born 1993)

Roman Tredarian Quinn (born May 14, 1993) is an American former professional baseball center fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays. Quinn grew up in an athletic family in Port St. Joe, Florida, and played basketball, gridiron football, and baseball at Port St. Joe High School. His rapid sprint speed caught the attention of sports journalists while he was still in high school, and the Phillies drafted Quinn in the second round of the 2011 MLB Draft. Quinn had previously committed to play college baseball for Florida State, but chose instead to sign with the Phillies. He began playing professional baseball within the Phillies' farm system in 2012, when he was assigned to the Class A Short-Season Williamsport Crosscutters. There, his batting technique and running abilities caused local reporters to dub Quinn the "Human Highlight Reel". Beginning in 2013, injuries began to plague Quinn's career. A hairline fracture in his right wrist, followed by a ruptured Achilles tendon during the offseason, kept him from the field from June 2013 to May 2014. The following June, with the Reading Fightin Phils, Quinn suffered a torn hip flexor that kept him on the disabled list for the remainder of the season. A premature return from an abdominal oblique strain in July, as well as a concussion, limited Quinn to 77 games in 2016, but he returned by September to make his major league debut. Despite telling journalists that his main goal for the 2017 season was to remain healthy, Quinn suffered an injury to his ulnar collateral ligament that May, and missed the remainder of the season. He played a handful of games with the Toros del Este of the Dominican Professional Baseball League, and was in contention for a major league role at spring training in 2018. Quinn was instead assigned to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, where he suffered a torn ligament in his middle finger, before being called up to the Phillies at the end of July. He played through the end of the season with a broken pinky toe, but missed Opening Day the following year due to a preseason oblique strain. After a largely healthy 2019 and 2020, Quinn again ruptured his Achilles tendon while rounding the bases in May 2021, ending his season after only 28 games. ## Early life Quinn was born on May 14, 1993, in Port St. Joe, Florida. He came from an athletic family, with relatives who participated in track and field, baseball, and gridiron football. He attended Port St. Joe High School, playing on the same football team as future National Football League (NFL) player Calvin Pryor. He was a three-sport athlete, earning all-state honors and scoring an average of 20.6 points per game in basketball, serving as a return specialist and defensive back on the football team, and playing in center field for the baseball team. In 2011, during Quinn's senior year of high school, Baseball America named him the fastest man in their Top 200 pre-draft report; he had a 6.35-second 60-yard dash speed, and took an average of 4.20 seconds to run from home plate to first base. Quinn was also a strong hitter, with a .458 batting average, two home runs, and 20 runs batted in (RBIs) as a junior in 2010. ## Professional career ### Philadelphia Phillies #### Minor leagues The Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB) selected Quinn in the second round, 66th overall, of the 2011 MLB Draft. Quinn had previously committed to play college baseball at Florida State University, but turned down the team's athletic scholarship to sign with the Phillies for a $775,000 signing bonus. Because he did not sign with the Phillies until the day before the MLB deadline for college-committed players, Quinn could not start playing professional baseball until the 2012 season. Quinn began his professional career in 2012 with the Low–A Williamsport Crosscutters of the New York–Penn League. Despite batting right-handed and playing in the outfield in high school, he became a switch hitter and a shortstop with the Crosscutters. Sports journalists in Williamsport took notice of Quinn's "put the ball on the ground and run" batting style and declared him the "Human Highlight Reel". He finished the season with a .281 average in 66 games and 267 at bats, with 75 hits, one home run, and 23 RBI, as well as 30 stolen bases. Additionally, Quinn's 11 triples were the most in the New York–Penn League and in the Phillies organization. Going into the 2013 season, Baseball America named Quinn the second-best prospect in the Phillies' farm system, and the 100th-best prospect in baseball. He was assigned to the Single–A Lakewood BlueClaws to start the season, and on April 9, Quinn hit an inside-the-park home run in a game against the Hagerstown Suns. On June 24, 2013, Quinn suffered a hairline fracture in his right wrist, ending his season early. In 67 games for Lakewood, he boasted a .238 average, with 62 hits, five home runs, and 21 RBI in 260 at bats, as well as 32 stolen bases in 67 games. During the offseason, Quinn ruptured his right Achilles tendon, putting him out of commission for the start of the following year. Quinn returned to the field in May 2014, playing with the High–A Clearwater Threshers. He began the season as a shortstop, but after J. P. Crawford was promoted to Clearwater that June, Quinn was moved back to center field. He spent most of the season as the Threshers' leadoff hitter, batting .257 with seven home runs, 36 RBI, 32 stolen bases, and a .343 on-base percentage in 88 games. After the conclusion of the regular 2014 Minor League Baseball season, Quinn was sent to play in the Arizona Fall League for additional development. While playing with the Scottsdale Scorpions, Quinn was first in the league with 14 stolen bases and second in runs scored with 19. He was named both to the Top Prospects Team, selected by managers and coaches, and to the Fall Stars Game. The following year, Quinn was assigned to the Double–A Reading Fightin Phils of the Eastern League. That July, he was one of four Reading players named to the Eastern League All-Star Classic. At the time, he led the Eastern League with 29 stolen bases and six triples, and was seventh in the MiLB with a .306 batting average. He did not end up playing in the game, however; on June 12, the day after an 18-inning game with Reading, a dehydrated and exhausted Quinn was injured in the second inning of a game with what was later diagnosed as a Grade 3 tear to his left hip flexor. He did not play for the rest of the season. On November 20, 2015, the Phillies added Quinn to their expanded 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. He recorded four home runs, 15 RBI, and a .306 average in 257 plate appearances with Reading in 2015. Quinn recovered from the injury by October 15, the start of the Dominican Professional Baseball League season, and joined the Tigres del Licey. Quinn, alongside a number of fellow MLB prospects, helped take the Tigres to the Dominican League playoff series. He batted .212 with two home runs, seven RBI, and two triples in 99 at–bats, and eight stolen bases in 25 games. Quinn rejoined Reading for the 2016 season as the No. 7 Phillies prospect, according to MLB.com. He went into the season with a desire to increase his on-field versatility by learning the other outfield positions. Once again, his season was hindered by injury: Quinn strained his abdominal oblique at the plate on June 4, and returned to the field prematurely ten days later. Because the injury was not healed when he began playing again, Quinn missed nearly two months of the season for additional recovery. He returned to the disabled list in August after being hit in the head during an attempted pickoff throw. In the injury-riddled season, Quinn finished the year with a .302 average with six home runs, 25 RBI, and 36 stolen bases in 77 games. #### Major leagues When the minor league season ended, Quinn was promoted to the Phillies' extended roster as a September call-up. He made his major league debut on September 11, 2016, playing in center field and batting second in the order against the Washington Nationals, and went 0–3 and drew a walk. The following day, in a home game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Quinn hit two doubles, stole a base, drew a walk, and drove in two runs in a 6–2 victory. On September 27, Quinn left a game against the Atlanta Braves in the sixth inning with another oblique strain, ending his season early. In 15 major league games with the Phillies, he hit .263 with six RBI and five stolen bases in six attempts. When asked about his plan for 2017, Quinn told reporters, "My goal is to stay healthy, man, just to be honest with you", and expressed his frustration at never playing a full season of baseball. Going into the season as Baseball America's No. 8 prospect, Quinn was assigned to the Triple–A Lehigh Valley IronPigs. While sliding into third base on May 28, Quinn suffered an injury to his ulnar collateral ligament, which kept him out for the remainder of the season. In 45 games with Lehigh, Quinn batted .274 with two home runs, 13 RBI, and 10 stolen bases. That winter, he returned to the Dominican League, playing in six games for the Toros del Este. There, he batted .125 in 19 plate appearances, with two hits and two runs. After appearing in spring training with the Phillies, where he was evaluated for a possible major league position in the outfield or at shortstop, Quinn returned to Lehigh Valley in 2018. That May, Quinn tore a ligament in his right middle finger while diving into a base, and spent several weeks on the disabled list to recover from surgery. On July 27, 2018, after his rehabilitation process, Quinn was recalled to the Phillies to be used as a pinch runner or pinch hitter. Three days later, manager Gabe Kapler chose to give Quinn the start over right fielder Nick Williams for a game against the Boston Red Sox. In the first game of a doubleheader against the New York Mets on August 16, Quinn and fellow position player Scott Kingery were required to pitch the final innings of a 24–4 loss when the team ran out of available relief pitchers. His first major league home run came on August 21, against Nationals pitcher Matt Grace. In September, Quinn suffered a "very, very small" fracture to his right pinky toe, but was expected to play through the end of the season. Quinn finished the season with a .260 average, including two home runs and 12 RBI, in 131 at–bats, as well as 10 stolen bases in 50 games. Quinn began the 2019 season on the 10-day injured list after suffering an oblique strain during training camp. He returned to the team after recovering from the injury, and successfully stole home plate in the third inning of a 2–1 loss to the Miami Marlins. On July 16, when Yacksel Ríos allowed three extra-base hits and hit Justin Turner with a pitch, Quinn was called to pitch the final outs of a 16–2 loss against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Quinn was called to pitch again on August 3, when a game against the Chicago White Sox bled into 15 innings. He pitched a scoreless 14th inning before the Phillies eventually fell 4–3. That day, Quinn became the first Phillies position player since 1961 to make at least three career pitching appearances for the team, as well as the first major league player to record three hits, two stolen bases, and an appearance on the mound in the same game since George Sisler in 1920. On August 17, while fielding a ground ball, Quinn suffered a groin injury that echoed a strain earlier in the season. He did not play again that season. In 44 games for the Phillies in 2019, Quinn batted .213, with 23 hits, four home runs, and 11 RBI in 108 at–bats. Quinn was named to his first-ever Opening Day roster in 2020, serving as one of six outfielders in an expanded 29-member team. On August 25, while playing the Nationals, both Quinn and left fielder Andrew McCutchen stole second base twice, leading to a season-high four stolen bases in one game for the Phillies. Quinn repeated the feat on September 5, stealing two bases against the Mets. In the sixth inning of that same game, Quinn crashed into the outfield wall while chasing a fly ball, and was placed on concussion protocols. On September 21, Quinn and manager Joe Girardi were both ejected from a game against the Nationals after arguing with home plate umpire Junior Valentine on a called third strike. In the 2020 season, which was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Quinn played in 41 out of 60 games, collecting two home runs, seven RBI, and 12 stolen bases, as well as a .213 average. Going into 2021, Quinn became part of a battle to start in center field, competing for the position with Kingery, Odubel Herrera, new signing Travis Jankowski, and prospect Mickey Moniak. On March 30, Herrera was cut from the team, giving Quinn and prospect Adam Haseley the opportunity to alternate in center field. On May 26, while attempting to round third base in a game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Quinn collapsed on the turf, falling again when he crossed home plate. An MRI confirmed that Quinn had ruptured his Achilles tendon, and the recovery period was expected to be nine to twelve months. He appeared in 28 games before his season-ending injury, recording a .173 average, two RBI, and four stolen bases in 52 at bats, while on defense he had a 1.000 fielding percentage with two assists. On November 30, 2021, Quinn was non-tendered by the Phillies, making him a free agent. On March 12, 2022, the Miami Marlins signed Quinn to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training. However, on April 9, the Phillies signed Quinn to a minor league contract. He was promoted to the club's major league roster on April 25, after Bryson Stott was optioned to Triple–A. Quinn was designated for assignment on June 1. At the time, he had batted .162 and struck out 15 times in 40 plate appearances. On June 5, Quinn elected free agency after rejecting an outright assignment to Lehigh Valley. ### Kansas City Royals On June 8, 2022, Quinn signed a minor league deal with the Kansas City Royals. On July 18, Quinn was released shortly after being placed on the injured list. ### Tampa Bay Rays On July 21, 2022, Quinn signed a major league contract with the Tampa Bay Rays. In 21 games for the Rays, he batted .262/.340/.405 with no home runs and four RBI. On November 10, Quinn was removed from the 40-man roster, and subsequently elected free agency. ### Cleveland Guardians On January 4, 2023, Quinn signed a minor league contract with the Cleveland Guardians. The deal included an invitation to the Guardians' major league spring training camp. He played in 15 games for the Triple–A Columbus Clippers, hitting just .177/.391/.235 with no home runs, six RBI, and two stolen bases. On May 9, Quinn was released by the Guardians organization. ### Milwaukee Brewers On May 24, 2023, Quinn signed a minor league contract with the Milwaukee Brewers organization. Quinn hit a feeble .121/.275/.152 with no home runs, three RBI and five stolen bases in 10 games for the Triple–A Nashville Sounds. He was released by Milwaukee on June 19. ### Colorado Rockies On July 29, 2023, Quinn signed a minor league contract with the Colorado Rockies organization. In 23 games for the Triple–A Albuquerque Isotopes, he batted .219/.326/.397 with two home runs, 15 RBI, and nine stolen bases. On September 14, Quinn was released by Colorado. Following his release from the Rockies organization, Quinn retired from professional baseball. ## Player profile Quinn, shorter than many of his teammates at 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) and known for his speed while running the bases, drew early comparisons to retired Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins. During the 2020 season, Quinn led the MLB in sprint speed, capable of running 30.4 feet per second (9.3 m/s), an improvement from the previous year's 30.1 ft/s (9.2 m/s) average. He attributed the development to losing 5 pounds (2.3 kg) during the offseason. Former MLB outfielder Kenny Lofton helped Quinn develop a batting style that would take advantage of his smaller frame and rapid speed, allowing him to compete with larger, slower power hitters. He emphasizes bunting, line drives, and other batting techniques that slow down the speed of play, thus allowing Quinn to safely reach base, whereupon he can attempt to steal. Like many hitters with his speed, Quinn is a switch hitter. The Phillies signed Quinn as a right-handed hitter out of high school, but he used a delay between signing and playing with the team during the 2011–12 offseason to learn how to bat from both sides. Despite his fast, aggressive playing style, Quinn struggles at times with getting on base. In his final 16 games of 2018, for instance, he went only 5 for 47, with 21 strikeouts. There have been additional concerns about Quinn's frequent injuries; at no point since the 2014 season has he made more than 300 plate appearances. ## Personal life Quinn married his girlfriend, Jenifer McLemore, on January 27, 2018. The couple has one daughter, Londyn Gabriella, born on July 8, 2014, and two sons, Khailan Grey (b. February 7, 2019) and Oaklan Gabriel (b. October 19, 2020). During the offseason, Quinn and his family reside in Port St. Joe. In 2018, Quinn, his wife and children, and his extended family, were impacted when Hurricane Michael hit the Florida Panhandle, including Port St. Joe. Although no one in Quinn's family was harmed by the storm, Quinn and his wife lost power, and his wife's family suffered property damage. He told reporters after the storm passed, "We will be cleaning up for years."

East Bengal Ultras

Supporters group of Sporting Club East Bengal

The East Bengal Ultras () is the vocal supporters' group of an Indian football club, East Bengal, which competes in the ISL—the top tier football league in India. The group is also often referred to as the Bangal Brigade since much of its fanbase originates from the eastern region of Bengal. Founded in 2013, it was the first Ultras group in Indian football and has been credited with revolutionising the Indian football fan movement. East Bengal Ultras was the first supporters' group in India to organise an on-field pyrotechnics show and the first in South Asia to organise a live chant show, which was named Tunes of Colony, in 2019. The group has around 25 chants and slogans. East Bengal Ultras is known for making some of the largest unique tifos in Indian football. In the 2019–20 I-League season, it set a record for the biggest tifo—10,000 sq ft (930 m²)—in Indian football history at that time, breaking the previous record of 7,200 sq ft (670 m²) which the group had also set. ## East Bengal East Bengal Club was founded in 1920 and is regarded as one of India's oldest and most successful association football clubs. The team has won multiple national and international trophies in its history. In 1930, Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagraha (or nonviolent resistance) swept over India and affected football; Indian clubs boycotted the ongoing Calcutta Football League (CFL) midway through the season. In the midst of the disruption, Royal Regiment was declared First Division winner, but East Bengal was not promoted to the First Division despite having won the Second Division. Thousands of East Bengal fans and officials held a protest march at the East Bengal Ground, where protesters carried flaming torches. A hand holding a flaming torch became the supporters' club's emblem. This icon is still the emblem of the club. ## Initial years: 2013–2016 In 2013, the East Bengal Ultras made its first appearance at an away game against Bengaluru, becoming the first ultras group in the country. The group introduced smoke shows at the 2015 Calcutta Football League Kolkata Derby, which East Bengal won by 4–0 and unveiled its first large tifo at the 2016 Kolkata Derby at the Salt Lake Stadium in Bidhannagar. The tifo was a large East Bengal jersey that had the number 12 printed on the back, denoting that the fans were the club's "twelfth man". The tifo was the first of its kind in Indian football and became very popular with the club's supporters. In the 2015–16 I-League, the East Bengal Ultras presented colourful mosaic shows at matches against Bengaluru and Salgaocar in the Barasat Stadium. These were firsts in India's fan culture. At the opening match of the 2016 CFL Premier Division at the Kalyani Stadium, the East Bengal Ultras displayed a 3D tifo, first ever in South Asia, that depicted an East Bengal player holding the CFL Trophy against the backdrop of the Kolkata skyline and the text Kolkata Amader ("Kolkata is ours"). ## Growth of ultras culture: 2017–present The East Bengal Ultras introduced pole flags and a scarf show at a 2016–17 I-League match against Aizawl. The first big tifo of 2017 was another 3D tifo against Bengaluru. The new atmosphere in Indian football created by the group attracted coverage by foreign sports media like Copa90, Ultras-tifo, Football Fans Asia, 11 Freunde, Medium, Exhale Sports and ultras groups of various football clubs. East Bengal Ultras have also backed the club's youth team, performing activities at youth derbies, which prompted much discussion on fan forums. The group started with around 10 people, but they had expanded to thousands by 2019, including between 100 and 150 core members. They are considered as the second best ultras group in Asia. ### Pyro show At an 18 August 2018 CFL game played between East Bengal and Aryan, scores of pyrotechnics were lit at the end of the game. Chants and pyro displays caught the attention of rival fans and players. A powerful procession to the venue was accompanied by a smoke show at the start of the game and it was the first and largest pyro show in Indian football. ### Tunes of Colony To celebrate the club's centenary, the Ultras organised an event called Tunes of Colony, which was held on 31 July 2019 at the Sovabazar Natmandir temple. It was the first-ever chant-based musical show in Indian and South Asian football. The event was a hit with East Bengal fans. ### Tifos In the 2018–19 season, East Bengal won both Kolkata Derbies in the I-League. On 16 December 2018 at the Home Derby, East Bengal Ultras unfurled a gigantic tifo referencing the fan taunt Aha bujhlen kotta, aar koite hoibo? ("Do you understand sir? Do I need to say more?") with images of tea, sugar and milk. This tifo was covered by the BBC. On 27 January 2019 at the return derby, the East Bengal Ultras displayed the second-largest tifo in Indian football. This was covered by sports media like Ultras-tifo. The banner was around 7,200 sq ft (670 m²) and depicted the struggles their ancestors faced during the Partition of India, showing how the East Bengal Club became an inspiration for their daily lives. The fans also put on a smoke show before the match. East Bengal Ultras unveiled a large banner at the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualification match against Bangladesh. It portrayed the front page of The Times of India after India won the 2011 Cricket World Cup and displayed the message "Dream Comes True\!". The group supported the Indian team with continuous chanting and viking thunder claps, which continued after the match finished in a draw. At a game against Real Kashmir on 4 December 2019, the first game of their 2019–20 I-League campaign at the Kalyani Stadium, the East Bengal Ultras presented a 10,000 sq ft (930 m²) tifo, the largest in Indian football at that time, showing five major achievements in the history of East Bengal in the form of a book. This tifo was featured in a December 2019 article in the United States-based media outlet The18. The record was later broken by Manjappada, the supporters' of Kerala Blasters FC on 11 December 2022 by presenting a 11000 sq ft tifo. ## NRC controversy In January 2020, East Bengal Ultras caused a controversy when during the 2019–20 I-League first leg Kolkata Derby match, its members unfurled a tifo bearing statements against the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The banner bore text in Bengali that said, Rokto Diye Kena Maati, Kaagoj Diye Noy ("We bought the land with our blood, not with papers"). The group said in an official statement that the tifo was apolitical and an answer to racist jibes and cyberbullying from rival fans. The incident led to controversy between groups both for and against the NRC. ## Chants and slogans The East Bengal Ultras has been very vocal since its inception and brought football chanting to Indian football to counter traditionally abusive Kolkata football supporters and create a more positive atmosphere and a sense of belonging at games. One of the first East Bengal Ultras chants was Amra Korbo Sringojoy and Haat e Moshal, Buk e Barood; Amra Holam, Lal Holud ("We will do it and torch in hand, gunpowder in the heart, we are red and gold respectively"); since then, a number of chants and slogans based on the club's fortunes have been adopted, modified and re-structured. As of 2020, there are around two dozen chants and slogans. The East Bengal Ultras construct new tunes and chants every year, adapting tunes from Ultras in Europe and South America. "Dale Cavese" is one of the most famous tunes that became popular with the East Bengal Ultras. "Allez Allez Allez" sung by Liverpool F.C. fans, which was itself adapted from Un giorno all'improvviso (originally "L'estate sta finendo") sung by the S.S.C. Napoli fans, was adopted into Bengali and became popular among the supporters. ## Kalinga Super Cup 2024: The Ultras Way The Kalinga Super Cup 2024 will be remembered by all East Bengal supporters as it marked the comeback of East Bengal FC in a grand fashion, after they clinched their berth into the knockouts after defeating arch rivals Mohun Bagan Super Giants knocking them out and then defeating home team Odisha FC to win their first major title in 12 years. This victory also meant East Bengal were now to participate in Asia. The Ultras marked this tournament with great attendance ratio and also came under limelight when they travelled with four buses from Kolkata to Bhuvaneshwar to attend the final. The final was all owned by the East Bengal Ultras in the stands as even before the match started they started heating up the atmosphere when they conducted a pyro show outside the gates. Inside the stadium their chants would overshadow their counterparts from Odisha FC. The best moment of fan engagement during the game came when the Ultras unveiled a long tifo that read "12 years of wait, the champions are here" after the final whistle. Also during post match celebrations, the head coach Carles Cuadrat along with other staff were seen posing in front of the camera with another Ultras' banner that read "Your City, Our Rules." ## See also - East Bengal the Real Power

Jaguar XJ220

Mid-engine sports car manufactured by Jaguar

The Jaguar XJ220 is a two-seat sports car produced by British luxury car manufacturer Jaguar from 1992 until 1994, in collaboration with the specialist automotive and race engineering company Tom Walkinshaw Racing. The XJ220 (with catalytic converter removed) recorded a top speed of 217 mph (349 km/h) during testing by Jaguar at the Nardo test track in Italy. This made it the fastest production car from 1992 to 1993. According to Jaguar, an XJ220 prototype managed a Nürburgring lap time of 7:46.36 in 1991 which was faster than any production car lap time before it. The XJ220 was developed from a V12-engined 4-wheel drive concept car designed by an informal group of Jaguar employees working in their spare time. The group wished to create a modern version of the successful Jaguar 24 Hours of Le Mans racing cars of the 1950s and 1960s that could be entered into FIA Group B competitions. The XJ220 made use of engineering work undertaken for Jaguar's then current racing car family. The initial XJ220 concept car was unveiled to the public at the 1988 British International Motor Show, held in Birmingham, England. Its positive reception prompted Jaguar to put the car into production. Approximately 1,500 deposits of £50,000 each were taken and deliveries were planned for 1992. Engineering and emissions requirements resulted in significant changes to the specification of the XJ220, most notably the replacement of the Jaguar V12 engine by a turbocharged V6 engine. The changes to the specification and a collapse in the demand of high performance cars brought about by the early 1990s recession resulted in many buyers choosing not to exercise their purchase options. A total of just 275 cars were produced by the time production ended, each with a retail price of £470,000 in 1992, making it one of the most expensive cars at that time. ## Conception Racing team owner Tom Walkinshaw approached Jaguar executives and encouraged the company to enter the XJS into the 1981 European Touring Car Championship. The partnership succeeded in winning the competition in 1983. Jaguar had started to provide factory support to racing team Group 44 Racing, who were using the Jaguar-engined XJR-5 in the IMSA GT Championship, supplying V12 engines from 1983 onwards and supporting a Le Mans entry in 1984. Tom Walkinshaw and Jaguar agreed to enter the FIA Group C World Sportscar Championship and developed the XJR-6, which was powered by the same Jaguar V12 engine used by Group 44 Racing. The car was launched during the 1985 season. TWR took over the IMSA GT Championship operation in 1988 and one model – XJR-9 – was launched to compete in both series. The XJR-9, which retained the Jaguar V12 engine, went on to win the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans and World Sportscar Championship in the same year. The poor fuel consumption of the Jaguar V12 combined with new rules restricting refueling during races, forced the replacement of the V12 engine in the successors to the XJR-9, the XJR-10 and XJR-11. The normally-aspirated Austin Rover V64V engine, designed for the MG Metro 6R4 had recently been made redundant due to the Group B rally ban in 1987 and the design rights were for sale. The compact, lightweight and fuel efficient nature of the small-displacement, turbocharged engine was investigated by TWR. They considered it an ideal basis for a new engine to power the XJR-10 and purchased the design rights from Austin Rover Group. Jaguar and their Director of Engineering, Jim Randle, felt these racing cars were too far removed from the product available to the general public, especially with the rule changes that mandated the replacement of the Jaguar V12 engine in the forthcoming XJR-10 and XJR-11 racing cars. Therefore, a project was initiated to design and build a car capable of winning Le Mans "in house", just as the C-Type and D-Type had done. The groundwork for the project was undertaken by Randle over Christmas 1987, when he produced a 1:4 scale cardboard model of a potential Group B racing car. The cardboard model was taken into the Jaguar styling studio and two mock-ups were produced. One was said to be reminiscent of the Porsche 956, the other took elements of the then current XJ41 project and Malcolm Sayer's work on the stillborn XJ13 racing car. The second design, by Keith Helfet, was chosen as it was "more obviously Jaguar in its look". The project still had no official support, leaving Randle no option but to put together a team of volunteers to work evenings and weekends in their own time. The team came to be known as "The Saturday Club" and consisted of twelve volunteers. To justify the resources consumed by the project, the XJ220 needed to provide meaningful data to the engineers on handling, aerodynamics – particularly at high speeds – and aluminium structures. These requirements, together with FIA racing regulations and various government regulations governing car design and safety, influenced the overall design and engineering direction of the car. ## Concept car The FIA Group B regulations steered the concept towards a mid-engine, all-wheel-drive layout, with a Jaguar V12 engine as the power source. The concept car was designed and built at very little cost to Jaguar, as Randle called in favours from component suppliers and engineering companies he and Jaguar had worked with in the past. In return he offered public recognition for their assistance and dangled the possibility of future contracts from Jaguar. The name XJ220 was chosen as a continuation of the naming of the XK120, which referred to the top speed of the model in miles per hour. The concept car had a targeted top speed of 220 mph (350 km/h) so the name became XJ220. The XK120, like the XJ220, was an aluminium-bodied sports car and when launched was the fastest production car in the world. ### Engine and transmission Jaguar's engine designer Walter Hassan had previously developed a 48-valve variant of their V12 engine specifically for motorsport use. It featured a double overhead camshaft layout with four valves per cylinder, compared with the single overhead camshaft and two valves per cylinder of the production engine, which was used in the XJ and XJS models at the time. TWR had manufactured a number of these racing V12 engines during the 1980s and they had been raced competitively, with a 7-litre version of this engine featuring in the Le Mans-winning XJR-9. Five of these engines still existed, all of which were fitted with dry sump lubrication. One of five of these engines was chosen and considered to be especially useful as the dry sump would lower the vehicle's centre of gravity. The displacement of the V12 was set at 6.2 litres (6,222 cc) for the XJ220. The engine fitted to the XJ220 concept had titanium connecting rods. Jaguar had little experience with four-wheel drive systems at the time, having previously only produced rear-wheel drive cars. Randle approached Tony Rolt's company, FF Developments to design the transmission and four-wheel drive system for the XJ220, with Rolt's son Stuart running the project. Tony Rolt was the Technical Director of Ferguson Research, where he was heavily involved in the design of the four-wheel drive system used in the Jensen FF, the first sports car to be fitted with such a system. Tony Rolt also had a long involvement with Jaguar, winning the 1953 24 Hours of Le Mans with the factory works team driving the C-Type. The mid-mounted engine complicated the design of the four-wheel drive system and an innovative solution was needed to get power from the mid-mounted rear engine to the front wheels. The chosen design took the front-wheel drive from the central differential on the rear transaxle and sent it through the V in the centre of the engine using a quill drive, before joining an inverted differential. The clutch was a twin-plate unit designed by AP Racing. ### Bodywork and interior The design brief for the exterior restricted the use of aerodynamic aids and aimed for a simple yet clean and functional body similar to classic Jaguar sports cars, such as the D-Type and E-Type. Drag and lift were limited at the envisioned ground clearance for road use, but the design allowed for additional downforce when the car was set up for racing. The body produced around 3,000 lb (1,400 kg) of downforce at 200 mph (322 km/h). The design was also intended to have a variable rear wing that folded into the bodywork at lower speeds. Aerodynamic work was undertaken at the Motor Industry Research Association wind tunnel using a 1:4 scale model, as the project was unable to budget for a full-scale mock-up. The bodywork for the concept car displayed in 1988 was hand built from aluminium by Park Sheet Metal, a specialist automotive engineering company that manufactures concept cars and low-volume niche models for various manufacturers, including Bentley. QCR Motors LTD undertook final painting of the body in silver. The concept also featured electrically operated scissor doors and a transparent engine cover to show off the V12 engine. The concept car had a Connolly Leather-trimmed interior trimmed by Callow & Maddox and was fitted with front and rear heated windscreens, electric windows, air conditioning, heated electrically adjustable seats and an Alpine CD player. The dashboard was supplied by Veglia. ### Chassis The chassis was manufactured from aluminium using Alcan's bonded aluminium structure vehicle technology (ASVT) and had a wheelbase of 2,845 mm (112 in). The design for the chassis featured rear wheel steering and packaged the fuel tank behind the centre bulkhead. Suspension design largely focused on road use, but a good compromise for racing use was achieved and the suspension height was adjustable. The concept car was fitted with a four-channel anti-lock braking system. The concept car was larger than the production model at 5,140 mm (202 in) in length and was 2,000 mm (79 in) wide. It weighed 1,560 kg (3,439 lb). ### Launch The concept car was completed in the early hours of 18 October 1988, the day it was due to be unveiled at the British International Motor Show, being held at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham. The vehicle was completed at 03:00 GMT, moved to Jaguar's stand at 06:00 GMT and unveiled at 11:00 GMT. Jaguar's marketing department had allocated space on their stand at the motor show for the XJ220, but had not seen the vehicle until its arrival. Jaguar chairman John Egan and Roger Putnam, who was in charge of Jaguar's racing activities, were shown the vehicle the week before the motor show and signed off on the concept, allowing its unveiling. The car received an overwhelmingly positive reception by public and press and a number of wealthy Jaguar enthusiasts handed over blank cheques to secure a purchase option should the XJ220 concept go into production. Ferrari's display of their F40 flagship model at the same event was overshadowed, as an estimated 90,000 additional visitors came to see the XJ220. The XJ220 was not initially intended to be a production car, but following the reception of the concept and financial interest from serious buyers, a feasibility study was carried out by teams from TWR and Jaguar. The conclusion was that such a car would be technically feasible (subject to engineering changes) and that it would be financially viable. The announcement of a limited production run of 220 to 350 cars was made on 20 December 1989. The list price on 1 January 1990 was £290,000 exclusive of value-added tax (VAT), options and delivery charges, but by 1992 that had increased considerably owing to indexation of contracts. The offer was four times oversubscribed and deposits of £50,000 exclusive of (VAT) were taken from around 1,400 customers. First deliveries were planned for mid-1992. ## Production version Jaguar were unable to develop the XJ220 in-house as the available engineering resources were committed to working on the XJ and XJS models. Jaguar and TWR had an existing joint venture, JaguarSport Ltd. formed in 1987 to produce racing cars. Jaguar's board made the decision that subject to contractual agreement, TWR and JaguarSport would be responsible for the XJ220. JaguarSport formed a new company, Project XJ220 Ltd., specifically to develop and build the XJ220. The team that would determine the necessary engineering work and assess the car's financial viability was put in place during mid-1989, working from the TWR workshops. Mike Moreton headed the team, joining TWR to run the XJ220 project. Moreton came from Ford Motorsport where he led the team responsible for the Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth, and was a project manager for the Ford RS200 Group B rally car program. Richard Owen was appointed chief designer and the remainder of the team was made up of Jaguar and TWR staff, including Pete Dodd, the only member of the group of twelve responsible for the XJ220 concept. The exterior and interior designers who had worked on the XJ220 prototype, Keith Helfet and Nick Hull, rejoined the project when it became clear that more design work would be needed. ### Development The development team looked at the two principal competitors, the Ferrari F40 and the Porsche 959. These were powered by compact, lightweight engines; both the Ferrari and the Porsche used forced induction to obtain high power outputs from small-displacement engines. Ferrari used a 2.9-litre (180 cu in) twin-turbocharged V8 engine that was rated at 352 kW; 471 hp (478 PS) whilst Porsche used a 2.9-litre (180 cu in) twin-turbocharged flat-six engine rated at 331 kW; 444 hp (450 PS), resulting in cars that were significantly lighter and smaller than the XJ220 concept: the Ferrari was lighter by 600 kg (1,323 lb) and 710 mm (28 in) shorter, whilst the Porsche was 250 kg (551 lb) lighter and 870 mm (34 in) shorter. The Porsche's specifications were closer to the Jaguar's, with all-wheel drive and a luxurious interior. By comparison, the rear-wheel drive Ferrari had a very basic interior, with no carpets, door handles or a stereo. ### Engine The production version of the XJ220 used a 3,498 cc (3.5 L; 213.5 cu in) twin-turbocharged V6 engine, which was given the designation Jaguar/TWR JV6 Jaguar JRV-6 engine . This engine, which replaced the Jaguar V12 engine featured in the concept car, was a heavily redesigned and significantly altered version of the Austin Rover V64V V6 engine. The decision to change the engine was based on engine weight and dimensions, as well as environmental emission considerations. Use of the shorter V6 engine design allowed the wheelbase of the XJ220 to be shortened and its weight to be reduced; the V12 engine was definitively ruled out when it was determined it would have difficulty at simultaneously meeting emissions legislations. TWR purchased the rights to the V64V engine from Austin Rover in 1989 and developed a completely new turbocharged engine, codenamed JV6, under the auspices of Allan Scott, with proportions roughly similar to the V64V, and suitable for sports car racing. As the V64V was originally naturally aspirated, it was necessary to redesign all parts of the engine to accommodate forced induction. A few of the changes included increasing the displacement to 3.5 litres, strengthening the internals and adding two Garrett TO3 turbochargers. The JV6 engine would first be used in the JaguarSport XJR-10 and XJR-11 racing cars; its compact dimensions and low weight made it an ideal candidate for the XJ220. The engine had a 90° bank angle, four valves per cylinder and belt-driven double overhead camshafts. The V64V engine chosen had a short but successful career as a purpose-designed racing car engine. It was designed by Cosworth engine designer David Wood for Austin Rover Group's Metro derived Group B rally car, the MG Metro 6R4. The redesign work necessary to create the Jaguar/TWR JV6 engine was undertaken by Andrew Barnes, TWR's Powertrain Manager, and also involved Swiss engine builder Max Heidegger, who had designed and built the race engines used in the XJR-10 and XJR-11 racing cars. The XJ220's engine had a bore x stroke of 94 mm × 84 mm (3.70 in × 3.31 in), dry sump lubrication, multi point fuel injection with dual injectors and Zytek electronic engine management. The engine was manufactured with an aluminium cylinder block and aluminium cylinder heads with steel connecting rods and crankshaft. In the standard state of tune, it was rated at a power output of 550 PS (405 kW; 542 hp) at 7,200 rpm and torque of 475 lb⋅ft (644 N⋅m) at 4,500 rpm. The XJ220 could accelerate from 0–60 mph (97 km/h) in 3.6 seconds and could attain a top speed of 212.3 mph (341.7 km/h). Road & Track tested a top speed of 210.5 mph (338.8 km/h), 0–60 mph (97 km/h) acceleration in 4.8 seconds and 12.4 seconds for the standing 1⁄4 mile (402 m). The XJ220's exhaust system consists of two catalytic converters, which reduce the power output of the engine. During testing at the Nardò Ring in Italy, one XJ220 had its catalytic converters removed and its rev limit increased to 7,900 rpm; these modifications increased the car's power output by 51 hp (38 kW; 52 PS) and the car was then driven by 1990 Le Mans Winner Martin Brundle to a top speed of 217.1 mph (349 km/h). Owing to the circular nature of the track, some (including the British car magazines Top Gear and Autocar) say a speed of 217 mph (349 km/h) is equivalent to 223 mph (359 km/h) on a straight, level road. However, on other tracks it performed differently; when top speed was tested on a straight level road by Road & Track it only amounted to 210.5 mph (339 km/h), it was slower than the Bugatti EB 110 at the same event and the Ruf CTR tested there in 1987. The V64V engine had the additional benefit of being very economical for such a powerful petrol engine, according to Jaguar it was capable of achieving 32 mpg_‐imp (8.8 L/100 km; 27 mpg_‐US). In contrast, the Jaguar saloon having the smallest engine of the time, the XJ6 3.2 could only achieve around 24 mpg_‐imp (12 L/100 km; 20 mpg_‐US). The engine was manufactured and built at the new purpose-built facility in Kidlington, Oxfordshire. TWR invested heavily in a state of the art machining facility capable of servicing all of its race and road car projects. The facility was initially setup to produce the XJ220's engine under Simon Lockwood, an ex-March Engineering suspension specialist. ### Transmission All-wheel drive was decided against early in the development process, for a number of reasons. It was thought rear-wheel drive would be adequate in the majority of situations, that the additional complexity of the four-wheel drive system would hinder the development process and potentially be problematic for the customer. FF Developments were contracted to provide the gearbox/transaxle assembly, modifying their all-wheel drive transaxle assembly from the XJ220 concept into a pure rear-wheel drive design for the production car. The transaxle featured a viscous coupling limited slip differential to improve traction. The transmission featured triple-cone synchromeshing on first and second gears to handle rapid starts, whilst remaining relatively easy for the driver to engage and providing positive feel. AP Racing provided an 8.5 in (22 cm) diameter clutch. ### Exterior The exterior retained the aluminium body panels of the XJ220 concept, but for the production cars Abbey Panels of Coventry were contracted to manufacture the body shells. The scissor doors were dropped for the production model and significant redesign work was carried out on the design when the wheelbase and overall length of the car was altered. Geoff Lawson, design director at Jaguar at the time, took a greater interest in the car and insisted the design had to be seen as a Jaguar if it were to be successful in promoting the company. Keith Helfet returned to undertake the necessary redesign work mandated by the change in the wheelbase, which was reduced by 200 mm (7.9 in). The turbocharged engine required larger air intakes to feed the two intercoolers. Situated between the doors and the rear wheels, the air intakes were larger on the production version of the XJ220 than on the concept car. A number of small design changes for the body were tested in the wind tunnel; the final version had a drag coefficient of with downforce of 1,361 kg (3,000 lb) at 200 mph (322 km/h). The XJ220 was one of the first road cars to intentionally use underbody airflow and the venturi effect to generate downforce. Additionally, the XJ220 could be ordered with optional BBS wheels for improved brake ventilation and aesthetics. The rear lights used on the production XJ220 were sourced from the Rover 200. ### Chassis The production model utilised the same Alcan bonded honeycomb aluminium structure vehicle technology (ASVT) as the concept car for the chassis. The chassis design featured two box section rails which acted as the suspension mounting points and would provide an energy absorbing structure in the event of a frontal impact; these were successfully tested at speeds up to 30 mph (48 km/h). An integral roll cage formed part of the chassis and monocoque, providing additional structural rigidity for the car and allowing the XJ220 to easily pass stringent crash testing. The rear-wheel steering was dropped from the production car to save weight and reduce complexity, as was the height adjustable suspension and active aerodynamic technology. The suspension fitted to the production model consisted of front and rear independent suspension, double unequal length wishbones, inboard coil springs and anti-roll bars, with Bilstein gas-filled dampers. The braking system was designed by AP Racing and featured ventilated and cross-drilled discs of 13 in (33.0 cm) diameter at the front and 11.8 in (30.0 cm) diameter at the rear. The calipers were four-piston aluminium units. JaguarSport designed the handbrake, which has separate calipers acting on the rear brake discs. Feedback from enthusiasts and racing drivers resulted in the decision to drop the anti-lock braking system from the production car. The braking system was installed without a servo, but a number of owners found the brakes to be difficult to operate when cold and subsequently requested a servo to be fitted. A rack and pinion steering was fitted, with 2.5 turns lock to lock; the steering had power assistance. The Bridgestone Expedia S.01 asymmetric uni-directional tyres were specially developed for the XJ220. Rally alloy wheel specialists Speedline Corse designed the alloy wheels, these are both wider and have a larger diameter on the rear wheels; 17 in (43.2 cm) wheels are fitted to the front and 18 in (45.7 cm) are fitted at the rear, with 255/55 ZR17 tyres at the front and 345/35 ZR18 tyres at the rear. ### Interior The interior was designed for two passengers and trimmed in leather. Leather trimmed sports seats were fitted together with electric windows and electrically adjustable heated mirrors. The dashboard unusually curves round and carries onto the drivers door, with a secondary instrument binnacle containing four analogue gauges, including a clock and voltmeter fitted on the front of the drivers door. Air conditioning and green tinted glazing was also fitted. The luggage space consists of a small boot directly behind and above the rear portion of the engine, also trimmed in leather. ### Production The car was assembled in a purpose-built factory at Wykham Mill, Bloxham near Banbury in Oxfordshire. Diana, Princess of Wales officially opened the factory and unveiled the first production XJ220 in October, 1991. The JV6 engines used in the Jaguar racing cars were produced by Swiss engineer Max Heidegger, but delivering the number of engines required for the XJ220 program was considered beyond his capacity. TWR formed a division, TWR Road Engines, to manage the design, development, construction and testing of the engines for the production cars. The JV6 engine used in the XJ220 featured little commonality with the engines Heidegger built for use in the XJR racing cars, being specifically engineered to meet performance and in particular, the European emissions requirements, which the race engines didn't have to meet. FF Developments, in addition to the design work undertaken on the gearbox and rear axle assembly, was given responsibility for the manufacture of these components. The aluminium chassis components and body panels were manufactured and assembled at the Abbey Panels factory in Coventry, before the body in white was delivered to the assembly plant at Bloxham. The car, including chassis and body components, consists of approximately 3,000 unique parts. The first customer delivery occurred in June 1992 and production rates averaged one car per day. The last XJ220 rolled off the production line in April 1994; the factory was then transferred to Aston Martin and used for the assembly of the Aston Martin DB7 until 2004. ## Guinness World Record Jaguar had performed high speed testing of the pre-production XJ220 with chassis number 004 at Fort Stockton, Texas in 1991 and recorded a maximum speed of 212.3 mph (341.7 km/h), which was faster than any production car at the time. According to Car magazine, Jaguar hoped to attain 220 mph (354 km/h) with the XJ220, mainly for promotional reasons. The decision was made to undertake further high speed testing in June 1992 at the Nardò Ring in Italy, with one journalist from Road & Track and one from the Car magazine together with a photographer and a BBC cameraman recording for BBC Top Gear as independent witnesses. None of the independent witnesses understood how Jaguar's testing equipment worked. The pre-production XJ220 with chassis number 009 would be driven by Martin Brundle, who had won the 1990 24 Hours of Le Mans driving the XJR-12. The initial high speed runs, with the car configured in standard trim (catalytic converters connected, lower rev-limit of 7,400 rpm) achieved a maximum recorded speed of 212.3 mph (341.7 km/h), the same speed as previously reached at Fort Stockton during testing. Brundle reported that the car was hitting the rev limiter during the run. The rev limiter was increased to 7,900 rpm and the catalytic converters were removed in favour of installing straight-through exhaust pipes for a second series of runs, and it was this attempt which resulted in the maximum recorded speed of 217.1 mph (349.4 km/h). It was estimated that the removal of the catalytic converters, which were not mandated in Europe at the time, increased the power output by around 51 PS (38 kW; 50 hp). Guinness Book of World Records recorded the 217.1 mph run as the official fastest speed ever attained by a standard production car, this figure was reported in the 1994 to 1999 editions of the Guinness Book of World Records. Guinness World Records then recognised the McLaren F1 driven by Andy Wallace which achieved a maximum recorded speed of 240.1 mph (386.4 km/h) in March 1998 (also with rev-limiter increased) as the fastest standard production car in the world. ## Reception and sales Press coverage of the XJ220 concept in 1988 was overwhelmingly positive and contributed to the decision in 1989 to put the XJ220 into limited production. The production version of the car was first shown to the public in October 1991, at the Tokyo Motor Show. The first car was launched for press review in Autumn 1991. Autocar's Andrew Frankel was the first journalist to road-test the car and reported: "Savage acceleration really is a given here. What's really incredible about the XJ220 is its ability to provide such performance in a way that never, ever intimidates." He was particularly impressed with the throttle response, the driver's ability to control the performance of the car very precisely, and the way in which the engine delivers its power progressively rather than in one short burst. Performance Car reviewer John Barker was also impressed with the performance as well as the ride and stability of the car, writing "The V6 has a rumbly, loping note which, in league with a remarkably supple ride, belies the speed we are travelling at. I glance to the speedo and have trouble believing that it is indicating 170 mph." Barker was also impressed with the engineering, saying "this car is catalysed, fully homologated and has passed the same tests that a Volvo needs before going on sale", going on to discuss how the vehicle looked at home on the racetrack thanks to the design. Autocar's verdict was "Right now, the XJ220 gives us a standard by which all other fast cars can be compared. For the few who will actually own and, hopefully, use their XJ220s, the fact that they are in command of the most accomplished supercar ever made should suffice." Ergonomics and ride were also praised by Gavin Green in Car August 1992: "you sit straight ahead, pedals and four-spoked Nardi wheel beautifully positioned. There's none of the askew nonsense that plagues Italian supercars...forward visibility is panoramic and side vision is good. Rear vision is better than on some other mid-engined monsters." He went on to describe the ride: "The XJ220 rides over knobbly tarmac with extraordinary dexterity...the big Jag rides urban blacktop better than many sports saloons, never mind supercars." In a comparison test published in the Car March 1994 issue, the testers liked the "sheer blistering pace, looks and a superb cabin" but its size, the doors not opening far enough and handling were criticised: "If there's a more evil device on our roads, I wouldn't like to find it, for the XJ220 suffers from immense initial understeer followed by violent and snappy pendulous oversteer." Most disappointing was the engine, at idle it sounded "like someone's clanking a bucket of rusty nails together". While its rival, the Bugatti EB 110, impressed the testers, the XJ220 disappointed: "The Jaguar is outmoded and lacks soul: it looks like a cynical marketing exercise and feels it in its lack of purity and coherence." Motoring journalists have been critical of its size, being too big for a two-seater with virtually no luggage space, too wide to fit through traffic restrictors or to drive comfortably on most roads. The very heavy unassisted steering and pedals, underwhelming brakes without ABS, poor directional stability and "terrible visibility" were also disliked. Most criticised was the behavior at low revs, the engine sound was described with words like "a pail of nuts and bolts being poured through a Magimix", rattling clutch, grinding transmission, crackling chassis, rumbling and groaning body contributing to the impression of imminent breakdown. Driving in the city was sheer torture, worsened by the first gear being far too tall for stop-and-go traffic. Sales performance was disappointing. Jaguar had intended to produce up to 350 cars, but production ceased in 1994 with 281 production cars produced, not all of which had been sold; some left-hand drive examples were still available in 1997. The recession combined with the drastic changes to the production version left many of those who placed a deposit unable to complete the purchase. The index linking of contracts exacerbated the issue, and added almost £200,000 to the purchase price between early 1990 and mid-1992. The McLaren F1 suffered from similarly poor sales performance, with just 71 cars sold against McLaren's target of 300. McLaren's F1 program eventually turned a small profit due to the sale and servicing of the 28 GTR racing variants produced. Jaguar customers attempting to withdraw from their contracted purchases were given the option to buy themselves out of their contracts, but by 1995, the issue had resulted in legal action as buyers claimed the specification changes rendered any contracts void. Jaguar produced evidence clearly demonstrating that the vehicle specification shown in the contract matched the vehicle that was delivered and the presiding judge, John Donaldson, quickly ruled in Jaguar's favour. The last of the unsold XJ220s were sold for £127,550 plus VAT in 1997. While never officially approved for sale in the United States, the XJ220 was approved under the Show or Display exemption by 2001. The XJ220 appeared in later motoring press articles; Evo journalist David Vivian, writing a head-to-head test between the XJ220 and the Lamborghini Murciélago in 2009, commented that "going ludicrously fast seems trivially easy" and acknowledged that the decision to change the V12 engine for a turbocharged V6 engine "would garner more acceptance now". The Lamborghini delivered the far better driving experience however: "After the XJ220, it’s almost absurdly agile", "the big difference, and it is massive, is how much more exciting, entertaining and accessible the LP640 is to drive." ## Racing A racing version was introduced at the 1993 Autosport International motor show; given the model name XJ220-C, it was built to compete in FISA GT racing. The XJ220-C driven by Win Percy won its first race, a round of the BRDC National Sports GT Challenge at Silverstone. Three works XJ220-Cs were entered in the 1993 24 Hours of Le Mans race, in the newly created Grand Touring Class. John Nielsen, David Brabham and David Coulthard won the GT class, beating Porsche by two laps; the other two cars retired, both through engine failure. However, the class win was revoked when the Jaguar XJ220-C was controversially disqualified for failing to run with catalytic converters. The Jaguars had passed scrutiny and completed the first day of qualifying when senior steward Alain Bertaut complained that Jaguar were not running catalytic converters. The cars had been entered under the IMSA GT category and Bertaut claimed that they needed to run with catalysts. The cars ran in the race under appeal. International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) officials wrote to the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) (English: Automobile Club of the West), organisers of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, confirming that the XJ220-Cs entered had complied with IMSA rules. Jaguar won their appeal (supported by the FIA) but were nevertheless disqualified, as the ACO confirmed that the appeal had not been lodged in time. Four cars were entered in the GT1 class for the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans, two by PC Automotive Jaguar and two by Chamberlain Engineering, though the latter did not run their cars. Neither team had Jaguar or TWR backing; both of PC Automotive's cars were outpaced by the new McLaren F1 GTR. Richard Piper, Tiff Needell and James Weaver were holding fourth position until an engine failure during the night, ending their race, whilst the second XJ220-C retired after leaving the road. A lightly modified road-going XJ220 was also entered in the Italian GT Championship in 1993, although without factory support; where it raced in Martini livery. This entry predated the factory's Le Mans entry. The XJ220-C was promoted in the United States in the-made-for-TV "Fast Masters" racing series at Indianapolis Raceway Park, airing on ESPN in the summer of 1993 and featuring invited drivers over 50 years old in an elimination format. The competition became a farce due to the cars' viscous Limited-slip differentials proving ill-suited for the oval track the organizers had chosen, producing strange handling characteristics that resulted in several crashes. TWR developed a further six road cars called the XJ220-S, featuring one-piece carbon-fibre-reinforced polymer front and rear bodywork; the engine was tuned to 700 PS (515 kW; 690 hp). The XJ220-S models did away with the hidden headlamps of the original and instead opted for perspex covered lights. The S models were essentially road-going versions of the XJ220-C race car and as a result featured a much simpler race-orientated interior with kevlar seats and the removal of the leather trim. Colin Goodwin, a writer for Autocar, tested an XJ220-S in June 1995 at Millbrook Proving Ground and set the lap record at an average speed of 180.4 mph (290.3 km/h). ## Jaguar XJ220 Pininfarina The Jaguar XJ220 Pininfarina is a special XJ220 built in 1995 for the Sultan of Brunei and his brother Prince Jefri, who commissioned a number of rare and one-off heavily modified cars based on expensive luxury cars. This car was modified by Pininfarina with the redesigned body being manufactured by coach maker Coggiola with modifications including fixed headlights, new rear lights with a redesigned double-vane rear wing, and a new interior package. The car also comes with dark green exterior paint. ## See also - List of Nürburgring Nordschleife lap times - Production car speed record

Micro Machines (video game)

1991 video game

Micro Machines is a racing game developed by Codemasters and originally published by Camerica for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991. Themed around Galoob's Micro Machines toys, players race in miniaturised toy vehicles around various environments. The game is the first installment in the Micro Machines video game series. Micro Machines was developed because Galoob wanted Codemasters to develop a game based on their toy brand, although Galoob and Codemasters encountered legal issues with Nintendo over the game being unlicensed. Micro Machines was ported to several systems, and received reboots for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, and GameCube in 2002. A sequel, Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament, was released in 1994, and the series was revived in 2016 with the release of a title for iOS and Android. Micro Machines received critical acclaim, with reviewers praising the originality and two-player mode, although some criticised the sprites on some versions. Retrospectively, it has been considered one of the greatest video games of all time. ## Gameplay Micro Machines is a top-down racing game: players observe races from above. Players race in environments such as breakfast and pool tables, work desks, and treehouses, driving toy vehicles such as powerboats, helicopters, formula one cars, and tanks that can shoot other racers. Courses have a predefined path that racers must follow: if a player leaves the defined route for too long they are sent back to the track. Many have obstacles such as cereal boxes on breakfast tables, and pencil sharpeners on desks. There are two game modes: the Micro Machines Challenge, and head-to-head. In both modes, players select a character. In Micro Machines Challenge, players race against three computer-controlled opponents, and must finish in first or second to qualify for the next round. Players are given three chances: if all three are lost the game is over. Every three races, players compete in a time trial race to earn an extra chance. In head-to-head, players race against another vehicle. Players are colour-coded, and the goal is to get lights on the screen to show the player's colour by getting a screen ahead of the other player, so the trailing player is no longer visible. When this happens, one light turns to the colour of the leading player. The game ends when all eight lights are one colour, or after three laps, in which case victory goes to the player with the most lights. If the game is tied, there is a "sudden death play-off", where the next player to win a light wins. The game starts with four lights of each colour. Head-to-head can be played in either single-player mode or with two players. With two players, certain characters have a handicap to give the other player a better chance. The Game Gear version supports two players via link-up, or by players holding one end of the console each with one player using the buttons and the other the D-pad. ## Development In 1990, the founders of Codemasters, David and Richard Darling, were at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and were impressed with the popularity of the Nintendo Entertainment System in the US. They wanted to develop games for the system, but did not have a licence from Nintendo. In October 1989, programmer Andrew Graham developed a prototype, California Buggy Boys, a racing game with a top-down view on a scrolling dune-based race track. Its two player mode, based on the 1983 Adventure International game Rally Speedway, does not employ split screen, a technique that is hard to achieve on NES hardware. Instead, two players race on a single screen, hugging the screen edges as the distance between them grows. Once the distance is large enough, the winning player gains a point – a difference from Rally Speedway, in which the losing player gains a time penalty instead. The prototype was showcased with multiple consoles networked. It featured buggies similar to those in Power Drift, targeting the United States market. Codemasters then obtained a licensing deal with Galoob, wanting a game based on its Micro Machines toys. California Buggy Boys was used as a base, and Galoob sent a good selection of toys to Codemasters. The development team did not have access to official Nintendo documents, and their knowledge of the NES's hardware came from reverse engineering. They chose recognisable household environments such as tables, although the NES's limited graphics capabilities necessitates repetition. Artist Paul Perrot converted the California Buggy Boys graphics using Deluxe Paint and a cross compiler. According to Graham, the team tried to keep the tracks short, as they were considered more enjoyable. Graham stated that the artificial intelligence (AI) is basic by modern standards, and that it was difficult to replicate the multiplayer experience in single-player mode. The AI consisted of invisible arrows, which directed computer-controlled vehicles. Graham stated that split screen was not viable on the NES, and that the single-screen system was something that he was eager to try. He further stated that he was "very happy" with the multiplayer mode, saying it is the best part of the game and made the single player mode "boring" in comparison. He was very pleased when Richard Darling stated that Micro Machines is the best game they had ever made. Another multiplayer mode was shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, but was discontinued due to requiring a network. Micro Machines was completed in September 1990. It was not submitted to quality assurance, so a major bug that caused the game to crash was discovered near completion. The bug occurred when the player tried to reverse on the first race, but none of the testers thought to do so as they thought it was so easy. It was determined that just one binary bit was wrong, but many buggy ROM chips had already been manufactured, so a device akin to a miniature Game Genie was installed in the cartridges to correct it. Micro Machines was released for the NES by Camerica in 1991. Nintendo wanted development halted because Codemasters did not have a licence from them, and sued Galoob over the sales of the Game Genie. Courts ruled in Galoob's favour, Nintendo appealed, and the ruling was upheld. The legal issues meant that sales of the NES version were not as good as hoped. After the release of the NES version, ports for the Mega Drive, Game Gear, Master System, Game Boy, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), CD-I, and IBM PC compatibles were developed. The Mega Drive team changed the handling (giving it an "on-rails" feel), and most of the graphics merely required redrawing. This involved adding colour, or simply recreating them based on the originals. Rotations were added to the vehicle sprites for smoother movement. According to artist Brian Hartley, the main considerations were the colour schemes, and it was decided to keep the game with a cartoon style. He stated it led to a "fun use of colour". The design decisions were made during the development for the NES version, so the Mega Drive team simply had to convert the game for Mega Drive hardware. Galoob's only input was to ensure correctness of their logos. The Mega Drive version was originally due for release in January 1993, but Sega's legal issues over the game's lack of license delayed release until July. The CD-I version was coded by Ashley Hogg. He stated that there were problems that only occurred on this console, and CD-Rs were expensive. The Game Gear team were originally against the "on-rails" handling of the Mega Drive version, and wanted to revert to the NES drifting. The Game Gear version was created by Ashley Routledge and Dave Saunders, who adjusted the Mega Drive graphics to the Game Gear's smaller screen. It was produced alongside the Mega Drive version, and programmed from scratch to run at 60 frames per second (FPS). The main problem was retaining detail on the Game Gear's inferior storage and memory capabilities. Much of the art had to be redrawn with fewer colours at lower resolutions. The biggest problem was the screen size, which made it difficult to take corners at high speeds. The team tweaked the camera movement so the vehicle was positioned further back, so players are able to see the track ahead according to vehicle speed. The options screens were simplified, to quickly initiate the gameplay. Graham was at the centre of development across platforms, and had no problem with the Game Gear version having vehicle behaviour similar to the NES version. Routledge and Saunders came up with the method of multiplayer on the same device. Multiplayer via link-up was difficult to implement, with problems such as the game losing sync. The Game Gear version was released in 1993, the Master System, CD-I, SNES, and MS-DOS versions in 1994, and the Game Boy version in 1995. The Amiga version was released in September 1993. Micro Machines was followed by a sequel, Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament in 1994, and a reboot (titled MicroMachines and released by Infogrames) in 2002 for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Game Boy Advance. A GameCube version was released in January 2003, although this version and the Xbox version were cancelled in the US. The series received an updated game (also titled Micro Machines) for iOS and Android in 2016. Micro Machines was bundled with its sequel and released on the Game Boy Color in 2000. ## Reception Micro Machines received critical acclaim. The multiplayer mode in particular was well received, and some reviewers complimented the graphics and addictiveness. Reviewing the Mega Drive version, Computer and Video Games's Steve Keen lauded the vehicle movement and sound effects, and Paul Rand praised the multiplayer mode. Both described Micro Machines as one of the better racing games on the Mega Drive. In 1994, Micro Machines was listed as their best Mega Drive driving game. The reviewer from Mega magazine eulogised the playability, but criticised the lack of a save function. Nevertheless, he thought the game was "destined to become a classic". In a later review, the game was described as "utterly wonderful", and the addictiveness of the head-to-head mode was praised. The game was listed at number eight of their top 100 list. GamesMaster's Jim Douglas lauded the graphics, "brilliant" controls, and the two-player mode, and James Leach described the Mega Drive version as "even better" than the NES version, and eulogised the addictiveness. A reviewer from Mean Machines Sega agreed with GamesMaster by complimenting the addictiveness of two-player mode, but believed the single-player mode is too easy. Sega Force's reviewer praised the visuals and "colourful" graphics and the two-player mode, but described the sounds as "average". The game was described as having an "undeniable charm" by a reviewer from French magazine Supersonic. The Game Gear and Master System versions were noted for the ability to link two units together, and the graphics, respectively. Reviewing the Game Gear version, Mean Machines Sega's reviewer believed the method of two players on one console was "revolutionary", but criticised the sprite flicker. Nevertheless, the game was described as "probably the most playable game around". A reviewer from GamePro described the graphics as colourful, but criticised the difficulty of distinguishing vehicles despite the colour-coding. The sounds were described as "standard for the Game Gear", but the two-player via console sharing was lauded, but also described as "clumsy". Computer and Video Games's Deniz Ahmet had a similar opinion to GamePro's reviewer by describing the graphics as "well designed", and also had an opinion similar to that of Mean Machines Sega, with regards to the two-players sharing function. The conversion was described as "extremely accurate". Sega Master Force's reviewer liked the originality and addictiveness, and described the Game Gear version as "fantastic". The Master System version was complimented by Mean Machines Sega for its two-player mode, describing it as "timeless", "great fun", and an "absolutely essential purchase"—but with "flat" graphics. French magazine Player One eulogised the Master System version's two-player mode and echoed Mean Machines Sega's opinion by describing the game as "A must", and in their Game Gear review, a similar compliment was made, calling it original and "well done". The Game Gear and Master System versions were reviewed together by a reviewer from German magazine Mega Fun, who complimented their humour. The animation of the Game Gear version was described by Joypad as "breathtaking", and that of the Master System version was described as "excellent". Their sprites were criticised, saying the Master System version deletes sprites when there is an excess of vehicles on screen, and the Game Gear version's sprites suffer slowdowns and blinks. Critics had mixed opinions on the Amiga version's graphics and sound. Amiga Joker and French magazine Amiga Dream's reviewers liked them, but CU Amiga's criticised the graphics as "poorly detailed" and the sound as "simple". The One's reviewer's lauded the two-player mode, described as "the best two-player racing game we've ever seen". Stuart Campbell of Amiga Power's praised the locations and control, although he criticised the "limited" single-player mode and lack of parallax scrolling. Paul Roundell of Amiga Action praised the originality, but criticised the head-to-head mode, saying it "breaks the excitement". A reviewer from Amiga Computing believed the tracks were "entertaining" and liked that they were made up of "silly things". The vehicles racing in the environments was described by Steve Bradley of Amiga Format as "absolutely bloody brilliant", and he also praised the addictiveness. Other versions were also well received. Reviewing the NES version, Mega Fun praised the scrolling and controls. Skyler Miller of AllGame believed Micro Machines's graphics push the console's capabilities, and also liked the colourful scenery. GamePro's reviewer stated that the racing scenario variety and the vehicles being based on Galoob's Micro Machines toys made the game original. Mean Machines's reviewer liked the presentation and playability, but described the sprites as "inconsistent". In a review of the SNES version, GamePro lauded the "cartoony" graphics and "cheerful" sound effects, along with the lack of car customisation to keep the gameplay "basic". Coming Soon Magazine's reviewer criticised the PC version's "simple" graphics, but thought highly of its addictiveness and "well-produced" animation. ### Accolades In 1995, Total\! rated Micro Machines 5th In their Top 100 SNES Games. They praised the game calling it a "Uniquely designed experience" and the praised the top-down view, control system and the opponents A.I. that it works perfectly. In 1996, Next Generation ranked Micro Machines as number 18 on their "Top 100 Games of All Time", citing the "heart-pounding, adrenaline-pumping action", split-second accurate controls, and perfect balance. Micro Machines was listed by The Guardian in June 2014 as one of the 30 best British video games. The NES version is 31 in IGN's Top 100 NES Games, the highest ranked unlicensed game.

Perilous Realms

2005 Marjorie Burns book

Perilous Realms: Celtic and Norse in Tolkien's Middle-earth is a 2005 scholarly book about the origins of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, and the nature of his characterisation, by the scholar of literature Marjorie Burns. Some of the chapters discuss "Celtic" and "Norse" influence on Tolkien's writing, while others explore literary themes. The book won a Mythopoeic Award for Inklings' Studies in 2008. Reviewers have praised the book for helping to balance out earlier work on Middle-earth's Norse origins, for the way it shows the importance of "Celtic"-style crossings of rivers or gateways into Elvish and other realms, and for showing the fantasy author and Arts and Crafts advocate William Morris's influence on The Hobbit. Scholars have been less sure about the book's use of the shifting terms "Celtic" and "Norse", which are no longer used as they were in Tolkien's time. ## Publication history Perilous Realms was published in paperback by the University of Toronto Press in 2005. They brought out a second edition in 2015. ## Synopsis Marjorie Burns introduces the book with a chapter on "Two Norths", meaning the "Celtic" and the "Norse", noting the history of the idealised "North" with the Romantic movement. She looks at the skin-changer Beorn, one of several loner characters "on the side of good but who carry an aura of risk", tracing him to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as well as to Beowulf. She comments that Tolkien is often more subtle than people think, offering "contrasting viewpoints" rather than a simple good-versus-evil story. The chapter on "Bridges, Gates, and Doors" examines the "Celtic" otherworld's influence, with crossings of rivers or other gateways (such as into the Barrow-wight's ancient abode) marking the descent into strange and Elvish realms. Burns then explores the influence of William Morris on Tolkien, proposing that his Icelandic Journals may have suggested the character of Bilbo Baggins. Returning to the theme of more complex characters with both good and bad sides, Burns notes in passing the pairing of Frodo with Gollum, or Théoden with Denethor. She suggests that Gandalf is an Odinic figure, taking on some of the attributes of that undependable Norse god, such as wandering in disguise as "an old man in a battered hat", while Galadriel borrows from "an impressive collection of influential [Celtic] figures" including the mother goddess Dana; the fertility goddess Rhiannon; and the battlefield goddesses like the Morrígan. She discusses, too, Galadriel's enchantress role, and compares her to the powerful Melian in The Silmarillion. Burns then looks at the apparently few women in Middle-earth; Burns notes that women may seem distant, but that both Elves and Hobbits "exhibit traits that are typically thought feminine", whether at "ethereal" or "earthly" levels, and his "most admirable males" have a softer side, whereas the "least desirable species" like Trolls and Orcs are "brutally male (and excessively Norse as well)". Burns discusses food as an aspect of character, writing that the Elves have a delicate vegetarian diet whereas Orc food is quite the opposite. Further, The Hobbit indicates Bilbo's fear of being eaten, and with his home Bag End's multiple kitchens, dining rooms, and pantries, his fear of not having enough to eat. She writes that he faces the risk of becoming a meal for, in turn "trolls, goblins, and Gollum; wolves, spiders, and Smaug, each of them mightily hungry". She looks, too, at the consuming emptiness of the monstrous figures in The Lord of the Rings, naming "Lobelia [Sackville-Baggins], Gollum, Wormtongue, Saruman, Denethor", Shelob, and the Dark Lord Sauron's "lonely, raging emptiness". ## Awards The book won a Mythopoeic Award in Inklings Studies in 2008. ## Reception C. W. Sullivan III, reviewing Perilous Realms for the Journal of Folklore Research, found it both praiseworthy and problematic. He liked Burns's discussion of the English prejudice against the Celts, and of Tolkien's dislike of frivolous post-Shakespeare fairies. He noted that many of the chapters were published as separate papers, so there was some repetition. He commented that she had failed to note the Celtic origin of Sir Gawain: the Irish Bricriu's Feast describes a beheading challenge much like that of Sir Gawain. He wondered, too, why the chapter on eating and devouring barely mentioned Celtic or Norse, when there were "certainly important scenes of feasting and devouring, selfishness and selflessness" in those traditions' stories. "But she had written a "valuable window into Tolkien's sources" and the way he blended "Celtic enchantment and Norse vitality", and the book was accessible to scholars and the public alike. Kathryn Stelmach, reviewing the book for Comitatus, found Burns's exploration of Norse "more compelling" than her "overly simplified" approach to the "Celtic" identity and the use of unreliable sources. Stelmach writes that both "Celtic" and "Norse" have a "complicated and shifting nexus ... of identity", and that Burns's introductory chapter gives the reader an impression of the two identities based more on language than on culture. Stelmach is happier with the "Norse" discussion, such as of Gandalf's Norse counterpart, Odin, as it is based on Tom Shippey's "solid grounding", while the analysis of the influence of the Icelandic Journals of William Morris on The Hobbit offers "rare insights". The folklorist Dimitra Fimi, in Tolkien Studies, writes that the book is mainly a collection of revised papers, with two new chapters, and that the focus is on Tolkien's created characters rather than the source analysis that its title might suggest. She finds Burns's introductory account of history "sometimes simplified" but a useful overview of the contested terms "Celtic" and "Teutonic" at Tolkien's time. She finds convincing Burns's argument that the "water barriers, the timelessness and the underground connotations of many Elvish realms in Middle-earth, such as Rivendell, Mirkwood and Lothlórien, come from ideas of the Celtic otherworld." She praises, too, the linking of William Morris to The Hobbit, writing that this "gave it much of its 'Northern' atmosphere." The two additional chapters, on male/female balance and on food, she finds somewhat out of place in the book, not least because they don't mention "Celtic or Norse sources or parallels". In sum, Fimi finds the book "thought-provoking and well researched", adding a "Celtic" balance to the mainly Norse emphasis of earlier scholars. She praises the analysis of Tolkien's characters and the book's freedom from "'defending' Tolkien". Fimi suggests that Burns had intended the book for the public rather than scholars as she uses "accessible language" and avoids the scholarly debate over "Celticity", preferring to use the terms of Tolkien's time. Faye Ringel, reviewing the book in Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, calls it "a valuable, beautifully crafted addition to the study of Tolkien's sources and influences", with the proviso that people suspicious of any appearance of ideology in high fantasy may not agree with her discussion of gender and race. She comments that Burns responds indirectly to such critics by providing evidence in favour of Tolkien's approach, such as by presenting his own "complexity through double attitudes". She suggests that the book may serve as a "counterweight" to the popular and "nonce" books that appeared alongside Peter Jackson's films.

Ankh

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol

The ankh or key of life is an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol used to represent the word for "life" and, by extension, as a symbol of life itself. The ankh has a T-shape topped by a droplet-shaped loop. It was used in writing as a triliteral sign, representing a sequence of three consonants, Ꜥ-n-ḫ. This sequence was found in several Egyptian words, including the terms for "mirror", "floral bouquet", and "life". The symbol often appeared in Egyptian art as a physical object representing either life or related life-giving substances such as air or water. Commonly depicted in the hands of ancient Egyptian deities, sometimes being given by them to the pharaoh, it represents their power to sustain life and to revive human souls in the afterlife. The ankh was a widespread decorative motif in ancient Egypt, also used decoratively by neighbouring cultures. Copts adapted it into the crux ansata, a shape with a circular rather than droplet loop, and used it as a variant of the Christian cross. The ankh came into widespread use in Western culture in the 1960s, appearing as a symbol of African cultural identity, Neopagan belief systems, and later, the goth subculture. ## Use in writing In ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, the ankh was a triliteral sign: one that represented a sequence of three consonant sounds. The ankh stood for the sequence Ꜥ-n-ḫ, where n is pronounced like the English letter n, Ꜥ is a voiced pharyngeal fricative, and ḫ is a voiceless or voiced velar fricative (sounds not found in English). In the Egyptian language, these consonants were found in the verb meaning "live", the noun meaning "life", and words derived from them, such as sꜤnḫ, which means "cause to live" or "nourish"; Ꜥnḫ evolved into ⲱⲛϩ (onh) in the Coptic stage of the language. The sign is known in English as the "ankh", based on the hypothetical pronunciation of the Egyptian word, or as the "key of life", based on its meaning. One of the common uses of the word Ꜥnḫ was to express a wish that a particular person live. For example, a phrase meaning something like "may you be healthy and alive" was used in polite contexts, similar to the English phrase "if you please", and the phrase Ꜥnḫ wḏꜣ snb, meaning "alive, sound, and healthy", was used as an honorific for the pharaoh when he was mentioned in writing. The Egyptian word for "oath" was also Ꜥnḫ, because oaths in ancient Egypt began with a form of the word "live". The same consonants were found in the word for "mirror" and the word for a floral bouquet, so the sign was also used in writing these words. The three consonants also compose the word for a looped rope-like object found in illustrations on many coffins from the Middle Kingdom (c. 2050–1650 BC). The Egyptologists Battiscombe Gunn and Alan Gardiner, in the early 20th century, believed these objects to be sandal straps, given that they appear in pairs at the foot of the coffin and the accompanying texts say the objects are "on the ground under his feet". ## Origins Early examples of the ankh sign date to the First Dynasty (c. 30th to 29th century BC). There is little agreement on what physical object the sign originally represented. Many scholars believe the sign is a knot formed of a flexible material such as cloth or reeds, as early versions of the sign show the lower bar of the ankh as two separate lengths of flexible material that seem to correspond to the two ends of the knot. These early versions bear a resemblance to the tyet symbol, a sign that represented the concept of "protection". For these reasons, the Egyptologists Heinrich Schäfer and Henry Fischer thought the two signs had a common origin, and they regarded the ankh as a knot that was used as an amulet rather than for any practical purpose. Hieroglyphic writing used pictorial signs to represent sounds, so that, for example, the hieroglyph for a house could represent the sounds p-r, which were found in the Egyptian word for "house". This practice, known as the rebus principle, allowed the Egyptians to write the words for things that could not be pictured, such as abstract concepts. Gardiner believed the ankh originated in this way. He pointed out that the sandal-strap illustrations on Middle Kingdom coffins resemble the hieroglyph, and he argued that the sign originally represented knots like these and came to be used in writing all other words that contained the consonants Ꜥ-n-ḫ. Gardiner's list of hieroglyphic signs labels the ankh as S34, placing it within the category for items of clothing and just after S33, the hieroglyph for a sandal. Gardiner's hypothesis persists; James P. Allen, in an introductory book on the Egyptian language published in 2014, assumes that the sign originally meant "sandal strap" and uses it as an example of the rebus principle in hieroglyphic writing. Various authors have argued that the sign originally represented something other than a knot. Some have suggested that it had a sexual meaning. For instance, Thomas Inman, an amateur mythologist in the nineteenth century, thought the sign represented the male and female reproductive organs, joined into a single sign. Victor Loret, a nineteenth-century Egyptologist, argued that "mirror" was the sign's original meaning. A problem with this argument, which Loret acknowledged, is that deities are frequently shown holding the ankh by its loop, and their hands pass through it where the solid reflecting surface of an ankh-shaped mirror would be. Andrew Gordon, an Egyptologist, and Calvin Schwabe, a veterinarian, argue that the origin of the ankh is related to two other signs of uncertain origin that often appear alongside it: the was-sceptre, representing "power" or "dominion", and the djed pillar, representing "stability". According to this hypothesis, the form of each sign is drawn from a part of the anatomy of a bull, like some other hieroglyphic signs that are known to be based on body parts of animals. In Egyptian belief semen was connected with life and, to some extent, with "power" or "dominion", and some texts indicate the Egyptians believed semen originated in the bones. Therefore, Gordon and Schwabe suggest the signs are based on parts of the bull's anatomy through which semen was thought to pass: the ankh is a thoracic vertebra, the djed is the sacrum and lumbar vertebrae, and the was is the dried penis of the bull. ## Use in religion and art In Egyptian belief, life was a force that circulated throughout the world. Individual living things, including humans, were manifestations of this force and fundamentally tied to it. Life came into existence at the creation of the world, and cyclical events like the rising and setting of the sun were thought of as reenactments of the original events of creation that maintained and renewed life in the cosmos. Sustaining life was thus the central function of the deities who governed these natural cycles. Therefore, the ankh was frequently depicted being held in gods' hands, representing their life-giving power. The Egyptians also believed that when they died, their individual lives could be renewed in the same manner as life in general. For this reason, the gods were often depicted in tombs giving ankh signs to humans, usually the pharaoh. As the sign represented the power to bestow life, humans other than the pharaoh were rarely shown receiving or holding the ankh before the end of the Middle Kingdom, although this convention weakened thereafter. The pharaoh to some extent represented Egypt as a whole, so by giving the sign to him, the gods granted life to the entire nation. By extension of the concept of "life", the ankh could signify air or water. In artwork, gods hold the ankh up to the nose of the king: offering him the breath of life. Hand fans were another symbol of air in Egyptian iconography, and the human servants who normally carried fans behind the king were sometimes replaced in artwork by personified ankh signs with arms. In scenes of ritual purification, in which water was poured over the king or a deceased commoner, the zigzag lines that normally represented water could be replaced by chains of ankh signs. The ankh may have been used decoratively more than any other hieroglyphic sign. Mirrors, mirror cases, and floral bouquets were made in its shape, given that the sign was used in writing the name of each of these objects. Some other objects, such as libation vessels and sistra, were also shaped like the sign. The sign appeared very commonly in the decoration of architectural forms such as the walls and shrines within temples. In contexts such as these, the sign often appeared together with the was and djed signs, which together signified "life, dominion, and stability". In some decorative friezes in temples, all three signs, or the ankh and was alone, were positioned above the hieroglyph for a basket that represented the word "all": "all life and power" or "all life, power, and stability". Some deities, such as Ptah and Osiris, could be depicted holding a was scepter that incorporated elements of the ankh and djed. Amulets made in the shape of hieroglyphic signs were meant to impart to the wearer the qualities represented by the sign. The Egyptians wore amulets in daily life as well as placing them in tombs to ensure the well-being of the deceased in the afterlife. Ankh-shaped amulets first appeared late in the Old Kingdom (c. 2700 to 2200 BC) and continued to be used into the late first millennium BC, yet they were rare, despite the importance of the symbol. Amulets shaped like a composite sign that incorporated the ankh, was, and djed were more widespread. Ankh signs in two-dimensional art were typically painted blue or black. The earliest ankh amulets were often made of gold or electrum, a gold and silver alloy. Egyptian faience, a ceramic that was usually blue or green, was the most common material for ankh amulets in later times, perhaps because its color represented life and regeneration. ## Other ancient cultures The people of Syria and Canaan adopted many Egyptian artistic motifs during the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1950–1500 BC), including hieroglyphs, of which the ankh was by far the most common. It was often placed next to various figures in artwork or shown being held by Egyptian deities who had come to be worshipped in the ancient Near East. It was sometimes used to represent water or fertility. Elsewhere in the Near East, the sign was incorporated into Anatolian hieroglyphs to represent the word for "life", and the sign was used in the artwork of the Minoan civilization centered on Crete. Minoan artwork sometimes combined the ankh, or the related tyet sign, with the Minoan double axe emblem. Artwork in the Meroitic Kingdom, which lay south of Egypt and was heavily influenced by its religion, features the ankh prominently. It appears in temples and funerary art in many of the same contexts as in Egypt, and it is also one of the most common motifs in the decoration of Meroitic pottery. Use of the ankh persisted in Israel into the Iron Age. In 2015, a clay seal (or bulla) belonging to King Hezekiah of Judah (c. 700 BC) was discovered in Jerusalem, which featured ankhs on either side of a winged sun figure. ## Christianity The ankh was one of the few ancient Egyptian artistic motifs that continued to be used after the Christianization of Egypt during the 4th and 5th centuries AD. The sign resembles the staurogram, a sign that resembles a Christian cross with a loop to the right of the upper bar and was used by early Christians as a monogram for Jesus, as well as the crux ansata, or "handled cross", which is shaped like an ankh with a circular rather than oval or teardrop-shaped loop. The staurogram has been suggested to be influenced by the ankh, but the earliest Christian uses of the sign date to around AD 200, well before the earliest Christian adoption of the ankh. The earliest known example of a crux ansata comes from a copy of the Gospel of Judas from the 3rd or early 4th century AD. The adoption of this sign may have been influenced by the staurogram, the ankh, or both. According to Socrates of Constantinople, when Christians were dismantling Alexandria's greatest temple, the Serapeum, in 391 AD, they noticed cross-like signs inscribed on the stone blocks. Pagans who were present said the sign meant "life to come", an indication that the sign Socrates referred to was the ankh; Christians claimed the sign was their own, indicating that they could easily regard the ankh as a crux ansata. There is little evidence for the use of the crux ansata in the western half of the Roman Empire, but Egyptian Coptic Christians used it in many media, particularly in the decoration of textiles. ## Modern use Much more recently, the ankh has become a popular symbol in modern Western culture, particularly as a design for jewelry and tattoos. Its resurgence began when the counterculture of the 1960s stirred a greater interest in ancient religions. In the 21st century it is the most widely recognized symbol of African origin in the Western world, and it is sometimes used by people of African descent in the United States and Europe as a symbol of African cultural identity. The ankh also symbolizes Kemetism, a group of religious movements based on the religion of ancient Egypt. The sign is also popular in the goth subculture, being particularly associated with vampires, because an ankh pendant appears prominently in the 1983 vampire film The Hunger. The sign is incorporated twice in the Unicode standard for encoding text and symbols in computing. It appears as U+2625 (☥) in the Miscellaneous Symbols block, and as U+132F9 (𓋹) in the Egyptian Hieroglyphs block.

Spring Creek Park

Public park in New York City

Spring Creek Park is a public park along the Jamaica Bay shoreline between the neighborhoods of Howard Beach, Queens, and Spring Creek, Brooklyn, in New York City. Created on landfilled former marshland, the park is mostly an undeveloped nature preserve, with only small portions accessible to the public for recreation. Spring Creek Park consists of three major parts, which surround the park's eponymous creek and several smaller waterways. Spring Creek South comprises the section on the Queens side south of the Belt Parkway, which consists mostly of a marsh and forest on the shore of the Howard Beach peninsula, surrounding the neighborhood on its western and southern sides. Spring Creek North consists of a largely fenced-off section of land north of Belt Parkway; it straddles the Brooklyn–Queens border, which runs along Spring Creek. A third section of parkland was built around the Gateway Center shopping mall, which is located north of Belt Parkway on the Brooklyn side. The southern section is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area and under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, while the northern and Gateway Center portions are managed by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. A park along Spring Creek was first proposed in 1930 by the New York Park Association's Metropolitan Conference on Parks. It was ultimately decided that the park be built upon fill, since the site mostly consisted of marshland. Spring Creek Park was approved in 1942, and land-filling operations began in 1949. Temporary landfills for waste disposal were operated at the future park site until the South Shore Incinerator along Spring Creek was completed in 1954. The southern section of Spring Creek Park was integrated into the Gateway National Recreation Area in 1974. In the 1990s, the northern section of the park was expanded via land acquisition, and in 2003, The Related Companies built extra parkland as part of Gateway Center's construction. The New York state government opened the Shirley Chisholm State Park along the Brooklyn coastline, south of the Gateway Center section of the park, in 2019. ## Description Spring Creek Park is on the northern coastline of Jamaica Bay, extending west from Cross Bay Boulevard in Howard Beach to the Fresh Creek Basin near Starrett City in the Spring Creek neighborhood. Most of the site lies adjacent or to the south of the Shore Parkway section of the Belt Parkway. A small portion of the park along the former Spring Creek Basin (concurrent with the Brooklyn-Queens border) extends north as far as Stanley Avenue. ### Spring Creek South The southernmost and easternmost section of the park is located entirely within Howard Beach, bound by the Belt Parkway to the north and Jamaica Bay to the south, with Cross Bay Boulevard to the east and the mouth of Spring Creek (or Old Mill Creek) to the west. The park is on a peninsula adjacent to the "New Howard Beach" or Rockwood Park community. This area is known as "Spring Creek South" or "Lower Spring Creek", and is managed by the federal National Park Service as part of the Gateway National Recreation Area. Much of this area was formerly a municipal garbage landfill. Existing vegetation in Spring Creek South includes upland forest, grassland and shrubland, along with both freshwater and tidal marshes. Two pathways run through this section of the park. The area has been referred to as "the Weeds" or "the Baja" by local residents due to its vegetation and remoteness. It is also susceptible to brush fires during prolonged dry weather. Because it is part of the national park system, the area is accessible to the public. ### Spring Creek North The second section of the park is north of the Belt Parkway along the Brooklyn-Queens border, between Fountain Avenue to the west and 78th Street to the east, extending past Flatlands Avenue to Stanley Avenue at its north end. This portion contains the remnants of Spring Creek and a second small creek called Ralph's Creek, which feed into the mouth of Old Mill Creek. It is managed by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. This area is known as "Spring Creek North" or "Upper Spring Creek", or as the "Spring Creek Park Preserve". The portion of Spring Creek North within Queens which contains Ralph's Creek is called the "Spring Creek Park Addition", added to the site in the 1990s. The area is designated by the Parks Department as a "Forever Wild" nature preserve site, and is inaccessible to the public. Because of this, the property is entirely lined with chain-link fencing. According to the Parks Department, this area is the "largest undeveloped salt marsh in northern Jamaica Bay", and serves as a habitat for numerous bird species as well as land animals. In spite of its status as "Forever Wild", Spring Creek North contains two major waste disposal facilities. A water treatment plant, the Spring Creek Auxiliary Water Pollution Control Plant, is in this section near the intersection of Fountain and Vandalia Avenues. Farther north along Forbell Street is the former South Shore Incinerator, now used as a cleaning garage and composting facility by the New York City Department of Sanitation. Like Spring Creek South, this area was also subjected to garbage landfilling. The site of the water treatment plant was initially the Crescent Street Landfill. This was later replaced by the South Shore Landfill, which extended north to Stanley Avenue and received ash from the incinerator. A narrow concrete berm bridge crosses the Spring Creek waterway along the right-of-way of 157th Avenue, separating the remnants of the creek. The bridge may have been used for landfilling operations, and contains within it a combined sewage overflow pipe leading to the water treatment plant. The presence of the two waste facilities has led to criticism by park advocates and local residents. ### Gateway Center parkland The third and westernmost section of the park is north of the Belt Parkway along the southern and western edges of the Gateway Center shopping mall. This portion of the park is managed by the Parks Department, and was constructed in 2003 by The Related Companies who developed Gateway Center. It contains a total of 47.1 acres (19.1 ha) of parkland, though only 31.25 acres (12.65 ha) between Erskine Street to the east and Flatlands Avenue to the north is accessible. This section features man-made or constructed wetlands which line the Belt Parkway. The parkland acts as a natural filter for stormwater runoff from the mall parking lot, after which the water flows into Hendrix Creek on the west side of the mall and park, or into the wetlands along the parkway. Numerous sewer pipes run through this portion of the park from the Gateway Center parking lot towards either Hendrix Creek or the Belt Parkway. This section also contains a cricket pitch called the Roy Sweeney Cricket Oval, at the southwest corner of the Gateway site, with several small bleachers surrounding the field. It is the first New York City park field to be designated specifically for cricket. It was named in 2016 for Roy Sweeney, who founded the United States Cricket Promoters Association in 1986. A bikeway and running path runs through the park, including a roundabout circumscribing the cricket oval. A comfort station is at the cricket oval, completed in July 2013. It is prefabricated, consisting of concrete designed to mimic wood. It also uses storage tanks due to the park's distance from major sewer lines. ### Former parkland The 1954 plans for the park had two additional tracts included in the park, which are now the Pennsylvania Avenue and Fountain Avenue Landfills. The Fountain Avenue Landfill is across to the south of the Gateway section of Spring Creek Park, and across to the west from Spring Creek South. The Pennsylvania Avenue Landfill is farther west, south of Starrett City. These former landfills were designated in 2018 as Shirley Chisholm State Park, which opened to the public on July 2, 2019. ### Transportation The bus routes serve the portions of the park within Brooklyn. All four routes serve the Gateway Center, while the B13, B84, and Q8 all operate on Fountain Avenue near the Park Preserve. The Howard Beach portions of the park can be reached via the and local routes and the Q52 and Q53 Select Bus Service routes which operate on Cross Bay Boulevard in Howard Beach. The closest New York City Subway stations to the area are New Lots Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn served by the (connected by the B84 bus), and the Howard Beach–JFK Airport station served by the and AirTrain JFK. ## History During at least three glacial periods, including the Wisconsin glaciation around 20,000 years ago, ice sheets advanced south across North America carving moraines, valleys, and hills. A terminal moraine was formed across the center of Long Island creating a drainage divide, with streams such as Spring Creek flowing south from the moraine (in what is now Highland Park at modern Jamaica Avenue) towards Jamaica Bay. The creek would later form the border between Brooklyn and Queens. What is now Spring Creek, Brooklyn, was characterized by marshland and streams such as Spring Creek and Hendrix Creek into the 20th century. Similarly, the section of Howard Beach, Queens, west of Cross Bay Boulevard (now New Howard Beach) consisted of undeveloped wetlands, while the peninsula was triangular and much smaller than its current extents. ### Initial construction and landfill In February 1930, the New York Park Association's Metropolitan Conference on Parks released a large report on potential parks and highways to be built in the city. The conference was chaired by the Long Island State Park commissioner at the time, Robert Moses, who would later become the New York City Parks commissioner. The report included a 100-acre (40 ha) Spring Creek Park as well the Shore Parkway portion of the Belt Parkway, both in Brooklyn. The Metropolitan Park Conference called the Spring Creek site '"the last opportunity in Brooklyn for a new park of substantial size which can be acquired at reasonable cost.'" By October of that year, it was determined that the swampy land would have to be filled in order to turn it into a proper park. At this time, the 150-acre (61 ha) tract was bound by Fountain Avenue to the west, Cozine Avenue (then Fairfield Avenue) to the north, and Sheridan Avenue to the east, on the western banks of Spring Creek where the water treatment plant now sits. Moses planned to create several parks on wetlands by filling the land with municipal waste before developing the land into parkland. These included the future Spring Creek Park and sites in Marine Park, Brooklyn; Ferry Point, Bronx; Fresh Kills, Staten Island; and Edgemere, Queens. In August 1942, the New York City Planning Commission and Board of Estimate approved the Spring Creek Park project as part of the city's post-World War II program. By 1948, portions of the park in Brooklyn were landfilled. On August 20, 1948, the New York City Board of Estimate approved the creation of a "Super Dump" at Spring Creek Park, to the west of what was then Howard Beach (now Old Howard Beach). The new dump would replace smaller landfills in other areas of Queens and reduce the load on the Edgemere Landfill. The landfill would operate until the completion of the nearby South Shore Incinerator in Spring Creek. Afterwards, the landfill would become part of the park. Bids for preparation of the site were opened on September 17, 1948. This work involved grading the site and installing a dyke around the landfill to prevent the runoff of garbage into Jamaica Bay. Landfilling began in Howard Beach on January 17, 1949. The dump was located on a 125-acre (51 ha) site along Jamaica Bay stretching west from Cross Bay Boulevard to the Brooklyn-Queens border at Old Mill Creek. It extended north 0.5 miles (0.80 km) to 165th Avenue. Prior to filling, it was a tidal marsh, with the nearest homes said to be located as far as 0.5 miles (0.80 km) away. The fill would raise the grade of the future park by 16 feet (4.9 m). The "Super Dump" was anticipated to operate for three years, after which it would be replaced by incinerators. In addition to sand, chemicals would be applied to the garbage in order to eliminated odors. By August 1949 the filling of the marshland, which was described as having "its own odors, its unsightly heaps of rubbish and its rotted pilings", received positive feedback from local communities including the absence of foul odors. The newly-reclaimed land along the coast drew comparisons to Jones Beach in Nassau County, which had also been developed by Robert Moses. At both Spring Creek and Marine Park, sewage sludge from wastewater plants was mixed with sand to create "synthetic topsoil" in order to provide a base for future vegetation. The projects were referred to as "Operation Sludge". The South Shore Incinerator was opened on June 30, 1954. At this time, Robert Moses' plans called for Spring Creek Park to extend east to Cross Bay Boulevard in Howard Beach and include a new beach and boat basin. The Queens Spring Creek landfill, the first portion of the park, was completed between 1956 and 1958, after which additional land reclamation projects began. A 75-acre (30 ha) area was reclaimed in the Queens section of the park. Filling at the Pennsylvania Avenue Landfill began in 1956, while the Fountain Avenue Landfill began operations in 1961 or 1963. The landfill and incinerator operations significantly changed the topography and vegetation of the area. The western Howard Beach peninsula was significantly filled and extended west towards Old Mill Creek, allowing residential development to occur. ### Expansion In 1969, the Regional Plan Association proposed the creation of what would become the Gateway National Recreation Area. A federal study from December of that year would also recommend the establishment of such a national park. The area would include numerous sites in the New York Harbor, Atlantic Ocean coast, and along Jamaica Bay. By 1971, there were calls to include Spring Creek Park in the proposed area, including those from Ozone Park Congressman Joseph P. Addabbo. Addabbo wished for Spring Creek to be included in part to prevent the further expansion of John F. Kennedy International Airport into the area. Alternate plans by the New York City Planning Commission suggested that the parkland be "developed into a residential, industrial and recreational complex". At this time, much of the park had yet to be developed. The bill establishing the Gateway National Recreational Area was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on October 28, 1972. On November 12, 1973, the City Planning Commission approved the cession of 14,000 acres (5,700 ha) of city-owned land to the Gateway Area, but excluding Spring Creek Park. On November 15, the Board of Estimate unanimously voted against extending the landfill in the Howard Beach portion of the park. The Gateway plans were later amended by the City Planning Commission to include part of Spring Creek Park. The Howard Beach section of Spring Creek Park was ceded to the Gateway Area on March 1, 1974. The Spring Creek water treatment plant was opened in 1974 in Spring Creek Park North. In 1979, the National Park Service released plans to develop their portion of the park, which would have included beaches and sports facilities. In summer 1992 the New York City Department of City Planning released the New York City Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, which sought to improve and expand the waterfront parkland within the city including the area around Jamaica Bay. The plan proposed to add the tidal wetlands surrounding Spring Creek and Old Mill Creek south of Flatlands Avenue to Spring Creek Park. Private property would be acquired to add to the park, and mapped but unbuilt streets running through the park boundaries would be demapped. In 1992 and again between 1994 and 1995, parkland north of the Belt Parkway within Queens was added to Spring Creek Park North as part of the Spring Creek Park Addition. Three blocks of additional land north of Flatlands Avenue, including the former South Shore Incinerator, were added to this section of park on August 21, 2001. The Spring Creek Yard Waste Composting Facility was opened at the former incinerator site in September 2001. Following the opening of Gateway Center mall in 2002, The Related Companies constructed an addition to Spring Creek Park circumscribing the mall, opening on May 2, 2003. In March 2007, designs began on a comfort station for the park cricket field. Construction began in March 2012, and the facility was completed in July 2013. Following Hurricane Sandy in late 2012, the state and federal governments began designing restoration projects for both Spring Creek South and Spring Creek North, in order for the wetlands to act as a natural storm surge barrier for Howard Beach and other neighborhoods along Jamaica Bay. In January 2018, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his intent to build the Shirley Chisholm State Park, a 407-acre (165 ha) state park along 3.5 miles (5.6 km) of the Jamaica Bay coastline, adjoining the Pennsylvania Avenue and Fountain Avenue landfills south of Spring Creek Park's Gateway Mall section. It would be located near Spring Creek and be open in 2019. The first section opened on July 2, 2019, and the second section is expected to open in 2021. Around February 2018, traces of radium were discovered in the Howard Beach section of Spring Creek Park by the National Park Service and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation during initial work on the restoration project. The radium was believed to be introduced when the area was used as a landfill. ## Incidents On February 25, 2006, the body of 24-year-old Imette St. Guillen was discovered on Fountain Avenue in a marshy area of Spring Creek Park. A memorial was set up within the park to commemorate St. Guillen. On August 2, 2016, Karina Vetrano, a 30-year-old resident of Howard Beach, was attacked and murdered by 20-year old Chanel Lewis while jogging in Spring Creek Park South. By the end of the month, eight NYPD security cameras were installed along the perimeter of the park.

Hammersley Fork

Tributary in Kettle Creek, Pennsylvania

Hammersley Fork (also known as Hammersley Fork Creek) is a tributary of Kettle Creek in Potter County and Clinton County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately 10.0 miles (16.1 km) long and flows through Warton Township in Potter County and Leidy Township in Clinton County. The watershed of the stream has an area of 32.7 square miles (85 km²). The main rock formation in the watershed is the Pottsville Formation. A number of bridges cross the stream. There are no state roads and virtually no township roads in the watershed of Hammersley Fork. However, there are dirt roads and gravel roads, and several stream crossings in the watershed. The first settlers arrived in the watershed in 1827 and the first roads in the area were constructed several years later. Industrial activities such as logging were common in the watershed in the early 20th century, but there is currently virtually no such activity there. Wild trout naturally reproduce in the stream throughout its entire length. Most of the creek has a substantial riparian buffer. ## Course Hammersley Fork begins in central Eulalia Township, Potter County, near the Sinnemahoning Creek watershed. It flows southeast to Elk Lick Knob, where it receives the tributary Black Mark Hollow. The stream then turns south and flows into a valley, passing Bunnell Ridge. The valley gets deeper and the stream receives several small tributaries. It turns southwest shortly downstream of the mouth of Elkhorn Run. In the southern reaches of the township, the stream receives the tributary Bell Branch and turns south-southeast, exiting Eulalia Township. Upon leaving Eulalia Township, Potter County, Hammersley Fork enters Leidy Township, Clinton County and continues south, passing by Susquehannock State Forest. The stream continues south for some distance and crosses Pennsylvania Route 144. Immediately after crossing Pennsylvania Route 144, the stream reaches its confluence with Kettle Creek. Hammersley Fork joins Kettle Creek 19.90 miles (32.03 km) upstream of its mouth. ## Hydrology The concentration of alkalinity in Hammersley Fork ranges from 0.011 to 0.015 ounces per cubic foot (11 to 15 mg/L). Particles in the stream include coarse sand and fine gravel. The stream experiences relatively high water temperatures and in July 2003, its temperature between Dry Hollow and Bunnell Run ranges from 68 to 72 °F (20 to 22 °C). Between Dry Hollow and Nelson Branch, the temperature ranged from 70 to 73 °F (21 to 23 °C). The sediment load in Hammersley Fork is 0.27 pounds per acre (0.30 kg/ha) per year. The nitrogen load is 1.55 pounds per acre (1.74 kg/ha) per year, while the phosphorus load is less than half a pound per acre per year. Between the mouth of Dry Hollow and the mouth of Bunnell Run, the waters of Hammersley Fork are a Rosgen type F and a Rosgen type C stream. The upper part of the stretch of the stream between Dry Hollow and Nelson Branch is a Rosgen type C stream. The middle part of the stretch is a Rosgen type B stream and the lower part is a Rosgen type F to D stream. ## Geography and geology The elevation near the mouth of Hammersley Fork is 968 feet (295 m) above sea level. The elevation of the stream's source is between 1,800 and 1,820 feet (549 and 555 m) above sea level. The Pottsville Formation is the main rock formation in the watershed of Hammersley Fork. The highlands northwest of the Hammersley Fork watershed range from 2,000 feet (610 m) to 2,200 feet (670 m) and the highest elevation in the watershed is 2,365 feet (721 m) above sea level. The elevation range in the watershed is 1,374 feet (419 m). At its mouth, the stream is 54 feet (16.5 m) wide. The average basin slope is 16.24 degrees. There are numerous gravel bars in the lower reaches of the stream. This width is maintained because deposition in the area is often removed. There is also a headcut in the lower reaches of the stream. At the headcut, it splits three ways for 69 feet (21 m). A spot on Hammersley Fork near its mouth is the only location in the Kettle Creek watershed that has been channelized. Hammersley Fork flows over bedrock or large cobbles for much of the stretch between Dry Hollow and Nelson Branch. From the mouth of Nelson Branch to 2 miles (3.2 km) downstream, the stream mostly flows in the central part of its valley. The tributary Nelson Branch has a patch of erosion that is 26 feet (8 m) high and 59 feet (18 m) long. There is a floodplain at the mouth of Hammersley Fork. Two bridges cross Hammersley Fork near its mouth. One carries Pennsylvania Route 144 and the other carries Hammersley Avenue. ## Watershed The watershed of Hammersley Fork has an area of 32.7 square miles (85 km²) , making it the second-largest sub-watershed of Kettle Creek after Cross Fork. There are 57.42 miles (92.41 km) of streams in the watershed. The mouth of the stream is in the United States Geological Survey quadrangle of Tamarack. However, its source is in the quadrangle of Short Run. The stream also passes through the quadrangle of Hammersley Fork. A number of camps and residences are on the left bank of Hammersley Fork 0.2 miles (0.32 km) upstream of the mouth. There are a number of dirt roads and gravel roads on the edge of the upper reaches of the stream's watershed. However, there are no state routes and almost no township roads in the watershed. However, much of the upper part of the watershed can only be accessed on foot. There are five road crossings of the stream and its tributaries. There is some agricultural land along the stream. ## History and recreation Hammersley Fork was entered into the Geographic Names Information System on August 2, 1979 and its identifier is 1199877. It is named after J. P. Hammersley. Jacob "Old Jake" Hammersley and Archie Stewart settled at the mouth of Hammersley Fork in 1827, with Hammersley settling on the east bank of the stream and Stewart settling on the west bank. They were the first settlers to come that far upstream in the Kettle Creek watershed. Additionally, the two constructed a gristmill on the west bank of the stream. There were no roads in the watershed by 1833. Later in the 1800s, Nathan Tuttle operated a gang mill on the stream. A settlement, also called Hammersley Fork, was created on the stream by 1852. In 1902, John Gartsee started a village called Hammersley in the middle reaches of Hammersley Fork. Its intended purpose was as a supply point for logging camps in the area. By 1902 to 1910, there was a network of railroads in the watershed. Logging was a large industry in the watershed of Hammersley Fork in the early 1900s, but there have been almost no industrial activities in the area since then. An old railroad grade is located on Hammersley Fork. Fish have been stocked in the stream since the 1930s or 1940s. A two-span steel stringer/multi-beam or girder bridge carrying T545 over Hammersley Fork was built in 1933 and repaired in 2010. The bridge is 64.0 feet (19.5 m) long. A two-span bridge was built over the stream in 1962 and repaired in 2011. This bridge is 107.0 feet (32.6 m) long and carries Pennsylvania Route 144. The Cherry Springs Civilian Conservation Corps camp was built near the headwaters of Hammersley Fork in 1933. The Hammersley Trail, which is part of the Susquehannock Trail System, passes by the mouth of Hammersley Fork. ## Biology Wild trout naturally reproduce in Hammersley Fork from its headwaters downstream to its mouth. Great blue herons have been observed at the headwaters of Hammersley Fork, despite the fact that they are more commonly found in large river valleys. Little yellow stoneflies also inhabit it. Brown trout first appeared in the stream in the 1920s after being stocked in Cross Fork and in the 1940s the brown trout populations significantly increased. The Forrest H. Duttlinger Natural Area is located on Hammersley Fork. Most of the stream flows through this natural area. It is a 1521-acre area that includes a 158-acre area of old-growth hemlock trees. The Hammersley Wild Area is also located in the watershed. The stream's watershed is a Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Inventory Biological Diversity Area. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection also classifies the watershed as an exceptional-value area. From the mouth of Hammersley Fork to 0.75 miles (1.21 km) upstream of the mouth, the canopy cover ranges from 0 to 50 percent. Much of the creek, however, has a significant riparian buffer. The canopy coverage of the section of Hammersley Fork between Dry Hollow and Bunnell Run is 62 percent on average. However, the lower part of this section has 86 percent canopy coverage. The upper part of the stretch of the stream between Nelson Branch and Dry Hollow has a canopy coverage of 93 percent. The middle part of this section has a coverage of 58 percent and the lowest part has a canopy coverage of 89 percent. The tree coverage at the confluence of Nelson Branch with Hammersley Fork is 70 percent. The canopy coverage up to 2 miles (3.2 km) downstream of the confluence averages 40 percent. Tree species in this stretch include hemlock, red maple, river birch, sycamore, and willow. ## See also - Cross Fork - Twomile Run - List of rivers of Pennsylvania

In the Company of a Poet

Book by Nasreen Munni Kabir

In the Company of a Poet is a 2012 book by the author and television documentary producer Nasreen Munni Kabir, containing her interview with Gulzar (an Indian filmmaker, lyricist, and poet). It details his early life, including his birth in 1934 in Dina, British India (now Pakistan), and his Sikh family background, his film and poetic career, and his marriage to the actress Rakhee in 1973, with whom he has a daughter, Meghna. In the Company of a Poet was published by Rupa Publications on 12 November 2012 and received mixed reviews from critics. Firstpost included the book in its listing of Top 10 in Indian Non-fiction Books. The book became the third written work on Gulzar, after his daughter's Because He is... (2004) and journalist Saibal Chatterjee's Echoes & Eloquences (2007). Kabir and Gulzar discussed mostly the latter's experiences as a lyricist, poet, and screenwriter, avoiding their conversations to be focused on topics the previous publications have done. In the Company of a Poet's development was done by doing online conversations on the telecommunication application Skype between May and November 2011, which was followed by their face-to-face conversations at the end of the same year. ## Synopsis In the Company of a Poet features extensive conversations between its author Nasreen Munni Kabir and the filmmaker, lyricist, and poet Gulzar, relating to his life and career. Gulzar was born in a Sikh family as Sampooran Singh Kalra on 18 August 1934 in Dina, British India (now Pakistan). His father, Makhan Singh Kalra, was a Sardar and had married thrice (having a son and two daughters from a first marriage with Raaj) before his marriage to who later became Gulzar's mother, Sujaan Kaur. Gulzar said to Kabir that he is Kaur's only child as his mother died several months after giving birth. The book later extensively chronicles his Bollywood cinematic—mostly that of lyricist—and Urdu-language poetic career. He particularly speaks about his poetries, how he wrote his first poetry when he was at age ten, and later started a career as a poet. In 1973, Gulzar married to actress Raakhee, with whom he has a daughter named Meghna (who would become a filmmaker as well). ## Development and writing In 1986, during the production of Movie Mahal (a 49-part television documentary on Bollywood aired on Channel 4), Kabir asked for journalist Khalid Mohamed's help to invite people with "significant" contributions to Bollywood. One of the interviewees was Gulzar, with whom she discussed the history of Bollywood's lyricists. After he agreeing the offers, Mohamed and Kabir arrived at his one-story bungalow on Pali Hill, Mumbai, to start shooting. Their second meeting was four years later while she was producing for another documentary for the same channel, on playback singer Lata Mangeshkar. Kabir recounted that Gulzar came up with insightful information about the singer—the same thing he did when was interviewed about the topics from their previous meetings. For later years, they would meet at several film festivals and private screenings only. Kabir wrote in In the Company of a Poet's foreword that she got the idea of the book "[preposterously] as this might sound" after having a dream in 2010, in which she was talking with Gulzar's contemporaries Sahir Ludhianvi and Shailendra; the lyricists told her to write a book in collaboration with Gulzar on their work. It consequently motivated her to do a call with Gulzar from London "no matter how overly dramatic the whole might seem to him", using his telephone number she got when they met coincidentally in the city. His manager, whom she referred to as Mr. Kutty, answered the call and asked her to wait for a while. Gulzar came on the line a few minutes later, telling Kabir to phone him once more after she arrives in India. In late 2010, she had returned to the country and subsequently got the approval from him. Using the telecommunication application Skype, the conversations happened from May to November 2011 with over twenty-five sessions (each lasting around one or two hours) in English, Hindi, and Urdu. Two other books has been written on him—his daughter Meghna's Because He is... (2004) and Saibal Chatterjee's Echoes & Eloquences (2007). They avoid talking topics the previous publications have already done. Kabir, who had returned to London by the end of 2010 following Gulzar's consents on the idea of the book, chose to focus mostly on his work mostly as a lyricist, poet, and screenwriter. She added, "I also believed that even if we were to revisit events that were already known, [Gulzar] would shed new light on them from the perspective of who he is today." At the end of the following year, she went back to Mumbai and continue the conversations at Gulzar's office. ## Critical reception In the Company of a Poet received mixed reviews from book critics. Bollywood Hungama gave the book a rating of two-and-a-half stars, concluding in its review, "If you haven't read any of the books centered on Gulzar yet, this one—though not the best of the lot—could still be your pick\!" Although feeling ambivalent of the book, the critic said that it is suitable for those who wants to have insights of the Bollywood in the past decades from Gulzar's point-of-view. Lopamudra Ghatak of News18 praised Kabir for encouraging Gulzar to tell his personal life detailly and described the book as "a conversation with Kabir interrupting, interjecting and engaging her subject just enough, at the right moments". The Hindustan Times' journalist Deepa Gahlot believed that it gives "a glimpse of where he comes from and the influences that shaped his extraordinary imagination and felicity with words". Suresh Kohli of The Tribune criticised the book for "[lacking] a pattern, therefore the relative inconsistency", explaining that Kabir "flips from films to individuals without a pause, from people to poetry with the finesse of a trapeze artiste". For instance, they were talking about his poem dedicated to Meghna when she was 18, but Kabir suddenly change the topics to her birth. The New Indian Express complimented the book as interesting and filled with much new information of its subject. Writing for The Kashmir Walla, Atul K. Thakur stated, "Nasreen Munni Kabir, who is known for her authentic knowledge on cinema has made another remarkable mark by infusing biographical element in a long interview with a timeless phenomenon-Gulzar." Deccan Herald saw that Gulzar talks about his life in a humorous way. Ziya Us Salam found the book to be a "breezy reading". In The Indian Express, Suanshu Khurana felt that In the Company of a Poet has flawed narrative shifts and many questions from Kabir have little connection with her next questions. Khurana took an example when Gulzar was telling her the screenwriting of Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and its director K. Asif, but Kabir next asked about the author-cum-screenwriter Nabendu Ghosh—the critic opined these flaws could make the book's readers confused. Asif Noorani of Dawn commended Kabir's ability to "draw Gulzar into a lively conversation, enabling us to hear about many people, their fads and foibles", Jitesh Pillai, the editor of Filmfare, praised her for making such an "engaging book" with "delightful insights", and Ramya Sarma of The Hindu shared similar thoughts, appreciating it for its informativeness. The book was included in Firstpost's end-year listing of Top 10 in Indian Non-fiction Books. ## Publication history

George Odlum

Saint Lucian diplomat (1934–2003)

George William Odlum (24 June 1934 – 28 September 2003) was a Saint Lucian left-wing politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. Born in Castries, Odlum studied at Bristol University and Oxford University in the United Kingdom before returning to Saint Lucia as Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Trade. After working for the Commonwealth Secretariat and the West Indies Associated States, he formed the Saint Lucia Forum, a left-wing pressure group. This group merged with the Saint Lucia Labour Party in time for the 1974 elections; although the Party did not win, the progress they made allowed them to take power in 1979, with Odlum as Deputy Prime Minister. Although a secret agreement originally stated that Odlum would take power after six months, his support for Cuba and similar left-wing nations led to American pressure to keep him out. After months of negotiations, Odlum was dismissed as Deputy Prime Minister, and the ensuing government weakness and infighting led to its defeat in the 1982 election. In opposition, Odlum was made Ambassador to the United Nations, resigning in 1996. When the Labour Party came to power again a year later, he became Foreign Minister, overseeing the establishment of stronger relations with both Cuba and China. Amidst controversy over his alleged alliance with the opposition, Odlum resigned in 2001. Never again returning to power, he died on 28 September 2003 following a battle with pancreatic cancer. Odlum's legacy is controversial: while noted as a skilled orator who cared deeply for Saint Lucia's working class, his idealism, support for controversial figures such as Muammar Gaddafi and departure from two Labour administrations were noted as factors which harmed him and others around him. Despite this, his funeral saw widespread grieving, with Ralph Gonsalves, the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, describing him simply as a "giant of a man". ## Early life Odlum was born on 24 June 1934 in Castries, the son of a barber. He studied economics at Bristol University, becoming the first Afro-Caribbean head of the University of Bristol Union before moving to Magdalen College, Oxford in 1959, where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics and was one of the few Afro-Caribbean students to attend. At university, Odlum acted, played both football and cricket, and became noted as a successful debater. After graduating from Oxford he returned to St Lucia in 1961, becoming a Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade. He moved back to the United Kingdom in 1964 to work as an economist in the Commonwealth Secretariat, leaving 3 years later. Returning to St Lucia again, he became Executive Secretary to the Council of Ministers of the West Indies Associated States. ## Career During the early 1960s, St Lucia and the other West Indies Associated States were British colonies, with a limited degree of self-rule. In St Lucia, the Saint Lucia Labour Party was considered the traditional party for "political and constitutional advance" but, despite this, it lost the general election in 1964 to the United Workers Party, a right-wing party led by John Compton that continued to rule until 1979. In response Odlum, a socialist, founded the Saint Lucia Forum, a pressure group that discussed "the socialist and black cultural ideas which were beginning to challenge the Caribbean status quo". This was part of a group of Forums established in 1970 following secret talks with other left-wing Caribbean intellectuals, including Maurice Bishop. In 1972 Odlum left his job with the Council of Ministers to form the St Lucia Action Movement, which later merged with a weakened Labour Party in time for the 1974 general election. Odlum's faction of the Labour Party did most of the work in the election, building their power base among the banana-producing small farmers, with Odlum leading frequent strikes in an attempt to improve working conditions. His work in the 1974 election, along with his "good looks and charisma", yielded a safe seat in Castries, which he allowed his brother to run for. Odlum instead chose to campaign for a rural seat held by the United Workers Party, which he lost by a small margin. Despite the Labour Party still being in opposition in Saint Lucia, socialism and left-wing politics were on the rise in the Caribbean as a whole and, during his time out of Parliament, Odlum was the public face of socialism in the region. Saint Lucia gained full independence in 1979. Immediately beforehand, Odlum organised large protests in front of international news cameras, further cementing his role in the region's communist and socialist movement. Three weeks after independence, the nearby country of Grenada saw the overthrow of its government by communists revolutionaries led by Maurice Bishop. When the United Workers Party called a general election in Saint Lucia three weeks later, Compton's government fell – Odlum was returned to Parliament and the Labour Party, led by Allan Louisy, came to power. ### Deputy Prime Minister Odlum's prominent role within the party led to his immediate appointment as Deputy Prime Minister, with the portfolios of foreign affairs and trade and industry. He publicly supported the Grenadian revolutionaries, who were constructing a new airport with Cuban support. Ronald Reagan alleged that this was to be used as a launching point for Soviet aircraft, and Odlum's support for it worried both the Americans (due to their concerns about the purposes of the new facility) and his fellow communists, who saw him as a "loose cannon" and thought that his continuing public championing of it would further draw American attention. Louisy had become Prime Minister thanks to a secret agreement with Odlum that he would resign, allowing Odlum to take over, within 6 months. When the time came Louisy refused, backed by the Americans, who wanted to keep Odlum out of office at all costs. This saw Odlum turn against his own government and even vote against the budget. A second proposal that Louisy resign was rejected on 30 December 1980, with the power struggle continuing despite his agreement to hand over some of his portfolios. The dispute continued into 1981, with Odlum attracting controversy by announcing on 3 March that he had not ignored the possibility of his grouping within the Labour Party splitting and joining the United Workers Party. The result was the 1981 dismissal of Odlum as Deputy Prime Minister and the resignation of Louisy. Louisy was succeeded not by Odlum, but by Winston Cenac, who himself resigned eight months later on 16 January 1982. Cenac was succeeded by Michael Pilgrim in an attempt by moderates in the Labour Party to avoid the possibility of Odlum leading the country. By this point Odlum had left the party, forming the Progressive Labour Party (PLP). Pilgrim's government also collapsed, necessitating an early general election in 1982 in which the Labour Party was left with only 3 of the 17 seats, returning the United Workers Party to government and seeing Odlum dismissed from Parliament. His Progressive Labour Party won only a single seat. ### Ambassador and Foreign Minister Now outside Parliament, Odlum maintained his presence in the public eye through meetings and the work of his newspaper, The Crusader. His revenge over the Labour Party finally occurred during the 1987 general election, when the PLP split the vote and denied his old allies victory. In 1995 he accepted the position of Ambassador to the United Nations from Compton, his old enemy, holding it for only a year. When Compton resigned in 1996, Odlum chose to stand for election against his successor and lost the contest. After again allying with the Labour Party in 1997, Odlum was returned to Parliament, receiving appointment as Foreign Minister in the government of Kenny Anthony. In this position, he oversaw the improvement of diplomatic relations with Cuba, announcing that a consulate would be established there and spearheading the signing of a joint Cuban-Saint Lucian trading agreement to oversee improvements in the agricultural and healthcare sectors. Odlum's ministry also saw the diplomatic recognition of China in 1997, following month-long negotiations and the offer of several million dollars worth of aid to Saint Lucia. Taiwan responded to the announcement by breaking off relations, stating that the government's move to recognise China had harmed Taiwan's "national interests and dignity". After diplomatic relations were officially established, Odlum visited China between 5 and 12 September. Odlum resigned in 2001 after a series of controversies. His fellow ministers accused him of conspiring against the government and attempting to have it overthrown and replaced with a new administration. Odlum, on the other hand, argued that ruling members of the Labour Party had been making efforts to remove him and that the "dastardly act" of cutting away a significant portion of his constituency in a boundary change was what had forced him over the edge. His resignation came immediately before a letter of dismissal arrived at his house. Odlum formed the National Alliance party to contest the 2001 elections, but the party failed to win any seats. ## Retirement and death Odlum attracted controversy in November 2002 when he spoke at the funeral service for Antiguan politician Tim Hector. His speech censured the attendees for what he perceived as mourning Hector in death while failing to support him in life, asking "were you there when the ballot process was contaminated to declare him a loser? Were you there?". His speech was criticised by Vere Bird, Jr., the Antiguan Minister of Agriculture, Lands and Fisheries, who called Odlum's words "strident and ill-informed reflections". Following a long fight against cancer, spending most of the last year of his life in and out of hospital, Odlum died on 28 September 2003 in Tapion Hospital, Castries, aged 69. The body lay in state on 5 October, where it was viewed by Pearlette Louisy, Kenny Anthony, and members of the Cabinet. Odlum's funeral was held on 6 October, with a 30-vehicle procession travelling from Vieux Fort to Castries; it was led by a pair of police outriders and a coach carrying the coffin, draped in the national flag. St Lucian citizens were reported to be openly weeping at Odlum's death. The funeral itself was held in a park, due to no church in Castries being large enough to hold the number of mourners. During the service, sections of his most famous speeches were broadcast from loudspeakers. James Fletcher, a Cabinet Secretary, had previously announced that all flags would be flown at half-mast for the day as a tribute. Edwin Carrington, the Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community, stated that Odlum "served his country, St Lucia, with distinction" and was "charismatic, eloquent and a consummate master of communication, both in speaking and writing...one of the region's leading and most persistent exponents on the debilitating effects of the erosion of trade preferences for the region's banana industry on the livelihood of the people". Other tributes came from Ralph Gonsalves, the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, who described Odlum as "one of the region's finest political orators, who was persuasive, eloquent and was able to command attention universally, not only in his native capital city Castries but also at the United Nations, in Geneva, Cape Town or in London". In 2004, on the anniversary of his death, a series of activities were organised in memory of Odlum. These included the dedication of a tomb at the Choc Cemetery and a service at the Mount of Prayer in Coubaril that was attended by his family and close friends. ## Legacy Odlum, known simply as "Brother George", had a controversial legacy. He was noted as one of the region's greatest orators, able to command attention not only in Saint Lucia itself, but at the United Nations and on the world stage. Supporters praised his connection with the working class, and his fight for better pay and conditions in the agricultural sector. At the same time, both critics and supporters point towards awkward elements of his personality and career. Gonsalves, at his funeral, noted that "the strictures of bureaucratic systems he found difficult to be contained within", while his obituary in The Times described him as a man "with more flamboyance than substance". His resignation from the two Labour administrations, as well as his alliances with the UWP and other factions, were noted as contradictions which would require historical debate and assessment. His support of figures such as Fidel Castro and Muammar Gaddafi was also noted as controversial, with his relentless left-wing approach to politics being identified as damaging both to others and to the causes he championed.

The Glass Ballerina

"The Glass Ballerina" is the second episode of the third season of the TV series Lost, and the 51st episode overall. The episode was written by Jeff Pinkner and Drew Goddard and directed by Paul Edwards, and premiered on October 11, 2006, on ABC. The characters of Sun and Jin are featured in the episode's flashbacks; on the Island, they and Sayid attempt to discover the whereabouts of Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. The episode was watched by an estimated 16.890 million viewers in the United States. It received mixed reviews, as multiple reviewers believed it was inferior to the previous week's season premiere; one stated the storyline caused the series to "take a step back [because it] delivers nothing new or substantial". ## Plot summary ### Flashbacks A young Sun-Hwa Kwon (Sophie Kim) breaks a glass ballerina and blames it on the maid, despite her father, Mr. Paik (Byron Chung), warning her the maid would be fired. Later, Sun as an adult (Yunjin Kim) is shown having an affair with Jae Lee (Tony Lee), who attempts to give her a pearl necklace. She refuses, afraid that her husband would see it. Then, to her shame, Mr. Paik barges in and finds them in bed together. Mr. Paik later summons Sun's husband, Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), saying that Jae has been stealing from him, and telling Jin to put an end to it (implying that he is to be killed). But when Jin ambushes and beats up Jae, he still cannot bring himself to commit murder, and instead orders Jae to leave the country. However, as Jin gets into his car, Jae's body suddenly lands on his windshield. Jae's corpse hand is clutching the pearl necklace, implying that he jumped from the window. At Jae's funeral, Sun runs into her father. She asks if he would ever tell Jin about the affair, but he says that it was not his place to tell Jin. ### On the island On the sailboat, Sun, Jin-Soo Kwon (Daniel Dae Kim), and Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews) argue about what to do because Jack Shephard's (Matthew Fox) party has not shown up; Sun goes against her husband's wishes and agrees with Sayid to sail to a new location. They find the Others' dock and come ashore to build a signal fire to try and lure the Others into an ambush. Meanwhile among the Others, Ben Linus (Michael Emerson) orders Colleen (Paula Malcomson) to put together a team and capture Sayid's boat. Her team avoids Sayid and Jin, and instead sneaks aboard the boat, where they encounter Sun below deck. Sun accidentally shoots Colleen in the abdomen and narrowly manages to escape overboard. Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) and James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway) are forced to work in a quarry, digging and carrying rocks. Alex (Tania Raymonde) secretly asks Kate about Karl (Blake Bashoff). Sawyer creates a distraction by kissing Kate passionately, and steals a rifle, but is forced to relinquish it when Juliet Burke (Elizabeth Mitchell) threatens to shoot Kate. Back in their cages, Sawyer tells Kate what he learned about the fighting abilities of the various Others. He says that Juliet would have shot her without a problem and criticizes the other Others. They start discussing plans to escape, not knowing Ben is monitoring their conversation via security cameras. Ben then visits Jack, telling him his real name, and that he has lived on the island all his life. He offers that if Jack cooperates, he can be sent home. Jack believes the Others are also stranded just as he is, but Ben informs him of the exact time and date of his plane crash and that 69 days have since passed (making the date November 29, 2004) and insists that they are in contact with the outside world. He shows this by citing various current events, such as the re-election of George W. Bush to the American presidency, the sudden death of Christopher Reeve and that the Boston Red Sox have won the 2004 World Series. Once Ben tells him about the Red Sox, Jack starts laughing and says that proves he is lying. Ben then proves it by playing a recording of the final play in the game as Jack watches in shock. ## Production Executive producer Jeff Pinkner and supervising producer Drew Goddard co-wrote "The Glass Ballerina", while cinematographer Paul Edwards served as the director. It featured recurring stars Byron Chung, Tony Lee, Michael Bowen, and Tomiko Okhee Lee, as well as the first of two appearances by guest actress Paula Malcomson. Though her character Colleen Pickett is shot in the episode, she does not die until the season's fourth episode, "Every Man for Himself". Leading up to the premiere of the new season, showrunners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof foreshadowed the episode's adultery storyline in an interview; Cuse mentioned, "How truthful has [Sun] been with Jin about her past?", to which Lindelof added, "And related to that, is the baby his?". Previously, a season two episode had seemed to confirm that Jin was infertile, leading to ramped up speculation online that Sun was pregnant by her lover Jae Lee. A later episode in the third season would resolve this storyline, showing that Jin was cured of his infertility and is the father of their baby. Sun's deception over the affair would later be resolved in the season four episode "Ji Yeon", when Juliet tells Jin about Sun and Jae Lee. Actor Daniel Dae Kim enjoyed the fight scene between him and guest actor Tony Lee, commenting that "I really appreciate the fact that [Jin]'s just a down-and-dirty street fighter. I think his style of fighting fits his character". He continued "it was great to see a different layer to Sun's character. Because previously she had always been the good wife, and Jin was the bad husband". Actress Yunjin Kim added that "now we know that [Sun]'s not what she's been advertised to be for the last two seasons, but actually she has a lot of secrets." ## Reception It was originally scheduled to air on October 18, 2006, but was swapped with the episode "Further Instructions" and broadcast one week earlier. When "The Glass Ballerina" first aired, it was the seventh most watched episode of the week in the United States, with 16.890 million viewers and a 6.9 rating in the key demographic of adults ages 18–49. Lost critic Andrew Dignan of Slant Magazine noted that like the season premiere, the episode "mostly serves to add uncomfortable wrinkles to one of the show's saints, going so far as to make the consistently sympathetic Sun quite unlikable." He added "While I... question the need for the flashbacks, I must confess to finding this particular episode more wonderfully twisted than usual." Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly wrote "Last week's Jin/Sun episode was something of a disappointment, not because it was a bad episode of Lost, per se (I would give it a solid B), but because it wasn't as good as the exhilarating season premiere (which I would give an A+)." IGN's Chris Carabott rated the episode 6.8/10, explaining that after the premiere's "exciting, new direction" of an episode, "The Glass Ballerina" helped Lost "take a step back [as it] delivers nothing new or substantial". He felt the flashbacks were repetitive and "a lot more like filler than the basis for compelling television", but praised the final scene between Jack and Ben as "the only compelling scene in the whole episode". On a list ranking all the Lost episodes, the Los Angeles Times ranked "The Glass Ballerina" 80 out of 110 episodes, explaining "A good flashback (to Sun and her pre-island lover) and a terrific last scene -- wherein Jack learns the Sox won the Series -- can't make up for a listless on-island plot." On a similar list, IGN rated the episode 106 out of 113 episodes, writing "it felt appropriate for Lost's third season to begin with an episode only featuring Jack, Sawyer and Kate, since their abduction by the Others was a big part of Season 2's conclusion. But having episode two of the season also focus so much on these three, with almost no plot momentum, was frustrating and rather uninteresting. Meanwhile, we do pick up with Sayid, Sun and Jin, but it's really only for yet another 'Sun and Jin have had a lot of big issues in their marriage' flashback – a topic we were well familiar with at this point." Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim each submitted this episode for consideration on their own behalf for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series respectively for the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards.

Bernard Levin

British journalist and writer (1928–2004)

Henry Bernard Levin CBE (19 August 1928 – 7 August 2004) was an English journalist, author and broadcaster, described by The Times as "the most famous journalist of his day". The son of a poor Jewish family in London, he won a scholarship to the independent school Christ's Hospital and went on to the London School of Economics, graduating in 1952. After a short spell in a lowly job at the BBC selecting press cuttings for use in programmes, he secured a post as a junior member of the editorial staff of a weekly periodical, Truth, in 1953. Levin reviewed television for the Manchester Guardian and wrote a weekly political column in The Spectator noted for its irreverence and influence on modern parliamentary sketches. During the 1960s he wrote five columns a week for the Daily Mail on any subject that he chose. After a disagreement with the proprietor of the paper over attempted censorship of his column in 1970, Levin moved to The Times where, with one break of just over a year in 1981–82, he remained as resident columnist until his retirement, covering a wide range of topics, both serious and comic. Levin became a broadcaster, first on the weekly satirical television show That Was the Week That Was in the early 1960s, then as a panellist on a musical quiz, Face the Music, and finally in three series of travel programmes in the 1980s. He began to write books in the 1970s, publishing 17 between 1970 and 1998. From the early 1990s, Levin developed Alzheimer's disease, which eventually forced him to give up his regular column in 1997, and to stop writing altogether not long afterwards. ## Life and career ### Early years Levin was born on 19 August 1928 in London, the second child and only son of Philip Levin, a tailor of Jewish Bessarabian descent, and his wife, Rose, née Racklin. Philip Levin abandoned the family when Levin was a child, and the two children were brought up with the help of their maternal grandparents, who had emigrated from Lithuania at the turn of the 20th century. Levin wrote of his childhood, "My home was not a religious one; my grandfather read the scriptures to himself silently and struggled through a little English; my grandmother, who could read no language at all, lit a candle on the appropriate days, as did my mother, though for her it was not really a religious sign. My uncles were quite secular ... and had hardly anything to do with the religion of their father and grandfathers". In The Guardian after Levin's death, Quentin Crewe wrote, "His illiterate grandparents' stories about life in Russia must have instilled in him the passionate belief in the freedom of the individual that lasted his whole life. In return, as he grew older, he used to read to them. Bernard could not read Hebrew, but he could get by in Yiddish". Rose Levin was a capable cook, and, though the household was not well off, Levin was well fed and acquired an interest in food that in adult life became one of the regular themes of his journalism. The cuisine was traditional Jewish, with fried fish as one cornerstone of the repertoire, and chicken as another – boiled, roast, or in soup with lokshen (noodles), kreplach or kneidlach. As an adult Levin retained his love of Jewish cookery along with his passion for French haute cuisine. The Levin household was not especially musical, though it had a piano which Judith was taught to play; Rose Levin bought her son a violin and paid for lessons, convinced that he was "destined to be the next Kreisler or Heifetz". Levin persevered ineptly for two and a half years and then gave up with relief. The experience put him off music for some time, and it was only later that it became one of his passions, a frequent topic in his writing. Levin was a bright child and, encouraged by his mother, he worked hard enough to win a scholarship to the independent school Christ's Hospital in the countryside near Horsham, West Sussex. His housemaster was D. S. ("Boom") Macnutt, the school's head of Classics. Macnutt was a strict, even bullying, teacher, and was feared rather than loved by his pupils, but Levin learned Classics well, and acquired a lifelong fondness for placing Latin tags and quotations in his writing. He battled on many fronts at Christ's Hospital: he was a Jew at a Church of England establishment; he was from a poor family (although Christ's Hospital is a charity school); he was slight of stature; he was utterly indifferent to sport; he adopted a Marxist stance, hanging the Red Flag from a school window to celebrate the Labour victory in 1945. In the local streets, the school's conspicuous uniform, including a blue coat, knee breeches and yellow socks, attracted unwanted attention. Levin's biographer Bel Mooney writes of this period, "Jeers put iron in his soul". Among the consolations of Christ's Hospital was its thriving musical life. At concerts by the school orchestra (whose members included Levin's contemporary, Colin Davis), Levin listened seriously to music for the first time. The food at the school was no such consolation; according to Levin it was so appalling that there must be something better to be found, and from his late teens he sought out the best restaurants he could afford. Levin hoped to go to the University of Cambridge, but, as his obituarist in The Times wrote, he "was not considered Oxbridge material". He was accepted by the London School of Economics (LSE), where he studied from 1948 to 1952. His talents were recognised and encouraged by LSE tutors including Karl Popper and Harold Laski; Levin's deep affection for both did not prevent his perfecting a comic impersonation of the latter. Levin became a skilled debater; he wrote for the student newspaper The Beaver, on a range of subjects, not least opera, which became one of his lifelong passions. Having graduated from the LSE in 1952, Levin worked briefly as a tour guide, and then joined the BBC's North American Service. His job was to read all the newspapers and weekly magazines, selecting articles that might be useful for broadcasting. ### Journalism In 1953, Levin applied for a job on the weekly periodical Truth. The paper had recently been taken over by the liberal publisher Ronald Staples who together with his new editor Vincent Evans was determined to cleanse it of its previous right-wing racist reputation. Levin's noticeably Jewish surname, together with such skills as he had acquired in shorthand and typing, gained him immediate acceptance. He was offered the post of "general editorial dogsbody, which was exactly what I had been looking for". After a year, Evans left and was succeeded by his deputy, George Scott; Levin was promoted in Scott's place. He wrote for the paper under a variety of pseudonyms, including "A. E. Cherryman". While still at Truth, Levin was invited to write a column in The Manchester Guardian about ITV, Britain's first commercial television channel, launched in 1955. Mooney describes his television reviews as "notably punchy" and The Times commented, "Levin took out his shotgun and let loose with both barrels". Levin gave the opening programmes a kindly review, but by the fourth day of commercial television he was beginning to baulk: "There has been nothing to get our teeth into apart from three different brands of cake-mix and a patent doughnut". Thereafter, he did not spare the network: "cliché succeeded to cliché"; "a mentally defective aborigine who was deaf in both ears would have little difficulty in leaving Double Your Money £32 richer than when he entered"; and after the network's first hundred days he attributed its viewing figures to the "number of people who are sufficiently stupid to derive pleasure from such programmes". ### The Spectator In 1956, Levin found himself in irreconcilable disagreement with Truth's support of the Anglo-French military action in the Suez Crisis. The proprietor and editor of the long-established weekly The Spectator, Ian Gilmour, invited Levin to join his staff. Levin left Truth and became the political correspondent of The Spectator. He declared that he was no expert in politics, but Gilmour advised him, "review it as you would review television". Levin wrote his column under the pseudonym "Taper", from the name of a corrupt political insider in Disraeli's 1844 novel Coningsby. He followed Gilmour's advice, becoming, as The Guardian's Simon Hoggart said, "the father of the modern parliamentary sketch": > Until then sketch writers were basically on the side of the MPs. Their job was to convey to voters the majesty of our legislators' oratory, to remind us of the surpassing importance of their deliberations. A predecessor of mine published his collected works as The Glory of Parliament. Levin had truck with none of that nonsense. As he said later, he treated the old place as if it were a theatre. 'I was watching a farce, from the front row of the stalls, with a glass of champagne in my hand.' Levin made no pretence of even-handedness. There were politicians he liked and politicians he did not like. For those in the latter category, "Taper's lacerations wounded". He invented unflattering nicknames; he wrote later, "I did not (though I wish I had) think of calling Sir Hartley Shawcross Sir Shortly Floorcross, but I did call Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller Sir Reginald Bullying-Manner". When the latter was elevated to the peerage as Lord Dilhorne, Levin renamed him Lord Stillborn. Taper was not Levin's only work for The Spectator. He wrote on a wide range of subjects, from a campaign for the release of three Arabs imprisoned by the British authorities, to supporting publication of the banned novel Lady Chatterley's Lover, and denunciation of the retired Lord Chief Justice, Lord Goddard. The last led to a secret meeting of more than 20 senior judges to see whether Levin could be prosecuted for criminal libel; there was no prosecution, and his accusations about Goddard's vindictiveness, deceit and bias have relatively recently been claimed to have been justified. In 1959, Gilmour, while remaining as proprietor, stepped down as editor and was succeeded by his deputy, Brian Inglis; Levin took over from Inglis as assistant editor. Later in that year, after the general election victory of another of his bêtes noires, Harold Macmillan, Levin gave up the Taper column, professing himself to be in despair. Concurrently with his work at The Spectator, Levin was the drama critic of The Daily Express from 1959, offending many in theatrical circles by his outspoken verdicts. He modelled his reviewing style on that of Bernard Shaw's musical reviews of the late 19th century. He gave a fellow-critic an edition of Shaw's collected criticism, writing inside the cover, "'In the hope that when you come across the phrases I have already stolen you will keep quiet about it". Gilmour discouraged any hopes Levin might have had of succeeding Inglis as editor and in 1962, Levin left both The Spectator and The Daily Express, becoming drama critic of The Daily Mail. He remained there for eight years, and for the last five of them also wrote five columns a week on any subject of his choice. ### Television and The Pendulum Years Although by the early 1960s, Levin was becoming a well-known name, his was not yet a well-known face. Meeting him in London the publisher Rupert Hart-Davis did not immediately recognise him: "He looks about sixteen, and at first I thought he was someone's little boy brought along to see the fun – very Jewish, with wavy fairish hair, very intelligent and agreeable to talk to". Levin was invited to appear regularly on BBC television's new weekly late-night satirical revue, That Was the Week That Was, where he delivered monologues to camera about his pet hates and conducted interviews, appearing as "a tiny figure taking on assorted noisy giants in debate". The programme, which had a short but much-discussed run, was transmitted live; this added to its edginess and impact, but also made it prone to disruption. Levin was twice assaulted on air, once by the husband of an actress whose show Levin had reviewed severely, and once by a woman astrologer who squirted him with water. In 1966, BBC television screened a new musical quiz, Face the Music presented by Joseph Cooper. It ran intermittently until 1984. Levin was a frequent panel member along with, among others, Robin Ray, Joyce Grenfell, David Attenborough and Richard Baker. Levin published his first book in 1970. Called The Pendulum Years, its subtitle, Britain and the Sixties, summed up its subject. In 22 self-contained chapters, Levin considered various aspects of British life during the decade. Among his topics were prominent people including Harold Macmillan and Harold Wilson – dubbed the Walrus and the Carpenter by Levin – and institutions such as the monarchy, the churches and the British Empire in its last days. Among the individual events examined in the book were the 1968 student riots and the prosecution for obscenity of the publishers of Lady Chatterley's Lover. Levin's interest in indexes developed from his work on The Pendulum Years. He compiled his own index for the book, "and swore a mighty oath, when I had finished the task, that I would rather die, and in a particularly unpleasant manner, than do it again". He contrived to include in his index an obscene joke at the expense of the hapless prosecutor in the Chatterley trial, but found the difficulty of indexing so great that he became a champion of the Society of Indexers. He wrote several articles on the subject, and when reviewing books made a point of praising good indexes and condemning bad ones. ### The Times In June 1970, during the general election campaign, Levin fell out with the proprietors of The Daily Mail, Lord Rothermere and his son Vere Harmsworth. Levin's contract guaranteed him absolute freedom to write whatever he chose, but Harmsworth, an unswerving Conservative, attempted to censor Levin's support for the other major party, Labour. Levin resigned, and immediately received offers from The Guardian and The Times to join them as a columnist. He found both tempting, and at one point "even had a wild notion of suggesting that I should write for both simultaneously". In the end, he chose The Times, giving as his reason that though the liberal Guardian was more in line with his own politics than the conservative Times, "I wrote more comfortably against the grain of the paper I worked for rather than with it". His obituarist in The Times added that the decision may also have been swayed by the better remuneration offered by the paper. Among the perquisites of the Times appointment were a company car and a large and splendid office at the paper's building in Printing House Square, London. Levin accepted neither; he could not drive and he hated to be isolated. He commandeered a desk in the anteroom to the editor's office, a location that kept him closely in touch with the daily affairs of the paper. It also gave him ready access to the editor, William Rees Mogg, with whom he developed a good friendship. Levin's brief was to write two columns a week (later three) on any subject that he wished. His range was prodigious; he published nine volumes of his selected journalism of which the first, Taking Sides, covered subjects as diverse as the death watch beetle, Field Marshal Montgomery, Wagner, homophobia, censorship, Eldridge Cleaver, arachnophobia, theatrical nudity, and the North Thames Gas Board. Within weeks of joining The Times Levin provoked a lawsuit and a strident controversy. The first was in March 1971, in an article titled "Profit and dishonour in Fleet Street", accusing Rothermere of underhand conduct and personal avarice during the merger of The Daily Mail and The Daily Sketch. The libel action brought by Rothermere was settled out of court, at substantial cost to the proprietor of The Times, Lord Thomson. Two months later, controversy followed Levin's renewed condemnation of Lord Goddard immediately after the latter's death in May 1971. The legal profession closed ranks and defended Goddard's reputation against Levin's attacks. Among those denouncing Levin were Lords Denning, Devlin, Hodson, Parker, Shawcross and Stow Hill. After Levin's death The Times published an article opining that information made public since 1971 "strongly supported" his criticisms of Goddard. At the time, the lawyers took revenge on Levin by ensuring that his candidacy for membership of the Garrick, a London club much favoured by lawyers and journalists, was blackballed. At The Daily Mail, Levin had generally been restricted to 600 words for his articles. At The Times he had more licence to spread himself. He appeared in The Guinness Book of Records for the longest sentence ever to appear in a newspaper – 1,667 words. He was proud of this, and affected to be outraged when "some bugger in India wrote a sentence very considerably longer". He maintained that he could construct impromptu a sentence of up to 40 subordinate clauses "and many a native of these islands, speaking English as to the manner born, has followed me trustingly into the labyrinth only to perish miserably trying to find the way out". Sometimes Levin wrote about frivolous, even farcical matters, such as a series of mock-indignant articles about the sex-lives of mosquitoes. At other times he wrote about matters of grave moral importance, unfailingly denouncing authoritarian regimes whether of the left or the right. He observed, "I am barred by the governments concerned from entering the Soviet Union and the lands of her empire on the one hand and South Africa on the other. These decrees constitute a pair of campaign medals that I wear with considerable pleasure and I have a profound suspicion of those who rebuke me for partisanship while wearing only one". He wrote regularly about the arts. Music was a recurrent theme; he was notorious for his addiction to Wagner, and other favourite composers included Schubert and Mozart. He wrote about performers he admired, including Otto Klemperer, Alfred Brendel, and Kiri Te Kanawa. He turned less regularly to the visual arts, but when he did his views were clear-cut and trenchantly expressed. He wrote of a Pre-Raphaelite exhibition in 1984, "Never, in all my life, not even at the exclusively Millais exhibition in 1967, have I seen so much sickening rubbish in one place at one time". His knowledge and love of literature were reflected in many of his writings; among his best-known pieces is a long paragraph about the influence of Shakespeare on everyday discourse. It begins: > If you cannot understand my argument, and declare 'It's Greek to me', you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger, if your wish is father to the thought, if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare". ### Arianna Stassinopoulos (Huffington) In 1971, Levin appeared in an edition of Face the Music along with a new panellist, Arianna Stassinopoulos (later known as Arianna Huffington). He was 42; she was 21. A relationship developed, of which she wrote after his death: "He wasn't just the big love of my life, he was a mentor as a writer and a role model as a thinker". Although Levin had rejected Judaism when a youth, he quested after spirituality. Such religious sympathies as he had, he said, were "with quietist faiths, like Buddhism, on the one hand, and with a straightforward message of salvation, like Christianity, on the other". With the help of Stassinopoulos he continued to search after spiritual truth. She later wrote, "He tried therapy, he tried Insight, a self-awareness seminar that I had helped to bring to London, he tried a stint in an ashram in India. Lesser souls would have avoided the ridicule that was heaped on him for his spiritual 'search' by simply keeping it to himself. But he didn't, because anything he was touched by he had to write about". In 1980 he wrote extensive accounts in his column about his visit to the Indian commune of the meditation teacher Osho. Levin was commissioned by the BBC to visit musical festivals around the world, broadcasting a series of talks about them. Together with Stassinopoulos, he visited festivals in Britain, Ireland, continental Europe and Australia. He later wrote a book, Conducted Tour (1982) on the same subject. By the time it was published he and Stassinopoulos were no longer together. At the age of 30, she remained deeply in love with him but longed to have children; Levin never wanted to marry or be a father. She concluded that she must break away, and moved to New York in 1980. In later years, Liz Anderson (Elisabeth Anderson) was Bernard Levin's partner. Like Arianna Stassinopoulos, she was also Levin's junior by more than 20 years. ### 1980s In 1981 Levin took a sabbatical from The Times after Rupert Murdoch bought the paper and Harold Evans succeeded Rees-Mogg as editor. Evans and Levin were friends, but Levin had publicly stated his preference that Charles Douglas-Home should be appointed. Within a year Evans and Murdoch fell out and Evans left in 1982; Douglas-Home became editor, and coaxed Levin back, to write two columns a week. On returning to the paper in October 1982, he began his column with the words, "And another thing". This mirrored his opening gambit when publication of The Times resumed in 1979 after a printers' strike lasting nearly a year: his first column then had begun with the word "Moreover". By the 1980s, Levin was sufficiently well known to be the subject of satire himself. The satirical ITV show Spitting Image caricatured him in high-flown discussion with another well-known intellectual in a sketch entitled "Bernard Levin and Jonathan Miller Talk Bollocks". By now, Levin's political views were moving to the right, and he was no longer writing so much against the grain of his newspaper. He had come to admire Margaret Thatcher, though not the rest of her party: "But there is one, and only one, political position that, through all the years and all my changing views and feelings, has never altered, never come into question, never seemed too simple for a complex world. It is my profound and unwavering contempt for the Conservative Party". Levin never published an autobiography, but his book Enthusiasms, published in 1983, consists of chapters on his principal pleasures: books, pictures, cities, walking, Shakespeare, music, food and drink, and spiritual mystery. The book is dedicated "To Arianna, with much more than enthusiasm" – they remained loving friends for the rest of his life. It contains a sentence that far outdoes his earlier 1,667 word effort in The Times, starting on page 212 and ending four pages later; it lists the restaurants most esteemed by Levin in Europe, Asia and America. It also briefly mentions Levin's battle against depression, akin to bipolar disorder. In the 1980s, Levin made three television series for Channel 4. The first, Hannibal's Footsteps, screened in 1985, showed Levin walking the presumed route taken by Hannibal when he invaded Italy in 218 BC. The programme followed Levin's 320-mile journey from Aigues-Mortes to the crossing into Italy in the Queyras valley in the French Alps. He remained true to his declared intention of eschewing all forms of vehicular transport, and walked all the way, with the exception of his crossing the Rhone, rowing himself in a small boat. He followed this with To the End of the Rhine in 1987, following the Rhine from its two sources, the Hinterrhein and the Vorderrhein, in Switzerland, to its estuary at Rotterdam, 1,233 km (766 mi) to the north. In between he joined the Swiss citizen army on manoeuvres, visited Liechtenstein bankers, zig-zagged the Swiss–German border at Lake Constance, attended the Schubertiade at Hohenems and the opera at Bregenz, took the waters at Baden-Baden, visited the manufacturers of eau de Cologne, and paid tribute to Erasmus at Basel. The last of the three series was in 1989, A Walk up Fifth Avenue in New York, from Washington Square to the Harlem River. In this series he encountered extremes of wealth and poverty, and met a wide variety of people, some famous (such as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Donald Trump) and some not (including a sword-swallowing unicyclist, and a bag lady in Central Park). He wrote books based on each of the three series, published in 1985, 1987 and 1989 respectively. ### Last years Levin began to have difficulty with his balance as early as 1988, although Alzheimer's disease was not diagnosed until the early 1990s. From September 1995, his Times column appeared once weekly instead of twice, and in January 1997 the editor, Peter Stothard, concluded, despite a great admiration for Levin, that the weekly column should cease. Levin retired, though he continued to write for the paper occasionally over the next year. On 7 August 2004, he died in Westminster, London, aged 75. He is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London. A memorial service was held at the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields at which Sir David Frost delivering the eulogy described Levin as "a faithful crusader for tolerance and against injustice who had declared, 'The pen is mightier than the sword – and much easier to write with'". ## Honours and commemorations Levin was appointed CBE for services to journalism in 1990. The Society of Indexers has instituted an award in Levin's name; it is given to "a journalist and author whose writings show untiring and eloquent support for indexers and indexing". He was president of the English Association, 1984–85, and vice-president 1985–88. He was an honorary fellow of the LSE from 1977, and a member of the Order of Polonia Restituta, conferred by the Polish government-in-exile in 1976. In its obituary tribute to him, The Times described Levin as "the most famous journalist of his day".

Cavalera Conspiracy

Brazilian-American heavy metal band

Cavalera Conspiracy is a Brazilian-American heavy metal supergroup from Phoenix, Arizona, founded by Brazilian brothers Max (vocals, rhythm guitar) and Igor Cavalera (drums, percussion), who are widely known as former members of Sepultura, and the only two constant members of the band. The band originally formed in 2007 as Inflikted but changed its name for legal reasons. The group's creation marked the end of a 10-year feud between the Cavalera brothers who founded Sepultura in the early 1980s. In 2022, they adopted the name Cavalera in order to release re-recorded editions of classic Sepultura albums, which were released in 2023. Following the brothers' falling out, Max Cavalera had formed a new band, Soulfly, and Igor had recorded four studio albums with Sepultura before leaving the band in January 2006. In July 2006, Max received an unexpected call from his brother, and by the end of the conversation, Max had invited Igor to visit him in Phoenix, Arizona, to perform in a Soulfly show. Igor joined Soulfly in concert and performed two Sepultura songs. After the show, Max suggested they begin a new project, and Igor accepted. To complete the band, Max chose Soulfly guitarist Marc Rizzo and Joe Duplantier (Gojira) as bass guitarist. The group then recorded their debut album at Undercity Studios in Los Angeles with engineer and co-producer Logan Mader in July 2007. Named after the band's original moniker, Inflikted was released through Roadrunner Records on March 25, 2008. Cavalera Conspiracy has released three more albums since then: Blunt Force Trauma (2011), Pandemonium (2014) and Psychosis (2017). ## History ### Background On August 16, 1996, at 1:43 a.m., Max Cavalera's stepson Dana Wells, was killed in a car crash at the age of 21 in Phoenix, Arizona. At the time, Cavalera was the lead vocalist for Sepultura which was on tour promoting its sixth studio album, Roots, in England with Ozzy Osbourne. After hearing the news, Ozzy and his wife Sharon Osbourne hired a private plane to take Cavalera and his wife, manager and mother of Dana, Gloria, back home. After the funeral, Max returned his focus to Sepultura, and the band resumed its European tour. Then, following a sold-out show at London's Brixton Academy on December 16—later documented on the live album Under a Pale Grey Sky—drummer Igor Cavalera, guitarist Andreas Kisser, and bassist Paulo Jr. told Max they wanted to replace numerous members of the band's staff, including Gloria. Andreas, Paulo and Igor proposed ending the contract with Gloria and hiring a new manager for Sepultura, saying that she paid more attention to Max than the band. The trio suggested that she could continue as Max's personal manager but that someone else should manage the band. Coincidentally, Gloria's contract was up for renewal, so she let the band end it. Max felt betrayed by his mates, especially his brother. In an interview with Revolver magazine's May 2008 issue, Max claimed that Gloria had worked for Sepultura for two years without pay. Disagreeing with the other Sepultura members, Max said, "If this is how it's going down, I'm out. I quit. I can't just put a mask on and backstab a bunch of people that trust me." Later, Max stated that it was the hardest decision he had to make in his life. His departure from Sepultura caused a 10-year feud between the Cavalera brothers. During this period, Max formed a new band, Soulfly, which has released nine studio albums. Igor continued as Sepultura's drummer, appearing on the group's next four studio records before leaving in January 2006 to work on his DJ project, Mixhell, and to spend more time with his family. #### Reconciliation In July 2006, while Soulfly was on tour, Max received a call from his brother, and by the end of the conversation, Max had invited Igor to visit him in Phoenix for the tenth anniversary of D-Low, an annual memorial show for Dana. At the concert, Igor joined Soulfly and performed two Sepultura songs, "Roots Bloody Roots" and "Attitude," for which Dana had written the lyrics. In an interview with Chad Bowar for About.com, Max stated that performance was "the birth of Cavalera Conspiracy". After the show, Max suggested they begin a new project after Soulfly finished touring. Max confessed to Bowar that he had lied to Igor when he said all the songs were ready when he had only finished one. He added, "It was one of those good lies. Everything rolled from there. What I like about the Conspiracy is that nothing is really planned. One thing leads to another. There's no pressure and it feels like a different project than anything I've done." #### Name Before talking with his brother, Max wrote a song entitled "Inflikted," inspired by Sepultura's visit in 1992 to Indonesia where they saw a "crazy ritual". Describing what he saw, Max said, "There was self-inflicted pain, knives, blood, fire. It was insane. It stuck in my head." Max stated that "Inflikted" was supposed to go towards Soulfly's sixth studio album Conquer, but he wanted to do the song with Igor. For legal reasons, they could not use Inflikted as the band name. According to Max, "A lot of people had used it before, so he had to come up with something else." When trying to find a name, he "blurted out" Cavalera Conspiracy, and Igor liked it. Max added, "I think I like it better than Inflikted. It has a ring to it that connects me and Igor as two brothers back together." ### Inflikted (2007–2009) To complete the band, Max chose Soulfly guitarist Marc Rizzo and vocalist Joe Duplantier of Gojira. Rizzo was his choice because, according to Max, he and Rizzo "play together in Soulfly and musically, we are like twin brothers". Max also said that he talked to Rizzo about going back to the roots of the mid-1980s thrash metal, which he did with Sepultura. Max continues, "Marc was completely into it and he did great. He surpassed what I asked him to do." Max stated that Duplantier was Gloria's idea, as he did not know him at all. He added, "We had no idea who the guy is, he's from a different continent and we don't speak French. I did know the Gojira CD. But I like the element of surprise and danger Joe brought." In July 2007, the band recorded their debut album at Undercity Studios in Los Angeles with engineer and co-producer Logan Mader (who played in Soulfly for a year after leaving Machine Head in 1999) and Lucas Banker of the Dirty Icon production team. The album included guest appearances of bassist Rex Brown on the song "Ultra-Violent", and Max's stepson Ritchie Cavalera singing on "Black Ark". The band made their debut live performance on August 31, 2007, at the 11th Annual D-Low Memorial Concert in Tempe, AZ. Inflikted, named after the band's original moniker, was released through Roadrunner Records on March 25, 2008. Commercially, Inflikted did not have great sales, reaching moderate positions on the charts. The album reached the top 30 on Austria, Finland and Germany, and the top 40 on Australia and Belgium. Having sold more than 9,000 copies during its first week, Inflikted peaked at number 72 on the Billboard 200 chart. The Infliktour supporting the debut album began on May 30, 2008, when Cavalera Conspiracy played its first official concert at the Electric Weekend festival in Madrid, Spain. However, for this live performance and the subsequent European tour, the band had to replace Duplantier, who was unable to join Cavalera Conspiracy on the road as he was recording Gojira's fourth studio album, The Way of All Flesh. He was replaced by Johny Chow of Fireball Ministry. Between June and mid-July 2008, the band performed in several festivals, including appearances at the Pinkpop Festival, Rock am Ring and Rock im Park, Download Festival, Graspop Metal Meeting, Eurockéennes, among others. The band then returned to the United States for a North American tour from mid-July to August 2008, featuring headline dates with The Dillinger Escape Plan, Throwdown, Bury Your Dead, and Incite. Cavalera Conspiracy also performed at the Monsters of Rock festival, which was held on July 26 at McMahon Stadium in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and the one-day Ozzfest at the Pizza Hut Park on August 9. During its tour, Cavalera Conspiracy performed on several dates with Judas Priest at the Priest Feast throughout Eastern Europe, but both bands cancelled their shows in Australia and New Zealand, which were scheduled for September 2008. In a press release, promoters claimed the cancellation was due to "logistic and freight issues", but Max Cavalera wrote on the band's website that they were "banned" from performing in New Zealand and Australia because someone—whom he did not specify—"deemed" them an "inappropriate" band and "too inflammatory". Due to commitments of Max with Soulfly and Igor with Mixhell, Cavalera Conspiracy was put on hold until August 2009, when the band regrouped to touring in Europe and Japan, including shows at the Ankkarock, Summer Sonic, Pukkelpop, and Trutnov festivals, and two September 2009 dates in Austria and Russia. ### Blunt Force Trauma (2009–2012) In October 2009, Max told Noisecreep that he and his brother Igor have plans to work on a second Cavalera Conspiracy album together. The following month, Noisecreep spoke with Igor about a new Cavalera Conspiracy album. Igor said that he and Max are both busy with their main commitments, but "We have some ideas of maybe doing a remix album of [Inflikted] and have people like Justice or Soulwax—even some dub artists that my brother likes—remix the whole album," he says. "But that's just an idea. It's nothing confirmed. But me and Max are talking about doing a new album in the future, but there's no pressure. There's nobody from the label or the agents trying to push us to do it as quick as possible." Cavalera Conspiracy entered the studio in April 2010 to begin recording the follow-up to their 2008 debut album, Inflikted. In May 2010, the band finished recording with producer Logan Mader in co-production with Max. Cavalera Conspiracy recruited their touring bassist Johny Chow to play bass on the album, as former member Joe Duplantier was busy with Gojira's next album. Upon finished recordings, Roadrunner Records confirmed that the band's new album would not be released until early 2011. On November 16, 2010, in an article on blabbermouth.net it was revealed that the band's second album would be titled Blunt Force Trauma, and would be released on March 29, 2011. A track list for the album was also revealed. Prior to the album's release, two songs were published by the band. The song "Killing inside" was released via the homepage of the band's label Roadrunner Records and the Cavalera Conspiracy newsletter. The download was only available from February 7, 2011, until February 9, 2011. The title track "Blunt Force Trauma" was released on February 17, 2011, as a stream via the Roadrunner Records homepage. In a November 2012 concert in Belo Horizonte, original Sepultura lead guitarist Jairo Guedz joined the band (performing with Tony Campos on bass) to perform Troops of Doom. ### Pandemonium (2013–2016) In September 2013 Max Cavalera stated his intent to begin work on a new Cavalera Conspiracy album in 2014, which will be predominantly grindcore. Igor then implied on October 1 that the album could consist solely of the two brothers, without involvement from Marc Rizzo or Johny Chow, with the album produced by James Murphy. However this was proven false when Max's wife Gloria announced the trio of Max, Igor and Marc entering the studio with producer John Gray in late December 2013, along with the announcement on December 31 of Nate Newton of Converge as the band's new bassist. In August 2014, a new song titled "Banzai Kamikaze" was uploaded to Napalm's SoundCloud account. The new Cavalera Conspiracy album Pandemonium was released on October 31, 2014, in Europe and on November 4, 2014, in North America. 2015 saw Johny Chow return to Cavalera Conspiracy on bass for live shows, however the group's Facebook page lists Chow, Newton and Campos as rotating live duties on bass. ### Psychosis and touring old Sepultura material (2017–2022) In May 2017, it was announced that Cavalera Conspiracy had entered The Platinum Underground Studios in Phoenix, Arizona with producer Arthur Rizk (Code Orange, Power Trip, Inquisition) to record their fourth studio album and follow-up to 2014's Pandemonium. They had revealed the album title as Psychosis, and a release date of November 17, 2017. The band also announced that a studio documentary titled The Conspiracy Diaries was being produced simultaneously by Horns Up Rocks\! On December 1, ahead of the band's European Headbangers Ball Tour under the "Max and Iggor Return to Roots" banner, Marc Rizzo dropped out, citing a "dire family emergency" and was replaced by Soulfly bassist Mike Leon. Cavalera Conspiracy were rumored to be touring with Sepultura in early 2018, which would have been the first time in over 20 years that the Cavalera brothers shared the stage with their former band; however, this proved to be false. ### Re-recording Bestial Devastation and Morbid Visions (2023–present) In April 2023 it was announced that Max and Igor had re-recorded the first two Sepultura releases, Bestial Devastation (1985) and Morbid Visions (1986). The first re-recorded track, "Morbid Visions" (from the album of the same name) was released on May 12, along with the title track from Bestial Devastation on June 16. Both re-recorded albums were released on July 14, 2023 under the Cavalera Conspiracy name on streaming sites, but using the name Cavalera on physical editions. Max's son Igor Amadeus Cavalera was recruited as studio and touring bassist for this period, while Possessed guitarist Daniel Gonzalez recorded lead guitar, before Pig Destroyer bassist and former Lody Kong and Healing Magic guitarist (both bands of Igor Amadeus) Travis Stone was recruited to perform lead guitar on the Morbid Devastation Tour that year. ## Style, lyrics, and reception Revolver's Jon Wiederhorn, pointed out that although the songs were arranged and recorded quickly, Inflikted sounds neither hastily executed nor incomplete. There's a connection between Max's riffing and Igor's drumming; a chemistry that comes only from musicians who learned to play together and honed their craft through years of studio sessions and live shows. Wiederhorn described Inflikted as an "explosive flashback to the remorseless thrash and primal groove-metal Sepultura created between 1991's Arise and 1993's Chaos A.D. [...] The songs are raw and simple, yet graced with syncopated drum runs, experimental guitar flourishes, and sonic frills inspired by Max's love of reggae and Igor's fascination with DJ culture. The vocals are primal and savage, emboldened by a sense of urgency that's equal parts desperation, rage, and celebration." On Inflikted, Max was the group's songwriter and lyricist. At the time of the album recording, he was watching the same four movies almost every day: Apocalypse Now, City of God, A Clockwork Orange, and La Haine. Max revealed to Revolver that he wanted to do something different, and it gave him a lot of ideas. He said, "What came out of this album was more than enough to fill the void of not working together for so long. It's pretty intense. From the first moment, it's war." Allmusic's Eduardo Rivadavia, said that release of Inflikted "brings to fruition one of the most anticipated yet most improbable reunions in heavy metal history." Rivadavia expressed that Duplantier "generally just keeps a low sonic profile and his nose out of trouble, but Rizzo's contributions really can't be overstated. [...] His otherworldly soloing and inventive melodic lines often serve as the creative catalysts responsible for the most inspired moments." Keith Carman of Exclaim\! praised the group's musicianship on Inflikted, saying that "it wouldn't be a stretch to proclaim that Inflikted, with its detuned grunt, bombastic lyrics and hyperactive drumming, is the album that should have succeeded Sepultura's widely-acclaimed 1996 powerhouse Roots." Like the former, Adrien Begrand of PopMatters wrote enthusiastically for both Cavalera Conspiracy and Inflikted. > Sure, it's not a Sepultura reunion, but having Max and Igor performing on record for the first time in a dozen years is as close as we'll ever get, and not only does Cavalera Conspiracy's Inflikted revisit the post-thrash sounds of 1993's Chaos A.D., but it manages to outshine anything Sepultura has put out in the last dozen years. Rounded out by Soulfly lead guitarist Marc Rizzo and, most impressively, Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier on bass and rhythm guitar, the band is as solid a metal supergroup as you'll ever come across, and the album's eleven tracks benefit hugely from the chemistry between the four musicians. Joel McIver of Record Collector wrote: "Inflikted is gobsmackingly violent. The 11 tracks combine hardcore punk (without the crappy production) and thrash metal (without the clichés) to produce an insanely fast record loaded with references to their best work: Sepultura's Beneath the Remains and Arise. It's too modern to sound close to those records, of course, but in terms of attitude and riff weight it matches them beat-for-beat and riff-for-riff. Those thousands praying for the Max-era Sepultura line-up to reform can get off their knees: the key reunion has happened." Cavalera Conspiracy has been labeled as thrash metal and death metal. ## Band members Current members - Max Cavalera – vocals, rhythm guitar (2007–present) - Igor Cavalera – drums, percussion (2007–present) Touring members - Igor Amadeus Cavalera - bass (2023–present) - Travis Stone - lead guitar (2023-present) Session members - Arthur Rizk – bass, noise, synthesizer (2017) - Daniel Gonzalez – lead guitar (2022–2023) - Igor Amadeus Cavalera - bass (2022–present) Former members - Marc Rizzo – lead guitar, occasional backing vocals (2007–2021) - Joe Duplantier – bass, rhythm guitar, additional co-lead vocals (2007–2008) - Johny Chow – bass (2008–2012, touring: 2015–2016) - Nate Newton – bass, additional co-lead vocals (2013–2015) Former touring members - Greg Hall – drums (2011) - Tony Campos – bass (2012–2014, 2016–2017, 2020) - Dino Cazares – lead guitar (2022) - Mike Leon – lead guitar (2017), bass (2018–2019, 2022) - Daniel Gonzalez – lead guitar (2022, 2022–2023) ### Timeline ## Discography ### Studio albums ### Cover albums ### Extended plays ### Singles ### Music videos

Harald Hardrada

King of Norway from 1046 to 1066

Harald Sigurdsson (; c. 1015 – 25 September 1066), also known as Harald III of Norway and given the epithet Hardrada in the sagas, was King of Norway from 1046 to 1066. He unsuccessfully claimed the Danish throne until 1064 and the English throne in 1066. Before becoming king, Harald spent 15 years in exile as a mercenary and military commander in Kievan Rus' and chief of the Varangian Guard in the Byzantine Empire. In his chronicle, Adam of Bremen called him the "Thunderbolt of the North". In 1030, the fifteen-year old Harald fought in the Battle of Stiklestad with his half-brother Olaf Haraldsson. Olaf sought to reclaim the Norwegian throne, which he had lost to Danish king Cnut two years prior. Olaf and Harald were defeated by forces loyal to Cnut, and Harald was forced into exile to Kievan Rus'. Thereafter, he was in the army of Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise, becoming captain, until he moved on to Constantinople with his companions around 1034. In Constantinople, he rose quickly to become the commander of the Byzantine Varangian Guard, seeing action on the Mediterranean Sea, in Asia Minor, Sicily, possibly in the Holy Land, Bulgaria and in Constantinople itself, where he became involved in the imperial dynastic disputes. Harald amassed wealth whilst in the Byzantine Empire, which he shipped to Yaroslav in Kievan Rus' for safekeeping. In 1042, he left the Byzantine Empire, returning to Kievan Rus' to prepare to reclaim the Norwegian throne. In his absence the Norwegian throne had been restored from the Danes to Olaf's illegitimate son Magnus the Good. In 1046, Harald joined forces with Magnus's rival in Denmark, the pretender Sweyn II of Denmark, raiding the Danish coast. Magnus, unwilling to fight his uncle, agreed to share the kingship with Harald, since Harald in turn would share his wealth with him. The co-rule ended abruptly the next year as Magnus died: Harald became the sole ruler of Norway. Domestically, Harald crushed opposition, and outlined the unification of Norway. Harald's reign was one of relative peace and stability, and he instituted a coin economy and foreign trade. Seeking to restore Cnut's "North Sea Empire", Harald claimed the Danish throne, and spent nearly every year until 1064 raiding the Danish coast and fighting his former ally, Sweyn. Although the campaigns were successful, he was never able to conquer Denmark. Not long after Harald had renounced his claim to Denmark, the former Earl of Northumbria, Tostig Godwinson, brother of English king Harold Godwinson, pledged his allegiance to Harald, inviting him to claim the English throne. Harald assented, invading northern England with 10,000 troops and 300 longships in September 1066, defeating the English regional forces of Northumbria and Mercia in the Battle of Fulford near York on 20 September. Harald was defeated and killed in a surprise attack by Harold Godwinson's forces in the Battle of Stamford Bridge on 25 September, which wiped out his army. Historians often consider Harald's death the end of the Viking Age. ## Epithets Harald's most famous epithet is Old Norse harðráði, which has been translated variously as 'hard in counsel', 'tyrannical', 'tyrant', 'hard-ruler', 'ruthless', 'savage in counsel', 'tough', and 'severe'. While Judith Jesch has argued for 'severe' as the best translation, Alison Finlay and Anthony Faulkes prefer 'resolute'. Harðráði has traditionally been Anglicised as 'Hardrada', though Judith Jesch characterises this form as 'a bastard Anglicisation of the original epithet in an oblique case'. This epithet predominates in the later Icelandic saga-tradition. However, in a number of independent sources associated with the British Isles, mostly earlier than the Icelandic sagas, Harald is given epithets deriving from Old Norse hárfagri (literally 'hair-beautiful'). These sources include: - Manuscript D of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ('Harold Harfagera', under the year 1066) and the related histories by Orderic Vitalis ('Harafagh', re events in 1066), John of Worcester ('Harvagra', s.aa. 1066 and 1098), and William of Malmesbury (Gesta regum Anglorum, 'Harvagre', regarding 1066). - Marianus Scotus of Mainz ('Arbach', d. 1082/1083). - The Life of Gruffydd ap Cynan ('Haralld Harfagyr', later twelfth century). In Icelandic sagas the name Harald Fairhair is more famously associated with an earlier Norwegian king, and twentieth-century historians assumed that the name was attached to Harald Hardrada in error by Insular historians. However, recognising the independence of some of the Insular sources, historians have since favoured the idea that Harald Hardrada was widely known as Harald Fairhair, and indeed now doubt that the earlier Harald Fairhair existed in any form resembling the later saga-accounts. Sverrir Jakobsson has suggested that 'fairhair' 'might be the name by which King Harald wished himself to be known. It must have been his opponents who gave him the epithet "severe" (ON. harðráði), by which he is generally known in thirteenth-century Old Norse kings' sagas'. ## Early life Harald was born in Ringerike, Norway, in 1015 (or possibly 1016) to Åsta Gudbrandsdatter and her second husband Sigurd Syr. Sigurd was a petty king of Ringerike, and among the strongest and wealthiest chieftains in the Uplands. Through his mother Åsta, Harald was the youngest of King Olaf II of Norway / Olaf Haraldsson's (later Saint Olaf) three half-brothers. In his youth, Harald displayed traits of a typical rebel with big ambitions, and admired Olaf as his role model. He thus differed from his two older brothers, who were more similar to their father, down-to-earth and mostly concerned with maintaining the farm. The Icelandic sagas, in particular Snorri Sturluson in Heimskringla, claim that Sigurd, like Olaf's father, was a great-grandson of King Harald Fairhair in the male line. Most modern scholars believe that the ancestors attributed to Harald Hardrada's father, along with other parts of the Fairhair genealogy, are inventions reflecting the political and social expectations of the time of the authors (around two centuries after Harald Hardrada's lifetime) rather than historical reality. Harald Hardrada's alleged descent from Harald Fairhair is not mentioned and played no part during Harald Hardrada's own time, which seems odd considering that it would have provided significant legitimacy in connection with his claim to the Norwegian throne. Following a revolt in 1028, Harald's brother Olaf was forced into exile until he returned to Norway in early 1030. On hearing news of Olaf's planned return, Harald gathered 600 men from the Uplands to meet Olaf and his men upon their arrival in the east of Norway. After a friendly welcome, Olaf went on to gather an army and eventually fight in the Battle of Stiklestad on 29 July 1030, in which Harald took part on his brother's side. The battle was part of an attempt to restore Olaf to the Norwegian throne, which had been captured by the Danish king Cnut the Great (Canute). The battle resulted in defeat for the brothers at the hands of those Norwegians who were loyal to Cnut, and Olaf was killed while Harald was badly wounded. Harald was nonetheless remarked to have shown considerable military talent during the battle. ## Exile in the East ### To Kievan Rus' After the defeat at the Battle of Stiklestad, Harald managed to escape with the aid of Rögnvald Brusason (later Earl of Orkney) to a remote farm in Eastern Norway. He stayed there for some time to heal his wounds, and thereafter (possibly up to a month later) journeyed north over the mountains to Sweden. A year after the Battle of Stiklestad, Harald arrived in Kievan Rus' (referred to in the sagas as Garðaríki or Svíþjóð hin mikla). He likely spent at least part of his time in the town of Staraya Ladoga (Aldeigjuborg), arriving there in the first half of 1031. Harald and his men were welcomed by Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise, whose wife Ingegerd was a distant relative of Harald. Badly in need of military leaders, Yaroslav recognised a military potential in Harald and made him a captain of his forces. Harald's brother Olaf Haraldsson had previously been in exile to Yaroslav following the revolt in 1028, and Morkinskinna says that Yaroslav embraced Harald first and foremost because he was the brother of Olaf. Harald took part in Yaroslav's campaign against the Poles in 1031, and possibly also fought against other 1030s Kievan enemies and rivals such as the Chudes in Estonia, and the Byzantines, as well as the Pechenegs and other steppe nomad people. ### In Byzantine service After a few years in Kievan Rus', Harald and his force of around 500 men moved on south to Constantinople (Miklagard), the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (also known today – but not to contemporaries – as the Byzantine Empire), probably in 1033 or 1034, where they joined the Varangian Guard. Although the Flateyjarbók maintains that Harald at first sought to keep his royal identity a secret, most sources agree that Harald and his men's reputation was well known in the east at the time. While the Varangian Guard was primarily meant to function as the emperor's bodyguard, Harald was found fighting on "nearly every frontier" of the empire. He first saw action in campaigns against Arab pirates in the Mediterranean Sea, and then in inland towns in Asia Minor / Anatolia that had supported the pirates. By this time, he had, according to Snorri Sturluson (a 12th century Icelandic historian, poet, and politician), become the "leader over all the Varangians". By 1035, the Byzantines had pushed the Arabs out of Asia Minor to the east and southeast, and Harald took part in campaigns that went as far east as the Tigris River and Euphrates River in Mesopotamia, where according to his skald (poet) Þjóðólfr Arnórsson (recounted in the sagas) he participated in the capture of eighty Arab strongholds, a number which historians Sigfus Blöndal and Benedikt Benedikz see no particular reason to question. Although not holding independent command of an army as the sagas imply, it is not unlikely that King Harald and the Varangians at times could have been sent off to capture a castle or town. During the first four years of the reign of Byzantine Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian, Harald probably also fought in campaigns against the Pechenegs. Thereafter, Harald is reported in the sagas to have gone to Jerusalem and fought in battles in the area. Although the sagas place this after his expedition to Sicily, historian Kelly DeVries has questioned that chronology. Whether his trip was of a military or peaceful nature would depend on whether it took place before or after the 1036 peace treaty between Michael IV and the Muslim Fatimid Caliph Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah (in reality the Caliph's mother, originally a Byzantine Christian, since the Caliph was a minor), although it is considered unlikely to have been made before. Modern historians have speculated that Harald may have been in a party sent to escort pilgrims to Jerusalem (possibly including members of the Imperial family) following the peace agreement, as it was also agreed that the Byzantines were allowed to repair the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Furthermore, this may in turn have presented Harald with opportunities to fight against bandits who preyed on Christian pilgrims. In 1038, Harald joined the Byzantines in their expedition to Sicily, in George Maniakes's (the sagas' "Gyrge") attempt to reconquer the island from the Muslim Saracens, who had established the Emirate of Sicily on the island. During the campaign, Harald fought alongside Norman mercenaries such as William Iron Arm. According to Snorri Sturluson, Harald captured four towns on Sicily. In 1041, when the Byzantine expedition to Sicily was over, a Lombard-Norman revolt erupted in southern Italy, and Harald led the Varangian Guard in multiple battles. Harald fought with the Catepan of Italy, Michael Dokeianos with initial success, but the Normans, led by their former ally William Iron Arm, defeated the Byzantines in the Battle of Olivento in March, and in the Battle of Montemaggiore in May. After the defeat, Harald and the Varangian Guard were called back to Constantinople, following Maniakes's imprisonment by the emperor and the onset of other more pressing issues. Harald and the Varangians were thereafter sent to fight in the southeastern European frontier in Bulgaria, where they arrived in late 1041. There, he fought in the army of Emperor Michael IV in the Battle of Ostrovo of the 1041 campaign against the Bulgarian uprising led by Peter Delyan, which later gained Harald the nickname the "Bulgar-burner" (Bolgara brennir) by his skald. Harald was not affected by Maniakes's conflict with Emperor Michael IV, and received honours and respect upon his return to Constantinople. In a Greek book written in the 1070s, the Strategikon of Kekaumenos, Araltes (i.e. Harald) is said to have won the favour of the emperor. The book says that the Byzantine emperor first appointed him manglabites (possibly identified with the title protospatharios), a soldier of the imperial guard, after the Sicilian campaign. Following the campaign against the Bulgarians, in which Harald again served with distinction, he received the rank while at Mosynopolis of spatharokandidatos, identified by DeVries as a promotion to the possibly third highest Byzantine rank, but by Mikhail Bibikov as a lesser rank than protospatharios that was ordinarily awarded to foreign allies to the emperor. The Strategikon indicates that the ranks awarded to Harald were rather low, since Harald reportedly was "not angry for just having been appointed to manglabites or spatharokandidatos". According to his skald Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Harald had participated in eighteen greater battles during his Byzantine service. Harald's favour at the imperial court quickly declined after the death of Michael IV in December 1041, which was followed by conflicts between the new emperor Michael V and the powerful empress Zoe. During the turmoil, Harald was arrested and imprisoned, but the sources disagree on the grounds. The sagas state that Harald was arrested for defrauding the emperor of his treasure, as well as for requesting marriage with an apparently fictional niece or granddaughter of Zoe, called Maria (his suit supposedly being turned down by the empress because she wanted to marry Harald herself). William of Malmesbury states that Harald was arrested for defiling a noble woman, while according to Saxo Grammaticus he was imprisoned for murder. DeVries suggests that the new emperor may have feared Harald because of his loyalty to the previous emperor. The sources also disagree on how Harald got out of prison, but he may have been helped by someone outside to escape in the midst of the revolt that had begun against the new emperor. While some of the Varangians helped guard the emperor, Harald became the leader of the Varangians who supported the revolt. The emperor was in the end dragged out of his sanctuary, blinded and exiled to a monastery, and the sagas claim that it was Harald himself who blinded Michael V (or at least claimed to have done so). ### Back to Kievan Rus' Harald became extremely rich during his time in the east, and secured the wealth collected in Constantinople by shipments to Kievan Rus' for safekeeping (with Yaroslav the Wise acting as safekeeper for his fortune). The sagas note that aside from the significant spoils of battle he had retained, he had participated three times in polutasvarf (loosely translated as "palace-plunder"), a term which implies either the pillaging of the palace exchequer on the death of the emperor, or perhaps the disbursement of funds to the Varangians by the new emperor in order to ensure their loyalty. It is likely that the money Harald made while serving in Constantinople allowed him to fund his claim for the crown of Norway. If he participated in polutasvarf three times, these occasions must have been the deaths of Romanos III, Michael IV, and Michael V, in which Harald would have opportunities, beyond his legitimate revenues, to carry off immense wealth. After Zoe had been restored to the throne in June 1042 together with Constantine IX, Harald requested to be allowed to return to Norway. Although Zoe refused to allow this, Harald managed to escape into the Bosphorus with two ships and some loyal followers. Although the second ship was destroyed by the Byzantine cross-strait iron chains, Harald's ship sailed safely into the Black Sea after successfully manoeuvring over the barrier. Despite this, Kekaumenos lauds the "loyalty and love" Harald had for the empire, which he reportedly maintained even after he returned to Norway and became king. Following his escape from Constantinople, Harald arrived back in Kievan Rus' later in 1042. During his second stay there, he married Elisabeth (referred to in Scandinavian sources as Ellisif), daughter of Yaroslav the Wise and granddaughter of the Swedish king Olof Skötkonung. Shortly after Harald's arrival in Kiev, Yaroslav attacked Constantinople, and it is considered likely that Harald provided him with valuable information about the state of the empire. It is possible that the marriage with Elisiv had been agreed to already during Harald's first time in Rus', or that they at least had been acquainted. During his service in the Byzantine Empire, Harald composed a love poem which included the verse "Yet the goddess in Gardarike / will not accept my gold rings" (whom Snorri Sturluson identifies with Elisiv), although Morkinskinna claims that Harald had to remind Yaroslav of the promised marriage when he returned to Kiev. According to the same source, Harald had spoken with Yaroslav during his first time in Rus', requesting to marry Elisiv, only to be rejected because he was not yet wealthy enough. It is in any case significant that Harald was allowed to marry the daughter of Yaroslav, since his other children were married to figures such as Henry I of France, Andrew I of Hungary and the daughter of Constantine IX. ## King of Norway ### Return to Scandinavia Seeking to regain for himself the kingdom lost by his half-brother Olaf Haraldsson, Harald began his journey westwards in early 1045, departing from Novgorod (Holmgard) to Staraya Ladoga (Aldeigjuborg) where he obtained a ship. His journey went through Lake Ladoga, down the Neva River, and then into the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea. He arrived in Sigtuna in Sweden, probably at the end of 1045 or in early 1046. When he arrived in Sweden, according to the skald Tjodolv Arnorsson, his ship was unbalanced by its heavy load of gold. In Harald's absence, the throne of Norway had been restored to Magnus the Good, an illegitimate son of Olaf. Harald may actually have known this, and it could have been the reason why Harald wanted to return to Norway in the first place. Since Cnut the Great's sons had chosen to abandon Norway and instead fight over England, and his sons and successors Harold Harefoot and Harthacnut had died young, Magnus's position as king had been secured. No domestic threats or insurrections are recorded to have occurred during his eleven-year reign. After the death of Harthacnut, which had left the Danish throne vacant, Magnus had in addition been selected to be the king of Denmark, and managed to defeat the Danish royal pretender Sweyn Estridsson. Having heard of Sweyn's defeat by Magnus, Harald met up with his fellow exile in Sweden (who was also his nephew), as well as with the Swedish king Anund Jacob, and the three joined forces against Magnus. Their first military exploit consisted of raiding the Danish coast. The purpose of that was to impress the natives by demonstrating that Magnus offered them no protection, and thus leading them to submit to Harald and Sweyn. Learning about their actions, Magnus knew that their next target would be Norway. Harald may have planned to be taken as king of his father's petty kingdom, and thereafter claim the rest of the country. In any case, the people were unwilling to turn against Magnus, and on hearing news of Harald's schemes, Magnus (abroad at the time) went home to Norway with his entire army. Instead of going to war, Magnus's advisors recommended the young king not fight his uncle, and a compromise was reached in 1046 in which Harald would rule Norway (not Denmark) jointly with Magnus (although Magnus would have precedence). Notably, Harald also had to agree to share half of his wealth with Magnus, who at the time was effectively bankrupt and badly in need of funds. During their short co-rule, Harald and Magnus had separate courts and kept to themselves, and their only recorded meetings nearly ended in physical clashes. In 1047, Magnus and Harald went to Denmark with their leidang forces. Later that year in Jylland, less than a year into their co-rule, Magnus died without an heir. Before his death, he had decided that Sweyn was to inherit Denmark and Harald to inherit Norway. On hearing the news of Magnus's death, Harald quickly gathered the local leaders in Norway and declared himself king of Norway as well as of Denmark. Although Magnus had appointed Sweyn his successor as king of Denmark, Harald immediately announced his plans to gather an army and oust his former ally from the country. In response, the army and the chieftains, headed by Einar Thambarskelfir, opposed any plans of invading Denmark. Although Harald himself objected to bringing the body of Magnus back to Norway, the Norwegian army prepared to transport his body to Nidaros (now Trondheim), where they buried him next to Saint Olaf in late 1047. Einar, an opponent of Harald, claimed that "to follow Magnus dead was better than to follow any other king alive". Under Harald's rule, Norway introduced a royal monopoly on the minting of coins. The coins minted under Harald's rule appear to have been accepted as a commonly used currency (as opposed to continued use of primarily foreign-minted coins). Minting of coins likely provided a substantial part of Harald's annual revenues. Minting of coinage collapsed in Norway in the late 14th century. ### Invasions of Denmark Harald also wanted to re-establish Magnus's rule over Denmark, and in the long term probably sought to restore Cnut the Great's "North Sea Empire" in its entirety. While his first proposal to invade Denmark fell through, the next year Harald embarked on what would turn into constant warfare against Sweyn, from 1048 almost yearly until 1064. Similar to his campaigns (then together with Sweyn) against Magnus's rule in Denmark, most of his campaigns against Sweyn consisted of swift and violent raids on the Danish coasts. In 1048, he plundered Jutland, and in 1049 he pillaged and burned Hedeby, at the time the most important Danish trade center, and one of the best protected and most populous towns in Scandinavia. Hedeby as a civil town never recovered from Harald's destruction, and was left completely desolate when what remained was looted by Slavic tribes in 1066. One of two conventional battles was set to be fought between the two kings later the same year, but, according to Saxo Grammaticus, Sweyn's smaller army was so frightened when approached by the Norwegians that they chose to jump in the water trying to escape; most drowned. Although Harald was victorious in most of the engagements, he was never successful in occupying Denmark. The second, more significant battle, a naval encounter, was the Battle of Niså on 9 August 1062. As Harald had not been able to conquer Denmark despite his raids, he wanted to win a decisive victory over Sweyn. He eventually set out from Norway with a great army and a fleet of around 300 ships. Sweyn had also prepared for the battle, which had been preassigned a time and place. Sweyn did not appear at the agreed time, and Harald thus sent home his non-professional soldiers (bóndaherrinn), which had made up half of his forces. When the dismissed ships were out of reach, Sweyn's fleet finally appeared, possibly also with 300 ships. The battle resulted in great bloodshed as Harald defeated the Danes (70 Danish ships were reportedly left "empty"), but many ships and men managed to escape, including Sweyn. During the battle, Harald actively shot with his bow, like most others in the early phase of the battle. Fatigue and the huge cost of the indecisive battles eventually led Harald to seek peace with Sweyn, and in 1064 (or 1065 according to Morkinskinna) the two kings agreed on an unconditional peace agreement. By the agreement, they retained their respective kingdoms with the former boundaries, and there would be no payments of reparations. In the subsequent winter of 1065, Harald travelled through his realm and accused the farmers of withholding taxes from him. In response, he acted with brutality, and had people maimed and killed as a warning to those who disobeyed him. Harald maintained control of his nation through the use of his hird, a private standing army maintained by Norwegian lords. Harald's contribution to the strengthening of Norway's monarchy was the enforcement of a policy that only the king could retain a hird, thus centralising power away from local warlords. ### Domestic opposition According to historian Knut Helle, Harald completed the first phase of what he has termed the "national territorial unification of Norway". Having forced his way to the kingship, Harald would have to convince the aristocracy that he was the right person to rule Norway alone. To establish domestic alliances, he married Tora Torbergsdatter of one of the most powerful Norwegian families. The primary opposition to Harald's rule would be the descendants of Haakon Sigurdsson, from the powerful dynasty of Earls of Lade who had controlled Northern Norway and Trøndelag with much autonomy under the Norwegian king. Haakon had even ruled the whole of Norway (nominally under the Danish king) from 975 until 995, when he was killed during the takeover by Olaf Tryggvasson. Even after Haakon's death, his offspring held a certain degree of sovereignty in the north, and by Harald's early reign the family was headed by Einar Thambarskelfir, who was married to Haakon's daughter. While the family had maintained good relations with Magnus, Harald's absolutism and consolidation of the kingship soon led to conflict with Einar. It was from his power-struggle with the Norwegian aristocracy that Harald got himself the reputation that gave him the nickname "Hardrada", or "the hard ruler". Although the relationship between Harald and Einar was poor from the start, confrontation did not occur before Harald went north to his court in Nidaros. One time in Nidaros, Einar arrived at Harald's court, and in a display of power was accompanied by "eight or nine longships and almost five hundred men", obviously seeking confrontation. Harald was not provoked by the incident. Although the sources differ on the circumstances, the next event nonetheless led to the murder of Einar by Harald's men, which threatened to throw Norway into a state of civil war. Although the remaining descendants of Haakon Sigurdsson considered rebellion against the king, Harald eventually managed to negotiate peace with them, and secured the family's submission for the remainder of his reign. By the death of Einar and his son around 1050, the Earls of Lade had outplayed their role as a base of opposition, and Trøndelag was definitely subordinated to Harald's national kingdom. Before the Battle of Niså, Harald had been joined by Haakon Ivarsson, who distinguished himself in the battle and gained Harald's favour. Harald reportedly even considered giving Haakon the title of Earl, and Haakon was greatly upset when Harald later backed down from his promise. With a strong hold over the Uplands, Haakon was additionally given the earldom of Värmland by the Swedish king Stenkil. In early 1064, Haakon entered the Uplands and collected their taxes, the region thus effectively threatened to renounce their loyalty to Harald in response. The revolt of Haakon and the farmers in the Uplands may have been the main reason why Harald finally had been willing to enter a peace agreement with Sweyn Estridsson. After the agreement, Harald went to Oslo and sent tax collectors to the Uplands, only to find that the farmers would withhold their taxes until Haakon arrived. In response, Harald entered Sweden with an army and quickly defeated Haakon. Still facing opposition from the farmers, Harald embarked on a campaign to crush the areas that had withheld their taxes. Due to the remote location of the region in the interior of the country, the Uplands had never been an integrated part of the Norwegian king's realm. Using harsh measures, Harald burned down farms and small villages, and had people maimed and killed. Starting in Romerike, his campaign continued into Hedmark, Hadeland and Ringerike. Since the regions contained several rich rural communities, Harald strengthened his economic position by confiscating farming estates. By the end of 1065 there was probably peace in Norway, as any opposition had either been killed, chased into exile or silenced. ### Policies Harald's reign was marked by his background as a military commander, as he often solved disputes with a brute force. One of his skalds even boasted about how Harald broke settlements he had made, in his battles in the Mediterranean. While the sagas largely focus on Harald's war with Sweyn and the invasion of England, little is said about his domestic policies. Modern historians have taken this as a sign that, despite his absolute monarchy, his reign was one of peace and progress for Norway. Harald is considered to have instituted good economic policies, as he developed a Norwegian currency and a viable coin economy, which in turn allowed Norway to participate in international trade. He initiated trade with Kievan Rus' and the Byzantine Empire through his connections, as well as with Scotland and Ireland. According to the later sagas, Harald founded Oslo, where he spent much time. Harald also continued to advance Christianity in Norway, and archaeological excavations show that churches were built and improved during his reign. He also imported bishops, priests and monks from abroad, especially from Kievan Rus' and the Byzantine Empire. A slightly different form of Christianity was thus introduced in Norway from the rest of northern Europe, although the East–West Schism had not yet taken place. Since the clergy was not ordained in England or France, it nonetheless caused controversy when Harald was visited by papal legates. The protests by the legates led Harald to throw the Catholic clergy out of his court, and he reportedly stated to the legates that "he did not know of any other archbishop or lord of Norway than the king himself". Norwegian historian Halvdan Koht has remarked that the "words seemed as if spoken by a Byzantine despot". It is possible that Harald maintained contacts with Byzantine emperors after he became king, which could suggest a background for his church policies. ### Northern explorations Once he had returned to Norway, Harald seems to have displayed an interest in exploring his own realm, as for instance the Morkinskinna recounts Harald's trip into the Uplands. Harald is also said to have explored the seas beyond his kingdom, as the contemporary Adam of Bremen reports of such naval expeditions conducted by Harald: > The most enterprising Prince Haraldr of the Norwegians lately attempted this [sea]. Who, having searched thoroughly the length of the northern ocean in ships, finally had before his eyes the dark failing boundaries of the savage world, and, by retracing his steps, with difficulty barely escaped the deep abyss in safety. Kelly DeVries has suggested that Harald "may even have known of and sought out the legendary land called Vinland, which Viking sailors had discovered only a short time before", which Adam mentions earlier in the same passage to have been widely reported in Denmark and Norway. H. H. Lamb has on the other hand proposed that the land he reached may have been either Spitsbergen or Novaya Zemlya. ## Invasion of England ### Background and preparations Accepting he could not conquer Denmark, Harald switched attention to England; his claim was based on a 1038 agreement between Magnus and its previous ruler, Harthacnut, who died childless in 1042. The agreement stated that if either die, the other would inherit his lands; however, it was unlikely Magnus assumed he would gain the English throne without fighting. Harthacnut himself preferred his half-brother, Edward the Confessor, who became king with the backing of Earl Godwin, father of Harold Godwinson. Plans by Magnus to invade England in 1045 were suspended, while he dealt with an uprising by Sweyn of Denmark. After Magnus died in 1047, Harald took over his claim; however, Edward kept potential enemies happy by hinting they might succeed him; in addition to Harald, these included Sweyn, and William, Duke of Normandy. In 1058, a fleet under Harald's son Magnus supported a large scale Welsh raid into England, although details are limited. This may have shown Harald that he could not simultaneously fight Denmark and England; this became crucial when Edward died in January 1066, and Harold Godwinson was proclaimed king of England. Harold's brother Tostig Godwinson, formerly Earl of Northumbria, now appeared on the scene; hoping to regain his titles and lands, he reportedly approached both William and Sweyn Estridsson for their support. However, since Northern England was the most suitable landing place for a Norwegian invasion, he was more valuable to Harald. Details are limited, but it is suggested Tostig sent a fellow exile, Copsig, to meet with Harald in Norway and agree plans, while he remained in France. If correct, this would also have allowed Tostig to increase both their chances by simultaneously supporting an invasion by William, who also claimed the throne. In March or April 1066, Harald began assembling his fleet at Solund, in the Sognefjord, a process completed by the start of September 1066; it included his flagship, Ormen, or "Serpent". Before leaving Norway, he had Magnus proclaimed king of Norway, and left Tora behind, taking with him Elisiv, his daughters, and Olaf. En route, he stopped at the Norwegian-held islands of Shetland and Orkney, where he collected additional troops, including Paul and Erlend Thorfinnsson, the Earls of Orkney. At Dunfermline, he met Tostig's ally, Malcolm III of Scotland, who gave him around 2,000 Scottish soldiers. Although possible he also met Tostig there, most sources suggest they linked up at Tynemouth, on 8 September, Harald bringing around 10–15,000 men, on 240–300 longships. Tostig had only 12 ships, his connections being far more significant. The chronicler, John of Worcester, suggests he left Flanders in May or June, raiding the heartland of Harold's estates in southern England, from the Isle of Wight to Sandwich. Having made it seem an attack from Normandy was imminent, he then sailed north, while his brother and most of his troops remained in the south, waiting for William. ### Early raids, invasion, and Battle of Fulford After embarking from Tynemouth, Harald and Tostig probably landed at the River Tees. They then entered Cleveland, and started plundering the coast. They encountered the first resistance at Scarborough, where Harald's demand for surrender was opposed. In the end, Harald resorted to burning down the town and this action led to other Northumbrian towns surrendering to him. After further raiding, Harald and Tostig sailed up the Humber, disembarking at Riccall on 20 September. News of the early raids had reached the earls Morcar of Northumbria and Edwin of Mercia, and they fought against Harald's invading army three kilometres (2 mi) south of York at the Battle of Fulford, also on 20 September. The battle was a decisive victory for Harald and Tostig, and led York to surrender to their forces on 24 September. This would be the last time a Scandinavian army defeated English forces. The same day as York surrendered to Harald and Tostig, Harold Godwinson arrived with his army in Tadcaster, just eleven kilometres (7 mi) from the anchored Norwegian fleet at Riccall. From there, he probably scouted the Norwegian fleet, preparing a surprise attack. As Harald had left no forces in York, Harold Godwinson marched right through the town to Stamford Bridge. ### Battle of Stamford Bridge Early on 25 September, Harald and Tostig departed their landing place at Riccall with most of their forces, but left a third of their forces behind. They brought only light armour, as they expected to just meet the citizens of York, as they had agreed the day before, at Stamford Bridge to decide on who should manage the town under Harald. Once there Harald saw Godwinson's forces approaching, heavily armed and armoured, and greatly outnumbering Harald's. Although (according to non-saga sources) the English forces were held up at the bridge for some time by a single gigantic Norwegian, allowing Harald and Tostig to regroup into a shield-wall formation, Harald's army was in the end heavily beaten. Harald was struck in the throat by an arrow and killed early in the battle, later termed the Battle of Stamford Bridge, in a state of berserkergang, having worn no body armour and fought aggressively with both hands around his sword. When the battle was almost over, some reserve forces from Riccall led by Eystein Orre finally appeared, but they were exhausted as they had run all the way. Eystein picked up Harald's fallen banner, the "Landwaster" (Landøyðan), and initiated a final counter-attack. Although they for a moment appeared to almost breach the English line, Eystein was suddenly killed, which left the rest of the men to flee from the battlefield. Among those left at Riccall after the battle, who were allowed to return home peacefully by the English forces, was Harald's son Olaf. Although sources state that Harald's remaining army only filled 20–25 ships on the return to Norway, it is likely that this number only accounts for the Norwegian forces. Most of the forces from Scotland and Orkney probably remained at Riccall throughout the battle (the earls Paul and Erlend Thorfinnsson are certainly known to have been stationed there the entire time), and has not been counted in the traditional figure. Harold Godwinson's victory was short-lived, as only a few weeks later he was defeated by William the Conqueror and killed at the Battle of Hastings. The fact that Harold had to make a forced march to fight Hardrada at Stamford Bridge and then move at utmost speed south to meet the Norman invasion, all in less than three weeks, is widely seen as a primary factor in William's victory at Hastings. ## Personal life Harald is described by Snorri Sturluson to have been physically "larger than other men and stronger". It is said that he had light hair, a light beard, and a long "upper beard" (moustache), and that one of his eyebrows was somewhat higher situated than the other. He also reportedly had big hands and feet, and could measure five ells in height. It is not known whether Snorri's description of Harald's physical appearance actually represents historical facts. The tall stature of Harald is also substantiated by a story that relates that before the Battle of Stamford Bridge, Harold Godwinson offered Tostig back the earldom of Northumbria, and Harald "six feet of the ground of England, or perhaps more seeing that he is taller than most men" (according to Henry of Huntingdon) or "six feet of English ground, or seven feet as he was taller than other men" (according to Snorri Sturluson). Harald himself composed skaldic poetry. According to Lee M. Hollander, composing poetry was normal for Norwegian kings, but Harald was the only one who "showed a decided talent." His preoccupation with the poetic form may have motivated him to give privileged attention to Icelanders, and particularly Icelandic skalds. He is portrayed as a man very concerned with the way that his image will be presented and memory shaped. According to one poem, Harald had mastered a number of activities that were considered sports in the Viking Age, in addition to poetry, brewing, horse riding, swimming, skiing, shooting, rowing and playing the harp. The sagas state that Harald and his Varangians at least once took a break during the siege of a town to enjoy sports. With regards to religion, Harald had, according to DeVries, a "religious inclination towards Christianity" and was "publicly close to the Christian Church", although he was influenced by the Eastern Christian culture of Kievan Rus' (Garderike) and the Byzantine Empire, having spent most of his life there. He was clearly interested in advancing Christianity in Norway, which can be seen by the continued building and improvement of churches throughout his reign. Despite this, DeVries notes that Harald's "personal morality appears not to have matched the Christian ideal", citing his marriage arrangements. ## Issue Harald married Elisiv of Kiev (c. 1025 – after 1066) around 1044/45, and they had an unknown number, possibly several children. According to Snorri Sturluson, they had two daughters: - Ingegerd (c. 1050 – c. 1120). Married first to the future Olaf I of Denmark, and after his death, to the future Philip of Sweden of the House of Stenkil - Maria (died 25 September 1066). Promised away for marriage to Eystein Orre (brother of Tora Torbergsdatter), but reportedly died on Orkney the same day that Harald (and Eystein) died at Stamford Bridge. According to the sagas, Harald married Tora Torbergsdatter (c. 1025 – after 1066) around 1048. Some modern historians have disputed this, since Harald in that case would be in a bigamous marriage, as he was still married to Elisiv. It is nonetheless possible that such a marriage could take place in Norway in the 11th century, and although Harald had two wives, only Elisiv is noted to have held the title of Queen. Harald and Tora had at least two children: - Magnus II (c. 1049 – c. 1069). Reigned as king of Norway from 1066 to 1069. - Olaf III (c. 1050 – c. 1093). Reigned as king of Norway from 1067 to 1093. ## Legacy ### Burial A year after his death at Stamford Bridge, Harald's body was moved to Norway and buried at the Mary Church in Nidaros (Trondheim). About a hundred years after his burial, his body was reinterred at the Helgeseter Priory, which was demolished in the 17th century. On 25 September 2006, the 940th anniversary of Harald's death, the newspaper Aftenposten published an article on the poor state of Norway's ancient royal burial sites, including that of Harald, which is reportedly located underneath a road built across the monastery site. In a follow-up article on 26 September, the Municipality of Trondheim revealed they would be examining the possibility of exhuming the king and reinterring him in Nidaros Cathedral, currently the burial place of nine Norwegian kings, among them Magnus the Good and Magnus Haraldsson, Harald's predecessor and successor respectively. A month later it was reported that the proposal to exhume the king had been scrapped. ### Modern memorials Two monuments have been erected in honour of Harald in Oslo, the city which he is traditionally held to have founded. A bronze relief on granite by Lars Utne depicting Harald on horseback was raised on the eponymously named square Harald Hardrådes plass in 1905. In 1950, a large relief by Anne Grimdalen, also of Harald on horseback, was unveiled on the western façade of the Oslo City Hall. ## In popular culture - Harald appears in a number of historical fiction books. In H. P. Lovecraft's novella The Call of Cthulhu, one key character "lay in the Old Town of King Harold Haardrada, which kept alive the name of Oslo during all the centuries that the greater city masqueraded as 'Christiana'." Justin Hill's Viking Fire is the second in his Conquest Trilogy, and tells the life of Harald in his own voice. He serves as the protagonist in two children's books by Henry Treece, The Last of the Vikings/The Last Viking (1964) and Swords from the North/The Northern Brothers (1967). He also appears as the protagonist in the trilogy The Last Viking (1980) by Poul and Karen Anderson, and in Byzantium (1989) by Michael Ennis, which chronicles Harald's career in the Byzantine Empire. He is also the protagonist of the series, The Last Viking Series by J.C. Duncan. - The alternative history book Crusader Gold (2007) by marine archeologist David Gibbins features Harald as a key figure, as it follows him in acquiring the lost Menorah among his treasures during his service in the Byzantine Varangian Guard. Harald also makes an appearance in Meadowland (2005) by Tom Holt. - Harald's unorthodox departure from Constantinople is featured in music by the Finnish folk metal band Turisas in the song "The Great Escape"; in addition, he is followed loosely throughout the story of the albums The Varangian Way (2007) and Stand Up and Fight (2011). - Harald is a playable character in the mobile/PC game Rise of Kingdoms. - Harald is a playable character as "Harald Hardrada" in the turn-based strategy game Civilization VI. He is a leader of the Norwegian civilization. - Harald is depicted in Netflix drama series Vikings: Valhalla. His role is played by English actor Leo Suter. ## Explanatory footnotes ## General and cited sources - Bandlien, Bjørn (2022). "When Worldviews Collide?: The Travel Narratives of Haraldr Sigurdarson of Norway" In Raffensperger, C. (Ed.) Authorship, Worldview, and Identity in Medieval Europe (1st ed.), 38–59. Routledge. . - - - - - - - - - - - Jakobsson, Ármann (2014). A Sense of Belonging: “Morkinskinna” and Icelandic Identity, c. 1220, trans. Fredrik Heinemann. (The Viking Collection: Studies in Northern Civilization 22.) Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark, 2014. - - - - - - - - -

Subaru Sumeragi

Fictional character from Tokyo Babylon and X

Subaru Sumeragi (Japanese: 皇昴流, Hepburn: Sumeragi Subaru) is the fictional protagonist of Clamp's manga series Tokyo Babylon. The head of the Sumeragi clan (皇一族, Sumeragi Ichizoku), Subaru is a young onmyōji in charge of exorcising demons and helping spirits reach the afterlife, while living with his twin sister Hokuto and love interest Seishiro Sakurazuka. Following the events of Tokyo Babylon, an adult Subaru appears in the live-action film Tokyo Babylon 1999 investigating a murder case. He becomes one of mankind's seven protectors in Clamp's series X, and Seishiro is his new rival. Subaru's fate in the battle of the end of the world has differed across X's multiple animated adaptations. An alternate version of the character appears in Clamp's crossover series, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. Clamp writer Nanase Ohkawa first created Subaru as a mascot for a fancomic, dōjinshi, about onmyōji. Clamp found it difficult to engage a writer for Subaru because their authors were not used to writing kindhearted characters. For X, he was given a more tragic characterization meant to contrast with the lead Kamui Shiro. Multiple voice actors have provided their talent for Subaru's animated appearances. Tonesaku Toshihide portrays him in the live-action film Tokyo Babylon 1999. Critical reception to the character has been mostly positive. Manga and anime publications focused on Subaru's caring personality and his growing relationship with Seishiro such as during the narrative of Tokyo Babylon. Critics also praised his return in X to face the man he loves as a rival, resulting in him being one of the series' most interesting characters. ## Creation and development Subaru Sumeragi originated from a dōjinshi novel by Clamp headwriter Nanase Ohkawa. It involved a Japanese exorcist, onmyōji, who hunts elves. Subaru was present along with the original cast of whom only Hokuto Sumeragi and Seishiro Sakurazuka remain. The characters were twice drawn for covers, and when the members from the manga magazine South asked Clamp to create a new series for them, these characters were used in Tokyo Babylon. Originally, the twins were conceived more as mascots with Subaru being a penguin called Leone, a reference to the Subaru Leone car. Both Subaru and Hokuto were modified from the original art in contrast to Seishiro, who was completely redesigned. Ohkawa remembers having trouble writing Subaru, as she was not used to writing kindhearted characters in contrast to Seishiro. Like Kero from their work Cardcaptor Sakura, the staff thought about drawing a pet with Subaru. Hokuto had originally been considered as one. Had Subaru become the pet rather than the protagonist, Clamp would have written him as a penguin, though Clamp scrapped that idea. Since Subaru and Hokuto were the protagonists, whenever the magazines required an image for Tokyo Babylon, both Subaru and Hokuto were used together. Subaru and Seishiro's respective designs pay homage to Yasunori Katō, the protagonist of the fantasy novel Teito Monogatari, widely credited with starting the "onmyōji boom" in Japan. At the beginning of the Tokyo Babylon manga, Kato even has a cameo appearance as Subaru's "helpful ambassador". The Clamp News 2 newsletter lists Subaru's birth as taking place in Kyoto at 12:20pm on February 19, 1974, with Hokuto being born at 6am. Subaru's incarnation from the series' chapter "Call A" with "Vol 6." have been called completely different incarnations of the same characters in order to avoid a contradiction in the setting. Mokona designed most of Sumeragi's clothing, but sometimes Ohkawa, Mick Nekoi and Satsuki Igarashi pitched in with ideas, too. Following the end of the production of Tokyo Babylon, film director George Iida asked Clamp to help with a sequel movie. The main idea was for Subaru and Seishiro to clash again. For this live-action sequel, Tokyo Babylon/1999, Toshihide Tonesaku played Subaru. Subaru was the first character Tonesaku portrayed as a leading man. Because of production issues, Subaru and Seishiro's interactions were reduced and used only in a Drama CD. To promote the movie, Mokona drew illustrations for both characters. Subaru and Seishiro reappear in Clamp's manga X because their relationship parallels that of the lead Kamui Shiro and the main antagonist, Fuma Monou. They serve as an example to Kamui and Fuma. One of X's most important developments is the question of what these two will do, so as not end up like Subaru and Seishiro. Clamp has compared the bond between Subaru and Kamui with that of siblings. A common theme involves the series' fate; Subaru expresses no interest in the future of the Earth, but he and his counterpart are still drawn to Tokyo on the Promised Day. As a result, a fatalistic atmosphere persists in the series. Although Subaru and Seishiro are written as rivals, illustrations from the series tend to show the bond the two had. Clamp believes the red thread of fate they share in an image was drawn in a forced manner in restrospect. A common trope Clamp enjoys exploring in their work is the use of identical characters. When the manga Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle manga was made, Subaru was envisioned as Kamui's twin brother. Clamp had fun writing this take on this pair of characters despite them not being identical twin brothers. Furthermore, Subaru was meant to have a larger role in Tsubasa mentoring the protagonist Syaoran; he was replaced by Seishiro. Subaru was also meant to chase Seishiro instead, but because this event had been used previously in both Tokyo Babylon and X, the change was made. In November 2020, the anime GoHands production of the Tokyo Babylon 2021 was accused of plagiarizing outfit designs for Subaru and Hokuto; Subaru's onmyōji outfit was thought to closely resemble a 2017 doll created by Volks. After an investigation, on 4 December 2020, the staff expressed their apologies and gratitude to the costumes' rights holders, and revealed that they plan to form a more effective compliance team to prevent future situations like this. ### Casting Multiple actors have voiced Subaru: - In the first OVAs of Tokyo Babylon, Kappei Yamaguchi portrayed Subaru in Japanese while Ben Fairman did the job for the English dub. - In the X film Issei Miyazaki took the role in Japanese while William Dufris did the English dub. Miyazaki portrayed an adult Subaru. - In X television series the character is voiced by Tomokazu Sugita in Japanese and Dave Wittenberg in English. Like Miyazaki's work, Sugita had to voice a more adult Subaru than the one from the OVAs. - In the Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations OVAs, Subaru was voiced by Hiro Shimono in Japanese and Micah Solusod in English. Shimono expressed his difficulties with voicing the young Subaru. - For the 2021Tokyo Babylon anime, Shouta Aoi would voice the character. Aoi expressed his pleasure in adapting one of Clamp's most famous works and hoped the audience will enjoy his portrayal of Subaru. ### Characterization and themes A common philosophy in Tokyo Babylon is how the siblings Subaru and Hokuto believe that nobody can fully understand another person's suffering. Despite his belief in this philosophy, Subaru is a resigned individual who worries more about others than himself. Additionally, he starts taking actions that he believes are immoral despite his reasons for them such as lying to a mother about her daughter's wish to stop her from taking revenge. In Clamp no Kiseki, the writers describe Subaru as a kindhearted guy whose past with Seishiro revealed in flashback foreshadow an important event in his life. As Seishiro constantly mentions his one-sided affections towards him, Subaru often notices he also cares about him. Because of his upbringing as a medium, Subaru is often portrayed as a too sensitive person as often suffers when meeting others. However, the gentleness Subaru demonstrates in the series can also be described as another form of strength as he still stands up for the weak, to the point of rarely showing anger when defending them. The relationship Subaru has with his twin Hokuto also places a heavy emphasis on Subaru's identity as Hokuto often supports him in regards to his job. Due to the dark nature Seishiro hides from Subaru, the two can be regarded as the yin and yang as the former contrasts his the latter's kind self even when interacting about his job. Subaru's hidden romantic feelings towards Seishiro become obvious as the manga progresses as he becomes astonished when Seishiro keep profressing his love towards him. When Subaru realizes his feelings towards him, his state can be compared to that the one of a hatched bird egg as a result of the maturity he shows in the process. Subaru's personality changes when Hokuto is murdered by Seishiro, becoming a distant and lonely adult in the timeskip. He becomes a smoker as it reminds him of Seishiro and his past which he used to enjoy. In the finale, Subaru once again sympathizes with the people who committee evil deeds to the point of believing that he is also similar to Seishiro. When meeting the young Kamui Shiro, the previous distant Subaru shows a more comforting side as he helps him to face reality during the events of X. His past persona is also hinted more when Fuma Monou grants him one of the wishes he had in the past, hinting that the bond between Subaru and Seishiro is still prominent. When Seishiro dies in battle, Subaru tells Kamui that there is not a single path that might make everybody's dreams come true, something that heavily affects him. However, when Fuma offers Subaru to transplant Seishiro' lost eye, Clamp wrote it in a way so the bond between Subaru and Seishiro will never be destroyed. ## Appearances ### Tokyo Babylon In Tokyo Babylon Subaru appears as a cheerful yet bashful teenager from Tokyo, utterly devoted to helping others in his capacity as Japan's most powerful onmyōji: exorcising demons, helping lost souls ascend to the afterlife, entering the minds of comatose people to bring them back to the world, and fighting those who abused spiritual powers. He would often stand up to bullies and provide comfort and friendship to their victims. Subaru lives with his sister Hokuto, whose personality had become the polar opposite to his own—eccentric and outgoing. Subaru and Hokuto are good friends with a kindly and magically aware veterinarian named Seishiro Sakurazuka, whom they met at a railway station after Subaru's shikigami led him on a bizarre chase. Seishiro acts as guardian to them both and claims to love Subaru. Despite working as an onmyōji, Subaru claims that his dream is to become a veterinarian like Seishiro; in his childhood Subaru had a dog as a pet and became depressed when it became sick and died. He believes that he is able to connect more with animals than with humans. After Seishiro loses the sight in his right eye protecting Subaru, the onmyōji realizes he loves him. However, Seishiro reveals that he is the Sakurazukamori, a ruthless magical assassin raised to be incapable of either love or hate. Lifting the veil he had placed on the boy's memory, Seishiro reveals he met Subaru as a child and made a promise to him; if they met again, he would live with the boy for a year to see if his heart could be moved. However, the assassin claims he was as barren of emotion as ever, and attempts to kill Subaru. The boy's grandmother rescues him at great personal cost. Subaru becomes catatonic as a result, but recovers when Hokuto dies at the Sakurazukamori's hands to spare Subaru. Subaru decides at this point to drop out of school so that he can focus on training. He continues his work as an onmyōji, remaining compassionate towards others but acting more reserved. ### Tokyo Babylon 1999 In the live action film Tokyo Babylon 1999 (1993), Subaru, portrayed by Tonesaku Toshihide, continues his work as a young adult. He meets seven teenage onmyōji who wish to avenge their teacher murdered by Seishiro. Subaru investigates the death of a former enemy of the Sumeragi clan, Kaneyama. Before his death, Kaneyama had undertaken a new project: teaching a group of seven teenage girls how to use dark magic to take revenge on those they deem "guilty," beginning with an abusive teacher. One of the girls, Kurumi, begins to feel remorse. Subaru learns that his friend-turned-enemy, Seishiro, was the one who killed Kaneyama, and he has now turned his sights on the women. As Subaru is unwilling to fight them in return, Seishiro appears, claiming that none of the girls can be saved. Subaru and Seishiro fight, but are stopped by the appearance of the ghost of Hokuto possessing Kurumi's body. Hokuto asks Subaru to drop his hatred of Seishiro; Subaru agrees to do so. Seishiro leaves, and the fight is unresolved. Subaru takes the girls to the police in hopes they will choose a better future. A drama CD for the film was also released featuring Subaru investigating a murder case by Seishiro. ### X Subaru returns as a supporting character in the manga X. Now as an adult, Subaru continues his work as an onmyōji under the direction of his grandmother. He is recognized to be one of the Dragons of Heaven meant to save mankind from the Dragons of Earth. When Seishiro destroys one of Tokyo's barriers, the Nakano Sun Plaza, as one of the Dragons of Earth starts an earthquake, Subaru briefly fights his nemesis. However, Subaru is wounded and Seishiro retreats. When joining the Dragons of Heaven to prepare for the battle in Tokyo, he brings Kamui Shiro out of the catatonic state into which he had fallen after seeing his childhood sweetheart, Kotori Monou, killed by her brother Fūma. Subaru and Kamui develop a close friendship based on the similar hardships they have endured. Subaru acts as a mentor to Kamui during his further trials and helps him with his high school studies after joining a college. When Subaru faces Fūma in battle, his enemy blinds him in his right eye—a lesser wish Subaru had held for some time. In single combat against Seishiro at Rainbow Bridge, Subaru reveals his true desire: he wants Seishiro to kill him, so he would then exist in his heart. However, because of a spell cast by Hokuto at her death, the killing strike is reversed, and Subaru kills Seishiro instead. Hokuto told him this spell was cast when he killed her as she said she had the least confidence that Seishiro actually cared about her brother. Because of Seishiro's death, Subaru loses his will to fight along with his ability to create a barrier, which causes him to leave the Dragons of Heaven. Fūma brings him Seishiro's last eye which is necessary to grant the assassin's wish—erasing Fūma's mark in Subaru by replacing the wounded eye. Subaru accepts the eye, inheriting Seishiro's powers and the Sakurazukamori (桜塚護, lit. "Cherry Blossom burial mound guardian") title in the process and becomes one of the Dragons of Earth. Despite joining Fūma, Subaru is still interested in Kamui's true wish. Subaru appears briefly in the 1996 movie version of X; he and Seishiro destroy each other in magical combat early in the film. In the TV series, Subaru sinks back into a catatonic state following Seishiro's death. The rebellious Dragon of Earth dream seer Kakyō Kuzuki allows the spirit of Hokuto to cross into Subaru's mind, to convince him to continue the fight; Subaru protects Kamui in his final battle against Fūma. He urges him to grant his own wish regardless of the consequence. Outside manga and anime, Subaru also appears in the video game X: Unmei no Sentaku. Should the player beat the game as Subaru, the character and Fuma kill each other. He is also the focus of the third CD of the X Character Files audio drama series where Tomokazu Sugita provides his voice. ### Other appearances Subaru has appeared in two adaptations of the Tokyo Babylon manga. In the original video animation (OVA) Subaru investigates the tragedies occurring at a construction site, while in the second he searches for a murderer. In both OVAs, Subaru still lives with Hokuto and Seishiro before the series' end. In volume one of xxxHolic, the witch Yūko Ichihara mentions knowing an onmyōji with a twin sister whom she has known since the boy was very young. She hopes that the boy will be happy. This onmyōji is Subaru. In Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Subaru reappears as one of a pair of twin vampires alongside Kamui for whom Seishiro is searching. He appears in the Tokyo arc, where he talks to a comatose Sakura and urges her to wake up before she is lost to her dreams. It turns out that he was left in a comatose state at the bottom of a large water reservoir, leading to Kamui's fierce protection of the site. Once the young traveller Syaoran takes its power, Subaru wakes and is reunited with his twin. Feeling guilty for ruining their water resources, Subaru wants to recover them. Yūko can grant this by using their vampire blood to regenerate the wounds of the dying sorcerer Fai D. Flowright. Subaru agrees but Kamui decides to take his place, claiming that Subaru already shared his blood. Following Fai's recovery, the two vampires prepare to abandon Tokyo. ## Reception Subaru's character has received a positive critical response for appearances in manga and anime publications since his introduction in Tokyo Babylon. Anime News Network listed him as the best anime exorcist based on the cases he deals with across the series. While reviewing the Tokyo Babylon OVAs, Chris Beveridge from Mania Entertainment found Subaru's portrayal interesting and recommended it to X fans to explore the character more. Josh Begley noted that Subaru's works stand out from the other magical persons seen in Western works, pointing out how he interacts with spirits, giving each of them compassion much to the critic's surprise. Sptig Hogset from THEM Anime Reviews mentioned that Subaru unfit for his job because of his quiet personality. Writers from Manga Bookshelf noted how Subaru deeply believes in the philosophy that nobody can fully understand another person's pain and thus he is unwilling to become attached to other characters. As Subaru develops feelings for Seishiro without realizing it, he starts growing as an individual. Zona Negativa stated that despite the series is serialized in a shōjo magazine for young women, Subaru's hero journey felt more like that of a manga serialized in a shōnen magazine for young men, due to the many types of enemies he faces while finding his foes' deep nature and thus he might attract male readers. In general, Subaru is credited for being one of the first onmyoji manga which inspired more series with more onmyoji. Rebecca Silverman from Anime News Network noted that Subaru's darker characterization in the series' ending was so similar to Seishiro's that he acted like the man lived. Silverman commented that this change was paralleled in their next work, xxxHolic, where its lead character Kimihiro Watanuki began to act like his former boss Yuko Ichihara. Manga Bookshelf's regarded Subaru's darker characterization, rather than comparing it with Seishiro's like Silverman, they focused more on how Subaru lost part of his identity as he saw in Hokuto another part of himself. Novelist Yoshiki Tanaka believes one of Subaru's greatest appeals to female readers is his innocence displayed when he interacts with ghosts despite the dangers this interaction can produce. Critics also focused on Subaru's relationship with Seishiro Sakurazuka. Mike Dungan from Mania Entertainment noted that this was a nod to Clamp's dōjinshi fan-base. In the book Manga: The Complete Guide, Jason Thompson commented that the manga is famous in the West for being one of the first literary forms to portray homosexual relationships, comparing Subaru and Seishiro with the seme and uke couple despite their romance not being explored until the ending. Anime News Network praised the lighthearted context Clamp gave the narrative for downplaying the scenes between Subaru and Seishiro. Tanaka found the relationship between Subaru and Seishiro more striking based on the elements of tragedy and the foreshadowing of their original meeting. In "Subaru Sumeragi and the dark side of total empathy in Tokyo Babylon", Anime Feminist claims that while Subaru's characterization heavily relies on empathy, Clamp appears to send a message to the readers using Subaru as an audience surrogate that it is important for everybody to value themselves too although empathy on itself does not qualify as negative trait. Anime Feminist noted that X treated Subaru and Seishiro as a toxic relationship due to their tragic nature when Seishiro is recognized as an individual who actually showed romantic feelings towards Subaru. Although Seishiro's death leads to more of Subaru's suffering and his eventual alliance with Fuma, Subaru is not portrayed as an antagonistic character as he shows that he is still the kind protagonist from Tokyo Babylon when he continues his support towards Kamui's fights. Subaru's role in X has received a similar response. His debut was praised by Mania Entertainment's Chris Beveridge for his changed personality resulted from Hokuto's death, while Manga News also enjoyed how he acted as a mentor to the lead Kamui Shiro, making him a more fitting main character in the process. Multiple critics also commented on his duel against Seishiro based on their tragic relationship and result. Manga News stated that while Subaru and Seishiro's fight was one of the most anticipated based on how Subaru changed since his sister was killed, he still could not bring himself to stop loving Seishiro. This is made clearer by Subaru's depressed portrayal when Seishiro dies, though he finds a reason to live when learning that Seishiro's last wish was to give Subaru his eye to replace his blind one. In the book Understanding Manga and Anime, writer Robin E. Brenner states that while Western readers have previously seen Subaru and Seishiro's dysfunctional relationship in other series, it stands out because Western authors tend to avoid portraying homosexual relationships. He referred as well to Subaru's and Seishiro's relationship as one of the most explicit ones from X. Regarding his role in Rintaro's 1996 movie of X, Ex mentioned his appearances as he and Seishiro are killed quickly. The character's inclusion in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle was well received by Sakura Eries from The Fandom Post. She elaborated that the use of Kamui and Subaru as vampires is well executed and with their help, Fai D. Flowright survives his blood loss after Syaoran takes his eye, becoming a vampire to survive. Like other critics, the writer wondered when Clamp would explore his past. Concerning the voice actors, Animate Times noted Kappei Yamaguchi's portrayal of the character was positive; a female viewer commented he made the character attractive to listen to. Tomokazu Sugita's portrayal of Subaru in X was praised by Merumo, who also enjoyed the older characterization in this series. Due to the multiple voice actors portraying Subaru, Excite commented that fans of the character have multiple favorites, which led the site to comment that for the 2021 anime adaptation of Tokyo Babylon many fans are looking forward to the new voice they would provide him.

SeaTac/Airport station

Light rail station in SeaTac, Washington

SeaTac/Airport station is a light rail station in SeaTac, Washington, serving Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. It is on the 1 Line between Angle Lake and Tukwila International Boulevard stations. The line, part of Sound Transit's Link light rail system, runs north from SeaTac through the Rainier Valley to Downtown Seattle and the University of Washington. The station consists of an elevated island platform east of the terminals and parking garage of the airport. SeaTac/Airport station opened on December 19, 2009, several months after the rest of the Central Link stations. Until the opening of Angle Lake station in 2016, it served as the line's southern terminus. Trains serve the station twenty hours a day on most days; the headway between trains is six minutes during peak periods, with less frequent service at other times. SeaTac/Airport station is also served by the RapidRide A Line, two Sound Transit Express bus routes and two King County Metro bus routes. ## Location SeaTac/Airport station is on the west side of International Boulevard at South 176th Street, northeast of the Seattle–Tacoma International Airport main terminal and adjacent to the airport parking garage. The area to the east of the station along International Boulevard consists primarily of hotels and airport parking lots, with some offices, multi-family housing and mobile home parks. Within a 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km) radius of the station is a population of 4,024 residents and a total of 9,187 jobs. The area surrounding SeaTac/Airport station is designated as a Regional Growth Center by the Puget Sound Regional Council and is zoned to support mid- and high-rise buildings. The SeaTac City Council adopted a station area action plan in 2006 that called for mixed-use development in a pedestrian-friendly environment adjacent to the station. The plan proposes residential uses as well as neighborhood-oriented hospitality services and commercial offices near an "entertainment district" with open spaces for public gatherings. In late 2009, the city placed a moratorium on new development near the station after a controversy over the use of eminent domain related to the entertainment district plan. After the late 2000s recession and subsequent shortfalls in tax revenue, the entertainment district plan was dropped entirely in June 2010 by the city council. ## History The Seattle–Tacoma International Airport was built in 1944 and began commercial service in 1947. During the airport's first major expansion in the 1960s, provisions were made to build facilities for "some form of rapid transit". The Port of Seattle, a government agency that operates the airport, studied a rapid transit system between downtown and the airport in the 1960s, but took no further action. After the 1962 World's Fair and introduction of the Seattle Center Monorail, a proposal was drawn up by fair organizers to extend the system to the airport. The plan, supported by Governor Albert D. Rosellini, was ultimately rejected by incoming Governor Daniel J. Evans in favor of completing Interstate 5. The Forward Thrust rapid transit plan, which was rejected by voters in 1968 and 1970, included Sea-Tac Airport in its long-term plans for service; the airport was excluded from the first phase because of possible changes brought by airport expansion and the Supersonic Transport program. The Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle (Metro) began operating bus service in King County in 1973, including regular bus service to the airport from Downtown Seattle on routes 174 and 194. A 1986 study from the Puget Sound Council of Governments and Metro recommended the construction of a light rail system between Federal Way and Lynnwood serving the airport and Downtown Seattle. A regional transit authority (RTA) was formed in the early 1990s to study a regional light rail system, first proposing a $6.7 billion plan in 1995 with service to Sea-Tac Airport via International Boulevard. The proposal was rejected by voters in March 1995, leading to a smaller, $3.9 billion proposal approved by voters the following year, with stations at the airport and South 200th Street. The RTA, later renamed to Sound Transit, began planning the routing of the light rail line and placement of stations in 1998. Sound Transit and the Port of Seattle requested that the line be routed along International Boulevard to serve the airport's hotel area, while other officials from the city of SeaTac favored a station inside the current Sea-Tac Airport terminal to the west. Sound Transit selected their preferred route for the light rail line in 1999, choosing to serve the Port of Seattle's planned North End Airport Terminal, a multi-modal facility with a direct connection to the airport's Satellite Transit System, and a potential station at South 184th Street to serve the city center. The light rail project exceeded its budget in 2001, leading to Sound Transit truncating the line at South 154th Street in Tukwila, 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the airport, where shuttle buses would pick up passengers headed for the airport terminal. Sound Transit adopted the new terminus in November 2001, allowing for construction to begin on the light rail system, while also authorizing a plan to extend light rail to the airport by 2009. The North End Airport Terminal, originally scheduled to open in 2002, was shelved after the September 11, 2001 attacks and subsequent fall in air travel. A new alignment along International Boulevard with a station on the east side of the airport's existing parking garage was proposed, but Sound Transit estimated that it would not have enough funds to extend light rail to the airport until 2015. On January 15, 2003, Sound Transit and the Port of Seattle signed an agreement in principle to develop a plan for light rail expansion to the airport. The agreement envisioned a light rail station along International Boulevard near South 175th Street connected to the airport's terminal via the existing parking garage, with enhanced pedestrian connections and connections to a future hotel at the north end of the garage. The two agencies also agreed to work together on planning and engineering for the project, which would be built in conjunction with a realignment of the Airport Expressway. The plan was finalized in December 2004, with an agreement to accelerate planning and construction in time for a December 2009 opening, in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics held in nearby Vancouver, British Columbia. The $244 million light rail extension, named "Airport Link" was approved by the Sound Transit Board on July 14, 2005, along with a motion adopting "SeaTac/Airport" as the name of the project's lone station. The agreement with the Port of Seattle relied on the addition of a third lane to State Route 518 in order to remove the return to terminal ramps at the airport, where the new light rail station would be built. In 2005, Southwest Airlines threatened to move to Boeing Field, leading the Port of Seattle to consider scrapping the necessary freeway improvements that would allow light rail tracks to be laid to the airport, jeopardizing the project. King County Executive Ron Sims rejected Southwest's proposal in October 2005, alongside an additional proposal from Alaska Airlines, and the Port resumed planning for light rail service. The Port of Seattle signed a memorandum of agreement with Sound Transit on April 11, 2006, approving the use of Port property for the project. On September 22, 2006, Sound Transit and the Port of Seattle broke ground on the Airport Link extension, beginning three years of light rail and roadway construction. The airport's return-to-terminal ramps were closed for demolition in October, clearing the site of the future station. Construction of the SeaTac/Airport light rail station was bid out to Mowat Construction for $35.8 million in July 2007; the initial bid in March was set above Sound Transit's estimates at $95.3 million by Mowat, the sole bidder, and subsequently reduced the scope of the contract and removed elements of the station to bring costs down. A second contract signed with Mowat in February 2008 brought the total cost of the station's construction to $72 million. The 1.7-mile-long (2.7 km) light rail guideway approaching the station would be built by PCL Construction as $38 million addition to their contract to build the guideway in Tukwila. Link light rail service from Downtown Seattle to Tukwila International Boulevard station began on July 18, 2009, accompanied by a temporary shuttle bus to bring passengers to the airport from Tukwila. SeaTac/Airport station opened to regular service on December 19, 2009, during a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by 500 people, including U.S. Representative Jim McDermott of Seattle, Sound Transit Board Chair Greg Nickels and Port of Seattle Commissioner John Creighton. Initial ridership counts in January 2010 showed that the station increased light rail ridership by 2,000 passengers during its first month of service, coinciding with the holiday travel system. SeaTac/Airport station would serve as the southern terminus of the Link light rail system until the opening of Angle Lake station on September 24, 2016. On January 28, 2017, amid protests at Sea-Tac Airport against the signing of an executive order from President Donald Trump, the station was shut down by Sound Transit at the request of Port of Seattle security. The 30-minute shutdown was criticized by the media and King County Executive Dow Constantine as an attempt to hamper protesters' freedom of speech and right to free assembly. Service was resumed at the direction of Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff, and the following week Sound Transit and King County Metro formalized a new protocol requiring future requests from law enforcement to suspend service be approved by the CEO or general manager. ## Station layout SeaTac/Airport station consists of a single island platform elevated 60 feet (18 m), connected to a mezzanine level by a series of escalators and elevators. The station was designed by the architectural firm of David Hewitt and emphasizes a theme of flight. The roof features a series of steel trusses, similar in design to Tukwila International Boulevard station, that cover the platform and leave it unobstructed by support columns. At the mezzanine level are ticket vending machines, seating, public restrooms, a flight information screen, and a Smarte Carte dispenser for luggage carts. The mezzanine has connections to two pedestrian bridges: the west bridge connects to the fourth level of the airport parking garage, where a 1,200-foot (370 m) covered walkway leads to the main terminal; the east bridge crosses the Airport Expressway and leads to a plaza on International Boulevard with public art, a kiss and ride and a bus station. The station also has space for 24 bicycles in a secured locker. Some elements of the station, including the size of internal support structures, the amount of glass panels, and the width of the roof, were eliminated or reduced to save $20 million in construction costs. A moving walkway to connect the station was considered and rejected because of engineering difficulties, including low ceilings in the garage and weight issues. In 2017, the Port of Seattle began a $3.5 million capital program to improve the walk from the station to the terminal by installing windscreens and adding a cart shuttle service. As of 2019, the cart shuttles carry up to 1,200 people per day. The Port of Seattle's long-term master plan for the airport includes a new ground transportation center to replace part of the parking garage and include an indoor connection. ### Art SeaTac/Airport station also houses three art installations as part of the "STart" program, which allocates a percentage of project construction funds to art projects to be used in stations. Werner Klotz's Flying Sails, a pair of abstract sails made of stainless steel, sits suspended above the escalators connecting the mezzanine to the platform. The 35-foot-tall (11 m) sails consist of wind-activated panels etched with the names of Northwest Native American tribes on the northern sails and cities around the globe at the same latitude or longitude as Seattle on the southern sails. Hanging above the east pedestrian bridge to International Boulevard is a 160-foot-long (49 m) steel truss. The piece, named Restless by Christian Moeller, has twelve rotating bird control spikes, inspired by the emergency water landing of US Airways Flight 1549 in 2009. Fernanda D'Agostino's Celestrial Navigation, a 18-foot-tall (5.5 m) glass and metal sculpture of a navigational quadrant, sits in the International Boulevard plaza. The piece sits on a pedestal of rustic terrazzo and features a looping, hour-long video projected to the quadrant. The pictogram assigned to the station depicts a magic carpet, representing the "magic, mystery and delight of flight" while also referencing the city of SeaTac's adopted slogan, the "Hospitality City". It was created by Christian French as part of the Stellar Connections series and its points represent nearby destinations, including the airport, civic buildings, Tyee High School, Angle Lake and Bow Lake Park. ## Services SeaTac/Airport station is part of Sound Transit's 1 Line, which runs from between Lynnwood, the University of Washington campus, Downtown Seattle, the Rainier Valley, and Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. It is the twenty-first southbound station from Lynnwood City Center and first northbound station from Angle Lake; SeaTac/Airport is situated south of Rainier Beach station. Trains serve the station twenty hours a day on weekdays and Saturdays, from 5:00 am to 1:00 am, and eighteen hours on Sundays, from 6:00 am to 12:00 am; during regular weekday service, trains operate roughly every eight to ten minutes during rush hour and midday operation, respectively, with longer headways of twelve to fifteen minutes in the early morning and at night. During weekends, Link trains arrive at SeaTac/Airport station every ten minutes during midday hours and every twelve to fifteen minutes during mornings and evenings. The station is approximately 69 minutes from Lynnwood City Center station, 37 minutes from Westlake station in Downtown Seattle, and 4 minutes from Angle Lake station. In 2023, an average of 2,332 passengers boarded Link trains at SeaTac/Airport station on weekdays. The station is also served by five bus routes using a pair of bus stops on International Boulevard to the east of the station. King County Metro operates three routes from the station: the RapidRide A Line, which continues north to Tukwila International Boulevard station and south to Federal Way Transit Center; route 156, which connects to Southcenter Mall, Des Moines and Highline College; and route 161, which connects to Burien and Kent. Sound Transit runs two express bus routes to the station and airport terminal: route 560, which travels to West Seattle, Burien, Renton and Bellevue; and route 574, which travels south to Tacoma and Lakewood in Pierce County.

Paper Rings

2019 song by Taylor Swift

"Paper Rings" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her seventh studio album, Lover (2019). Written and produced by Swift and Jack Antonoff, it is a rock-influenced song combining retro musical styles of pop and rock such as pop-punk, bubblegum, new wave, and rockabilly. Its production incorporates tambourine jingles, electric guitars, and girl-group-inspired vocals. The lyrics address a romantic confession that disregards materialistic concerns; Swift's character tells her love that she would marry him with paper rings despite her love for "shiny things". Music critics generally praised the catchy and lively composition and lighthearted theme, but a few found the track underwhelming. "Paper Rings" charted in Australia, Canada, Scotland, Singapore, and the United States, and it received certifications in Australia and the United Kingdom. Swift performed "Paper Rings" as a "surprise song" outside the regular setlist at the Eras Tour concert in Minneapolis on June 23, 2023. ## Background and release Taylor Swift conceived her seventh studio album, Lover, as a "love letter to love" itself that explores the many feelings evoked by love. The album was influenced by the connections she felt with her fans on her Reputation Stadium Tour (2018), which helped her recalibrate her personal life and artistic direction after the media controversies surrounding her celebrity at the time. Republic Records released Lover on August 23, 2019. It was Swift's first album under Republic after she ended her previous contract with Big Machine Records. Lover consists of 18 tracks, and "Paper Rings" is track number eight. The song peaked at number 45 on the US Billboard Hot 100, number 40 on the Canadian Hot 100, and number 96 on the Scottish Singles Chart. The track peaked at number 29 on Australia's ARIA Singles Chart and was certified double platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association. In the United Kingdom, "Paper Rings" reached number 53 on the Official Audio Streaming Chart and was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry. On June 23, 2023, at a Minneapolis show of her Eras Tour, Swift sang a guitar solo version of "Paper Rings" as a "surprise song". ## Production and lyrics "Paper Rings" is 3 minutes and 42 seconds long. Swift wrote and produced the track with Jack Antonoff, and both of them played percussions. Antonoff provided background vocals and programmed and played the keyboard, guitars (acoustic, bass, electric), drums, and piano. He and Laura Sisk, assisted by Nick Mills and Jon Sher, recorded the song at Electric Lady Studios in New York City and Metropolis Studios in London. John Hanes engineered the track for mixing, which was done by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios, Virginia Beach, Virginia. Randy Merrill mastered the track at Sterling Sound in New York City. Swift wrote "Paper Rings" imagining herself "at a wedding band at a reception, playing the love songs that the bride and groom wanted to hear in, like, 1978 or something". "Paper Rings" is a rock-influenced tune combining various retro musical styles with a modern touch, such as pop-punk, bubblegum, new wave, rockabilly, surf pop, and power pop. The production consists of tambourine jingles and electric guitars. The track incorporates a brief guitar solo and old-school shouting background vocals, inspired by the way punk girl groups would sing in their records. The Independent'''s Roisin O'Connor described Swift's vocals as "muffled and tinny", which lent the track an "old-school" feel. Towards the end, at the bridge, the composition includes a key change. Time's Dana Schwartz thought the song had a "jangly" sound that recalled country music, while Glenn Rowley of Consequence wrote that the production evoked ska. Some critics compared "Paper Rings" to the music by the Go-Go's and Avril Lavigne. In the lyrics, Swift sings about wanting to commit to a long-term lover. Swift explained on the theme as "just basically reminiscing on fun memories". She elaborated on the chorus ("I like shiny things but I'd marry you with paper rings"): "it talks about how [...] your whole life you talk with your friends about how, [...] 'Oh my God. Do you wanna get married? What do you want your ring to look like? What kind of ring do you want?' I don't know, I just feel like if you really love someone, love someone, you'd be like, 'I don't care.'" The romance in the song started in the winter and the narrator obsesses over her lover, stalking him on social media and detailing the books that he likes. The two engage in a "cat-and-mouse" phase before Swift's character declares her commitment, telling her lover that she wants his "dreary Mondays" and "complications". Emily Yahr of The Washington Post and Raisa Bruner of Time thought that these details are reminiscent of Swift's song "New Year's Day" (2017), in which Swift sings, "I want your midnights." Before the refrain, Antonoff counts, "1, 2, 3, 4." Swift finishes her lines with "uh-huh"s and "that's right"s and insists, "Darling, you're the one I want." ## Reception Some critics praised "Paper Rings" for its upbeat and lively production. Uproxx's Caitlin White hailed "Paper Rings" as a "near-perfect pop song", and Schwartz described the track as a "bright, jangly standout". Jon Caramanica of The New York Times wrote that "[Lover's] power is encapsulated on 'Paper Rings' and 'Cornelia Street'"; he said that the former track is "[bubbly] and wise" and "[vibrates] with almost a nervous energy". Lindsay Zoladz of The Ringer deemed "Paper Rings" one of the album's defining songs because it "allows [Swift] to sound giddily, unfashionably ecstatic". In Spin, Jordan Sargent picked the track as an example of Swift and Antonoff's production chemistry, praising its power-pop arrangement for "giving Swift's sneer the stomping support it deserves". Varietys Chris Willman deemed it one of Lover's two most lighthearted and "irresistible bangers", alongside "I Think He Knows". Ben Rayner of the Toronto Star said "Paper Rings" had an "instant infectiousness" and described the track as a "deftly executed little love song". Jason Lipshutz from Billboard wrote that its "happy-go-lucky bubblegum vibe" and "showy hook" would make it "an absolute blast" if Swift performed it on a tour. Other critics also complimented the lyrics. Ludovic Hunter-Tilney from the Financial Times thought that "Paper Rings" both "[verges] on kitsch" and displays Swift's "sense of playfulness" and attention to lyrical details. In The Music, Keira Leonard said that the lyric, "I like shiny things but I'd marry you with paper rings", encapsulated Swift's honest and authentic songwriting about "that feeling perfectly of forgetting everything you ever thought you wanted in a person/relationship when you meet that special someone". Leonard and Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone picked the lyric, "I hate accidents except when we went from friends to this", as their favorite off the track. Esquire'''s Dave Holmes hailed "Paper Rings" as one of Swift's "strongest, simplest songs in ages" and its "purely joyful" sentiment. Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times ranked "Paper Rings" the fifth best song out of Lover's 18 tracks; he said that it was "[as] peppy as 'Me\!'" but "incalculably smarter", with a happy-ending theme reminiscent of Swift's early songs like "Love Story" (2008). In less enthusiastic views, Anna Gaca of Pitchfork described the track as "cute, and then exhausting", and Sam Brooks of The Spinoff complained that the guitar solo was "neither long enough to justify its place, or short enough to justify even being called a solo proper". Alexis Petridis of The Guardian called "Paper Rings" a "new wave-y misfire" for its "lightweight" production. The Atlantics Spencer Kornharber picked the song one of the album's weakest tracks and dismissed it as a "corny sock hop". Kitty Empire in The Observer said that the track "[flirts] hard, but perhaps not quite as hard as 1989's magisterial 'Blank Space' did". ## Personnel Credits adapted from the liner notes of Lover - Taylor Swift – lead vocals, songwriter, producer, percussion - Jack Antonoff – producer, recording, programming, percussion, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, drums, electric guitar, keyboard, piano, background vocals - Serban Ghenea – mixing - John Hanes – engineered for mix - Nick Mills – assistant recording - Jon Sher – assistant recording - Laura Sisk – recording ## Charts ## Certifications

Olaf Guthfrithson

10th-century King of Dublin

Olaf Guthfrithson or Anlaf Guthfrithson ( ; ; ; died 941) was a Hiberno-Scandinavian (Irish-Viking) leader who ruled Dublin and Viking Northumbria in the 10th century. He was the son of Gofraid ua Ímair and great-grandson of Ímar, making him one of the Uí Ímair. Olaf succeeded his father as King of Dublin in 934 and succeeded in establishing dominance over the Vikings of Limerick when he captured their king, Amlaíb Cenncairech, in 937. That same year he allied with Constantine II of Scotland in an attempt to reclaim the Kingdom of Northumbria which his father had ruled briefly in 927. The forces of Olaf and Constantine were defeated by the English led by Æthelstan at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937. Olaf returned to Ireland in 938 but after Æthelstan's death the following year Olaf left for York where he was quickly able to establish himself as king, with his brother Blácaire mac Gofraid being left to rule in Dublin. Olaf and Æthelstan's successor Edmund met in 939 at Leicester where they came to an agreement regarding the division of England between them. This agreement proved short-lived, however, and within a few years Vikings had occupied the Five Boroughs of Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham and Stamford. Olaf died in 941 and was succeeded in Northumbria by his cousin Olaf Cuaran. At the time of his death, the Irish annals title him "king of Danes" and "king of the Fair Foreigners and the Dark Foreigners". ## Biography Olaf first conclusively appears in contemporary records in 933 when the annals describe him plundering Armagh on 10 November. He is then recorded as allying with Matudán mac Áeda, overking of Ulaid and raiding as far as Sliabh Beagh, where they were met by an army led by Muirchertach mac Néill of Ailech, and lost 240 men in the ensuing battle along with much of their plunder. An earlier reference to a "son of Gofraid" who plundered the monastery at Kildare in 928 might refer to Olaf but no name is given. Olaf's father Gofraid ua Ímair, King of Dublin, died in 934 and Olaf succeeded him as king. The following year Olaf carried out a raid at Lagore crannog in County Meath, and then looted the burial chamber at Knowth the following week. Olaf is described as "Lord of the Foreigners" by the Annals of the Four Masters in 937, at which time he went to Lough Ree and captured Amlaíb Cenncairech, King of Limerick, and his troops after breaking their boats. This conflict can be ascribed to rivalry between the competing Viking settlements of Dublin and Limerick, with this event marking victory for Dublin. This period is considered to be the high-point of Viking influence in Ireland. Having secured his position in Ireland, Olaf turned his attention to England and Northumbria, which had once been ruled by Olaf's father and had been conquered in 927 by Æthelstan of England. Olaf allied with Constantine II of Scotland, whose kingdom had been invaded by Æthelstan in 934, and in 937, the same year as the victory over Limerick, Olaf and the Vikings of Dublin left for England. The allied forces of Olaf and Constantine met the forces of Æthelstan at the Battle of Brunanburh, at a site which is the subject of much debate, although current scholarly consensus identifies the site as Bromborough in Cheshire. Olaf and Constantine commanded the Viking troops while Æthelstan alongside his brother Edmund led the English troops into the battle. Contemporary accounts indicate both sides suffered many casualties but the result was a decisive English victory. Olaf and Constantine survived the battle and returned to Ireland and Scotland respectively, but one of Constantine's sons died. The battle is well-attested, with references in Irish chronicles, and a poetic telling of the battle in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The numerous references to it in various chronicles throughout the British Isles testify to its perceived importance at the time. The annals record Olaf's return to Ireland in 938 as well as a raid he carried out that year on Kilcullen in modern-day County Kildare, where he is said to have taken a thousand prisoners. Æthelstan died in October 939 and very soon afterwards Olaf left for York where he was able to quickly establish himself as king of Northumbria. Olaf was joined in England by his cousin Olaf Cuaran, and Olaf's brother Blácaire was left to rule in Dublin while he was away. Symeon of Durham's Historia Regum records that Olaf and the new English king Edmund met at Leicester in 939 and came to an agreement on dividing England between the two of them. This peace was short-lived and within a few years of the agreement the Vikings had seized the Five Boroughs of Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham and Stamford. In 941 the Chronicle of Melrose records that Olaf raided an ancient Anglian church at Tyninghame in what is now the East Lothian and at the time was a part of Northumbria. This attack may have been more than just a raid, and may have been intended to secure a route through Scotland upon which communication between York and Dublin was reliant. Olaf died in 941 and he was succeeded in Northumbria by Olaf Cuaran. In recording his death, the annals title him "king of Danes" (Chronicon Scotorum) and "king of the Fair Foreigners and the Dark Foreigners" (Annals of Clonmacnoise). ## Burial In 2005, a skeleton was excavated in an archaeological dig at Auldhame, East Lothian. Grave goods including a belt similar to others known to have been worn in Viking-age Ireland indicate that the skeleton belonged to a high-status individual. The presence of such goods, and the age of the skeleton, has led to speculation among historians and archaeologists that the remains could be those of Olaf. Olaf is known to have conducted raids on Auldhame and Tyninghame shortly before his death in 941. Auldhame and Tyninghame were two of several local churches dedicated to Saint Baldred. According to Alex Woolf, although the skeleton cannot be definitively identified with Olaf, the date and nature of the burial make it very likely the deceased individual died as a consequence of Olaf's attacks in the area in 941. Woolf has also suggested that "there is a strong likelihood that the king’s followers hoped that by burying him in the saint’s cemetery he might have benefitted from some sort of post-mortem penance". ## Family Olaf's father is identifiable as Gofraid, who was king of Dublin between 920 and 934, and also briefly ruled Northumbria in 927. Gofraid was a grandson of Ímar but no patronymic is given in the original sources. This may be because he was a child of a son of Ímar who never ruled Dublin, or he was a child of a daughter of Ímar, which in either case would mean his legitimacy to rule in the eyes of his contemporaries was dependent on the identity of his grandfather, not his parents. Ímar, possibly identical to Ivar the Boneless, was the founder of the Uí Ímair and was one of the earliest kings of Dublin in the mid-ninth century. Three other individuals are identifiable as sons of Gofraid; Albann, Blácaire and Ragnall. Albann was killed in battle against Muirchertach mac Néill in 926. Blácaire ruled Dublin from 939 onwards, and Ragnall mac Gofraid ruled Northumbria in 943 and 944, probably along with his cousin Olaf Cuaran, until they were driven out by Edmund I of England. John of Worcester, writing in the twelfth century, claimed that Olaf had married a daughter of Constantine II of Scotland prior to 937, but this evidence is considered unreliable. The thirteenth century chronicler Roger of Wendover wrote that Olaf married Aldgyth, the daughter of a Northumbrian earl called Orm as a consequence of the agreement at Leicester between Olaf and King Edmund. An individual named Cammán mac Amlaíb is identifiable as a son of Olaf. The Annals of Ulster record he was defeated at a place called Dub in 960. Cammán may have been one of the meic Amlaíb (sons of Olaf) who the Annals of the Four Masters mention in 962. According to this account the sons of Olaf and the Ladgmanns (lawmen) came to Ireland and plundered Conaille Muirtheimne and Howth. Afterward the lawmen went to Munster to avenge their brother Oin. They continued the plunder there and were defeated by the Irish in Uí Liatháin where 365 of them died. In the same year an unnamed son of Olaf led a raid from Ireland's Eye on Anglesey and Britain. Cammán may be identical to Sitriuc Cam, an individual who in 962 made a naval attack on Uí Cholgain, but was forced to flee back to ships after a force of Dubliners and Leinstermen overtook him and slaughtered some of his men. An individual named Gofraid mac Amlaíb recorded by the annals as dying in 963 may have been a son of Olaf or he may have been a son of Olaf Cuaran. The Annals of Clonmacnoise list an Ímar, a "son of the king", among the dead at Brunanburh who might be a son of Olaf, although the origin of this list is uncertain. ### Family tree

AJ Lee

American author and professional wrestler (born 1987)

April Jeanette Mendez (born March 19, 1987) is an American author, screenwriter and retired professional wrestler. She is best known for her time in WWE under the ring name AJ Lee. Mendez began her professional wrestling career in 2007 in New Jersey's independent circuit. She signed with WWE in 2009 and spent two years in its developmental branch, Florida Championship Wrestling, before her promotion to the main roster. In 2012, she rose to prominence through storylines with her "mentally unstable" character, such as high-profile relationships and a three-month stint as the General Manager of Raw. In subsequent years, she won the Divas Championship a record-tying three times and held the title for an overall record of 406 days. She also won the Slammy Award for Diva of the Year in 2012 and 2014, and readers of Pro Wrestling Illustrated voted her Woman of the Year from 2012 to 2014. She retired from in-ring performing in 2015. Mendez's 2017 memoir, Crazy Is My Superpower, was a New York Times Best Seller. ## Early life April Jeanette Mendez was born on March 19, 1987, in Union City, New Jersey. Her mother, Janet Acevedo, was a homemaker and later a home health aide, while her father, Robert Mendez, was an automotive engineer. She is the youngest of three children, and is of Puerto Rican descent. In describing her childhood, Mendez said her family struggled with poverty, mental illness, and drug addiction. They frequently moved between apartments, sometimes living in motels or their car when they could not afford rent. Her brother's interest in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) influenced her to become a professional wrestler. With inspiration from WWE's female wrestlers, especially Lita, she cemented her ambition at 12 years old. In 2005, she graduated from Memorial High School in West New York, New Jersey. She attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where she majored in film and television production, until family and financial issues led to her dropping out six months into her studies. Afterward, she started working full-time to afford wrestling training. As an homage to her brother, who was in the U.S. Army, she occasionally wore camouflage wrestling attire. Mendez was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a condition her mother also suffered from, around the age of 20. She had previously experienced adverse effects from a misdiagnosis of depression, and overdosed on antidepressants and painkillers. This event, which she considers a suicide attempt, caused her to seek proper treatment and the right diagnosis. She credits the condition for giving her the bravery to achieve her goals. ## Professional wrestling career ### Early career (2007–2009) In March 2007, Mendez enrolled in a wrestling school close to her home, where she was trained by Jay Lethal. Around late 2007, she began to perform on the New Jersey independent circuit under the ring name Miss April. She joined the New Jersey–based promotion Women Superstars Uncensored (WSU) in October 2008. After little success in her first months, Miss April formed a tag team with Brooke Carter, who together captured the WSU Tag Team Championship in February 2009. She also won the annual WSU/National Wrestling Superstars King and Queen of the Ring tournament alongside Jay Lethal two months later. In May, she left WSU upon signing with WWE and relinquished her championship. ### World Wrestling Entertainment / WWE #### Florida Championship Wrestling and NXT (2009–2011) Mendez paid US$1,500 to attend a WWE tryout camp in May 2009, where she signed a contract. She reported to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), WWE's developmental territory, and debuted under the ring name April Lee at a house show in late July. Shortly thereafter, her name was changed to AJ Lee. In February 2010, AJ defeated Serena Mancini to win the Queen of FCW title. A few months later, AJ was eliminated from a tournament that determined the inaugural FCW Divas Champion; she engaged in a feud with the winner, Naomi Knight, and her character became a heel (bad guy). In November, AJ lost the Queen of FCW title to Rosa Mendes. AJ then defeated Naomi for the FCW Divas Championship in December, which made her the first to win both titles available to FCW's female wrestlers. She held the championship until April 2011, when she lost it to Aksana. While in FCW, Mendez took part in the third season of NXT beginning in September 2010. The show mixed professional wrestling and reality competition formats as six female participants from FCW competed to be WWE's "next breakout star". Primo was assigned as her "WWE Pro", the role of her mentor in the storyline. She performed as a face (good guy) on the show and WWE adapted her "nerd" fandom to her character. Throughout the season, a relationship between AJ and Primo was teased, with them ultimately kissing on the finale. She also developed an on-screen friendship with fellow competitor, Kaitlyn. On November 23, AJ was eliminated in third place. #### Various relationships and Raw General Manager (2011–2013) AJ made her main roster debut on the May 27, 2011, episode of SmackDown as part of a tag team with Kaitlyn, referring to themselves as "The Chickbusters". Along with their mentor Natalya, they feuded with the trio of Alicia Fox, Tamina Snuka, and Rosa Mendes for two months. In late July, AJ began a brief storyline on NXT Redemption as the girlfriend of Hornswoggle and feuded with Maxine. Meanwhile, on SmackDown, she was attacked by Natalya, who turned on her protégé and allied with Beth Phoenix to form the Divas of Doom. AJ and Kaitlyn repeatedly lost to the Divas of Doom over the following months, upsetting Kaitlyn. By November 2011, AJ was placed in an on-screen romance with Daniel Bryan, who won the World Heavyweight Championship the next month and developed heel traits. Despite AJ's declaration of love for Bryan, Bryan avoided saying he loved her in return. On January 13, 2012, while accompanying Bryan for his title defense, she was accidentally struck by Big Show and carried off on a stretcher as part of the storyline. She returned on February 3, preventing Bryan from being attacked by Big Show. In March, Bryan started acting verbally abusive towards AJ but she stood by him. At WrestleMania XXVIII on April 1, after sharing a "good luck kiss" with Bryan, he was surprised by Sheamus and defeated in 18 seconds. Bryan blamed AJ for his loss of the World Heavyweight Championship and ended their relationship. AJ made multiple attempts to mend their relationship but Bryan spurned her and left her distraught. As a result, she attacked Natalya and Kaitlyn when they attempted to comfort her, marking her character's transition to "mentally unstable". AJ turned her affections to Bryan's rival and WWE Champion CM Punk as well as Kane. At No Way Out on June 17, AJ interfered in a triple threat match for the WWE Championship between Punk, Bryan, and Kane, helping Punk retain his title by distracting Kane. As Bryan and Punk's feud progressed, AJ was announced as the special guest referee for their title match at Money in the Bank. Bryan made advances on AJ in an attempt to influence her, however, she focused her attention on Punk. Enraged by his disinterest on the July 2 episode of Raw, she interfered in his match and shoved him, along with Bryan, through a ringside table. After they made amends, she proposed to him but Bryan countered with a proposal of his own; Punk rejected her offer and she slapped both men. At Money in the Bank on July 15, as referee, AJ counted Punk's pinfall on Bryan, resulting in a successful title defense for Punk; as Punk celebrated over a fallen Bryan, AJ was left alone. The next night, Bryan proposed to her again and she accepted. During the exchange of vows at Raw 1000, AJ announced that WWE chairman Vince McMahon had offered her the job of Raw General Manager and left Bryan at the altar. Her on-screen authority role began on July 30, where she alleged that Bryan only wanted the legal leverage to have her committed and forced him to undergo his own psychological evaluation. AJ continued to exact revenge on both Bryan and Punk throughout her tenure, denying their requests and booking them in matches against their wishes. On August 27 and September 24, she was involved in separate altercations with Vickie Guerrero and Paul Heyman, in which she attacked them. AJ was reprimanded by the board of directors, and the two demanded the General Manager position for themselves, deeming her too childish. AJ stepped down from her General Manager duties on October 22, becoming embroiled in a scandal storyline with John Cena. Vickie Guerrero alleged that they had an affair and presented various material over the next month to support her claim. AJ and Cena denied the accusations and eventually formed a relationship, though Cena grew reluctant due to her behavior. Meanwhile, Cena feuded with Vickie Guerrero's client, Dolph Ziggler, over Ziggler's Money in the Bank contract. During their match at TLC on December 16, AJ turned heel by interfering and pushing Cena off a ladder, causing him to lose. She solidified a relationship with Ziggler the next night on Raw and they teamed together against Cena and Guerrero in the main event, which ended in disqualification after the debuting Big E Langston attacked Cena on her behalf. Subsequently accompanied by Langston as her bodyguard, she explained that Cena had "toyed with" her emotions and "broke her heart", so she helped Ziggler "break" him. In March 2013, AJ's storyline rivalry with ex-boyfriend Daniel Bryan was reignited when they traded insults backstage. She and Langston assisted Ziggler in victories over Bryan and his tag team partner Kane, which led to Ziggler and Langston losing to them in a WWE Tag Team Championship match at WrestleMania 29 on April 7, despite her interference. The next night on Raw, she and Langston accompanied Ziggler as he cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Alberto Del Rio to win the World Heavyweight Championship. #### Divas Champion and retirement (2013–2015) AJ won a battle royal on April 22, 2013, to become the number one contender to Kaitlyn's WWE Divas Championship. Kaitlyn soon began a storyline where she received gifts from a secret admirer. On June 10, after setting up Langston to pose as the admirer, AJ revealed it to be a mind game, berated Kaitlyn and left her in tears. Six days later at Payback, AJ defeated Kaitlyn to capture her first Divas Championship. While she continued to mock Kaitlyn, they participated in the first ever in-ring contract signing for a Divas Championship bout. At Money in the Bank on July 14, AJ won their rematch but later in the show caused Ziggler to lose his own rematch for the World Heavyweight Championship. She hit his opponent, Alberto Del Rio, with her title belt to protect him from further head injury, prompting a disqualification. Angered by her unwanted action, Ziggler ended their relationship. She exacted revenge by costing him another match, then attacked him with Langston. On August 2, Langston was banned from attending her matches. However, AJ again retained the title from Kaitlyn, who was betrayed by Layla. Kaitlyn and Ziggler ultimately joined to defeat AJ and Langston in a mixed tag team match at SummerSlam on August 18. On August 26, AJ interrupted the cast of Total Divas during a post-match segment and insulted them. She later vowed to defeat every member of the cast, and enlisted Tamina Snuka as her bodyguard. Throughout the remainder of the year, AJ successfully defended the championship against the trio of Brie Bella, Naomi, and Natalya at Night of Champions, Brie Bella at both Battleground and Hell in a Cell, and Natalya at TLC. She also captained a team at Survivor Series in a traditional seven-on-seven elimination tag team match against the entire cast, which her team lost. In January 2014, AJ became the longest-reigning Divas Champion at the time. After fending off title contenders Cameron and Natalya, AJ renewed her on-screen rivalry with SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero, who forced her to defend the Divas Championship in a 14-woman match at WrestleMania XXX. AJ won the match on April 6, marking the first time the championship had been contested for at WWE's flagship event. The next night on Raw, AJ challenged the debuting Paige to an impromptu title match and was defeated, ending her then-record reign at 295 days. Mendez was subsequently granted time off. Upon her return on June 30, AJ switched to a face role and was no longer accompanied by Tamina. She challenged Paige to an impromptu rematch and won back the Divas Championship. They started pretending to be best friends in a facetious manner. When AJ retained the title from Paige at Battleground, their act escalated into unprovoked attacks. At SummerSlam on August 17, AJ lost the championship to Paige. Their storyline was then intertwined with that of Nikki and Brie Bella, at the behest of Stephanie McMahon, who granted Nikki a championship opportunity. A triple threat match ensued at Night of Champions on September 21, where AJ became a record-tying three-time Divas Champion. Her feud against Paige concluded with a victory at Hell in a Cell in October. She changed focus to Nikki Bella, whose sister, Brie, was involved as her "personal assistant". AJ quickly lost the championship to Nikki at Survivor Series on November 23, due to a distraction by Brie. After losing the rematch at TLC the following month, Mendez took time off to heal a pre-existing neck injury. In February 2015, Mendez criticized WWE's treatment of its female wrestlers, stating they receive only a fraction of the wages and screen time of their male counterparts despite having generated record-selling merchandise and several top-rated segments. Her comments addressed WWE executive Stephanie McMahon, who thanked her for the public statement. WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon acknowledged the issue. AJ returned on the March 2 episode of Raw, saving her former rival Paige from an attack by Nikki and Brie Bella. AJ and Paige allied together to defeat the Bella Twins at WrestleMania 31 on March 29. A six-woman tag team match the next night on Raw wound up being her final match, as WWE announced her retirement from in-ring competition on April 3. In her memoir, Mendez said permanent damage to her cervical spine and the fulfillment of her goals led to the decision. She had also "felt caught in the middle" between WWE and her husband CM Punk following his controversial departure in January 2014 but continued to wrestle for as long as she could. ### Women of Wrestling (2021–2023) After six years away from the wrestling industry, Mendez joined the WOW – Women of Wrestling promotion as an executive producer in October 2021, serving alongside Jeanie Buss. This announcement coincided with WOW entering into a multi-year distribution agreement with ViacomCBS, the biggest distribution opportunity in the U.S. and abroad in the history of women's professional wrestling. Beginning in September 2022, Mendez provided color commentary for WOW's syndicated weekly television program. By August 2023, Mendez said she would be departing WOW at the end of her season-long contract. ## Professional wrestling persona Mendez's character is prominently associated with her mentally unstable gimmick used during her time in WWE. This persona, labeled the "crazy chick", caused Mendez to feel that she "was hiding in plain sight" due to her bipolar disorder. Her diagnosis was not publicly disclosed until the publicity for her memoir, nor was WWE aware of her condition. The "Lee" in her ring name was derived from Wendee Lee, a voice actress in her favorite anime, Cowboy Bebop. She wore various ring attire styles throughout her career, but settled on a T-shirt, jean shorts, and Chuck Taylor All-Stars, as it reflected her practical style. She also wanted her look to be distinctive and easily replicated for cosplay. When performing, she skipped as she entered ringside, and sometimes used it to taunt an opponent during a match. She primarily performed the octopus hold submission as her finishing maneuver, named "Black Widow" in reference to the Marvel Comics character. ### Other wrestling media In 2012, Mendez became the first female winner of WWE's annual Superstar Challenge video game tournament, where sixteen wrestlers competed in WWE '12 at WrestleMania XXVIII Axxess. This is recognized by Guinness World Records, as part of their Gamer's Edition. Her WWE character was portrayed by Thea Trinidad in the 2019 film Fighting with My Family. ## Writing and advocacy Mendez wrote Crazy Is My Superpower: How I Triumphed by Breaking Bones, Breaking Hearts, and Breaking the Rules, a memoir published by Crown Archetype on April 4, 2017. The book covers her upbringing and career in professional wrestling. It debuted at No. 10 on The New York Times Best Seller list for hardcover non-fiction. Upon release, she described writing as "very much the next chapter" of her life, and had begun work on a second book. Mendez formed a writing partnership with actress Aimee Garcia in 2019. Their first project was the comic book series GLOW vs. The Babyface, based on the television series GLOW; the first of four issues was published by IDW Publishing in November 2019. In 2020, they created the production company Scrappy Heart Productions, dedicated to elevating diverse voices through storytelling. They wrote the Dungeons & Dragons four-issue limited series At the Spine of the World; the first issue was published by IDW in November 2020. Alongside John Swetman, they co-wrote the screenplay for the 2022 Netflix film Blade of the 47 Ronin. In 2020, Mendez made the Black List's inaugural Latinx TV list for her television pilot script, Home. In June 2021, she wrote a story in the first issue of DC Comics' Wonder Woman: Black and Gold, an anthology mini-series celebrating Wonder Woman's 80th anniversary. An advocate for mental health awareness and animal welfare, Mendez has served as an ambassador for organizations such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), the Jed Foundation, and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In 2018, she was awarded with NAMI's Multicultural Outreach Award. ## Personal life Mendez regards herself as a tomboy and has an interest in comic books, anime, and video games. She has the numerical date of her first WWE Divas Championship win tattooed in tally marks on the back of her neck. Mendez married fellow professional wrestler Phil Brooks, better known as CM Punk, on June 13, 2014. They reside in Chicago, Illinois. ## Filmography ## Championships and accomplishments - Florida Championship Wrestling - FCW Divas Championship (1 time) - Queen of FCW (1 time) - Guinness World Records - World record: Most wins of the WWE Divas Championship (3 times) tied with Eve Torres - Pro Wrestling Illustrated - Woman of the Year (2012–2014) - Ranked No. 2 of the top 50 female wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2014 - Women Superstars Uncensored - WSU Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Brooke Carter - WSU/NWS King and Queen of the Ring (2009) – with Jay Lethal - Wrestling Observer Newsletter - Worst Worked Match of the Year (2013) 14-woman elimination tag team match at Survivor Series - WWE - WWE Divas Championship (3 times) - Slammy Award (3 times) - Diva of the Year (2012, 2014) - Kiss of the Year (2012) – with John Cena

United Nations Plaza (San Francisco)

Plaza in San Francisco's Civic Center

United Nations Plaza (often abbreviated UN Plaza or UNP) is a 2.6-acre (1.1 ha) plaza located on the former alignments of Fulton and Leavenworth Streets—in the block bounded by Market, Hyde, McAllister, and 7th Street—in the Civic Center of San Francisco, California. It is located 1⁄4 mi (0.40 km) east of City Hall and is connected to it by the Fulton Mall and Civic Center Plaza. Public transit access is provided by the BART and Muni Metro stops at the Civic Center/UN Plaza station, which has a station entrance within the plaza itself. UN Plaza was designed by a joint venture of firms led by the noted architects Lawrence Halprin, John Carl Warnecke, and Mario Ciampi; Halprin designed the large sunken fountain. The plaza was dedicated in 1975 to commemorate the formation of the United Nations and the signing of the Charter of the United Nations on 26 June 1945 in San Francisco. Since its dedication, the plaza was refurbished in 1995 and 2005, and in Spring 2018, three redesign proposals were proposed for public review. ## Location and history After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed the old City Hall, the city rebuilt it and other administrative buildings as Civic Center; the key access route to the new Civic Center from Market was along the east–west Fulton Street, which lay parallel to and between McAllister and Grove. East of Van Ness, the rebuilt City Hall (1915) and Civic Center Plaza (1911) take up two city blocks each between McAllister and Grove, so the two-block eastern portion of Fulton began at the intersection with Larkin and terminated at Market. Currently, the western half of Fulton (from Larkin to Hyde) is known as Fulton Mall; the eastern half (Hyde to Market) is UN Plaza. UN Plaza also includes a north–south segment built on the former alignment of Leavenworth, which continues north of McAllister. The Leavenworth and Fulton alignments of UN Plaza meet at a right angle; the United Nations Plaza Fountain and entrance to the transit station are where the two alignments meet. ### Concept development An east–west pedestrian mall featuring "great bands of trees, a grass mall and paved areas accented by lights and banks of flags [to] expand and extend this central park area [Civic Center Plaza] from the City Hall down Fulton Street to Market" was first proposed as part of the 1958 Civic Center Development Plan. At the time, a new long-distance subway system was being studied with an alignment along Market Street, which would eventually become the Market Street subway serving both BART and Muni Metro. In the following 1962 report What to do About Market Street, landscape architect Lawrence Halprin described his initial vision for the proposed pedestrian mall: "... when the Hyde–Larkin block [of Fulton] is reconstructed (as proposed in [the 1958 Civic Center Development Plan]), views into the Civic Center should be created. Thus our Civic Center, one of the most beautiful in America, could give tremendous support to Market Street." The proposed pedestrian mall was included in the September 1963 Downtown San Francisco plan prepared by Mario Ciampi for the Department of City Planning. Independently, in 1965, the first concepts for the Civic Center Station Plaza were sketched out in the Market Street Design Report written by Ciampi and John Carl Warnecke. The concepts for a plaza at Seventh, either straddling Market or south of Market, would serve the future underground transit station and connect to both Fulton Mall (to the west) and the Greyhound bus terminal (to the south). Warnecke and Ciampi updated the concepts for the new plaza in the 1967 Market Street Design Plan, which called for "a major civic sculpture" to dominate "the central space and [create] the focus for the activities of the Plaza". The commission for that major civic sculpture was realized as a fountain, designed by Halprin and completed in 1975. The architecture firm headed by Halprin joined those led by Ciampi and Warnecke in 1968 to form the Market Street Joint Venture Architects, which were responsible for the overarching Market Street Redevelopment Plan. UN Plaza was designed as part of the Market Street/Civic Center Station portion of that plan. The same architectural joint venture was also responsible for the design of the other two large plazas completed earlier along Market: Hallidie Plaza (1973) next to the station and Embarcadero Plaza (1972) at the eastern end of Market near the Ferry Building. The Market Street Redevelopment Plan was implemented throughout the 1970s, and was substantially complete by 1979, when Joshua Friedwald documented the results for Halprin & Associates. ### Construction In the original design, UN Plaza features included 117,000 sq ft (10,900 m²) of brick paving, laid in a herringbone pattern, and 20,000 sq ft (1,900 m²) of grass lawn. The paving in the southwest part of UN Plaza, near the border with Market Street, is interrupted by a cross formed by granite blocks inlaid with brass which indicate the coordinates of San Francisco used to measure distances to other cities. It is built on the former site of the City Hall that was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. The pedestrian promenade along the Fulton alignment was lit with 16 light standards and featured 24 wood slat benches along the outer edges along with 192 London plane and black poplar trees. As mentioned above, the focal point was intended to be a large fountain executed in granite slabwork. The design of UN Plaza is credited to the landscape architecture firm of Halprin & Associates, with Don Carter as principal-in-charge, and Angela Danadjieva (who later served as lead designer for Freeway Park in Seattle) as the landscape architect. Several commercial buildings were demolished to make way for the new plaza; only the Orpheum Theater (1925), 1 United Nations Plaza (1932), and the Federal Building (1936) were retained. United Nations Plaza was constructed from January to June 1975, following the reconstruction of Market Street after the cut-and-cover excavation for the Market Street subway. It was dedicated in 1975 to commemorate the formation of the United Nations and the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Charter of the United Nations on 26 June 1945 in San Francisco. Mayor Joseph Alioto dedicated the first tree on the plaza—to honor the late UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld—on June 26, 1975. ### Refurbishment #### Anniversaries of the United Nations In 1995, for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, a "Walk of Great Ideas", funded with private donations, was added to the plaza at a cost of US$400,000 (equivalent to $800,000 in 2023). The Walk consisted of eight white granite paving stones inlaid with the preamble to the UN Charter in brass, matching the style of the coordinates cross in the southwest part of the plaza. Additional updates in 1995 included inscribing a list of UN member nations on the light standards, adding the UN emblem to the center of the plaza, engraving the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on an existing 17-foot (5.2 m) tall black granite obelisk, and updating the lighting fixtures. The original luminaires were semi-translucent and square, matching the shape of the columns; the updated fixtures (which remain today) are frosted glass globes. A new round of refurbishment started in March 2005, at a cost of US$1,500,000 (equivalent to $2,300,000 in 2023), for the 60th anniversary of the UN. Planned improvements included a new stone monument to commemorate UN World Environment Day 2005, hanging the flags of all 191 member nations, and the inscription of new member nation names on the light standards. In addition, the city began to increase the number of events booked for the plaza to encourage "a healthy, vibrant environment that anybody can enjoy." #### Civic Center Public Realm Plan In 2017, the CMG Landscape Architecture firm was hired by the city planning department to redesign UN Plaza along with the adjoining Civic Center Plaza and Fulton Mall. The design goals of the subsequent Civic Center Public Realm Plan were to retain the scale but encourage pedestrian traffic. CMG unveiled three proposals in Spring 2018: 1. Civic Sanctuary, a design "that celebrates History" by evoking the Beaux-Arts spirit of the original plan. 2. Culture Connector, billed as "a vision for an inclusive commons that prioritizes Ecology, Wellness, and Variety" which includes additional trees to shade a promenade between Market Street and City Hall. 3. Public Platform, "centered on Performance" by creating flexible plazas for temporary activities. ## Current uses and events Rebecca Solnit, a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, called UN Plaza "the spiritual and geographical heart of a considerable territory" because it was "a place where you know where you stand in the world, in the most practical and metaphysical senses" in 2004. Solnit called it a place that "just seems to encourage marching and gathering and walking", a public space that encouraged citizen participation with an active farmer's market and numerous protests near government offices. Since 1981, the Heart-of-the-City Farmers Market has been held at UN Plaza on Wednesdays and Sundays, which alleviates the food desert that otherwise would exist in Civic Center and the South of Market neighborhoods. The homeless in San Francisco have long occupied the site, dating back to before the construction of UN Plaza. In 2001, as an attempt to combat homelessness, the city removed the plaza's benches overnight. An annual memorial, the Interfaith Homeless Persons Memorial, is held near the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, at UN Plaza to remember the homeless who have died that year. The San Francisco Police Department periodically increase patrols and enforcement in the area, and in 2018 parked a mobile command unit at UN Plaza in response to "a number of public complaints about a lot of the behaviors, the drug users, the drug dealers" according to SFPD Chief Bill Scott. UN Plaza was designed as a pivot point for parades along Market to continue along Fulton Mall to City Hall. Gay Freedom Day Parades in 1977 (drawing 200,000) and 1978 (350,000) were established along that route and were the largest annual parades in San Francisco, which contributed to the city's reputation as a center for LGBTQ activism and culture. From 1985 to 1995, UN Plaza was the site of the AIDS/ARC (or ARC/AIDS) Vigil, the first civil disobedience protest against the AIDS epidemic; on October 27, 1985, two HIV-positive men, Steve Russell and Frank Bert, chained themselves to the doors of 50 UN Plaza, the regional office for the United States Department of Health and Human Services, to protest the government's inaction on AIDS. The round-the-clock vigil was supported by a camp of volunteers staying in UN Plaza and continued to be held there over the next ten years, until a winter storm destroyed the encampment in December 1995. ## Fountain The fountain in UN Plaza was designed by Lawrence Halprin in collaboration with Ernest Born and completed in 1975. The granite slabs are intended to symbolize the continents of Earth, and the lowest central block symbolizes a mythical lost continent. The original design called for water to flood and drain from the basin on a two-minute cycle to simulate the ocean's tides. Aerial jets make the fountain's location visible from the street, and also alert spectators to the start of a new flood/drain cycle. Computer-controlled features were intended to detect wind and attenuate pump output accordingly, to avoid splashing passers-by. The fountain never worked as designed and was fenced off as early as 1978. Built at a cost of US$1,200,000 (equivalent to $6,790,000 in 2023), the fountain is largely sunken in the surrounding brick plaza, its basin being 100 feet (30 m) wide; and it contains 673 granite blocks over a total length of 165 feet (50 m). Several blocks are inscribed; one carries a quotation from Franklin Delano Roosevelt. According to Halprin, the fountain was meant to be "a place to walk to, sit down, do theater in"; and Halprin "claimed to be the first designer to create a space that could actually be used by people." During the design, Halprin applied a concept he dubbed "motation", meaning how an observer's perception of the environment changes depending on their speed and motion. ### Shutoff and proposed removal In 1994, the fountain at UN Plaza was proposed to be removed, as it had attracted a significant homeless population, was the site of bird droppings, public bathing, and public urination, and was called "out of scale", an assertion that was rejected by Halprin, the original designer. Because the fountain is registered with the city as part of its civic art collection, removing the fountain would require extensive reviews and public hearings. An assessment completed in 1995 concluded the fountain was not operating as designed, as only a single pump was still working to supply the jets, and the filtration was completely defunct. In March 2003, the city fenced off the fountain and temporarily shut off its water to alleviate the daily burden of cleaning used needles and human feces from it. That same month, a working group commissioned by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors published a report recommending the fountain be removed. Ultimately, the Board of Supervisors rejected the 2003 proposal to remove the fountain. The renewed calls to remove the fountain were based on many of the same reasons as those from ten years prior; an article in The New York Times published in 2004 called the plaza "a public toilet, shower, washing machine, brothel, garbage can and drug market all in one". Bollards and chains were added around the fountain during the 2005 renovation to prohibit public entry into the fountain; they have since been removed. A metal fence was erected to block off the fountain again in 2018 and replaced with a white plastic fence by April 2019; that was replaced with a high plywood fence in August in preparation for a project to convert part of the fountain's sump into a 15,000 US gal (57,000 L) storage tank for treated non-potable water that will be used to wash streets in Civic Center and the Tenderloin. A branch of the subterranean Hayes Creek had been discovered to run underneath UN Plaza during the construction of the fountain's sump; seepage had been pumped for use in street-cleaning trucks, but that source was abandoned in the 1980s. Three proposals were advanced in 2018 to redesign the entire Civic Center area, including UN Plaza; of those three, only Civic Sanctuary calls for the restoration of the fountain at UN Plaza. Public Platform would install a new "iconic, interactive fountain" near the present site. Culture Connector would remove the water features altogether and convert the fountain into a bouldering playground. This prompted Linda Day to publish a blog with the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) to protest its potential destruction. In general, the public did not support retaining the fountain; in 2011, a reader survey of Curbed SF found the United Nations Plaza Fountain was one of the least favorite public art pieces in San Francisco. In February 2019, an updated preliminary concept largely drawn from Public Platform called for a conversion of the fountain into an "interactive fountain and garden" by partially filling it and adding plantings. A follow-up blog posted by the ASLA welcomed the retention of the fountain and the painstaking public outreach process, but expressed skepticism about when (or if) the plan would be implemented. ## Critical evaluation When the fountain was unveiled, Allan Temko, the architecture critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, declared it to be "pretentious schmaltz" that "rarely work[s] and merely toss[es] around empty muscatel bottles." At the fountain's 1975 dedication, Andrew Young, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, called it "a tribute to the U.N.'s goals of seeking peaceful resolutions to international rivalries". In a 2007 retrospective, current Chronicle architecture critic John King said the "mannered drama of [Halprin's] plazas along Market Street" collectively "haven't aged well". ### Landmark status When Civic Center was nominated for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), UN Plaza was noted for providing "a pedestrian approach to the Civic Center and a clear view from Market Street to City Hall." UN Plaza is eligible on its own design merits for inclusion on the NRHP, and San Francisco also considers it eligible for inclusion on the California Register of Historic Resources for its original design merits, in addition to its historic role in the LGBTQ movement as the site of parades and protests.

Gisele Yashar

Fast & Furious fictional character

Gisele Yashar is a fictional character portrayed by Gal Gadot who appears in the Fast & Furious franchise. Introduced in the film Fast & Furious (2009), she helps Dominic Toretto and later his team in Fast Five (2011), where she forms a romantic relationship with Han Lue. The character was supposedly killed in Fast & Furious 6 (2013), until Fast X (2023) which confirms that she is still alive. Gisele was Gadot's first major film role, and American director Justin Lin hired her due to her past military experience. Gadot performed her own stunts while shooting the films. Media outlets characterized Gisele through her sexuality. Reactions to the character were mixed: some critics praised the representation of Gisele's sexuality and her relationship with Han while others felt her character was either unrealistic or represented a part of the franchise's poor treatment of women. Gadot's performance received positive feedback, and several commentators requested she reprise the role in a future film. ## Appearances Gisele Yashar (Gal Gadot) is an ex-Mossad agent which shows that she was probably born in Israel. In F9, it is revealed that she had worked with the team's future government contact "Mr. Nobody" (Kurt Russell) during his time running drug operations for the CIA in South America. ### Fast & Furious (2009) Gisele is now a liaison for drug trafficker Arturo Braga (John Ortiz). She develops romantic feelings for Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), but he rejects her advances. She advises him about the dangers involved in smuggling heroin across the Mexico–United States border to complete a deal with Braga. The drug exchange results in an ambush instigated by Braga, with Toretto protecting Gisele. She helps Toretto by providing him with the location of Braga's hideout in Mexico. ### Fast Five (2011) As Dom and Brian are assembling a team to heist a hundred million dollars from Hernan Reyes, Dom calls in Gisele to join the team, describing her as someone who "isn't afraid to throw down". Whilst trying to get Reyes' handprint to unlock his safe, she volunteers herself to assist Han Lue (Sung Kang). She approaches Reyes in a bikini and seduces him to put his hand on her underwear, thus perfectly printing his handprints there. This catches Han's attention and the two soon develop a romantic relationship. During the Vault Heist, she poses as a garbage collector. Driving a garbage truck, she pushes along a fake vault which is swapped out with the real vault which is taken back to the safe house. Following the completion of the mission, Gisele and Han are last shown speeding down the Autobahn, with Gisele sitting in his lap in a Lexus LFA. ### Fast & Furious 6 (2013) Gisele and Han are living together in Hong Kong. Toretto recruits the couple to prevent a heist planned by Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), which could potentially kill millions of people. For the mission, Gisele draws on her Mossad experience with interrogation, weapons, and retrieval. She was able to extract information from one of Shaw's men using her interrogation techniques, and the group uncovered Shaw's connection to drug lord Arturo Braga. While attempting to stop a plane, she is left hanging from the back of a Range Rover. Han attempts to rescue her, but Adolfson (Benjamin Davies), a member of Shaw's gang, uses the opportunity to try and kill him. Gisele lets go of Han's hand to shoot Adolfson, and apparently falls to her "death". Han later kills Adolfson in revenge for Gisele's death. At the end of the film, Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) says a blessing in Gisele's honor during grace. ### Furious 7 (2015) A photo of Gisele is shown in Han's personal belongings, and it is later placed in his coffin as part of his memorial service. A deleted scene revealed Gisele had found Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez) after she was nearly killed by Fenix Calderon (Laz Alonso) and took her to the hospital. Letty asked Gisele why she saved her, and Gisele responded: "Maybe you are the one saving me." ### Fast X (2023) Gisele is revealed to have survived her fall from the vehicle in Fast & Furious 6, as she appears in a submarine to rescue Letty and Cipher (Charlize Theron) from the Agency's Antarctica prison. ## Development Gisele Yashar was Gal Gadot's first major film role, and the actress felt that it had a major impact on her career. She said that her unsuccessful experiences when trying out for Bond girl Camille Montes in the 22nd James Bond film Quantum of Solace (2008) had led to other auditions, specifically the one for Gisele. Gadot was cast by American director Justin Lin. The actress said that her background in the military helped with the audition, explaining: "I think the main reason was that Justin really liked that I was in the Israeli military, and he wanted to use my knowledge of weapons". In 2017, Gadot also thanked Diesel for his input over her selection for the role. Vanity Fair's Yohana Desta identified Gisele as "a breakthrough part that gave Gadot some mainstream recognition". When discussing her initial response to the Fast & Furious franchise, Gadot said: "We don't do those kind of movies [in Israel], with those kind of standards". She performed her own stunts during the films, saying: "The adrenaline was just incredible and I enjoyed being able to do the stuff that in real life you can't." Gadot explained that she wanted to feel like a "tough girl" while shooting her scenes. For the character's return in Fast & Furious 6, Gadot told Lin that she wanted Gisele to "be more of a badass", and was given more stunt work for the film. Some of the stunts involved jumping from a moving motorcycle onto a Jeep, being suspended in a harness, and riding a Ducati Monster motorcycle. Media outlets also characterized Gisele through her sexuality; Fuse's Bianca Gracie referred to her as "sensual and intimidating", and The Stranger'''s Erik Henriksen called her a "villainous seductress". Following Gadot's return in Fast X, Rodriguez commented that Gadot had previously filmed cameos in previous films after her character's "death" in the sixth one, though none of them made it into the final cuts, with Diesel admitting that "we have shot other things a long time ago that might not have fit that specific movie as a finale. Doing tags is a very tricky thing because you want your great talent but at the same time you have to be very careful to maintain the emotional state of your audience at the end of the movie. So that’s what you’re juggling". ## Critical reception Gisele Yashar has received a mixed response from film critics. Decider's Meghan O'Keefe praised Gisele as a new type of female character for the Fast & Furious franchise, writing that she provided a more "sophisticated, and unapologetically femme vibe" when compared to the rougher Ortiz. O'Keefe responded positively to Gisele's use of her sexuality and femininity as a tactic to manipulate men, as well as to her romance and partnership with Han. Nerdist News's Sydney Bucksbaum also identified the character's relationship with Han as a highlight, writing that they became "one of the most iconic couples from all the movies". Some commentators had a more negative response to the character. The A.V. Club's Tom Breihan felt that Gisele's transformation from "a drug lord's envoy to a former Mossad agent and a badass killer" was part of how the franchise gave "implausible makeovers" to certain characters. IndieWire's Kate Erbland included Gisele's death as an example of the franchise's poor treatment of women; she explained that female characters, such as Gisele, "primarily exist to round out the storylines of the films' male characters, often as love interests" and are rarely brought into focus as individuals. Gadot's performance received positive feedback from critics. In a 2017 article, Heavy.com's Brendan Marrow listed Gisele as one of Gadot's best performances prior to her starring role as Wonder Woman in the 2017 film of the same name. O’Keefe of Decider described Gadot and her character as the "secret weapon" of the Fast & Furious'' franchise, praising the actress for her "totally kickass contribution to the bonkers, high-octane, super-charged [films]". O'Keefe described Gadot's performance as "balanc[ing] unbridled badassery with unabashedly feminine charm". Joe Reid, also writing for Decider, recommended that Gisele should be revived for future installments of the franchise, but questioned if the producers could afford to have Gadot return for another film. Bucksbaum campaigned for the character's return, and wrote that she could likely be featured in a future film through a flashback sequence.

2005–06 Arsenal F.C. season

120th season in existence of Arsenal F.C.

The 2005–06 season was Arsenal Football Club's 14th season in the Premier League and their 80th consecutive season in the top flight of English football. It was the final season in which home matches were played at the club's Highbury stadium after 93 years; Arsenal intended to move to its new 60,000 capacity Emirates Stadium in time for the following season. The club ended their Premier League campaign in fourth, having pipped local rivals Tottenham Hotspur to the position on the final day. Arsenal became the first London club to reach a UEFA Champions League final, though lost 2–1 to Barcelona in Paris. In the League Cup the club was eliminated in the semi-finals on aggregate score by Wigan Athletic and knocked out of the FA Cup, against Bolton Wanderers in the fourth round. Before the season commenced midfielder Patrick Vieira was sold to Juventus; striker Thierry Henry assumed his club captaincy role. Alexander Hleb was purchased from Stuttgart for an undisclosed fee in July 2005; in the winter transfer window Arsenal signed midfielder Abou Diaby, and forwards Emmanuel Adebayor and Theo Walcott. Arsenal lost to league champions Chelsea in the 2005 FA Community Shield at the Millennium Stadium. An indifferent start in the league saw Arsenal peak in second position after 13 matches, but a run of three consecutive defeats a month later had effectively ruled them out of title contention. On the final day, they beat Wigan Athletic 4–2 at Highbury; Tottenham Hotspur's defeat at West Ham United meant Arsenal secured fourth place. The team's performances in Europe were more striking; they eliminated Real Madrid, Juventus and Villarreal in the knockout stages. In the 2006 UEFA Champions League Final held at the Stade de France in Paris on 17 May 2006, goalkeeper Jens Lehmann was sent off for a professional foul on Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o. Although defender Sol Campbell gave Arsenal a first half lead from a set piece, the team conceded twice in the final 15 minutes to lose the match. To mark the final season at Highbury, Arsenal held a valedictory campaign titled "Highbury – The Final Salute". The club staged several themed matchdays and a redcurrant home kit replaced the common red to honour the shirts worn in 1913. ## Background Arsenal began the preceding season as league champions; a win against Blackburn Rovers in August 2004 ensured they eclipsed Nottingham Forest's record of 42 league matches unbeaten. The run extended to six more matches, before losing 2–0 to Manchester United at Old Trafford on 24 October 2004. Poor form throughout November allowed league leaders Chelsea to extend the gap at the top; Wenger conceded retaining the title in April 2005, calling his opponents "worthy champions ... they have been remarkably consistent." A run of twelve league matches unbeaten, culminating in a 7–0 home win against Everton helped Arsenal finish in second place. In spite of exiting the Champions League to Bayern Munich in the second round, the team won the 2005 FA Cup Final against Manchester United – winning 5–4 on penalties after a goalless draw. ### Highbury – The Final Salute The 2005–06 season marked Arsenal's final season at Highbury, their home since 1913. The club planned to move half a mile to the Emirates Stadium, considered "vital to our future" by Wenger, as it financially would help them to compete at the top level. To mark the valedictory campaign titled "Highbury – The Final Salute", the club staged many special activities on matchdays "...to celebrate the many great players and moments that this fantastic stadium has witnessed." A redcurrant home kit was designed to honour the shirts worn in the club's first season at Highbury. It was adorned with gold lettering and accompanied by white shorts and redcurrant socks. ### Transfers Arsenal signed youth players Nicklas Bendtner, Vito Mannone and Armand Traoré in the summer transfer window. Belarusian Alexander Hleb joined the club for an undisclosed fee on 12 July 2005. Arsenal made four more additions during the season: goalkeeper Mart Poom, signed on a permanent deal, midfielder Abou Diaby, who reportedly turned down an offer to join Chelsea and forwards Emmanuel Adebayor and Theo Walcott. After the early departures of Jermaine Pennant and Stuart Taylor, club captain Patrick Vieira joined Italian side Juventus in a £13.7 million deal. Wenger did not intend to sign a replacement, saying "I am not in a hurry. We have Gilberto, Flamini, and Fàbregas. Pires can play in there also so we have plenty of players." English midfielder David Bentley made his loan deal at Blackburn Rovers permanent in the January transfer window. In Out Loans in Loans out ## Pre-season ## FA Community Shield As winners of the FA Cup in the previous season, Arsenal contested the 2005 FA Community Shield against league champions Chelsea. Two goals scored by striker Didier Drogba in either half meant Arsenal lost the match. Wenger commented afterwards that Chelsea's gameplan made it difficult for the Arsenal defenders, and noted his opposition's strength was playing long balls. When asked if he was concerned by the performance, Wenger replied: "Why should I worry? Did you see the game? You can worry for the Chelsea supporters." ## Premier League ### August–October Arsenal began their final league season at Highbury against Newcastle United on 14 August 2005. In spite of having a man advantage after midfielder Jermaine Jenas was sent off for a challenge on Gilberto Silva, striker Thierry Henry scored from the penalty spot in the 81st minute. Robin van Persie added a second, four minutes from the end of the match. A fortunate goal from Drogba inflicted Arsenal's first defeat against Chelsea in the league for almost a decade. The team responded with a 4–1 victory against Fulham, whereby Henry and defender Pascal Cygan both scored twice. Arsenal lost away to Middlesbrough on 10 September 2005, in a performance derided by Wenger as being "unacceptable". A brace (two goals) from Sol Campbell against Everton was followed by a goalless draw against newly promoted West Ham United. An own goal scored by Stephen Clemence gave Arsenal a 1–0 victory in the first week of October at home to Birmingham City. Despite being "technically the better side" away to West Bromwich Albion, Arsenal lost 2–1; Wenger after the match commented that the team "played with great spirit but ... were punished for a lack of experience and maturity because we didn't take advantage of the chances we created." A penalty scored by Robert Pires was enough to secure three points against Manchester City. The midfielder wasted a second penalty in the second half, choosing to recreate a spot kick executed by Johan Cruyff and Jesper Olsen for Ajax. Having attempted to roll the ball towards onrushing Henry, Pires inadvertently flicked the ball twice, enabling referee Mike Riley to award a free-kick to Manchester City. Although both players were scrutinised by Chelsea manager José Mourinho, they were commended by Cryuff for showing a desire to try something different. The final league match of October ended in a 1–1 draw against local rivals Tottenham Hotpsur. ### November–February A 3–1 win at home to Sunderland on 5 November 2005 meant Arsenal moved third in the league table. This was followed by a trip to the JJB Stadium; Arsenal beat Wigan Athletic 3–2 in a "hugely entertaining game on a cold, frosty afternoon". Henry scored his 100th goal at Highbury against Blackburn Rovers to extend a club unbeaten run of nine matches. Defeat at Bolton Wanderers in early December concerned Wenger, admitting the opponents showed the template required to beat his team. A further defeat against Newcastle United, where Gilberto Silva was sent off in the second half highlighted the "physical absence" of Vieira in midfield. In losing 2–0 to Chelsea a week after – their third successive defeat for the first time under Wenger, Arsenal lay in eighth position, 11 points behind Manchester United. An early morning kick-off away to Charlton Athletic ended in a 1–0 victory for Arsenal; José Antonio Reyes scored his second goal in the league. Four first-half goals against Portsmouth helped Arsenal to close the gap on second place by nine points. They ended the calendar year and began 2006 with goalless draws against Aston Villa and Manchester United respectively. Arsenal recorded the biggest win of the league season, against Middlesbrough at Highbury. Henry scored a hat-trick in a 7–0 victory; the striker post-match deemed it was vital for the club to finish in the top four "...for me, for the club and for the fans." They suffered two consecutive defeats: away to Everton and at home to West Ham United. In the latter match, Campbell was substituted at his request before the second half, having been at fault for Nigel Reo-Coker and Bobby Zamora's goals. He "went missing" after the match, subsequently returning to training five days later. Emmanuel Adebayor scored his first goal for Arsenal in a 2–0 win against Birmingham City on 4 February 2006. A stoppage time goal scored by Gilberto earned the team a point against Bolton Wanderers at Highbury; they went 1–0 down in the 12th minute after Kevin Nolan chipped the ball past goalkeeper Jens Lehmann. Arsenal conceded a late goal away to Liverpool on Valentine's Day – a result which left the club 10 points behind their opponents. Defeat against Blackburn Rovers meant they lost for the second consecutive game. Having collected just three wins out of a possible 14 away from home, Wenger admitted the form of the team remained "a big worry" given they needed to play five more. ### March–May In the first week of March, Arsenal beat Fulham 4–0 with a "commanding performance" from Henry, who scored two goals. The striker scored the winning goal against Liverpool in their next match, from a Steven Gerrard backpass. A polished performance against Charlton Athletic was followed by a five-goal win at home to Aston Villa on 1 April 2006. Arsenal lost 2–0 to Manchester United and dropped two points against relegation-threatened Portsmouth, meaning a fourth-place finish was in Tottenham Hotspur's favour. Dennis Bergkamp scored his final goal for Arsenal against West Bromwich Albion in a 3–1 win; he came on as a substitute in the second half to set up Pires to score the winning goal, moments after Nigel Quashie had leveled the scoreline; fittingly the day was dedicated to him. Arsenal drew 1–1 at home to Tottenham Hotspur, with Wenger choosing to rest players in mind for the club's Champions League semi-final. A 3–0 win away at Sunderland was overshadowed by a tackle on Abou Diaby, ruling him out for the remainder of the season. Two late goals scored by Reyes against Manchester City moved Arsenal a point behind Tottenham Hotspur in fourth. In the final competitive match played at Highbury, Arsenal faced Wigan Athletic, needing to better their rivals result to guarantee Champions League qualification. Henry scored a hat-trick in a six-goal match, helping Arsenal end the season with 67 points from 38 matches. Tottenham Hotspur's defeat against West Ham United meant Arsenal finished fourth, a position Gilberto felt the club "deserved". ### Match results ### Classification #### Results summary #### Results by round ## FA Cup Arsenal entered the competition in the third round, receiving a bye as a Premier League club. Their opening match was a 2–1 home win against Cardiff City on 7 January 2006, with both goals scored by Pires. Arsenal faced Bolton Wanderers the following round; an understrength team lost 1–0 after Giannakopulos headed in the winning goal, six minutes from the end of the match. ## Football League Cup Arsenal entered the Football League Cup in the third round, where they were drawn away to Sunderland. A 3–0 victory meant they progressed to the fourth round, where they beat First Division club Reading by an identical scoreline. Extra time and penalties was required in Arsenal's fifth round tie against Doncaster Rovers, after a 2–2 draw in 90 minutes. Two saves by goalkeeper Manuel Almunia helped Arsenal win 3–1 on penalties and reach the semi-finals of the competition for the first time since 1998. They faced Wigan Athletic, losing 1–0 in the first leg and in spite of winning the second leg 2–1 with a full strength team, Arsenal was eliminated on the away goals rule. ## UEFA Champions League ### Group stage Arsenal qualified for the group stages of the Champions League in the 2005–06 season on virtue of finishing runners-up in the Premier League the preceding season. They were drawn in Group B, along with Swiss' Thun, Czech club Sparta Prague and Ajax of the Netherlands. In spite of Van Persie's dismissal against Thun in the opening group match, Arsenal won 2–1, courtesy of a late goal by substitute Bergkamp. A 2–1 win against Ajax was followed by a 2–0 victory against Sparta Prague; Henry scored both goals to surpass Ian Wright's all-time leading scorer record. A goal from Henry and two from Van Persie in the reverse fixture meant the club reached the knockout stages. A win at Thun on 22 November 2005 ensured Arsenal topped the group; they ended the group stages with a draw at Highbury against Ajax. ### Knockout phase #### First knockout round The club faced Real Madrid in the last 16 – the first encounter between both clubs in the competition. A solo goal by Henry at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu in the first leg, inflicted the home team's first defeat in 18 Champions League matches. A disciplined display at home a fortnight after helped Arsenal to reach the quarter-finals and become the sole English representative left in the competition. #### Quarter-finals At home to Juventus, Arsenal won 2–0 with goals from Fàbregas and Henry; the match was overshadowed by the return of former captain Vieira. A goalless draw at the Stadio delle Alpi meant the club progressed into the semi-finals against Villarreal. #### Semi-finals In the club's final European match at Highbury, Touré scored a first-half goal to give Arsenal a 1–0 win. A late penalty save by goalkeeper Lehmann in the second leg helped Arsenal become the first London club to reach a Champions League final. The result, another goalless draw was Arsenal's tenth clean sheet in a row – a new competition record. Campbell, returning from injury praised the team performance in his post-match interview: "It's brilliant for us. It's also great for the manager Arsène Wenger to get to the final in France – I'm sure he will get a great reception." #### Final In the final against Barcelona at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Paris, Arsenal fielded a 4–5–1 formation, with Eboué replacing the injured Lauren, and Cole making a return at left-back for Flamini. Lehmann was sent off in 18th minute for a professional foul on striker Samuel Eto'o. Wenger reacted by substituting Pires for goalkeeper Manuel Almunia, altering the formation. In spite of the disadvantage, Arsenal took the lead in the 37th minute, after Henry's free kick was headed in by Campbell. Henry missed a chance in the second half to give Arsenal a two-nil lead before Eto'o equalised with 14 minutes left. Substitute Henrik Larsson set up Juliano Belletti to score the winner for Barcelona. Wenger used his post-match press conference to criticise referee Terje Hauge for sending off Lehmann, a view later shared by club captain Henry and FIFA president Sepp Blatter. ## Squad statistics Arsenal used a total of 34 players during the 2005–06 season and there were 16 different goalscorers. There were also six squad members who did not make a first-team appearance in the campaign. The team played in a 4–4–2 formation for much of the season, though Wenger deployed a 4–5–1 formation in Europe – a five-man midfield with Ljungberg playing behind the main striker Henry. Fàbregas featured in 50 matches – the most of any Arsenal player in the campaign; Lehmann started in all 38 league matches. The team scored a total of 96 goals in all competitions. The highest scorer was Henry, with 33 goals, followed by Van Persie and Pires who both scored 11 goals. Four Arsenal players were sent off during the season: Lehmann, Fàbregas, Van Persie and Gilberto. - Key No. = Squad number Pos = Playing position Nat. = Nationality Apps = Appearances GK = Goalkeeper DF = Defender MF = Midfielder FW = Forward `= Yellow cards` `= Red cards` Numbers in parentheses denote appearances as substitute. Players with number struck through and marked left the club during the playing season. Players with names in italics and marked \* were on loan from another club for the whole of their season with Arsenal. Source: ## See also - 2005–06 in English football - List of Arsenal F.C. seasons

Cayman Islands at the 2010 Winter Olympics

The Cayman Islands sent a delegation to compete at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, held between 12–28 February 2010. The territory made its debut at the Winter Olympics, sending one athlete, alpine skier Dow Travers. Travers entered the men's giant slalom and finished in 69th place. ## Background The Cayman Islands first entered Olympic competition in 1976 at the Montreal Olympics. They have participated in every Summer Olympics since, except the boycotted 1980 Moscow Olympics. The territory has never won a medal in Olympic competition. The Cayman Islands made their Winter Olympic Games debut in Vancouver. The Caymanian delegation consisted of a single competitor, alpine skier Dow Travers. Travers was chosen as the flag bearer for both the opening ceremony and the closing ceremony. ## Alpine Skiing Dow Travers secured qualification to the Vancouver Olympics at a skiing competition in Chile. He said upon qualifying, "I am feeling very Olympic today." Travers was 22 years old at the time of the Games. The only event he was entered into was the men's giant slalom, which took place on 23 February. He posted run times of 1 minute 29 seconds and 1 minute 33 seconds, for a combined total time of 3 minutes and 2 seconds. This put him in 69th place out of 81 competitors who finished both runs, and the gold medal time was a combined 2 minutes and 37 seconds. ## See also - Cayman Islands at the Olympics

Galaxy Game

1971 arcade game

Galaxy Game is a space combat arcade game developed in 1971 during the early era of video games. Galaxy Game is an expanded version of the 1962 Spacewar\!, potentially the first video game to spread to multiple computer installations. It features two spaceships, "the needle" and "the wedge", engaged in a dogfight while maneuvering in the gravity well of a star. Both ships are controlled by human players. Created by Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck, the initial prototype cost to build. It consisted of a Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-11 minicomputer attached by a cable to a wooden console with a monitor, controls, and seats. It charged players 10 cents per game or 25 cents for three, and drew crowds "ten-deep". This was one of the first coin-operated video games; the prototype was installed in November 1971 at the Tresidder student union building at Stanford University, only a few months after a similar display of a prototype of Computer Space, making it the second known video game to charge money to play. The pair built a second prototype, replacing the first in Tresidder in June 1972. It featured the capability to play multiple games simultaneously on four monitors, though due to space restrictions only two consoles with monitors were actually installed. These consoles had a blue fiberglass casing, and the PDP-11 was housed inside one of the consoles. By the time of its installation, the pair had spent on the project, but were unable to make the game commercially viable. The second prototype remained in the student union building until 1979, when the display processor became faulty. It was restored and placed in the Stanford computer science department in 1997, then moved to the Computer History Museum in 2000, where it remains . ## Background At the beginning of the 1970s, video games existed almost entirely as novelties passed around by programmers and technicians with access to computers, primarily at research institutions and large companies. One of these games was Spacewar\!, created in 1962 for the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) PDP-1 minicomputer by Steve Russell and others in the programming community at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The two-player game has the players engage in a dogfight between two spaceships, set against the backdrop of a starfield, with a central star exerting gravitational force upon the ships. The game was copied to several of the early minicomputer installations in American academic institutions after its initial release, making it potentially the first video game to be available outside a single research institute. Spacewar was extremely popular in the small programming community in the 1960s and was widely recreated on other minicomputer and mainframe computers of the time, later migrating to early microcomputer systems. Early computer scientist Alan Kay noted in 1972 that "the game of Spacewar blossoms spontaneously wherever there is a graphics display connected to a computer," and contributor Martin Graetz recalled in 1981 that as the game initially spread it could be found on "just about any research computer that had a programmable CRT". Although the game was widespread for the era, it was still very limited in its direct reach: the PDP-1 was priced at and only 55 were ever sold, most without a monitor, which prohibited the original Spacewar or any game of the time from reaching beyond a narrow, academic audience. The original developers of Spacewar considered ways to monetize the game, but saw no options given the high price of the computer it ran on. In 1966, Stanford University student Bill Pitts, who had a hobby of exploring the steam tunnels and buildings of the campus, broke into a building he found out to be the location of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Project, which held a DEC PDP-6 time-sharing computer system with 20 Teletype consoles connected to it. Fascinated by the computer and having taken several introductory computer classes, Pitts convinced the head of the project, Lester Earnest, to let him use the computer after hours. Soon, Pitts had ceased going to classes, instead spending his nights in the computer lab interacting with the graduate and postgraduate students and playing Spacewar on the PDP-6. Pitts often played against Hugh Tuck, a student at California Polytechnic State University who was a friend from high school. During one Spacewar session that took place, depending on the source, between 1966 and 1969, Tuck remarked that a coin-operated version of the game would be very successful. Such a device was still unfeasible due to the cost of computers, and the pair did not pursue the project. In 1971, however, Pitts, who by then had graduated and was working at Lockheed as a PDP-10 programmer, learned of the 1970 DEC PDP-11, which was sold for around US$14,000. While this was still too high for a commercially viable product, as most electronic games in arcades cost around US$1,000 at the time, Tuck and Pitts felt it was low enough to build a prototype to determine interest and optimal per-game pricing. ## Gameplay The gameplay of Galaxy Game, like Spacewar\!, involves two monochrome spaceships called "the needle" and "the wedge" (though their appearances have been modified for the coin-op version) each controlled by a player, attempting to shoot each other while maneuvering on a two-dimensional plane in the gravity well of a star, set against the backdrop of a starfield. The ships fire torpedoes, which are not affected by the gravitational pull of the star. The ships have a limited number of torpedoes and a limited supply of fuel, which is used when the player fires his thrusters. Torpedoes are fired one at a time, and there is a cooldown period between launches. The ships follow Newtonian physics, remaining in motion even when the player is not accelerating, though the ships can rotate at a constant rate without inertia. Each player controls one of the ships and must attempt to shoot down the other ship while avoiding a collision with the star. Flying near the star can provide a gravity assist to the player at the risk of misjudging the trajectory and falling into the star. If a ship moves past one edge of the screen, it reappears on the other side in a wraparound effect. A hyperspace feature, or "panic button", can be used as a last-ditch means to evade enemy torpedoes by moving the player's ship to another location on the screen after disappearing for a few seconds, but the reentry from hyperspace occurs at a random location, and there is an increasing probability of the ship exploding with each use. Player controls include clockwise and counterclockwise rotation, forward thrust, firing torpedoes, and hyperspace. Galaxy Game features, as improvements over the original, optional modifications to the game to have faster ships, faster torpedoes, to remove the star and its gravitational field or reverse the gravity to push away from the star, and to remove the wraparound effect. The movement of the ships was controlled with a joystick, while the torpedoes, hyperspace, and game options are controlled via a panel of buttons. ## Development After deciding to begin work on a coin-operated version of Spacewar, the pair, with assistance from Tuck's family, bought a PDP-11 and started working on a prototype. They spent a total of to build a single arcade machine for two players, like the original Spacewar, deciding to price the game at ten cents per play or 25 cents for three games, with the winner of a match given a free game. They used a PDP-11/20 version of the PDP-11 (14,000), a Hewlett-Packard 1300A Electrostatic Display (3,000), and spent the remainder on the coin acceptors, joysticks, wiring, and casing. Pitts build the computer hardware and handled the programming, while Tuck, a mechanical engineer, designed the enclosing cabinet. The display adapter for the monitor was built by Ted Panofsky, the coin acceptors were sourced from jukebox manufacturer Rowe International, and the joysticks found at a military surplus store as remainders from B-52 bomber controls. The code for the game was based on a version of Spacewar running on a PDP-10 in the Stanford artificial intelligence lab, but modified with additional features. Pitts and Tuck renamed their product from Spacewar to Galaxy Game due to anti-war sentiment and founded a company called Mini-Computer Applications in June 1971 to operate the game as it neared completion. The development of the prototype machine took around three and a half months. By August, they were well into development and had gotten permission to place the machine at the Tresidder student union building at Stanford as a test site. It was then that they received a call from Nolan Bushnell, who had heard of their project and wanted to show them his similar project he was working on. Bushnell had also played Spacewar during the 1960s and wanted to make an arcade game version of it, but had gone in a different technological direction. He and Ted Dabney had initially started with a US$4,000 Data General Nova computer which they thought would be powerful enough to run multiple simultaneous games of Spacewar; when it turned out to not be, they had started investigating replacing the computer hardware with custom-built parts. They had soon discovered that while a general-purpose computer cheap enough for an arcade game would not be powerful enough to run enough games of Spacewar to be profitable, a computer purpose-built for solely running one game could be made for as low as US$100. By August 1971 when Bushnell called Tuck and Pitts, he and Dabney had already displayed a prototype of their Computer Space game in a bar near Stanford and had found a commercial manufacturer for the game in Nutting Associates. They were curious about what Tuck and Pitts had done to make a commercially competitive version of the game, but were relieved, though also somewhat disappointed, to find that they had not solved that problem yet. Tuck and Pitts, on the other hand, while impressed with Bushnell's hardware were not impressed with the game itself. They felt that Computer Space, a single-player game without the central gravity well of the original game, was a pale imitation of Spacewar, while their own Galaxy Game was a superior adaptation of the game. In November 1971, the Galaxy Game prototype debuted. The veneered walnut console, complete with seats for players, was located on the second floor of the building and connected to the PDP-11 in the attic by a 100-foot cable. In December, it was moved to a coffee shop on the first floor. It was very successful; Pitts later said that the machine attracted crowds of people "ten-deep" watching the players. They briefly attached a second monitor hanging above the console so that the watchers could more easily see the game. The low prices meant that they did not come close to making back the price of the PDP-11, but they were excited by the game's reception and had not intended the prototype to be profitable. As the initial Galaxy Game prototype was displayed to the public a few months after the first Computer Space prototype, it is believed to be the second video game to charge money to play. As a result of the reception to Galaxy Game, Pitts and Tuck started work on an expanded prototype. For the second machine, they built a full blue fiberglass casing for the consoles, improved the quality of the joysticks with the help of a machine shop, and modified the computer with a newer display processor to support up to four games at once on different monitors—either multiple simultaneous separate games or up to four players playing the same game on two screens. They also placed the PDP-11 inside one of the consoles rather than in a separate location. While the original plan had been to work on driving down the development costs after the initial prototype, the popularity of the game convinced the pair to instead focus on making a better machine that could run multiple games to recoup the upfront investment. The new version was installed in a cafe in the student union building in June 1972, though with only two monitors due to space restrictions. The original Galaxy Game prototype was displayed at several locations around the area, but was not as successful as it had been at the student union building. By the time the second prototype was completed the pair had spent US$65,000 on the project and had no feasible way of making up the cost with the machine or commercial prospects for a wider release. Pitts later explained that he and Tuck had been focused on the engineering and technical challenges of producing a faithful coin-operated Spacewar game and paid little attention to the business side of the project; he felt that Computer Space had been more commercially successful because Bushnell had focused more on the business side of his idea than the technical. ## Legacy The second Galaxy Game prototype remained on display in the Tresidder building until May 1979, when it was removed due to the display processor becoming unreliable. Throughout its time on display, it remained popular, with "ten to twenty people gathered around the machines most Friday and Saturday nights when school was in session." Pitts later claimed that by the time the machine was removed, it had managed to make back the original investment. After its removal, the machine was dismantled, with the computer parts stored in an office and the casing outdoors. The unit was restored in 1997 with a recreated display processor and put on display for several years in the computer science department at Stanford with two consoles attached for free use by students. Due to issues with space and maintenance, in 2000 it was moved into the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, in the displayed storage section. In August 2010, the museum loaned the console to Google to be placed at their headquarters campus at the request of Pitts—who wanted the game to be played as well as displayed—due to a discussion with senior vice president Jonathan Rosenberg, who had been hired as a 13 year old by Tuck and Pitts in the mid-1970s to keep the machine cleaned. It has since returned to the museum as a playable exhibit.

Hurricane Virgil (1992)

Category 4 Pacific hurricane in 1992

Hurricane Virgil was a late season hurricane of the 1992 Pacific hurricane season that struck southwestern Mexico in October 1992. Forming from a tropical wave that left Africa on September 13, it slowly developed into a tropical depression. It soon strengthened into Tropical Storm Virgil, and rapidly intensified into a hurricane on October 2. Continuing to intensify, the hurricane attained major hurricane strength, and peaked as a Category 4 hurricane off the coast of Mexico. Shortly before landfall, it weakened to a Category 2 hurricane, and it dissipated on October 5. Damage was generally minimal, though one person was reported missing. ## Meteorological history Virgil originated from a tropical wave that moved off the coast of Africa on September 13, 1992, beginning a westward course through the Atlantic and Caribbean without much development, although there was an increase convection near the Lesser Antilles on the September 20. However, this was disorganized and suppressed by an upper-level trough during the wave's passage through the Caribbean Sea. The wave crossed over Panama on September 25, and convection began to increase when it reached the Eastern Pacific, although it was initially disorganized. The system later became better organized, and on October 1, the wave organized into a tropical depression. Shortly thereafter, it was upgraded to a tropical storm and was named Virgil. Upon becoming a tropical storm, the system was expect to move near the coast of Mexico, and forecasters noted that there was some potential for a landfall. The system became a little better organized and over warm water and low wind shear Virgil steadily intensified. Virgil was upgraded to a hurricane the next day; an eye formed an hour later. During the period of strengthening, Virgil turned more towards the north. Continued strengthening occurred, and it attained major hurricane status on October 2. At this time, the system was anticipated to make landfall in Mexico as a Category 4 hurricane. The storm had maximum winds of 130 mph (215 km/h), but shortly thereafter the storm began to weaken. By 0900 UTC October 2, the eye started to become less defined. Based on this, the storm was downgraded into a category 3 hurricane. Although an eye was no longer visible on satellite imagery, the storms had displayed very deep convection, thus the NHC initially maintained the intensity at 120 mph (195 km/h). Virgil's eye continued to become less defined, and was downgraded to Category 2 intensity at the time of first landfall on October 4 in Michoacan midway between Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas.. After briefly tracking over Manzanillo Bay, the hurricane moved onshore Colima as a Category 1 hurricane. It rapidly weakened over land, and was a dissipating tropical depression by the time it moved offshore. ## Preparations and Impact Prior to the arrival of the hurricane, several watches and warnings were issued. During the afternoon of October 2, a hurricane watch was first issued for areas west of Zinhuantatenjo. The next day, the watch was upgraded into a hurricane warning. Fifteen hours later the area east of Zinhuantatenjo, a tropical storm warning was issued. The watches were gradually dropped over the next few days, and by October 4. The NHC warned the possibility of mudslides and landslides and 15 in (380 mm) of rain in the high terrain of Mexico. Due to the sparsely populated area it struck, only minor damage was reported. Heavy rain and flooding were reported, peaking at over 10 inches (25 cm) in one location. One person was reported missing in the state of Colima, and three people were injured in Guerrero. More than 1,000 homes were damaged in Guerrero, Michoacán, and Colima, as was 7,400 acres (30 km²) of farmland. A flood on the Atoyac River washed away 500 homes in Guerrero, which prompted the evacuation of 2,500 people. A passenger train north of Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán, was derailed when it encountered washed-out roadbeds. The storm also caused power outages. ## See also - Other storms of the same name - Pacific hurricane - List of Pacific hurricanes - List of Category 4 Pacific hurricanes

St Mary's Church, Nether Alderley

St Mary's Church is an Anglican church at the end of a lane to the south of the village of Nether Alderley, Cheshire, England. It dates from the 14th century, with later additions and a major restoration in the late-19th century. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. The church was built in the Gothic style, and has historically been associated with the Stanley family of Alderley. Its major features include a fine tower, the Stanley pew which is entered by an outside staircase, a 14th-century font, the western gallery, and monuments to the Lords Stanley of Alderley. The grounds contain a 17th-century former schoolhouse, now used as a parish hall, a medieval church cross, and the Stanley Mausoleum, which dates from 1909. An ancient yew tree stands in the churchyard. St Mary's is an active parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Macclesfield, and the deanery of Knutsford. Its benefice is combined with that of St Catherine's, Birtles. ## History The oldest parts of the church date from around 1300, but it is likely that a timber-framed church existed on the site before then. The church's original dedication was to Saint Lawrence, but that was later changed to Saint Mary. A clerestory was added in the 15th century. The tower was built in 1530, and the Stanley pew was added in about 1600. The west gallery, which contained an organ, was installed in 1803. In 1856, the chancel was completely rebuilt, to a design by Cuffley and Starkey, paid for by the Stanley family. The vestry was constructed in 1860. The church was restored between 1877 and 1878 by Paley and Austin; the nave floor was lowered, the pulpit was replaced, plaster was removed from the roof and the walls, and the box pews were replaced by new oak pews. The tower clock, made in 1743, was renovated in 1997. In 2000, the 16th-century wooden bell-frame was strengthened by the addition of a steel frame, and the Stanley pew was restored. ## Architecture ### Exterior St Mary's is built of ashlar buff and red sandstone quarried locally at Alderley Edge, and the roof is of Kerridge stone slates. Its plan consists of a tower at the west end, a four-bay nave with north and south aisles, a chancel with a vestry to its north, and a south porch. Over the north aisle is a dormer window. The tower has diagonal buttresses. Its west door has 14th-century mouldings and above the door is a three-light window. The stage above this contains ringers' windows on the north and west faces and a diamond-shaped clock on the south face. Above these the belfry windows on all faces have two lights. The top of the tower is embattled and contains the bases of eight pinnacles. Below the parapet is a string course with large grotesque gargoyles. At the west end of the nave roof is a bellcote. The Stanley pew projects to the east of the south porch. In the porch are grooves which were cut where arrows were sharpened. ### Interior The barrel-shaped nave roof dates possibly from the early 16th century. The early 17th-century Stanley pew at the eastern end of the south aisle is at the level of an upper storey, and is entered by a flight of steps from outside the church. Its front is richly carved and displays six panels with coats of arms. Richards states that it is one of the finest of its kind in the country and that it is unique in Cheshire. At the west end of the church is a late-18th-century musicians' gallery, whose front panel has painted coats of arms. The gallery contains the organ which replaces an earlier organ. This was presented by Lady Fabia Stanley in 1875 and was made by Hill and Company of London at a cost of £350 (), An oak document chest in the tower has been dated to 1686. The 14th-century font was buried in the churchyard during the Commonwealth, dug up in 1821 and restored to use in the church in 1924. It consists of a plain circular bowl on four short cylindrical columns with moulded bases. Richards considers it to be one of the finest examples of 14th-century work in Cheshire. The church has two old Bibles, a Vinegar Bible and a Breeches Bible. The chancel contains memorials to the Lords Stanley of Alderley. The memorial to John Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley contains his effigy dressed in peer's robes lying under a canopy with his hand on a book, dated 1856 and by Richard Westmacott. On the other side of the chancel is a memorial to his son Edward Stanley, his effigy holding a scroll in his hand and with a dog at his feet. Engraved in brass on the side of the memorial are the figures of his widow and children. Lady Stanley is seated in the middle with their four surviving sons on her right, five surviving daughters on her left and three children who had died at a young age at her knee and on her lap. A memorial tablet to John Constantine Stanley, who died in 1878, is by Joseph Boehm. The chancel contains a monument to Rev. Edward Shipton, rector of the church from 1625 to 1630. The stained glass in the east window, dated 1856, was made by William Wailes. The glass in a south window in the chancel of 1909 was made by Morris & Co. The east window in the north aisle, dated 1920 is by Irene Dunlop. The stained glass window to the left of the pulpit was donated by the Greg family of Styal Mill. The stained glass in the window at the west end of the north aisle is to the memory of the wife of Edward John Bell, rector from 1870 to 1907, and was made by Clayton and Bell in 1877. The tower holds a ring of six bells, hung for change ringing, five of which were cast in 1787 by Rudhall of Gloucester, and the sixth by Charles and George Mears at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1847. A seventh, unused, bell dates from 1686 and has been noted as being of historical importance by the Church Buildings Council of the Church of England. The parish registers begin in 1629, and the churchwardens' accounts in 1612. ## External features The sandstone schoolhouse in the churchyard was built in 1628; the school room was on the ground floor and the schoolmaster's accommodation was above. A large room was added to the rear in 1817, and in 1908 the building was restored and presented to the parish by Lord Stanley. It is now used as a parish hall and is listed Grade II\*. The medieval church cross in the churchyard, the Stanley Mausoleum, and the churchyard walls, gate piers and gates, are Grade II listed. The mausoleum was built in 1909 by Edward Lyulph, 4th Lord Stanley. He died in 1925 and it contains his ashes and those of his wife, Mary Katherine, who died in 1929. The mausoleum is built in ashlar buff and red sandstone with a Kerridge stone-slate roof. It was designed in the neo-Jacobean style by Paul Phipps, and is rectangular in shape, with two storeys and a three-bay north front. The central bay contains a door, above which is the Stanley crest, a three-light window and a date plaque in the gable. On the sides of the upper storey are three four-light windows. Inside the mausoleum is a white marble sarcophagus. The yew tree in the churchyard is 1,200 years old. ## Rediscovery of the crypt It had been known that under the church was a vault containing the remains of some members of the Stanley family but its whereabouts were not known until they were discovered by an architect in 2007. A stone slab was removed exposing steps leading to a crypt under the chancel. This contained six coffins, four of which contained the bodies of the first and second Lords Stanley and their wives. Once the details had been recorded, the crypt was resealed. ## Present activities St Mary's holds a variety of Anglican services on Sundays and offers a range of church activities. The church is open to visitors at advertised times and guided tours are available. A parish magazine is published monthly. ## See also - Grade I listed buildings in Cheshire East - Grade I listed churches in Cheshire - Listed buildings in Nether Alderley - List of ecclesiastical works by Paley and Austin

Max Whitlock

English artistic gymnast (born 1993)

Max Antony Whitlock OBE (born 13 January 1993) is an English artistic gymnast. With fourteen medals and six titles in Olympic and World Championships, Whitlock is the most successful gymnast in British history. He is also the most successful pommel horse worker in Olympic Games history, with two gold medals and one bronze. Whitlock is a six-time Olympic medallist (all-around, team, floor exercise and three times on his signature piece, pommel horse), winning three golds and three bronzes, and a five-time world medallist on the pommel horse with three gold and two silvers. He became Great Britain's first-ever Olympic gold medallist in artistic gymnastics when he won both the floor exercise and pommel horse at the 2016 Summer Olympics. He is a four-time European champion and a four-time Commonwealth Games champion representing England. ## Early life Whitlock was born in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, on 13 January 1993. He was introduced to gymnastics by a friend from a swimming club when he was seven and joined the Sapphire School of Gymnastics in Hemel Hempstead. When he was twelve, his coach Klemen Bedenik returned to Slovenia, and Whitlock followed him to Maribor to continue training. He returned three months later and joined South Essex Gymnastics Club in Basildon, where he is coached by his brother-in-law Scott Hann. Whitlock's wife, Leah, has also worked as a coach at the club. He attended Longdean School in Hemel Hempstead. ## Career ### 2010–11 Whitlock won gold on pommel horse and floor exercise and silver in the all-around at the 2010 Junior European Championships held in Birmingham. In October, he was part of the team that won the silver medal for England at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. He also won the silver medal on the pommel horse and a bronze medal on the horizontal bar. Whitlock was an alternate for the British men's team at the 2011 World Championships in Tokyo. ### 2012 Whitlock was selected for the British team that competed at the Olympic Test Event, the final opportunity to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games. The British team won the event and qualified as a team for the Olympic Games for the first time since 1992. He won the silver medal in the pommel horse final behind teammate Louis Smith. In March, he won the bronze medal on the pommel horse at the Cottbus World Challenge Cup. He competed with the British team that won the gold medal at the European Championships. This was the first time the British men's team had won team gold at a major championship. Individually, Whitlock qualified for the pommel horse final, where he finished in sixth place. Whitlock represented Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London alongside Smith, Sam Oldham, Daniel Purvis, and Kristian Thomas. The team initially finished second in the team final, but the Japanese team submitted an inquiry that raised their score, so the British team received the bronze medal. This was the first time the British men's team had won an Olympic medal since 1912. He also won the bronze medal in the pommel horse event final behind Hungary's Krisztián Berki and teammate Smith. ### 2013 Whitlock began the season at the Internationaux de France where he won the silver medal on the pommel horse behind Olympic champion Krisztián Berki. He then competed at the European Championships in Moscow. In the all-around final, he won the silver medal behind David Belyavskiy. He then won Great Britain's first European floor title by tying with Israel's Alexander Shatilov. Then in the pommel horse final, he won the bronze medal. At the Anadia World Challenge Cup, he was upset in the pommel horse final by Colombia's Jhonny Perez. At the World Championships, Whitlock finished fourth in the all-around final, only 0.300 behind the bronze medalist. Then in the pommel horse final, he tied for the silver medal with Mexico's Daniel Corral. ### 2014 At the European Championships in Sofia, Whitlock and his Great Britain teammates won the team silver medal behind Russia. In event finals, he won the gold medal in pommel horse ahead of the defending Olympic champion Krisztián Berki. He also finished fifth in the floor exercise final. At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Whitlock and his England teammates won the team gold. In the all-around final, Whitlock won the gold medal with a score of 90.631 points. Whitlock won his third gold in the floor exercise final. He took silver in the pommel horse final and bronze in the parallel bars final. Whitlock was chosen to compete for Great Britain at World Championships in Nanning, China. During the qualification round, he had a fall on the floor exercise and costly errors on the pommel horse. He did not qualify for any of the individual finals, including the all-around due to the two-per-country rule as he finished behind teammates Daniel Purvis and Nile Wilson. In the team final, he helped the British team finish fourth which was at the time Great Britain's best-ever team finish at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. After the team competition, Wilson pulled out of the all-around competition due to a wrist injury, allowing Whitlock to replace him in the final. He won the silver medal with a score of 90.473, just under a point and a half behind defending Olympic all-around champion Kohei Uchimura. ### 2015 Due to illness, Whitlock only competed on pommel horse at the British Championships, where he won the silver medal behind Louis Smith. After the competition, Whitlock was found to have been suffering from glandular fever. Despite this, Whitlock was chosen to compete at the European Championships, but he only competed on the floor and pommel horse. However, he did not qualify for any event finals. After the European Championships, his coach announced Whitlock would take a break from training to recover. In May, Whitlock announced on his Twitter he had returned to training. Whitlock competed with the British men's team at the World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. After some minor mistakes in the qualification rounds, he tied for a place in the final with teammate Nile Wilson, but with the tiebreaker rules applied, Whitlock won the place in the individual all-around final. The men's team, which included Kristian Thomas, Daniel Purvis, Louis Smith, Brinn Bevan, Nile Wilson and alternate James Hall, became the first British men's team to win a medal in the at a World Championships, winning silver behind Japan. During the all-around final, Whitlock finished fifth after falling off the horizontal bar. He won the silver medal on the floor exercise behind Kenzo Shirai. Then in the pommel horse final, he became the first British man ever to win a World Championship gold medal, by 0.100 over teammate Smith. ### 2016 Whitlock competed at the Glasgow World Cup and won the all-around with a total score of 89.299. He had the highest scores of the competition on floor and pommel horse, and he came second on vault and high bar. In May, Whitlock withdrew from the European Championships due to a virus. On 12 July 2016, Whitlock was selected to represent Great Britain at the 2016 Summer Olympics, along with Louis Smith, Nile Wilson, Kristian Thomas and Brinn Bevan. The British team finished fourth in the team final. He won a bronze medal in the all-around final, Great Britain's first medal in this Olympic event for 108 years. He later went on to win the gold in the floor exercise, becoming the first British gymnast to win an individual Olympic gold medal. Within two hours, he won a second gold in the pommel horse. He took three months off from training after the Olympic Games. ### 2017 In March, Whitlock announced that he would take six months off from competition, missing the London World Cup and the European Championships. He returned to competition at the World Championships but only competed on the pommel horse and floor exercise. Although he fell on the floor exercise during the qualification round, he qualified for the pommel horse final. He became the first British gymnast to successfully defend a World title when he won the pommel horse final. ### 2018 At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Whitlock was part of the team that won gold in the team event. However, he failed to defend his individual titles in the Games; he sat out the individual all-around competition, finished sixth on the floor, and won silver on the pommel horse behind Rhys McClenaghan. At the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow, Whitlock won a silver as part of the British team. However, an error in his routine on the pommel horse caused him to finish seventh in the event final. At the 2018 World Championships in Doha, Qatar, Whitlock was a member of the British team that finished fifth. He failed to win a third consecutive pommel gold at the World Championship, despite receiving the same score of 15.166 as the winner Xiao Ruoteng. He lost the tiebreaker and finished in second place due to a lower execution mark. ### 2019 After failing to win gold at the European Championships in 2018, Whitlock regained his gold on pommel horse at the 2019 European Championships held in Szczecin, Poland. At the World Championships in Stuttgart, Whitlock fell on the pommel horse during the team final where the British team finished fifth. In the event finals, he recovered from an early mistake to win his third World gold on the pommel horse. ### 2021 Whitlock returned to competition at the European Championships, his first competition in 18 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, he fell off the pommel horse during the qualification round and missed the final. At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, Whitlock competed for Great Britain alongside Joe Fraser, James Hall, and Giarnni Regini-Moran. The team took fourth place with a score of 255.76. Whitlock opted not to defend the floor exercise title, concentrating instead on the pommel horse, which he went on to win with a score of 15.583. ### 2022–23 Whitlock took over one year off from training after the Olympic Games and did not compete at the 2022 Commonwealth Games or the 2022 World Championships. He was scheduled to return to competition at the 2023 European Championships, but he had to withdraw due to an injury. He was selected for the 2023 World Championships team alongside Jake Jarman, James Hall, Harry Hepworth and Courtney Tulloch. The team finished fourth in the team final. During the pommel horse final, Whitlock fell and finished fifth. ### 2024 In 2024 Whitlock announced that Paris 2024 would be his final Olympics. In June he was officially selected to represent Great Britain at the 2024 Summer Olympics alongside Joe Fraser, Jake Jarman, Harry Hepworth, and Luke Whitehouse. They came fourth in the team competition. Whitlock qualified for the pommel horse final where he was attempting to become the first male gymnast to medal at four successive games on a single apparatus but he finished fourth. ## Awards and honours Whitlock finished seventh in the public vote for the 2014 and 2016 BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards, and he finished eighth in 2015. He received the Longines Prize for Elegance at the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. Whitlock was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to gymnastics and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours, also for services to gymnastics. In February 2021, Whitlock was announced as an ambassador for the 2022 World Championships in Liverpool, England. ## Personal life Whitlock married Leah Hickton in July 2017. The following year, they set up the Max Whitlock Gymnastics Club with locations in Colchester and Southend. Their first child, a daughter named Willow, was born in February 2019. In January 2020, Whitlock's book The Whitlock Workout: Get Fit and Healthy in Minutes was published by Headline. ## Competitive history

A More Perfect Union: Advancing New American Rights

Book by Jesse Jackson Jr.

A More Perfect Union: Advancing New American Rights or simply A More Perfect Union is non-fiction political analysis written by United States Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. in collaboration with Frank E.Watkins. Watkins is a political theorist, activist and was the press secretary to Jackson at the time. It was released in hardcover format on October 15, 2001, and in paperback format on April 25, 2008. The material for Jackson's book, his third, came from three trips he took in 1997–98 to American Civil War battlefields. Although Watkins is credited, the biographical content of the book is written as a first person narrative as if written solely by Jackson. The National Park Service has twenty-eight national Civil War historic sites. Jackson and White visited approximately twenty battlefields in August 1997, December 1997 and the spring of 1998. Jackson's wife, Sandi Jackson, participated in the third trip. The trips heightened a belief of Jackson's that race as it relates to African Americans has been the focal point of social and political existence in American history. Since Jackson is not the first to present such a realization, he presents a north–south schism lens through which to view the congressional politics of race. The book contains about 75 pages of biographical/autobiographical content which provide context for the subsequent political analysis. Critical reviews do not analyze the biographical content. Instead, the reviews focus on the political analysis of race, economic issues, geographical divide, and states' rights as well as the constitutional amendments proposed in this book. ## Summary The title of the book comes from the Preamble to the United States Constitution. The preamble includes the phrase "in Order to form a more perfect Union" as the first specifically mentioned purpose of the United States Constitution. The book has several sections. The first four chapters relate autobiographical details to his experience in touring the Civil War battle sites. In the subsequent section, he discusses federalism. In the third section he describes his economic plan. Then, Jackson outlines eight proposed constitutional amendments. In the final section, he discusses achieving these policy goals set forth in the third and fourth sections. On March 4, 2003, Jackson proposed these eight amendments. The book includes full chapters for each amendment. The eight amendments are as follows: 1. the right to public education of equal high quality; 2. the right to health care of equal high quality; 3. equal rights for women; 4. the right to decent, safe, sanitary and affordable housing; 5. the right to a clean, safe and sustainable environment; 6. the right ... to full employment and balanced economic growth; 7. the explicit fundamental right of citizens to vote; and 8. an amendment regarding taxing the people of the United States progressively. The Education Amendment which reads "(1) All persons shall enjoy the right to a public education of equal high quality; and (2) The Congress shall have the power to enforce and implement this article by appropriate legislation," has received public attention for several years. Jackson feels that his amendment is a natural response to San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, , which determined that an education is not a constitutionally protected fundamental right. An important theme of the book is the north–south relationship as it influences the extent of federalism in the United States. The book describes how from before the Civil War to well after the Civil Rights Movement the balance of power between protectors of state's rights and defenders of the federal government have battled over resources and power along north–south alliances. Jackson is a detractor of state's rights and feels that the extensive power given to states has slowed our broad distribution of social goods by perpetuating inequality and thus unrest. Dyson also notes that Jackson attempts to bring class to the forefront of the discourse in an effort to offer a political vision toward social equity and equality. He says Jackson views race as the lens to optimally view American history and views economic issues as the hearing aid through which the politics of today can best be heard. ## Reviews In a review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Michael Eric Dyson described the book as "intellectually accomplished and remarkably insightful". He views Jackson's eight new amendments as "the political backbone and intellectual infrastructure for the expression of a new politics of race and class that strengthen the status of all suffering Americans." He encourages understanding the book because it provides a fresh social perspective to addresses current fundamental American political and racial problems. Writing for the Chicago Tribune, Playboy editor John Thomas described the amendments as sensible, but pointed out that some view them as an attempt to legislate policy decisions. Thomas perceived the benefit of the plan to be the fact that the force of the constitution would uphold the amendments, and that this would compel actions to support both political promises and the constitutional tenets. At one stop on the book tour associated with the publication and release of the book at the David A. Clarke School of Law of the University of the District of Columbia, Jackson's message was perceived as saying that American history can be studied as an analysis of race, but that economics and the tension between states' rights and federal rights are the true basis of a domestic history revolving around pursuit of economic development, political power, and personal freedom. He then advanced the theory that these pursuits would most be most readily attained by adopting a set of new constitutional amendments, guaranteeing rights primarily grounded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the U.S. has ratified. Each is discussed in a separate chapter: the rights to quality health care, housing, education, a clean environment, fair taxes, full employment, equality for women, and the right to vote. ## Related issues During the promotion of the book there was a controversy when a book-signing party in Dolton, Illinois morphed into a fundraiser without Jackson's knowledge. When Jackson realized what happened he wrote to the Federal Election Commission and the House Ethics Committee to explain what happened and seek their advice. Jackson decided to return the entire $1300 that was raised. An outgrowth of Jackson's trip was the realization that the National Park Service does not represent the underlying issue of slavery contextually in its battlefield displays and presentations. Instead of presenting the battles as political and moral issues, Jackson felt racial context and relevance needed to be presented in a more forward way. As a result, in 2000, he recrafted the United States Department of the Interior's appropriation to include a directive to have United States Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt use his influence over the superintendents of the national parks to encourage greater inclusion of slavery and social issues in Civil War presentations. ## See also - Second Bill of Rights - A More Perfect Constitution, a book by Larry Sabato

Ashlyn Harris

American professional soccer player (born 1985)

Ashlyn Michelle Harris (born October 19, 1985) is an American former soccer player. She represented the United States women's national soccer team, making her debut for the senior national team on March 11, 2013, and was a member of the championship–winning team at the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada and at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France. Harris played college soccer for the University of North Carolina Tar Heels and helped the team win three NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championships. Professionally, Harris played for the Saint Louis Athletica, Washington Freedom, and Western New York Flash of Women's Professional Soccer as well as FCR 2001 Duisburg of Frauen-Bundesliga in Germany and Tyresö FF of the Swedish Damallsvenskan. She also played for Washington Spirit, Orlando Pride, and Gotham FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). ## Early life Born to Tammye and Mike Harris in Cocoa Beach, Florida, Ashlyn was raised with her older brother, Chris. Growing up, she looked up to her brother and frequently joined him and his friends skateboarding and surfing. Until the age of 14, she played club soccer with the boys' teams. She first played for the Palm Bay Rangers and South Brevard United before playing for the Seminole Ice girl's team. In 2003, Harris won the state championship with the U-17 Indialantic Force. Harris attended Satellite High School in Satellite Beach, where she played soccer under coach Fitzgerald Haig. Harris helped the team win state championship titles her sophomore and junior year in 2002 and 2003. Following her senior season, Harris was named the nation's number one recruit by Soccer America. She was then named 2004 Gatorade Player of the Year and 2004 NSCAA Player of the Year. At the end of her high school career, Harris was a four-time Parade Magazine All-American, a four-time NSCAA Youth All-American, and a McDonald's All-American. She was the first female to be named to four consecutive Parade All-American soccer teams. She was named Florida Player of the Year for her last two years at Satellite High School. Harris also made All-Conference, All-District, and All-States teams for all fours years. In her 65 career games at Satellite High School, she recorded 50 shutouts and had 0.29 goals against average. She graduated in May 2004 with a 3.8 GPA. ### North Carolina Tar Heels, 2006–09 Harris signed with the University of North Carolina Tar Heels to play for head coach Anson Dorrance. Due to national team commitments for the FIFA U-19 Women's World Cup in Thailand in the fall of 2004, Harris delayed her enrollment and did not start training with the Tar Heels until the spring of 2005. During one spring practice, a ball caught her right hand as she was warming up and shattered her thumb. After a surgery that inserted three pins in her thumb, she was put on the bench until the summer. At her first practice back with the Tar Heels in the summer of 2005, Harris tore her right anterior cruciate ligament, which kept her out for the entire 2005 season. Despite being hurt, Harris still made the 2006 Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Honor Roll team. After recovering from her ACL injury, Harris returned to practice with the Tar Heels in the spring of 2006. However, she then tore her left ACL during a training camp with the U-21 Women's National Team in June 2006. She was able to make it back in time for the 2006 NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament in November, although she came in as a substitute in every game, a strategy employed by Dorrance. She played in all six NCAA Tournament matches, including the championship game against Notre Dame, a 2–1 win for UNC. Harris was named to the 2007 ACC Academic Honor Roll at the end of her sophomore year. During the 2007 season, Harris was diagnosed with a torn labrum in her right hip which occurred during a goal kick. Harris did not miss any games following the injury and instead switched to mainly using her left leg and dealt with the pain. Dorrance again employed the two-goalkeeper method, as Harris split time with junior goalkeeper, Anna Rodenbough. The two goalkeepers alternated starts and played for half of each game. Harris played in 19 games and made 9 starts, playing a total of 1120 minutes. She allowed nine goals and recorded 29 saves, giving a 0.763 save percentage. UNC lost their match against Notre Dame in the third round of the 2007 NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament on November 24, 2007. The 2008 season was the first season where Harris was healthy for the entire season. Dorrance again employed Harris in the two-goalkeeper system along with Rodenbough. Harris played in 27 games and made 13 starts, playing a total of 1233 minutes. She allowed nine goals and recorded 28 saves, giving a 0.757 save percentage. In the 2008 NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament, Harris appeared in second half of the third round match against Illinois, where she made three saves, as well as the semi-final match against UCLA, where she again made three saves. She appeared in goal in the championship game against Notre Dame, which UNC won 2–1. Harris returned for the 2009 season, the first season in which she did not share the position with another goalkeeper. She started all 25 of her appearances for the team, playing a total of 2163 minutes in goal. She allowed 10 goals in 25 games, recording 45 saves for a 0.818 save percentage and 0.42 goals against average. UNC went on to win the 2009 NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament after a 1–0 win over Stanford in the championship game. #### College summary ## Club career ### Pali Blues, 2009 On April 16, 2009, Harris and UNC teammate Whitney Engen signed with the Pali Blues of the W-League. The W-League was often used by college players as a summer playing option because of its status as an open league, allowing college players to maintain eligibility. Harris made five appearances with the team for the 2009 season during the summer before her senior year at UNC. The Pali Blues went undefeated in the regular season and then went on to win the W-League Championship with a 2–1 win over Washington Freedom in the final. ### Saint Louis Athletica, 2010 Harris was selected with the 19th pick in the 2010 WPS Draft by Saint Louis Athletica of Women's Professional Soccer on January 15, 2010. During her time with Athletica, Harris trained alongside United States women's national team starting goalkeeper Hope Solo. The goalkeeper coach for the national team, Paul Rogers, was also on the staff for Athletica, providing another benefit for Harris. Regarding her situation with Athletica, Harris stated that she "was probably in the best situation possible as a rookie goalkeeper." On May 27, 2010, six weeks into the second season of Women's Professional Soccer, Saint Louis Athletica ceased operations due to financial problems. Harris did not appear in any of the six games for Saint Louis before the dissolution. Harris, as well as all others on the Athletica roster, became free agents on June 1. ### Washington Freedom, 2010 On June 2, 2010, Harris signed with the Washington Freedom following the dissolution of Saint Louis Athletica. After signing with the Freedom, Harris stated that her contributions to the team would not be through starting and playing, as Erin McLeod was the starting goalkeeper for the team at the time. On July 24, McLeod suffered an ACL tear during a match against FC Gold Pride. Briana Scurry, the back-up for the Freedom, had suffered a concussion earlier in the year and was also out for the season. Harris was left as the starting goalkeeper and made her first appearance for the team on July 28, 2010, where she started in a match against Atlanta Beat. She appeared in the seven remaining games of the regular season and earned the Freedom a spot in the playoffs. The Freedom took on the Philadelphia Independence in the first round of the playoffs on September 19. Harris made three saves in regular time and the match was scoreless after 90 minutes. In the 120th minute, Amy Rodriguez scored for Philadelphia, resulting in a 1–0 victory and the Freedom's elimination from the playoffs. ### Western New York Flash, 2011 In December 2010, the Western New York Flash, previously part of the W-League, joined the WPS for the 2011 season. Shortly after, the Flash announced they had signed Harris. She appeared in the team's debut in the league on April 17, 2011, against the Boston Breakers. She made eighteen appearances for the Flash in the regular season, allowing eighteen goals and helping the Flash rank number one at the end of the season. Harris made the start in the 2011 WPS Championship on August 27, 2011, against the Philadelphia Independence. The game was tied 1–1 after regulation and extra time, leaving the outcome of the match to be decided by penalty kicks. Both the Independence and the Flash made their first four shots. However, Harris blocked the shot by Philadelphia's Laura del Rio, clinching the championship for the Flash. She was named the 2011 Coast Guard Goalkeeper of the Year following a successful 2011 season. ### FCR 2001 Duisburg, 2012 On January 30, 2012, it was announced that the 2012 WPS season would be suspended following legal and financial challenges. Although the league was intended to resume for the 2013 season, it officially folded in May. In June, Harris signed a two-year contract with FCR 2001 Duisburg in the Frauen-Bundesliga, the top professional women's league in Germany. She made her first appearance for the team on October 3, 2012, where she recorded a shutout against VfL Sindelfingen. She made eight appearances for Duisburg, appearing for a total of 630 minutes. ### Washington Spirit, 2013 On January 11, 2013, Harris was allocated to the Washington Spirit during the 2013 NWSL Player Allocation for the inaugural season of the National Women's Soccer League. On February 23, following the allocation, Harris announced that she would be leaving her previous club, FCR 2001 Duisburg, and returning home in order to play in the newly formed NWSL. She started in the Spirit's first match on April 14 against the Boston Breakers. In her 18 appearances for the Spirit in 2013, she made 84 saves and ended the season with a 72% save percentage. The Spirit finished in last place in the league and did not advance to the playoffs. ### Tyresö FF, 2013 In July 2013, during the first NWSL season, it was announced that Harris would be joining the Swedish club Tyresö FF immediately following the NWSL regular season in late August. Harris, Spirit teammate Ali Krieger, and former UNC teammate Whitney Engen all signed short-term contracts with the team. They joined United States national team members Christen Press and Meghan Klingenberg, who were already with the club on long-term contracts. Four days after the end of the NWSL season, Harris played her first game for Tyresö on August 21, 2013. She made seven appearances with the team in the Damallsvenskan regular season and four appearances in the UEFA Women's Champions League. In December, following the announcement that Engen, Press, and Klingenberg would be staying with Tyresö until the end of the Champions League, Harris announced that she was leaving Sweden in order to return to the Washington Spirit for the 2014 season. ### Washington Spirit, 2014–15 On January 3, 2014, Harris was once again allocated to the Washington Spirit for the 2014 season. Harris started all 19 of her appearances for the Spirit in the 2014 season, allowing 31 goals in 1710 minutes. On July 2, the Washington Spirit faced the Boston Breakers. In the 88th minute, Spirit defender Ali Krieger was issued a yellow card. Harris confronted Boston Breakers forward Jazmine Reeves and referee Dimitar N. Chavdarov stepped in to end to altercation. Harris then appeared to push Chavdarov. The Professional Referee Organization reviewed the incident and found that the contact was minimal. An NWSL spokesman released the following statement regarding the incident: > In reviewing the play, the referee comes in between Washington's Harris and Boston's Reeves to manage a confrontation and prevent Harris from continuing her progress towards Reeves. As the referee turns away from Harris to manage the approach of Washington's Krieger towards Reeves, Harris extends her arms to separate herself from the referee. Minimal contact with the referee is apparent from the video evidence available. Therefore, we do not feel any further action against Harris is warranted. In a match against the Chicago Red Stars on August 2, Harris sustained a concussion and missed two games. She was officially cleared to play on August 20 and appeared in the Spirit's semifinal game against the Seattle Reign on August 25. The Spirit lost the match 2–1, eliminating them from the playoffs. Harris was nominated for NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year for the 2014 season. In 2015, Harris missed almost half of the NWSL season due to commitments with the United States women's national team at the FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada. She returned to the Spirit in late-July, appearing in a match against the Chicago Red Stars on July 25, which ended in a 1–1 draw. Harris made nine appearances for the Spirit in the regular season, allowing 12 goals and recording a save percentage of 78%. The Spirit ended the season in fourth place, clinching a spot in the playoffs. They faced Seattle Reign in the semifinals on September 13. Harris allowed three goals during the match for a 3–0 win for the Reign, eliminating the Spirit from the playoffs. ### Orlando Pride, 2016–2021 On October 20, 2015, the Orlando Pride officially became the tenth team in the National Women's Soccer League. Shortly after, the Washington Spirit announced that they would be leaving Harris unprotected for the 2015 Expansion Draft, giving the Orlando Pride the opportunity to select Harris for their roster for the 2016 season. On November 2, the Pride selected Harris with their second pick in the 2015 Expansion Draft. Harris made her first appearance for the Pride on April 17 in a match against the Portland Thorns, losing to the Thorns 2–1. Harris was named NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year in 2016; she made 62 saves and had a 1.33 goals-against-average in 15 games. She was also named to the 2016 NWSL Best XI. In 2017 Harris only appeared in 14 games for Orlando, as she suffered a quad injury that forced her to miss 8 weeks. Orlando finished 3rd in the regular season standings, and qualified for the playoffs. They lost 4–1 to Portland in the semifinal. Harris played 21 games in the 2018 season. She had 4 clean sheets, and recorded 70 saves. Orlando could not duplicate their 2017 success, and finished in a disappointing 7th place. Harris started the 2019 season positively by winning the NWSL Save of the Week. and ended the season on 9th place. During the 2021 NWSL Challenge Cup, Harris saved penalties in back to back games against Gotham FC and Washington Spirit. She registered nine saves in total during the 1–0 win over Washington, only one fewer than the club's single-match save record she set in April 2017, to help the Pride's to their first victory in 609 days. On August 29, 2021, Harris set a new NWSL all-time career save record with her 469th save during a 1–0 win over Gotham FC. The previous record was held by Nicole Barnhart. ### NJ/NY Gotham FC, 2022 On December 6, 2021, Harris was traded alongside Ali Krieger to Gotham FC in exchange for a first-round pick in the 2022 NWSL Draft, a third-round pick in the 2023 NWSL Draft and $50,000 in allocation money. On November 14, 2022, Harris announced her professional retirement from soccer at the Player's Ball in New York City. ## International career ### Youth national teams, 2000–06 In 1999, Harris attended the United States U-14 Girl's National Team Identification Camp. She represented the United States as a member of the U-16, U-17, and U-19 teams in 2000. #### Under-19 women's national team Harris made 11 appearances for the U-19 team in 2001, she started nine of those matches recording four shutouts. Of the 11 appearances, two of them were international matches. Harris started off 2001 with the U-19 team during a WUSA preseason exhibition match on March 25 against the Boston Breakers in Chula Vista, California. She allowed one goal during the match for a 1–0 victory for the Breakers. Harris then made appearances in two matches against the Canadian U-19 national team on June 30 and July 2. Harris joined the U-19 national team for an eight-day training camp in December 2001 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in San Diego, California. Harris started off 2002 with the U-19 national team at the ARCO Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California in late January for a training camp. In early March, Harris was a member of the roster for a two-game tour of Mexico, where she appeared in two games against Costa Rica and Mexico in Pachuca, Mexico. She recorded a shutout in the 4–0 victory over Costa Rica and allowed one goal against Mexico, giving a 2–1 win to the United States. From March 17 to 23, Harris and the U-19 team joined the San Jose CyberRays, San Diego Spirit, the United States U-21 national team, and the United States National Amateur team for the WUSA pre-season tournament. Harris also appeared in the two warmup games before the CONCACAF qualifying tournament. On April 18, 2002, United States U-19 national team head coach Tracey Leone named Harris to the 18-player roster for the CONCACAF qualifying tournament. The tournament was held from May 7 to 11 and served as a qualification for the inaugural FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship. The round-robin tournament featured games against Surinam, Haiti, and Costa Rica. Harris started in all three matches, recording shutouts against Suriname and Haiti, while allowing one goal for Costa Rica. The United States won their group and qualified for the U-19 Women's World Championship. Following the CONCACAF tournament, Harris joined the U-19 team on a 15-day tour of Europe in June that included matches against Germany's U-19 and U-21 teams, Sweden's U-19 team, German Bundesliga team Duisburg, and Swedish Damallsvenskan team Hammarby FC. In July, Harris was named to the 27-player roster for a 13-day training camp at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in San Diego. Following the training camp, Harris was subsequently named to the U-19 team that would represent the United States at the 2002 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship in late August. At the age of 16, Harris was the youngest member on the United States team at the U-19 Women's World Championship. The tournament was held in Canada from August 17 to September 1. Harris started in all six matches for the United States during the tournament. In the group stage, she allowed one goal during the opening match against England on August 17. She then recorded two shut outs against Australia and Chinese Taipei on August 19 and 21, respectively. The United States faced Denmark in the quarterfinals on August 25, where Harris once again posted a shutout. She allowed one goal for Germany in the semifinals on August 29. During the championship game of the tournament, the United States faced Canada. Harris posted another shut out for a 1–0 victory in overtime for the United States. Harris made eight total shutouts in 15 appearances for the U-19 team in 2002. Harris trained with the U-19 national team at the ARCO U.S. Olympic Training Center in January 2003 to start off the year. In February, Harris was on the roster for a two-game series with the full Mexican women's national team. She then joined the team once again for a nine-day training camp at the ARCO Olympic Training Center in April. While there, the team played a match against the San Diego Spirit. Harris was briefly called up to the U-21 national team for a 13-day training camp and four-game tour of Brazil in May. Two of the games were against Brazil's U-21 team and the two others were against Santos FC and Saad FC. Harris was one of the two players on the roster that were not yet in college. Following the training camp, Harris moved back down to the U-19 team, where she was a member of the roster for the USYS Cup in late May. Harris started in goal during the first match of the tournament against Canada on May 27 in a 6–1 win. After her appearance in the tournament, Harris once again joined the U-21 team. On July 9, she was named to the 18-player team that would represent the United States at the Nordic Cup in Denmark. She started the team's first match against Denmark on July 21 and recorded a shut out for a 1–0 victory for the United States. She also appeared in the final game of the tournament on July 27 against Sweden. She allowed one goal during the match and the United States won 2–1, taking the Nordic Cup. In October 2003, Harris joined the U-19 women's national team for a training camp at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California. The team also played matches against local club teams during the training camp. The team gathered one last time for the year for a training camp from December 27 to January 2 at the U.S. Soccer's National Training Center at The Home Depot Center in Carson, California. Harris was on the 26-player roster for the training camp. Shortly after, Harris joined the team for another training camp from January 23 to February first at The Home Depot Center. Harris was named to the 18-player roster for a two-game series against the full Mexican women's national team on February 18 and 20. Having 23 caps with the U-19 team at that point, Harris was the most experienced player on the roster. Harris was a member of the U-19 national team that played in the Philips Lighting U-19 Women's Soccer Invitational, their first major domestic tournament, from April 6 to 10. In the first match of the tournament against Holland on April 6, Harris recorded a shut out for a 2–0 for the United States. She made her second appearance in the tournament during the team's final match against China on April 10. She recorded another shutout for a 4–0 win, giving the United States a second-place finish in the invitational. On April 28, Harris was named to the 18-player roster that would represent the United States at the CONCACAF U-19 Women's Qualifying Tournament held in Ottawa and Montreal, Canada. Harris was one of four members of the team that were also on the team that won the inaugural FIFA U-19 World Championship in 2002. She was also the most capped U-19 player on the roster. Harris recorded a shutout against Dominican Republic on May 28 for a 14–0 win. She then started in goal against Trinidad & Tobago on May 30. The lone goal for Trinidad & Tobago came during the 86th minute, after Kelsey Davis came on for Harris in the 62nd minute. The United States won the match 11–1, guaranteeing their spot in the semifinals. Harris recorded her second shutout of the tournament on June 1 during the team's final group match against Costa Rica, which ended in a 0–0 draw. In the semifinal match against Mexico on June 4, Harris recorded another shut out. The 6–0 win secured the United States U-19 women's national team a place in the 2004 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship, although they still had one more match in the tournament. Harris started in the final against Canada on June 6. She made seven saves during the game and allowed two goals. Canada won the match in overtime. Harris trained with the U-19 national team during their first training camp following the CONCACAF Qualifying Tournament. The training took place in from July 7 to 18 in New Jersey. Leading up to the FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship held in November, Harris joined the U-19 team for another training at the U.S. Soccer's National Training Center at The Home Depot Center in Carson, California in late August. Harris delayed her enrollment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in order to train with the U-19 team leading up to the U-19 World Championship in a modified residency program. In the two months leading up to the championship, the team trained together in two-week blocks until they left for the tournament in November. On October 12, Harris was named to the 21-player roster that would represent the United States at the 2004 FIFA Women's World Championship in Thailand. Harris was captain of the team and played every minute in all six matches of the tournament for the United States. Harris started in net in the opening group match against South Korea on November 11 and recorded a shut out for a 3–0 win. She allowed one goal during the match against Russia on November 14 in a 4–1 win for the United States. She recorded her second shutout of the tournament on November 18 against Spain in the team's final group match. The United States won 1–0 and was the only team to win all three of its group matches. In the quarterfinals, Harris posted her third shutout in the 2–0 win over Australia on November 21. The United States moved into the semifinals, where they faced Germany on November 24. Harris started in the net and allowed three goals during the match. The Germans took the win and halted the United States' advancement in the tournament. The United States faced Brazil in the third place match, where Harris played all 90 minutes. She made eight saves and recorded her fourth shutout of the tournament. The United States won the game 3–0 and took away third place. Harris was subsequently named to the Tournament All-Star Team by the FIFA Technical Study Group. She was also a 2004 Chevrolet Athlete of the Year Award Finalist. Harris finished her U-19 career with 39 caps, the most of any United States player. She finished with an all-time U-19 international record of . #### Under-21 women's national team Harris was called up to a U-21 national team training camp held from March 26 to April 3 at the U.S. Soccer National Team Training Center in Carson California. Harris then sustained an ACL injury in the summer of 2005, which kept her off the field until 2006. She returned to the U-21 national team in 2006 for a training camp from June 11 to 17 in Maryland. It was during this training camp that Harris sustained her second ACL injury, this time to her left knee. ### Senior national team, 2009–2020 Harris received her first call-up to the senior national team for a 12-day training camp held from September 21 to October 2, 2009. It was her first national team training camp since June 2006, when she trained with the U-21 before tearing her ACL. Of her first few days at camp, Harris stated: > I was very nervous at the beginning. I was very stiff, to say the least. But you know what? This is an opportunity of a lifetime and I feel I'm playing well, and all I can ask for is to walk out of here knowing that I did what I was supposed to do. As far as what happens next, it's out of my control. I am just going to keep doing what I have been doing, training hard, and improving every day. On September 7, 2010, United States women's national team head coach Pia Sundhage named a 30-player roster for two matches against China in October. The roster would then be narrowed down to the 20-player roster for the 2010 CONCACAF Women's World Cup Qualifying tournament. The players would take part in a training camp before the two matches starting on September 20. Although Harris was not one of the four goalkeepers on this preliminary roster, she was called into camp on September 23 to replace Hope Solo, who was recovering from a shoulder surgery. She was then named to the 24-player roster for the team's second match against China on October 6 in Philadelphia, although she did not dress for the match. She was not named to the 20-player roster for the 2010 CONCACAF Women's World Cup Qualifying tournament, but she did travel with the team to train. Harris was named to a 24-player preliminary roster for a two-game series in November 2010. Harris was then called into a six-day training camp in January 2011 in Carson, California leading up to the 2011 Four Nations Tournament. Because Solo was still out with a shoulder injury and Jill Loyden was out with a broken hand, Harris was named to the roster for the tournament to back-up Nicole Barnhart. Harris joined the national team for another training camp in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida from February 3 to 9. Following the camp, she was named to the 24-player roster for the 2011 Algarve Cup. She was subsequently named to the roster of 20 players that suited up for the games, although she did not make an appearance. She was on the roster for a match against England on April 2 in East London. In late April, Harris trained with the national team for three weeks in final preparations for the 2011 Women's World Cup. Although she did not make the final roster for the World Cup, she joined the team following the tournament in November for a two-week training camp in Arizona. She also trained with the team in December and January. Following the 2012 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament, Harris joined a 28-player roster for a training camp in Frisco, Texas in the week leading up to a match against New Zealand on February 11, although she did not suit up for the game. On February 17, Harris was named to a 23-player roster for the 2012 Algarve Cup. While in Portugal, Harris played in a closed-door training match against China on February 25, splitting halves with Nicole Barnhart. Harris was not named to the roster of 21 players that suited up for the games in the tournament. Harris traveled with the national team in early April to compete at the Women's Kirin Challenge Cup in Japan. Following the tournament, she trained with the national team in Florida from April 18 to 30. During the training camp, Harris injured her left shoulder, sustaining a small tear in her labrum. She still went on to train with the national team in New Jersey from May 10 to 25. However, in early June, she decided to undergo surgery to repair the tear in order to prevent further damage. The surgery kept her off the pitch for the rest of 2012. In January 2013, Harris was called up to a 29-player training camp leading up to two matches in early February. This was her first time back with the national team following her shoulder surgery the previous June. Following the training camp and matches, Harris was named to the 23-player roster for the 2013 Algarve Cup in Portugal. The team's starting goalkeeper Hope Solo was out with a wrist injury, giving Harris the opportunity to make an appearance in the tournament. She was the only uncapped player on the roster. On March 11, 2013, Harris earned her first appearance with the senior team in a match against Sweden. Harris played all 90 minutes of the match and allowed one goal for a 1–1 draw. Following the match, head coach Tom Sermanni stated the following regarding Harris's performance: > I think she did well for her first cap. It was a really high pressure game and especially when you lose a goal early on that she had absolutely no chance with. She was put in a few difficult situations during the game and I think she handled them extremely well. Harris stated that she had "waited a long time for [that] moment" and although she was nervous, she was happy with her performance. Harris traveled to Europe with the national team for matches against Germany and the Netherlands in early April. Harris made her second appearance for the national team on April 9 against the Netherlands. She allowed one goal during the match for a 3–1 win for the United States. In late May, Harris was named to the 21-player roster that traveled to Canada to train before facing Canada on June 2. She did not suit up for the match. On December 3, Harris underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn lateral meniscus in her left knee. The injury had affected her play since June and kept her out for a month following the surgery. Harris returned to the national team in 2014 for a training camp from January 8 to 15 at U.S. Soccer's National Training Center in Carson, California. Harris was not named to the roster for the 2014 Algarve Cup. In late April, Harris was named to a 22-player roster for a match against Canada on May 8, although she did not dress for the game. She was on the roster for two games in June against France. On June 19, 2014, Harris made her third appearance for the national team in their second game against France in East Hartford, Connecticut. She started and played all 90 minutes, allowing two goals for a 2–2 draw. Harris was named to a 19-player roster for a match against Switzerland on August 20 in Sandy, Utah. Shortly after, she was replaced on the roster by Alyssa Naeher after she suffered a concussion with the Washington Spirit. She returned to the national team for a training camp at the end of August in order to prepare for two matches against Mexico in September as well as the 2014 CONCACAF Women's Championship in October. She dressed for both games against Mexico and was subsequently named to the roster for the 2014 CONCACAF Women's Championship that served as a qualification for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. This was the first CONCACAF qualifying roster that Harris made at the senior level. She made her fourth appearance for the national team in team's final group match against Haiti on October 20, 2014, in Washington, D.C. She played all 90 minutes and recorded her first career shutout in a 6–0 win for the United States. The United States went on to win the tournament after a 6–0 win over Costa Rica. Harris was named to the 24-player roster for the International Tournament of Brasilia in Brazil from December 10 to 21. While in Brazil, Harris sustained a broken pinky finger and underwent surgery in order to repair it. She recovered in time to fully participate in a 21-day training camp in 2015 from January 5 to 25 at the U.S. Soccer National Training Center in Carson, California. Harris traveled with the team on a 13-day trip to Europe for matches against France and England in mid-February. United States starting goalkeeper Hope Solo was out on suspension during the matches, giving Harris the opportunity to make an appearance. Harris made her fifth appearance for the national team in the match against France on February 8. The United States lost the match 2–0. She also played all 90 minutes in the match against England on February 13, recording a shut out in the 1–0 win and earning her sixth cap. On February 21, Harris was named to a 25-player roster for the 2015 Algarve Cup in Portugal. She was then named to a 25-player roster on March 20 for a match against New Zealand on April 4 in St. Louis. She was subsequently named as one of the 18 players that would suit up for the match, although she did not make an appearance. On April 14, 2015, Harris was named to the 23-player roster that would represent the United States at the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. She was one of eight members of the team that were making their first World Cup roster. Harris became a World Cup Champion on July 5, when the United States defeated Japan 5–2 in the Women's World Cup final. Harris joined the national team on a Victory Tour following their World Cup win that started in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 16 and ended in New Orleans, Louisiana on December 16. Harris made a start during the first match of the Victory Tour against Costa Rica in an 8–0 win. She also made an appearance in the match against Haiti on September 17, coming in for Solo in the second half. The United States won the match 5–0. Harris was named to the 26-player roster for the national team's first training camp in 2016. The camp led into a match against Ireland on January 23. Harris suited up for the match but did not make an appearance. Harris was subsequently named to the 20-player roster for 2016 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying. The United States qualified to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro after a semifinal win against Trinidad & Tobago on February 19. The United States went on to win the tournament after defeating Canada 2–0. Harris was named to the roster for the 2016 SheBelieves Cup that took place from March 3 to 9. She then joined a 23-player roster for a training camp ahead of two matches against Colombia in early April. She did not dress for either match. Harris was on the roster for another two-game series against Japan, although she did not suit up for the games. On July 12, 2016, Harris was named an alternate for the 2016 Olympic Games. Following Hope Solo's suspension after the 2016 Olympics, Harris along with Alyssa Naeher were competing for the U.S. WNT number one keeper spot. Naeher and Harris split the remaining games of 2016 equally. In 2017 Harris started one game at the 2017 SheBelieves Cup and the Naeher started two. As 2017 progressed, Naeher emerged as the number one keeper for the U.S., and got most of the starts in goal. Due to a quad injury sustained in May, Harris only appeared in 3 games for the U.S in 2017. In 2018 Harris remained as the back-up keeper to Alyssa Naeher. She was named to the final 20 player roster for the 2018 CONCACAF Women's Championship. On May 1, 2019, Harris was named to the 23 player roster for the 2019 Women's World Cup. in 2020, Harris was named to the CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying for Tokyo 2020. The team qualified for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 (postponed to summer 2021) in 1st place after beating Canada 3–0 in the final. Harris was also named for the SheBelieves Cup 2020, 23-player Roster. ## In popular culture ### Video games Harris was featured along with her national teammates in the EA Sports' FIFA video game series in FIFA 16, the first time women players were included in the game. ### Honors Following the United States' win at the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, Harris and her teammates became the first women's sports team to be honored with a Ticker Tape Parade in New York City. Each player received a key to the city from Mayor Bill de Blasio. In October of the same year, the team was honored by President Barack Obama at the White House. ## Personal life Off the field, Harris is known for her distinct sense of style and extensive tattoos and has professed having interests in fashion, music, surfing, and skateboarding. In August 2017, it was announced that she had signed a multi-year endorsement deal with Umbro as its first female brand ambassador. In its announcement of the endorsement, the brand noted that the deal would "usher in a new era for the modern consumer focused on on-field and off-field apparel" and that Harris had been involved in styling her first marketing shoot with the brand. Harris had previously been sponsored by Nike. Harris has publicly shared her experiences with depression, aggression, and Adderall addiction as a youth and young adult, and is heavily involved with the mental health-focused non-profit To Write Love on Her Arms. In May 2016, Harris spoke out in support of Aniya Wolf, a teenager from Pennsylvania who had been barred from her Catholic high school's prom after planning to wear a suit. A Central Florida native, Harris has on a number of occasions expressed support for the victims, families, and communities affected by the June 2016 massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. Like many of her U.S. women's national team teammates, Harris has spoken of the sexism faced by female athletes and the importance of improving their pay and conditions. In December 2016, Harris and national team coach Jill Ellis travelled to Liberia as part of the U.S. State Department's Sports Envoy program. In addition to participating in meetings with government officials in support of women's sports, Harris and Ellis worked closely with students at the Monrovia Football Academy. While Harris does not have formal coaching experience, she has led goalkeeper training sessions in conjunction with Orlando Pride teammate Ali Krieger's youth camps. Harris was in a relationship with former USWNT teammate Ali Krieger from 2010 to 2023. In March 2019, they announced their engagement via People Magazine. Harris and Krieger married on December 28, 2019, in Miami. Megan Rapinoe, who played a role in the couple's coming out, served as Harris's maid of honor. On February 14, 2021, the couple announced the adoption of their daughter, born two days earlier. On August 16, 2022, they announced the adoption of their son. On September 19, 2023, Harris filed for divorce in Seminole County, Florida. She has been in a relationship with actress Sophia Bush since 2023 and they made their red carpet debut at the 2024 White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington, DC. ## Career statistics ## Honors and awards North Carolina Tar Heels - NCAA Women's Soccer Championship: 2006, 2008, 2009 Western New York Flash - Women's Professional Soccer Championship: 2011 United States U20 - CONCACAF Women's U-19 Qualifying Tournament: 2002 - FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship: 2002 United States - FIFA Women's World Cup: 2015, 2019 - CONCACAF Women's Championship: 2014, 2018 - CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament: 2016; 2020 - Algarve Cup: 2011, 2013, 2015 - SheBelieves Cup: 2016, 2018, 2020 - Tournament of Nations: 2018 Individual - National Soccer Coaches Association of America Player of the Year: 2004 - NSCAA All-American: 2001–2004 - Parade Magazine All-American: 2001–2004 - Parade Magazine Player of the Year: 2004 - Gatorade Player of the Year: 2004 - NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year: 2016 - NWSL Best XI: 2016 - WPS Goalkeeper of the Year: 2011 - WPS Best XI: 2011

Arnold Ross

American mathematician

Arnold Ephraim Ross (August 24, 1906 – September 25, 2002) was a mathematician and educator who founded the Ross Mathematics Program, a number theory summer program for gifted high school students. He was born in Chicago, but spent his youth in Odesa, Ukraine, where he studied with Samuil Shatunovsky. Ross returned to Chicago and enrolled in University of Chicago graduate coursework under E. H. Moore, despite his lack of formal academic training. He received his Ph.D. and married his wife, Bee, in 1931. Ross taught at several institutions including St. Louis University before becoming chair of University of Notre Dame's mathematics department in 1946. He started a teacher training program in mathematics that evolved into the Ross Mathematics Program in 1957 with the addition of high school students. The program moved with him to Ohio State University when he became their department chair in 1963. Though forced to retire in 1976, Ross ran the summer program until 2000. He had worked with over 2,000 students during more than forty summers. The program is known as Ross's most significant work. Its attendees have since continued on to prominent research positions across the sciences. His program inspired several offshoots and was recognized by mathematicians as highly influential. Ross has received an honorary doctorate and several professional association awards for his instruction and service. ## Early life and career `Ross was born Arnold Ephraim Chaimovich on August 24, 1906, in Chicago to Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants. He was an only child. His mother supported the family as a physical therapist. Ross returned to Odesa, Ukraine with his mother in 1909 for assistance from her extended family, and stayed once World War I and the Russian Revolution broke out. The two events led to widespread famine and economic woe in the region. Ross learned Russian at the behest of his mother, and developed a love of the theater and language. Ross's mother encouraged him to read, which he did often, and subscribed to a private library since Odesa had no public library. He credited his favorite uncle, an X-ray diagnostician, with introducing him to mathematics. The uncle had hired Samuil Shatunovsky to tutor his talented son, and Ross asked to join in. As money meant little due to inflation, Shatunovsky was paid to tutor the two boys with a pound of French hard candy. During this time, Ross was not taught with textbooks or lectured on geometric proofs. His geometry teacher would ask the class to prove and justify ideas on the blackboard per trial and error. Many universities were closed due to the famine, but Odesa University reopened and let a small group of adolescents attend, including Ross.` `Ross left Odesa—now part of Ukraine—in 1922 with the intention of returning to Chicago and studying topology with E. H. Moore at the University of Chicago. After negotiating his way home, he worked at a family friend's bookbinding shop and continued to learn English at the Lewis Institute. He also changed his surname from Chaimovich to Ross in 1922. Ross used his salary from a year at the shop to enroll for one term at the University of Chicago in Moore's course. Moore gave Ross special attention, knowing his untraditional background, and arranged for Ross to attend the topology class as the sole undergraduate.` In Moore's teaching style, he would propose a conjecture and task the students with proving it. Students could respond with counter-conjectures that they would defend. Ross found Moore's method exciting, and his pedagogy influenced Ross's own. Ross graduated with a B.S. degree and continued his study as Leonard Eugene Dickson's research assistant. Ross earned a M.S. degree and finished his Ph.D. in number theory at the University of Chicago in 1931 with Dickson as his adviser. Ross's dissertation was entitled "On Representation of Integers by Indefinite Ternary Quadratic Forms". He did not pay tuition after his first quarter, which he credits to Dickson. Ross married Bertha (Bee) Halley Horecker, a singer-musician and daughter of Ross's Chicago neighbors, in 1931, received a National Research Council Fellowship for 1932, and worked as a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow at California Institute of Technology with Eric Temple Bell until 1933. Ross moved back to Chicago and led the mathematics department at an experimental school started by Ph.D.s during the Great Depression, People's Junior College, where he also taught physics. Ross became an assistant professor at St. Louis University in 1935 and stayed for about 11 years. In an interview, he said he advocated for a student who became the first black woman in the South to receive a master's degree in mathematics. This exception led the university to admit black students despite the idea's widespread unpopularity. During World War II, Ross served as a research mathematician for the U.S. Navy. He befriended Hungarian mathematician Gábor Szegő while in St. Louis, who recommended Ross for a 1941 Brown University summer school that prepared young scientists to assist in the war, a program Ross attended. He occasionally worked on proximity fuzes for Stromberg-Carlson's laboratory from 1941 to 1945 before accepting a position as head of University of Notre Dame's mathematics department in 1946. He set out to change the school's research climate by inviting distinguished mathematicians including Paul Erdős, whom Ross made a full professor. ## Ross Mathematics Program While at Notre Dame in 1947, Ross began a mathematics program that prioritized what he described as "the act of personal discovery through observation and experimentation" for high school and junior college teachers. In 1957, the program expanded via the National Science Foundation's post-Sputnik funds for teacher retraining, and Ross let high school students attend. This expansion became the Ross Mathematics Program, a summer mathematics program for talented high school students. The program lasts eight weeks and brings students with no prior knowledge to topics such as Gaussian integers and quadratic reciprocity. Though the program teaches number theory, by its Gauss-inspired motto, "Think deeply of simple things," its primary goal is to offer precollege students an intellectual experience as what he described as "a vivid apprenticeship to a life of exploration." The program is known for its intensity, and is considered America's "most rigorous number theory program." Ross was known to say, "No one leaves the program unchanged." The program usually has 40–50 first-year students, 15 junior counselors, and 15 counselors. Students are admitted by application—which includes a set of mathematical questions—or by showing "a great eagerness to learn." First-year students meet daily for lectures in elementary number theory and thrice weekly for problem seminars. They are encouraged to think like scientists and devise their own proofs and conjectures to the problems posed, which occupies most of their free time. Ross designed the daily problem sets, and many questions contain his signature directions: "Prove or disprove and salvage if possible." Successful students are asked to return as junior counselors and counselors in future summers. Junior counselors revisit the daily lectures and help first-years with their questions. They also can take advanced courses such as combinatorics and graduate seminars. Student problem sets are graded daily by the live-in counselors. The program was funded in the 1960s by a National Science Foundation (NSF) program that supported summer programs in science education, but not returning students. As NSF support fluctuates, the program has been funded by various means including gifts from donors, scholarships from businesses, a National Security Agency grant, the university, and its mathematics department. It also receives financial support from the Clay Mathematics Institute. The program grew rapidly with input from prominent mathematicians such as Ram Prakash Bambah, Hans Zassenhaus, Thoralf Skolem, and Max Dehn. In the 1960s and 1970s, Ross brought mathematicians including Zassenhaus, Kurt Mahler, and Dijen K. Ray-Chaudhuri to teach there regularly. Ross left Notre Dame to become chair of Ohio State University's mathematics department in 1963, and the program followed in the 1964 summer. The program briefly moved to the University of Chicago in the summers of 1975–1978 at mathematician Felix Browder's invitation. The program is unadvertised and depends on personal contacts and word of mouth to propagate. It is recognized by mathematicians as one of the best mathematics programs for high school students. Admission to the program is competitive, with an approximately 15% acceptance rate. ## Retirement and death Ross reached his mandatory retirement from Ohio State University in 1976, when he became Professor Emeritus, but continued to run the summer program through 2000, after which he had a stroke that left him physically impaired and unable to teach. Daniel Shapiro led the program upon Ross's exit. Shapiro was a former counselor at the program. Ross received an honorary doctorate from Denison University in 1984, the 1985 Mathematics Association of America (MAA) Award for Distinguished Service, the 1998 MAA Citation for Public Service, and was named an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow in 1988. His teaching awards include Ohio State's Distinguished Teaching and Service Awards, and membership on the National Science Foundation's science education advisory board. Ross helped begin similar programs in West Germany, India, and Australia. He consulted for an Indian gifted children program in 1973, assisted in an Australian National University January summer program for talented youth based on Ross's own from 1975 to 1983, and helped start another program in Heidelberg, Germany in 1978. He had previously created other mathematics programs, including the teacher training program (before it included high school students) and another program for Columbus, Ohio inner city middle and high school students called "Horizons Unlimited" in 1970. Ross's wife, Bee, died in 1983 and left Ross in a deep depression. His colleagues said he "lived only for his summer program" in this period. He later met a French widow of a diplomat, Madeleine Green, and they married in 1990. Ross died on September 25, 2002. Notices of the American Mathematical Society and MAA FOCUS ran memorial articles on Ross. Mathematicians such as Karl Rubin expressed their personal debts to Ross. He did not have any children. ## Legacy Ross's biggest contribution to his field was not through his research, but through his mathematics education programs. He had run each of his summer programs from 1957 to 2000, working with over 2,000 students. His summer program graduates found roles in prestigious research positions in fields across the sciences. The Ross Program was acclaimed by mathematicians as highly influential. The Ross Program inspired many similar programs, the closest in likeness being the Program in Mathematics for Young Scientists (PROMYS) at Boston University and the Honors Math Camp at Southwest Texas State University. Other programs at University of Chicago and University of Texas at San Antonio were inspired by Ross. The founders of PROMYS were Ross Program alumni, and when the Ross Program went to the University of Chicago for several years, mathematics chair Paul Sally slowly became supportive of the program and later began his own gifted students program. Informally, Ross Program and Ross's students are known as "Ross-1s" and those who study under them (including PROMYS attendees) are known as "Ross-2s". The Arnold Ross Lecture Series founded in his name in 1993 and run by the American Mathematical Society puts mathematicians before high school audiences annually in cities across the United States. Ohio State University organized two reunion-conferences for Ross with program alumni, friends of Ross, and a series of science lectures, in 1996 and 2001.

Seth Rogen

Canadian actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1982)

Seth Aaron Rogen (/ˈroʊɡən/; born April 15, 1982) is a Canadian actor, comedian and filmmaker. Originally a stand-up comedian in Vancouver, he moved to Los Angeles for a part in Judd Apatow's series Freaks and Geeks in 1999, and got a part on Apatow's sitcom Undeclared in 2001, which also hired him as a writer. Rogen landed a job as a staff writer on the final season of Da Ali G Show (2004), for which the writing team was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series. Apatow subsequently guided him toward a film career. His first movie appearance was a minor role in Donnie Darko (2001), and he had a supporting part in Apatow's directorial debut, The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), which he co-produced. He had leading roles in Apatow's comedies Knocked Up (2007) and Funny People (2009). Rogen and his writing partner, Evan Goldberg, co-wrote the films Superbad (2007), Pineapple Express (2008), The Green Hornet (2011) and This Is the End (2013), and directed This Is the End and The Interview (2014), all of which starred Rogen. He had further comedic roles in Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008), Neighbors (2014), its 2016 sequel, The Disaster Artist (2017), and Long Shot (2019). He has played dramatic roles in 50/50 (2011), Take This Waltz (2011), Steve Jobs (2015) and The Fabelmans (2022). He also starred in the FX on Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommy (2022) for which he received Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor nominations. Rogen has co-developed the AMC television series Preacher (2016–2019), on which he also served as writer, executive producer and director. He has also executive produced the Amazon Prime Video superhero series The Boys from 2019, and Invincible from 2021. Rogen is also known for his voice roles in the animated films Shrek the Third (2007), Horton Hears a Who\! (2008), the Kung Fu Panda series, The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008), Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), Sausage Party (2016; which he also co-wrote and produced), The Lion King (2019), The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023), and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023; which he also co-wrote and produced). ## Early life Seth Aaron Rogen was born on April 15, 1982, in Vancouver, British Columbia, into a Jewish family of Ukrainian and Russian origin. His mother, Sandy Belogus, is a social worker, and his American father, Mark Rogen, worked for non-profit organizations and as an assistant director of the Workmen's Circle Jewish fraternal organization. Of his dual citizenship, Rogen has stated, "I definitely associate with being Canadian much more than being American" because he grew up in Canada. He has described his parents, who met on kibbutz Beit Alfa in Israel, as "radical Jewish socialists." Rogen has an older sister named Danya. He attended Vancouver Talmud Torah Elementary School and Point Grey Secondary School, incorporating many of his classmates into his writing, and took up kyokushin karate for 10 years. He was also known for the stand-up comedy he performed at Camp Miriam, a Habonim Dror camp. As a child, Rogen did not want to pursue any career other than comedy, stating, "As soon as I realized you could be funny as a job, that was the job I wanted." He got his start in show business at age 12 after enrolling in a comedy workshop taught by Mark Pooley. His early comedy routines involved jokes about his bar mitzvah, his grandparents and his camp counsellors. As a teenager, he would perform stand-up comedy routines at places like bar mitzvahs and small parties, later shifting to bars. A mohel paid him to write jokes. At the age of 13, he co-wrote a rough draft of Superbad with childhood friend Evan Goldberg, whom he had met at bar mitzvah classes. Based on their teenage experiences, Rogen and Goldberg spent the rest of their time in high school polishing the script. They initially worried that American Pie (1999) had beaten them to the idea for the movie, but they decided that the film "'managed to totally avoid all honest interaction between characters,' which is what we're going for." His mother was supportive of his comic endeavours and would often drive him to stand-up gigs at the comedy club Yuk Yuk's. With his deadpan humour, he placed second in the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest at 16 years old. Also when Rogen was 16, his father lost his job and his mother quit hers, forcing them to put their house up for sale and relocate to a significantly smaller apartment. Around this time, he landed a role on Judd Apatow's television show Freaks and Geeks after attending a local casting call. Rogen dropped out of high school, began working for Apatow and relocated with his family to Los Angeles. Rogen paid the bills and had become the main wage earner at just 16. ## Career ### 1999–2006: Early work and friendship with Judd Apatow Rogen's acting debut was as Ken Miller, a cynical, acerbic "freak" in Freaks and Geeks, an eventual cult hit series first released in 1999. Revolving around a group of teenagers' lives, Freaks and Geeks first aired in 1999. Although well reviewed, the show was NBC's lowest-viewed program and was cancelled after one season due to poor ratings. Impressed with Rogen's improvisational skills, Apatow then chose him as the lead in another of his shows, Undeclared. Rogen was originally set to play a fairly popular college freshman, but the network did not think he was leading man material. Apatow opted not to go along with the show. Rogen also served as a staff writer to the short-lived production. Following the show's cancellation in 2002, Rogen did not get many auditions, which was not upsetting to him, as he always thought he would achieve better success as a writer. He was soon part of Apatow's "frat pack," a close-knit group that included Steve Carell and Paul Rudd. Of the awkwardness of a grown man spending so much time with a teenaged Rogen, Apatow said, "I'm such a comedy fan that, even though he's 16, I know I'm hanging out with one of the guys who's going to be one of the great comics." To simulate their creativity, Apatow gave Rogen and Goldberg unusual writing tasks, such as turning an idea of his into a movie in 10 days, and coming up with 100 one-page film ideas. Regarding Apatow's professional effect on him, Rogen said in 2009, "Obviously, I can't stress how important Judd's been to my career." Rogen had roles in Donnie Darko (2001) and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004). A big career point for him was becoming a staff writer for Sacha Baron Cohen's last season of Da Ali G Show in 2004. Along with the show's other writers, Rogen received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. He became familiar to audiences as one of the main character's co-workers in Apatow's well-reviewed buddy comedy directorial debut feature The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), which Rogen also co-produced, and in which he improvised all his dialogue. "[Rogen] hadn't done any screen work that indicated he could carry as memorable and convincing a performance as he does with the character Cal," MTV's John Constantine wrote. The Boston Globe reviewer Wesley Morris wrote that Rogen, along with co-stars Rudd and Romany Malco, were each hilarious in their own right. The Orlando Sentinel's Roger Moore believed that Rogen "had his moments" in the film, whereas Moira Macdonald of The Seattle Times said the actor was "droopily deadpan". Rogen followed this with a small role in You, Me and Dupree (2006), a critically panned comedy featuring Matt Dillon, Kate Hudson and Owen Wilson. ### 2007–2009: Breakthrough as a leading man Rogen's breakthrough came when Universal Studios green-lit him for the lead in yet another Apatow production, Knocked Up (2007), a romantic comedy that follows the repercussions of a drunken one-night stand between his slacker character and Katherine Heigl's just-promoted media personality that results in an unintended pregnancy. On completing The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Apatow had approached Rogen about potential starring roles, but the actor suggested many high-concept science fiction ideas. After Apatow insisted that he would work better in real-life situations, the two agreed on the accidental pregnancy concept of this production. Rogen called shooting sex scenes with Heigl "nerve-wracking" and was grateful for the supporting cast for shifting some of the film's focus away from him. Made on a $30 million budget and released on June 1, Knocked Up was a critical and commercial hit, garnering an approval rating of 90% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and grossing $219 million. Rogen also received favourable reviews. Later that year, he played a supporting part as an irresponsible police officer in Superbad, which he wrote with his writing partner, Evan Goldberg, and was co-produced by Apatow. Michael Cera and Jonah Hill originate the main roles, two teenage best friends whose party plans go wrong, based on them. Critics outsiders the film and its writing, finding it very authentic, and it topped the U.S. box office for two weeks. Rogen then made a vocal cameo appearance in the animated film Shrek the Third, also released in 2007, and hosted Saturday Night Live in October 2007. Rogen's projects in 2008 included Jimmy Hayward's Horton Hears a Who\!, an animated film based on the Dr. Seuss book, where Rogen voiced Morton the Mouse, and the fantasy film The Spiderwick Chronicles, where he voiced a hobgoblin. He additionally co-wrote Drillbit Taylor, also produced by Apatow and starring Owen Wilson as the homeless titular character. He based the screenplay on a 70-page scriptment done by John Hughes. The movie was panned by critics who thought its plot—a grown man becoming three kids' bodyguard and beating up their bullies—had no focus and was too drawn-out. "If Superbad were remade as a gimmicky Nickelodeon movie, it would probably look something like Drillbit Taylor," Josh Bell wrote in the Las Vegas Weekly. Rogen voiced another animated movie, Kung Fu Panda, with Jack Black and Angelina Jolie. It did exceptionally well in theatres, making more than $630 million. He made a cameo appearance in the comedy Step Brothers, released in July. Rogen, Goldberg and Apatow were behind the stoner action comedy Pineapple Express directed by David Gordon Green at Columbia Pictures. Apatow produced it while Rogen and Goldberg wrote the script. Rogen was chosen to play the film's protagonist, a 25-year-old who accidentally witnesses a murder while delivering a subpoena. James Franco was cast as his hippie pot dealer with whom he becomes a fugitive. When asked about its inspiration, Rogen said "I write what I know". Pineapple Express was released to theatres in August and made $101 million against its $27 million production budget. Critics lauded it, appreciating the performances and humor. In April 2008, Empire reported Rogen and Goldberg would write an episode for the animated television series The Simpsons. He also voiced a character in the episode, titled "Homer the Whopper," which opened the 21st season. Kevin Smith's romantic comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno rounded out 2008 for the actor. He and Elizabeth Banks portrayed the title roles of two Pennsylvania roommates who try to make some extra cash by making an adult film together. After having difficulty trying to secure an R rating, Rogen commented to MTV, "It's a really filthy movie," but complained, "It's really crazy to me that Hostel is fine, with people gouging their eyes out and shit like that ... but you can't show two people having sex – that's too much." The picture was distributed on Halloween by The Weinstein Company and disappointed at the box office. Along with Reese Witherspoon, he voiced a character in the animated science fiction Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), which did well commercially, with a total of $381.5 million. He then starred in the Jody Hill–directed mall cop comedy Observe and Report, in which he portrayed bipolar mall security guard Ronnie Barnhart. The film opened in theatres on April 10. Critics noted a departure in Rogen's acting style from playing laid-back roles to playing a more sadistic character; Wesley Morris from The Boston Globe opined that "Often with Rogen, his vulnerability makes his coarseness safe... Ronnie is something altogether new for Rogen. Vulnerability never arrives. He's shameless." Later in 2009, Rogen starred in Apatow's third directorial feature, Funny People, with Adam Sandler. Rogen played a young, inexperienced comic while Sandler played a mentor of sorts to his character; the film had more dramatic elements in it than Apatow's previous efforts. Funny People was a commercial failure, coming up short of earning back its $75 million budget. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with a consensus that it had "considerable emotional depth." Rogen hosted Saturday Night Live again in 2009, where the music video for the Lonely Island song "Like a Boss," in which he starred, premiered. ### 2010–2014: Venture into directing and controversy After years of development, a feature film adaptation of The Green Hornet was handled by Rogen and Goldberg, with a theatrical release in January 2011. Rogen chose to do a re-imagining of the title character. He was executive producer of the movie and also cast himself as the main character. Rogen later admitted to having been overwhelmed by handling its $120 million budget. "It's insane. But it's not so much the specific amount of money that's stressful, it's all the things that go along with making a movie of that size." The actor also went on a strict weight-loss diet to play the slim crime fighter. The Green Hornet was a critical disappointment; Adam Graham of the Detroit News called it "a big, sloppy, loud, grating mess of a movie," and the Arizona Republic's Bill Goodykoontz found its story to have fallen apart. Nonetheless, it still opened at No. 1 at the box office, making $33 million in its opening weekend before going on to gross more than $225 million. In 2011, Rogen and Evan Goldberg founded the production company Point Grey Pictures, named after Point Grey Secondary School, which they both attended. Rogen provided the voice and motion capture for the titular character, a grey alien, in the science fiction comedy Paul (2011). The film also starred Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as a pair of geeks who help Paul escape from FBI agents. He reprised his voice role in Kung Fu Panda 2, as well as produced and took a supporting role in Jonathan Levine's 50/50. The dramedy about cancer was based on an autobiographical script by screenwriter Will Reiser and was released in September 2011. The drama Take This Waltz, his fourth film of 2011, featured Rogen as a man whose wife (played by Michelle Williams) explores a new relationship with another man. From 2011 to 2015, Rogen played Dirty Randy, a librarian and pornographer, in the sitcom The League, in addition to writing two episodes. Rogen hosted the 27th Independent Spirit Awards in February 2012, and the road movie The Guilt Trip, co-starring Barbra Streisand, was released in cinemas that December. The film was about an inventor (Rogen) who invites his mother (Streisand) on a road trip, as he attempts to sell his new product while also reuniting her with a lost love. In 2013, Rogen and his screenwriting collaborator, Evan Goldberg, made their directorial debut with This Is the End, a comedy featuring Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson and Danny McBride playing fictional versions of themselves facing a global apocalypse. The film received positive reviews and was No. 2 at the box office on its opening weekend. Rogen recurred on the revived fourth season of the comedy series Arrested Development in May 2013, playing a young George Bluth Sr. (played by Jeffrey Tambor) in several flashback scenes. He co-wrote the foreword for the 2014 book Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation by Blake J. Harris. and was reported be working on an adaptation with Goldberg. Rogen hosted Saturday Night Live for a third time in 2014. That May, Rogen starred in Neighbors with Rose Byrne and Zac Efron, which was directed by Nicholas Stoller. In the film, Rogen and Byrne play a couple that comes into conflict with a fraternity, led by Efron's character, living next door. The film became Rogen's highest-grossing non-animated film, having grossed over $270 million globally. Rogen and Evan Goldberg co-directed and co-wrote the story for the action comedy The Interview, starring Rogen and James Franco as a pair of journalists who are recruited by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un after setting up an interview with him. In June 2014, North Korea threatened a "merciless" retaliation on the United States if it did not ban The Interview, labelling the movie "an act of war" and a "wanton act of terror," and Rogen himself a "gangster filmmaker." In December, Sony Pictures announced that it was cancelling the release of the movie after a cyber attack on the studio, allegedly tied to North Korea and threats made subsequently by Kim Jong-un. As a result of criticism of this decision, Sony subsequently made the film available online and it allowed a theatrical release on December 25, 2014, drawing mixed opinions from film critics. Scott Foundas of Variety found the film to be "about as funny as a communist food shortage, and just as protracted," while The Daily Telegraph critic Robbie Collin opined that it was "a raucous, abrasive, snort-out-loud satire with mischief in its heart and methane in its gut." It grossed $11.3 million in theatres, but had strong online sales and rentals. Also in 2014, Rogen made cameo appearances in the comedy 22 Jump Street as the double of Jonah Hill's character and in James Franco's drama The Sound and the Fury as a telegrapher. During the time, Rogen and Goldberg, through their Point Grey Pictures company, had set up a joint venture with major client Good Universe to set up mainstream comedy films. ### 2015–present: Career expansion Rogen portrayed Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak in the Danny Boyle–directed Steve Jobs biopic (2015), based on a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin. His performance in the film was widely praised, and he was commended by Wozniak himself for doing an "excellent job." In November 2015, Rogen starred alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anthony Mackie in the Christmas-themed comedy The Night Before as three best friends who annually reunite to celebrate Christmas Eve. In 2016, he reprised his voice role as Master Mantis in Kung Fu Panda 3 and as Mac Radner in the Neighbors sequel Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising. Along with Goldberg and Sam Catlin, Rogen developed the television series Preacher for Sony Pictures Television, which premiered on AMC in May 2016. The show is based on the comic book series of the same name that was created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon and follows a small-town preacher named Jesse Custer (played by Dominic Cooper) who possesses a superpower that allows him to command others to do as he says. His last release of 2016 was the animated comedy Sausage Party, which, in addition to voicing the lead character Frank – a sausage that tries to escape his fate in a supermarket – he co-wrote and produced. Sausage Party became the most commercially successful R-rated animated film of all time, overtaking South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999). Associated Press critic Lindsey Bahr wrote of the film: "There is no one out there making comedies quite like Rogen and Goldberg. They are putting their definitive stamp on the modern American comedy one decency-smashing double entendre at a time." Along with Evan Goldberg, Rogen directed and executive produced the science fiction comedy series Future Man, starring Josh Hutcherson, which premiered on the streaming service Hulu in November 2017. The same year, Rogen and Goldberg also co-directed a short commercial film for Walmart, titled Bananas Town, and Rogen portrayed Sandy Schklair, the script supervisor for The Room director and star Tommy Wiseau (played by James Franco), in the Franco-directed film The Disaster Artist, based on the book of the same name, which chronicles the making of the 2003 film The Room. Rogen, as the founder of Hilarity for Charity, an organization that raises funds for Alzheimer's research and support, hosts an annual fundraising comedy event named after the organization. The sixth event was broadcast through the streaming service Netflix in April 2018. In July 2018, it was announced that Rogen was to voice public service announcements in his native Vancouver's TransLink transit system and Toronto's Toronto Transit Commission. Rogen co-starred alongside Kristen Bell and Kelsey Grammer as the love interest of Bell's character in the 2018 comedy-drama Like Father, directed by Rogen's wife, Lauren Miller. In 2019, Rogen starred opposite Charlize Theron in the romantic comedy Long Shot, as an unemployed journalist who re-connects with his childhood love interest and babysitter (Theron), who has become a major political figure. Rogen co-starred in the 2019 remake of the animated musical film The Lion King (1994), voicing the warthog Pumbaa, who rescues the film's protagonist Simba with his friend Timon, voiced by Donald Glover and Billy Eichner, respectively. He sang three songs in the film, which were included on the soundtrack release. Rogen said that, "[a]s an actor, I don't think I'm right for every role — there are a lot of roles I don't think I'm right for even in movies I'm making — but Pumbaa was one I knew I could do well." It had a middling reception from critics, and became one of the highest-grossing films of all time with earnings of more than $1.663 billion. Rogen and Eichner received praise for their chemistry. In 2019, Rogen also produced the comedy Good Boys, starring Jacob Tremblay for Universal Pictures, and the television shows The Boys and Black Monday, directing the pilot for the latter show with Goldberg. In 2021, he voiced Allen the Alien in the animated series Invincible, in which he also serves as producer. Rogen filmed scenes for the James Franco film Zeroville in 2014, which was not released until 2019. Rogen has a guest chapter giving advice in Tim Ferriss' self-help book Tools of Titans. In 2020, it was announced that Rogen would serve as a producer for the animated film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. In addition to producing, he co-wrote it, and provided the voice of Bebop. Rogen's first book, Yearbook, was published in May 2021. Yearbook is a memoir that features a collection of essays spanning from Rogen's adolescence to his experiences in Hollywood. In September 2021, Nintendo announced in a Nintendo Direct presentation that Rogen would be voicing Donkey Kong in the 2023 animated film The Super Mario Bros. Movie, with a spin-off film focused around the character planned, as well. In 2023 it was announced that Rogen will serve as an executive producer, and appear as a guest judge, in the upcoming Canadian reality competition series The Great Canadian Pottery Throw Down. Also in 2023, Rogen was cast alongside Aziz Ansari and Keanu Reeves in Ansari's film directorial debut, Good Fortune. The project began filming in January 2024, with Keke Palmer posting on her Instagram page that she had joined Rogen as part of the cast that same month. ## Political views and activism Politically, Rogen describes himself as "left wing". Rogen has been active in raising awareness of Alzheimer's disease. The disease runs in his wife's family and has affected his mother-in-law for several years. "I think until you see it firsthand, it's kind of hard to conceive of how brutal it is," Rogen said to CNN. "Until I saw it, you just don't get kind of how heartbreaking it can be." During the interview, he talked about how he tries to be emotionally supportive and around as much as he can for Miller's mother. Both he and Miller spoke to Larry King for A Larry King Special, Unthinkable: The Alzheimer's Epidemic, which aired in April 2011. Rogen testified about the disease and his charity before the United States Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services on February 26, 2014. Rogen started the Hilarity for Charity movement to inspire change and raise awareness of Alzheimer's disease among the Millennial Generation. Rogen and his wife also initiated the Alzheimer's and Dementia Care Grant Program with Home Instead Senior Care to provide free at-home care to senior citizens. On February 25, 2016, Rogen and Miller were honoured with the unite2gether accolade from unite4:humanity for their work promoting awareness and raising money for Alzheimer's research through Hilarity for Charity. Rogen appeared in a Bud Light commercial celebrating LGBT Pride Month and the Supreme Court of the United States ruling that granted same-sex couples the right to marry. Rogen is a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity (Lambda Delta chapter) at the University of Vermont. He was initiated in April 2017 after his fourth visit to the campus for his Hilarity for Charity movement. Rogen is also a member of National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and an open marijuana user. Rogen and his longtime friend and collaborator Evan Goldberg launched the cannabis company Houseplant in Canada in 2019. In June 2018, Rogen was invited by Mitt Romney to speak at a seminar for awareness of Alzheimer's disease hosted by Romney in Park City, Utah. Speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, was in attendance, asking Rogen for a photo after Ryan's children engaged Rogen in conversation. Rogen refused, stating in an interview with Stephen Colbert, "I look over and his kids are standing right there expectantly, clearly fans of mine, and I said, 'No way, man\!'" and telling Ryan, "Furthermore, I hate what you're doing to the country at this moment, and I'm counting the days until you no longer have one iota of the power that you currently have." On July 3, 2018, Rogen criticized Twitter and its CEO Jack Dorsey, claiming he had a "bizarre need to verify white supremacists". Variety reported that he was "directly in touch" with Dorsey over the issue. Several media outlets, including Fortune, speculated that Rogen was referring to alt-right figure Jason Kessler, and the Proud Boys in particular. Rogen is a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement. ### Views on Israel During his July 2020 promotional tour for his comedy, An American Pickle, Rogen said he was "fed a huge amount of lies about Israel" growing up, commenting: "They never tell you that – 'Oh, by the way, there were people there.' They make it seem like it was just like sitting there, like the fucking door's open." Rogen has said he believes antisemitism has remained pervasive and prevalent, but also spoke to the importance of a strong Jewish diaspora: "You don't keep something you're trying to preserve all in one place." Rogen later expanded on his comments, stating in an interview: "I think that it's a tricky conversation to have in jest. And that's something that perhaps I now look at and say, 'Oh, now that we joked about that, perhaps we could clarify some things so people don't run around thinking that I think Israel shouldn't exist anymore.' And I'm sensitive to Jewish people being hurt, as a Jewish person. And I'm sensitive to Jewish people thinking I'm not a proud Jewish person, which I am. Truthfully, I think my pride in being Jewish and how deeply I identify as a Jewish person perhaps made me feel like I was able to say things without as much context as perhaps I should give them – you know what I'm saying? And I am sensitive to Jews thinking that I don't think Israel should not exist [sic], and that there are a lot of Jewish people who are alive who wouldn't be without Israel. And my parents met in Israel; I've been to Israel several times." ## Personal life Rogen began dating writer and actress Lauren Miller in 2004. They met while he was working on Da Ali G Show. They became engaged on September 29, 2010 and married on October 2, 2011 in Sonoma County, California. Miller has had minor onscreen roles in a few of Rogen's films. They have stated they do not plan to have children. Rogen created a cannabis brand in the city of Toronto, Ontario, with his friend Evan Goldberg. After attending pottery classes with his wife in 2017, he began making ceramics. He cites artist Kenneth Price as an inspiration. In January 2021, Rogen revealed on Twitter that he has mild Tourette syndrome, which runs in his family. ## Filmography and awards ## See also - List of celebrities who own cannabis businesses

New Jersey Route 70

Highway in New Jersey

Route 70 is a state highway located in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It extends 59.8 mi (96.24 km) from an interchange with Route 38 in Pennsauken, Camden County, east to an intersection with Route 34 and Route 35 in Wall Township, Monmouth County. Route 70 cuts across the middle of the state as a two-lane highway through the Pine Barrens in Burlington and Ocean counties. A popular truck route, it provides access between Philadelphia and the surrounding Philadelphia metro area and the Jersey Shore resorts, particularly Long Beach Island by way of Route 72. It is also a congested commercial route within Philadelphia's New Jersey suburbs. The western section in Cherry Hill and Marlton is a four- to eight-lane divided highway that serves as a major suburban arterial and is locally known as Marlton Pike. The eastern section in Monmouth and Ocean counties is also a multilane divided highway that runs through suburban areas. The portion of the current route between Whitesbog and Lakehurst became a part of pre-1927 Route 18 in 1923. In 1927, Route 40 was legislated to run from Camden to Lakewood; the termini were eventually moved to the Airport Circle in Pennsauken and the Laurelton Circle in Brick. Route 40 became Route 70 in 1953 in order to avoid conflicting with US 40; in addition, the western terminus was cut back to its current location to avoid a concurrency with Route 38 and the eastern terminus was moved to the Brielle Circle, replacing a portion of Route 34 between the Laurelton Circle and the Brielle Circle. ## Route description ### Camden and Burlington counties Route 70 begins at an interchange with Route 38 and Marlton Pike (CR 601) and Browning Road (CR 612) in Pennsauken, Camden County. From this interchange, it heads to the southeast on Marlton Pike, a six-lane divided highway that runs through suburban residential and commercial areas. The road is also officially called the John Davison Rockefeller Memorial Highway for its entire length after John D. Rockefeller. The road enters Cherry Hill and comes to a cloverleaf interchange with Cuthbert Boulevard (CR 636) before crossing under NJ Transit's Atlantic City Line, a short distance to the south of the Cherry Hill Station. In this area, Route 70 passes to the south of a retail and residential development at the former site of the Garden State Park Racetrack before crossing the intersection of Grove Street/Haddonfield Road (CR 644). Past this intersection, the route narrows to four lanes and turns more to the east as it comes to the Ellisburg area. In Ellisburg, it has an intersection with Kings Highway (Route 41/CR 573) and Brace Road (Route 154). The road runs through more suburban areas as it encounters I-295 at a cloverleaf interchange. A short distance past I-295, Route 70 passes over the New Jersey Turnpike without an interchange before widening into an eight-lane highway and continuing east to the intersections of Greentree Road (CR 674) and Springdale Road (CR 673). Following the intersection of Springdale Road (CR 673), the road narrows back to four lanes before it encounters the intersection of CR 600, a former alignment of the road known as Old Marlton Pike. Route 70 crosses the Pennsauken Creek into Evesham Township, Burlington County, running east through more commercial areas within the Marlton section of the township. A short distance later, the route intersects Route 73 at a partial cloverleaf interchange that was formerly the Marlton Circle. After this interchange, the road heads east passing through some more commercial areas and then into residential neighborhoods that are separated from the road by trees, narrowing into a two-lane undivided road. It continues into a mix of suburban development and rural woods and farms as it crosses into Medford, coming to a crossroads with Medford-Evesboro Road (CR 618). From this intersection, Route 70 continues east through the Medford area, passing a couple of shopping centers before crossing the intersection of North Main Street/Medford-Mount Holly Road (CR 541). After the intersection of North Main Street/Medford-Mount Holly Road (CR 541), the route leaves the suburban development and runs through a mix of woodland and farmland with occasional homes. It enters Southampton, where the road enters more wooded surroundings before coming to US 206 at the Red Lion Circle. Past here, Route 70 loses the Marlton Pike name and continues east into the heavily wooded Pine Barrens. It passes to the south of the Leisuretowne retirement village before entering predominantly rural areas, with two fire lanes paralleling the road on either side. Route 70 eventually turns slightly to the northeast and forms the border between Southampton to the north and Woodland Township to the south. Along this borderline, the route comes to the Four Mile Circle, where it intersects with the western terminus of Route 72 as well as Magnolia Road (CR 644) and Four Mile Road (CR 646). Past the traffic circle, Route 70 becomes the border between Pemberton Township to the north and Woodland Township to the south. The road passes to the south of the wooded Presidential Lakes Estates residential development before turning northeast through more of the Pine Barrens entirely within Pemberton Township. The road passes near some cranberry bogs before intersecting with Lakehurst Road (CR 530). At this intersection, CR 530 heads east concurrently with Route 70. ### Ocean and Monmouth counties A short distance later, the two routes enter Manchester in Ocean County and continue east through a tract of the Brendan T. Byrne State Forest within the Pine Barrens as well as a corner of the Fort Dix Military Reservation. The road eventually reaches the community of Whiting, where it passes commercial development at the intersection of Whiting-New Egypt Road (CR 539). Here, CR 530 turns south to follow CR 539 and Route 70 continues northeast back into the Pine Barrens. The road turns more to the north-northeast before heading east into Lakehurst to the south of the Lakehurst Maxfield Field naval station. In Lakehurst, Route 70 comes to the Eisenhower Traffic Circle with CR 4 and CR 12 before running through residential and commercial areas of the town. It intersects with Center Street (CR 547), where it widens into a four-lane divided highway. From here, the route crosses over the Southern Secondary railroad line operated by the Delaware and Raritan River Railroad before coming to the Lakehurst Circle, where it intersects with the western terminus of Route 37. Route 70 enters Manchester again past this traffic circle and becomes a two-lane undivided road, passing near the wooded residential Leisure Knoll community before crossing the intersection of Ridgeway Road (CR 571). Past Ridgeway Road (CR 571), the route heads through wooded suburban residential and business areas, crossing into Toms River. Here, the road intersects with Whitesville Road (CR 527) and Massachusetts Avenue (CR 637) before becoming a four-lane divided highway again and encountering US 9 at a modified cloverleaf interchange. Following the US 9 interchange, Route 70 enters Lakewood and turns more to the east, crossing the intersection of New Hampshire Avenue (CR 623) prior to a modified cloverleaf interchange with the Garden State Parkway. From here, the route continues into Brick and passes several shopping centers, intersecting with Cedar Bridge Avenue (CR 528) and Chambers Bridge Road (CR 549). At the CR 528 intersection, the road is briefly an undivided highway. It turns northeast, crossing the Metedeconk River before intersecting with Route 88. After this intersection, Route 70 passes more inhabited areas separated from the road by trees, crossing both the intersections of Burnt Tavern Road (CR 632) and Herbertsville Road (CR 549 Spur). A short distance later, it becomes an undivided road and crosses the Manasquan River on the September 11th Memorial Bridge, briefly entering Point Pleasant and entering Brielle, Monmouth County. The September 11th Memorial Bridge is dedicated to residents of Monmouth and Ocean counties who lost their lives in the September 11 attacks. After the bridge, the route turns north through residential areas and becomes a divided highway again, briefly forming the border between Wall Township to the west and Brielle to the east before fully entering Wall Township. Route 70 ends at the former Brielle Circle intersection with Route 34 and Route 35, where the road continues north on Route 35. ## History The Camden, Ellisburg, and Marlton Turnpike was chartered in 1849 as a turnpike that was to run from Camden east to Marlton along what is today Route 70 and Browning Road (CR 612)/Marlton Pike (CR 601). The Marlton Pike was taken over by Camden County in 1907 at a time many other turnpikes became public roads. The current alignment of Route 70 between Whitesbog (the west end of the concurrency with CR 530) and Lakehurst was legislated as a part of pre-1927 Route 18 in 1923, a route that was to run from Camden to Toms River. In the 1927 New Jersey state highway renumbering, Route 40 was designated to run from Camden to Lakewood along the current alignment of Route 70. In addition a spur of this route called Route S40 (now Route 72) was designated to head from the route at the Four Mile Circle to Manahawkin. Eventually, the eastern terminus of Route 40 was moved to the Laurelton Circle in Brick, where it intersected Route 35 (now Route 88) as well as Route 34, which continued north from this point. The western terminus was placed at the Airport Circle with US 30 and US 130 in Pennsauken, ending concurrent with Route 38. In the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering, Route 40 was renumbered to Route 70, to avoid conflicting with US 40 in the state. Also, Route 70 was designated onto its current alignment between Route 38 in Pennsauken and Route 34 and Route 35 at the Brielle Circle, removing the concurrency with Route 38 and replacing the portion of Route 34 between the Laurelton Circle and the Brielle Circle. Since 1953, many changes have occurred to Route 70. Several traffic circles that had existed on the road had been either modified or replaced by at-grade intersections. The Marlton Circle at Route 73 in Marlton was modified in 1974 to allow Route 73 to run straight through the circle. This circle became known for traffic backups and was later replaced with an interchange. Construction on this interchange, which cost $31 million, began in April 2009. In May 2010, the circle was eliminated with a temporary at-grade intersection constructed while the Route 73 bridge over Route 70 was being built. The interchange was completed in June 2011. Also, the Race Track Circle at the intersection with Haddonfield Road/Grove Street (CR 644) was eventually replaced by an at-grade intersection. The Laurelton Circle at Route 88, built in 1937, was replaced by the 1990s. The Ellisburg Circle at Route 41 and Route 154, was replaced by an intersection with jughandles. The Brielle Circle at the eastern terminus was also converted to an intersection with jughandles in 2001. In conjunction with eliminating the Brielle Circle, Route 70 was also widened between the intersection with Jack Martin Boulevard in Brick Township and the former circle. In July 2004, floods caused by heavy rain washed away a bridge along the route in Southampton Township, leading for it to be replaced. The New Jersey Department of Transportation replaced the September 11th Memorial Bridge over the Manasquan River in a $52 million project that increased capacity on the bridge, added monumental decorations, and increased pedestrian access. Construction was completed in September 2008, two years ahead of schedule. ## Major intersections |} ## See also - -

Ana Lucia Cortez

Character from the American mystery fiction television series Lost

Ana Lucia Cortez is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost, played by Michelle Rodriguez. Ana Lucia made her first appearance as a guest star in the first season finale, and became part of the main cast for season two. After Oceanic Flight 815 splits in mid-air, the tail section and fuselage crash on opposite sides of a mysterious island. Ana Lucia becomes the leader of the tail section. Flashbacks in her two centric episodes, "Collision" and "Two for the Road", show her life as a police officer before the crash. She is shot and killed by Michael Dawson. ## Arc Prior to the crash, Ana Lucia Cortez is an officer in the Los Angeles Police Department who becomes pregnant, but loses the baby after being shot by a suspect at a burglary scene. She spends several months in physical and psychological therapy, and when the suspect is arrested, she refuses to identify him. After his release, she kills him outside a bar. Ana Lucia decides to leave the force and eventually finds work as an airport security guard. She meets Christian Shephard (John Terry) at the airport bar, who asks her to accompany him to Sydney as a bodyguard, however in Sydney the two part ways. Ana Lucia buys a ticket on Oceanic Flight 815 to return to Los Angeles. In a brief flashback in the first season finale, she flirts with Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) at a bar at the airport, unaware he is Christian's son. The pair arrange to continue their conversation during the flight. During the flight the plane splits in half, with the two parts crashing on different sides of an island; Ana Lucia is one of the tail section survivors. The story of how the tail section survivors cope during their first forty-eight days on the Island is shown in "The Other 48 Days". After landing in the ocean, Ana Lucia does her best to help everyone in need. That night, some of the survivors are kidnapped by the Others, the mysterious inhabitants of the Island, then a few nights later, nine more are taken. During the second raid, Ana Lucia kills one of the Others and finds a list on him, which has descriptions of the victims. Suspecting fellow survivor Nathan (Josh Randall) as a traitor, she moves everyone inland, digs a pit and throws him in it until he confesses. 4 nights later, Goodwin (Brett Cullen) tricks Nathan and kills him. The small group heads further inland, discovering a bunker known as the Arrow. Ana Lucia and Goodwin trek atop a hill, where she tells Goodwin she has worked out he is the real traitor. After a struggle, she impales him on a broken stick, then returns to the group and tells them they are safe. Fellow tail section survivors Libby (Cynthia Watros) and Cindy (Kimberley Joseph) bring Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) to her after discovering him washed up on shore. He breaks free, so Ana Lucia follows and finds Michael (Harold Perrineau) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway). Jin, Michael and Sawyer are thrown into the pit, and Ana Lucia follows, pretending to have also been captured. Once she believes they are fellow 815 survivors she releases them, and they travel to the camp of the other survivors. When they near the camp, Ana Lucia mistakes Shannon (Maggie Grace) for an Other and fatally shoots her. The on-island events of "Collision" show her guilt after Shannon's death. She has Shannon's lover Sayid (Naveen Andrews) tied up and refuses to let the group move on. After some reasoning from Libby, she reluctantly lets them go. She is invited into a bunker the fuselage survivors found to interrogate a man claiming to be Henry Gale (Michael Emerson), and manages to receive a map to his crashed balloon. She takes Sayid and Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) with her, and eventually discovers the crash site, and the body of the real Henry Gale. In her second centric episode, "Two for the Road", Ana Lucia attempts to speak to Henry again, but she is assaulted by him and nearly killed. Seeking revenge, she seduces Sawyer and steals his gun. She returns to the hatch and attempts to kill Henry, but is unable to bring herself to do it. She confides in Michael, who offers to kill him on her behalf. But when Ana hands him the gun, he shoots her in the heart, killing her. She is buried next to Libby, who was also killed by Michael. After Ana's death, she makes three further appearances; in a dream to Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) in "?", as a vision that Hurley (Jorge Garcia) has in "The Lie", and in a flash sideways in "What They Died For". ## Personality Ana Lucia was described by Melanie McFarland of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as "demanding", "hostile" and a "bully". She called Ana Lucia a "brooding, broken ex-cop" with a "perpetual scowl". McFarland described the character as someone with a "take-charge nature", and an "inability to be reasoned away from her dictatorial decisions". Anna Johns from AOL's TV Squad felt Ana Lucia is "abrasive and lacking common sense or civility". C. K. Sample, also from TV Squad, thought Ana Lucia was "angry", "power mad" and a "total nut job". According to supervising producer Leonard Dick, "Ana Lucia is somebody who does not want to be a victim. She was a victim once and she swore to herself she would never be a victim again". Rodriguez described the character as "very intuitive", adding "I like that the character is pretty much always aware and suspicious". She is "street smart" and has a "speak-her-mind quality". ## Development ### Casting In February 2005, Lost producers began looking for a Latina woman in her mid-thirties who would be the leader of the tail section, and a romantic interest for Jack. The agent of Michelle Rodriguez (who was 26 at the time) called the producers, informing them Rodriguez was interested in the role. She said she was potentially interested in doing television, and felt she had been typecast in tough female roles, so she wanted this role to be different. ### Characterization Ana Lucia was planned to start as a tough character, because that is what the audience would expect, then the layers of the character would be gradually peeled back. Rodriguez described Ana Lucia as an "animalistic type creature... tamed by the Island." They reconstructed the character slightly to fit what they liked about Rodriguez, such as making her more "street smart" with a "speak-her-mind quality." Ana Lucia made her first appearance in the penultimate episode of season one, in order to set up her character becoming part of the cast in the next season. All Rodriguez was told about her character was both she and her mother were in the police force. Ana Lucia's style of leadership deliberately contrasts Jack's; Jack is a reluctant leader, whereas Ana Lucia quickly takes charge on her own. In her early appearances, Ana Lucia is shown to be very tough, so the flashbacks in "Collision", where it is revealed she lost her baby, were used to show a softer side to her. Rodriguez's character was designed from the beginning as a "love-to-hate character", as Cuse remarked in a November 2005 podcast. Lindelof further described the character's intentional role as a "persona non grata in our society for some time to come" as a result of Shannon (Maggie Grace)'s death and becoming integrated into the fuselage camp. Cuse harkened the intentions behind her arc as a mirror to Sawyer (Josh Holloway)'s in the first season, with Cuse stating, "...we sort of set up an expectation for the character, and then we like to try to challenge whatever that first expectation that you have for that character by giving you more information that maybe helps you come to a different conclusion." The producers planned for her character to develop a romantic storyline with Jack (Matthew Fox) as part of a "love rectangle" with Kate and Sawyer. They also planned for a romantic storyline with the "most unexpected" person on The Island prior to this. In a February 2006 GQ interview, Fox described the Jack-Ana Lucia coupling as potentially going into a darker direction, such as committing killing sprees in the same vein as the film Natural Born Killers (1994) or Bonnie and Clyde. They attempted to rework the storyline with Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell, though after "The Other Woman", Lindelof felt the relationship was contrived and ended it as well. ### Exit After the character was killed off, producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse claimed that Rodriguez was only interested in one season during their first meeting with her (alongside co-creator J. J. Abrams) because she was a "nomadic spirit", but would like to do one "kickass arc" as she called it. The producers liked her energy, and in turn, they remarked upon agreeing with the plan to kill Ana Lucia off at the end of the season. Rodriguez, however, stated they actually wanted to give the storyline "some time", until the middle of the third season, but she was "ready to go". Although she also corroborated remarks that she initially planned on doing one year as well. Later, in a 2020 podcast, Lindelof amended this and revealed Rodriguez expressed interest in continuing the role beyond her one-season deal midway through the season (shortly following the DUI charges), but he informed her they had already planned her death storyline. Previously, in a December 2006 interview however, Rodriguez stated she was informed two weeks before they shot the episode that her character was being killed off. She remarked how hard it was to keep it from the cast who were discussing their storylines next season for the two week interval. When it came time to kill off Ana Lucia, the producers also claimed the character of Libby was killed at the same time to generate emotional impact. This happened amidst rumours that the characters were killed off because both actresses in question had been arrested for DUI while filming on location in Oahu. The producers denied that Ana Lucia was killed off because of Rodriguez's behaviour on set, saying although they had no interaction with her, they had been told she had been professional. Rodriguez felt comfortable on the series, but was happy to leave as she felt this would help her grow personally, and become a woman. She had mixed feelings about leaving Hawaii, where Lost is filmed; her allergies were hard to deal with, but she loved the scenery. ## Reception Melanie McFarland from Seattle Post-Intelligencer described Ana Lucia as "one of the most intensely hated characters on television [in the] fall [of 2005]", due to her being "hostile" and a "bully". She added Ana Lucia murdering Shannon, "the least deserving of sympathy of all the previously known survivors", made fans hate Ana Lucia even more. McFarland found this makes "the creation of her character, and Rodriguez's hire, strokes of brilliant writing and casting on the part of Lost producers J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof", and described her as a "hero stewed in pathos". Anna Johns from TV Squad was unhappy at the prospect of Ana Lucia's death, feeling Ana Lucia was important because she was a "love to hate" character, she disrupted the Jack-Kate-Sawyer love triangle, and created conflicts, which make the show interesting. Amy Amatangelo from Zap2it admitted she "enjoyed kind of loathing Ana Lucia". In a later article, she described Ana Lucia's death as "a brilliant move", because "one of their own become one of them". She added "nobody liked the Ana Lucia character anyway", but that did not stop it being "one of [the second] season's most jaw-dropping moments". Alan Stanley Blair from SyFy Portal "cheered when she was shot". Ana Lucia's death was second in IGN's list of the top ten Lost deaths, as she made an "immediate impact on the series" with an "unexpected end". On the second season DVD, supervising producer Leonard Dick says "Michelle brought real strength, a dynamic element, to the role". In 2006, Michelle Rodriguez co-won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series with the cast of Lost. She also won an ALMA Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Television Series.

Taylor Swift Productions

American production company

Taylor Swift Productions, Inc. is the in-house visual media production company of the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. The company was founded in 2008, being first credited in the concert film Speak Now World Tour – Live (2011). Taylor Swift Productions has produced all of Swift's visual media works since 2018, including her films and music videos. The company has been praised by management consultants for its innovative business and marketing strategies. The studio's outputs have received various accolades, including a Grammy Award, four MTV Video Music Awards for Video of the Year, an Art Directors Guild Award, a Gracie Award, an Eddie Award, and a Hollywood Critics Association Film Award. Its films Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour (2018), Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions (2020), All Too Well: The Short Film (2021), and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (2023) were met with acclaim from critics. The lattermost became the highest-grossing concert film of all-time and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement. ## Background The American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift has stated on several occasions that she views visual media as an important element in her songwriting process. As her career progressed, she delved into film treatment, filmmaking, screenwriting, directing, and producing. Several directors that Swift has collaborated with, including Roman White and Joseph Kahn, praised her involvement in creating her music videos. In 2015, Swift won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Emerging Media Program in the category "Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media — Original Interactive Program" as the executive producer for the interactive app AMEX Unstaged: Taylor Swift Experience, which gave viewers access to a customizable 360° view of the music video for "Blank Space" (2014). She produced the music video for "Bad Blood" (2015), which won the Grammy Award for Best Music Video in 2016. ## History In February 2008, Swift launched her in-house production company, Taylor Swift Productions, Inc., which was first credited in the concert film Speak Now World Tour – Live (2011). The company's next release was the documentary film Taylor Swift: The Road to Reputation, documenting Swift's career and her Reputation Stadium Tour shows in the United States. The film aired on the Australian TV channels Eleven and Network Ten on September 28, 2018. Taylor Swift Productions later released the concert film Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour on December 31. It was directed by Paul Dugdale and distributed by Netflix. Reputation Stadium Tour received acclaim from critics, with particular praise for its direction, production, camerawork, and Swift's stage presence. Billboard's Denis Warner stated that the film "illuminates the singer's power, dedication, and strength as an artist" and it "allows you to get more of a feel of the singer as a performer – and experience just how delicately everything is staged". Reputation Stadium Tour's production designers, Tamlyn Wright and Baz Halpin, were nominated at the 24th Art Directors Guild Annual Awards for Excellence in Production Design in the category "Variety, Reality or Event Special". The film's producer, Simon Fisher, and Dugdale were nominated at the 2019 Royal Television Society Craft & Design Awards in the "Best Multicamera Work" category. Throughout 2019 and 2020, Taylor Swift Productions produced the music videos for Swift's songs "Me\!", "You Need to Calm Down", "Lover", "Christmas Tree Farm", "The Man", "Cardigan", and "Willow". The music video for "You Need to Calm Down" received the MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year in 2019. Taylor Swift Productions' next feature release, the television special Taylor Swift: City of Lover, was directed by Dan Massie. It aired on ABC on May 17, 2020, and was made available for on-demand streaming on Hulu and Disney+ the following day. City of Lover received positive reviews from critics, who complimented its intimate setting and Swift's storytelling abilities, but felt that its 42-minute runtime was too short. Chris Willman of Variety praised Swift's simplistic appearance, the minimal lighting, and the monochrome design. The ABC premiere attracted 3.63 million viewers, described by The Hollywood Reporter as "so-so numbers". Swift made her debut as a film director with the documentary feature Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, released on November 25, 2020. The documentary features Swift performing all of the 17 tracks of her eighth studio album, Folklore (2020), and discussing the creative process, stories, and inspirations behind the songs with her collaborators Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff. Produced by Taylor Swift Productions and distributed by Disney+, Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions received universal acclaim from critics for its performances, intimacy, and conversations regarding Folklore's creative process. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 100% based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. Little White Lies critic Sydney Urbanek lauded Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions as a "triumphant debut" for Swift as a film director, with the i's Sarah Carson defining the film as "artfully crafted, aesthetically gorgeous, cosy cottagecore escapism" with diverse conversations. Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions received the Grand Award for Special or Variety at the 46th Gracie Awards. In 2021, Taylor Swift Productions produced the music videos for Swift's songs "The Best Day (Taylor's Version)" and "I Bet You Think About Me". The music video for the latter marked the directional debut of the American actress Blake Lively and stars the American actor Miles Teller. Swift made her filmmaking debut with the romantic drama All Too Well: The Short Film (2021), an adaptation of her critically-acclaimed song "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)" (2021). Produced by Taylor Swift Productions and starring the American actors Sadie Sink and Dylan O'Brien, the film received a limited theatrical release through Universal Pictures and special screenings at the 2022 Tribeca and Toronto film festivals. All Too Well: The Short Film was met with widespread acclaim from film critics, with particular praise for Swift's vision as a filmmaker. Laura Coates, publishing on RogerEbert.com, commended Swift's direction and her "meticulous lighting and eye for production design". The Sydney Morning Herald's Karl Quinn also complimented Swift's direction, the screenplay, and the performances of Sink and O'Brien. In December 2022, Swift took part in Variety's Directors on Directors series opposite the British-Irish filmmaker Martin McDonagh to elucidate her filmmaking approach to All Too Well: The Short Film. The film made Swift the first artist to win the MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year three times and the first artist to win for a self-directed project, winning the category in 2022. In 2023, the film made Swift the first artist to win the Grammy Award for Best Music Video with a sole directing credit. All Too Well: The Short Film won at the 26th Art Directors Guild Annual Awards for Excellence in Production Design in the category "Short Format: Web Series, Music Video or Commercial", and the 6th Hollywood Critics Association Film Awards for Best Short Film. Throughout 2022 and 2023, Taylor Swift Productions produced the music videos for Swift's songs "Anti-Hero", "Bejeweled", "Lavender Haze", "Karma", and "I Can See You". For the music video for the lattermost, Swift stated that she wanted to create a visual story that depicted how her fans helped her reclaim her music following her masters dispute. It stars the American actors Joey King, Taylor Lautner, and Presley Cash. The music video for "Anti-Hero" won the MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year in 2023, making Swift the first artist in history to win the award two years in a row. Taylor Swift Productions independently produced the concert film Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, with Sam Wrench as the director and worldwide theatrical distribution by AMC Theatres and Cinemark Theatres. Released on October 13, 2023, the film received universal acclaim from critics, with praise for its cinematography, spectacle, and energy. Uproxx's Philip Cosores and Variety's Willman said The Eras Tour prolifically emphasizes the performance and production details that "get easily obscured by the overwhelming nature of live music" from a concertgoer standpoint. It became the highest-grossing concert film of all-time, earning over $267 million in worldwide revenue against a production budget of $15 million. Following The Eras Tour's theatrical success, The Hollywood Reporter wrote in late October 2023 that "practically every major service" was looking to secure on-demand streaming rights to the film after its theatrical run. On December 13, 2023, The Eras Tour was made available to rent for on-demand streaming in select territories for a limited period, in collaboration with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. An extended cut of the film, subtitled (Taylor's Version), was released on Disney+ in March 2024. Disney+ purchased The Eras Tour's exclusive streaming rights for reportedly more than $75 million in a bidding war with Netflix and Universal Pictures, negotiated by Swift's brother Austin. The film was nominated at the 81st Golden Globe Awards in the category "Cinematic and Box Office Achievement", and the 8th Critics' Choice Documentary Awards for Best Music Documentary. The Eras Tour won at the 74th American Cinema Editors Eddie Awards in the category "Best Edited Variety Talk/Sketch Show or Special". In 2024, Taylor Swift Productions produced the music videos for Swift's songs "Fortnight" and "I Can Do It with a Broken Heart". The cinematography of the former was handled by Rodrigo Prieto. It stars the American actors Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles. At the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards, the music video for "Fortnight" made Swift the first artist in history to win Video of the Year three years in a row. ## Reception Several management consultants have praised and discussed Taylor Swift Productions' outputs and marketing strategies. Julia Dhar of Forbes said Swift and the company are "no slouches" in marketing and revenue management, dubbing them "masterminds", comparing their work to alchemy, and stating that others can learn from their manuscript. Alice Fulwood of The Economist praised Swift's and the company's ability to "pursue sharp business tactics, while at the same time being careful not to undermine Swift's wholesome image". Screen Daily's Jeremy Kay stated that Taylor Swift Productions "most likely has not needed to spend much if anything on marketing" to promote The Eras Tour, as a few posts from Swift was enough to "to call her loyal fans to action". Kay also praised the "timely marketing strategy" of the film. In 2024, the business magazine Fast Company ranked Taylor Swift Productions at number 15 on their list of "The World's Most Innovative Companies", for "reimagining the business of concerts, music, and movies". The magazine cited the commercial success and innovative distribution agreement of The Eras Tour film as the chief reason. ## Credits ### Films ### Music videos ## See also - Olivia Benson, Swift's pet cat featured in the Taylor Swift Productions logo

1920 Hammond Pros season

Sports season

The 1920 Hammond Pros season was the franchise's inaugural season in the American Professional Football Association (APFA) and second as an American football team. The Pros entered 1920 coming off a 4-win, 2-loss, 3-tie (4–2–3) record in 1919 as an independent team. Several representatives from another professional football league, the Ohio League, wanted to form a new national league, and thus the APFA was created. The Pros opened the 1920 season with a 26–0 loss to the Rock Island Independents. The team did not score a point until their third game, and ended the season with a 2–5 record, which placed it tied for 11th place in the final standings. The sportswriter Bruce Copeland compiled the 1920 All-Pro list, but no players from the Pros were on it. As of 2012, no player from the 1920 Hammond Pros roster has been enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. ## Offseason The Hammond Pros, who were named the Hammond All-Stars, finished 4–2–3 in their 1919 season as an independent team. The All-Stars disbanded, and three teams were created from those players: the Chicago Tigers, the Decatur Staleys, and the Pros. After the 1919 season, representatives of four Ohio League, a professional football league based in Ohio, teams—the Canton Bulldogs, the Cleveland Tigers, the Dayton Triangles, and the Akron Pros—called a meeting on August 20, 1920, to discuss the formation of a new professional league. At the meeting, they tentatively agreed on a salary cap and pledged not to sign college players or players already under contract with other teams. They also agreed on a name for the circuit: the American Professional Football Conference. They then invited other professional teams to a second meeting on September 17. At that meeting, held at Bulldogs owner Ralph Hay's Hupmobile showroom in Canton, representatives of the Rock Island Independents, the Muncie Flyers, the Decatur Staleys, the Racine Cardinals, the Massillon Tigers, and the Hammond Pros agreed to join the league. Representatives of the Buffalo All-Americans and Rochester Jeffersons could not attend the meeting but sent letters to Hay asking to be included in the league. Team representatives changed the league's name slightly to the American Professional Football Association and elected officers, installing Jim Thorpe as president. Under the new league structure, teams created their schedules dynamically as the season progressed, so there were no minimum or maximum number of games needed to be played. Also, representatives of each team voted to determine the winner of the APFA trophy. ### Roster - Mose Bashaw - Tony Catalano - Edward Davis - Guil Falcon - Hank Gillo - Wilbur Henderson - Wally Hess - Max Hicks - Carol Johnson - Klinks Meyers ## Schedule If a team has a dagger (), then that team in a non-APFA team. For the results column, the winning team's score is posted first followed by the result for the Pros. For the attendance, if a cell is greyed out and has "N/A", then that means there is an unknown figure for that game. The green-colored cells indicates a win; and the red-colored cells indicate a loss. The Pros, who did not have a scheduled home game, were a traveling team. ## Game summaries ### Week 3: at Rock Island Independents October 10, 1920, at Douglas Park The Pros started their season in week three with a game against the Rock Island Independents. The Independents already played two games and were undefeated. There were no scores by either team in the first or third quarters, but the Independents scored 13 points in the second and fourth. Running backs Fred Chicken, Ray Kuehl, and Gerald Mansfield accounting for four touchdowns throughout the game. Quarterback Pudge Wyman throw two touchdowns—a 35-yard one to Kuehl and a 20-yard one to Mansfield. Hammond started to purposely injure their opponents during the game because they realized the Independents were a much greater team. As a result, Rube Ursella suffered a twisted knee. Duey Lyle was kicked in the face and required seven stitches. Lastly, Ed Healey was kicked in the face needed five stitches in the cheek. ### Week 4: at Dayton Triangles October 17, 1920, at Triangle Park The Dayton Triangles were the Pros' next opponent. For a second week in a row, the Pros did not score a point. In the first quarter, Triangle back Al Mahrt had a one-yard rushing touchdown. The Triangles scored three touchdowns in the second quarter: a 50-yard receiving touchdown from Mahrt, a 35-yard receiving touchdown from end Dave Reese, and a rushing touchdown from back Lou Partlow. The extra point was missed after the first touchdown. In the next quarter, back George Roudebush kicked a 35-yard field goal. The last score of the game was a receiving touchdown from back Norb Sacksteder. The final score of the game was 44–0 before a crowd of 2,000. ### Week 6: at Logan Squares October 31, 1920, at Logan Square Park After two losses, the Pros decided to not schedule a game in week five and challenge a non-APFA team in week six. Their next opponent, the Logan Squares from Chicago, were on a two-game winning streak. The scoring summary is unavailable, but the Pros defeated the Squares 14–9 in front of 3,000 attendees. ### Week 7: at Pullman Thorns November 7, 1920, in Chicago, Illinois In week seven, the Pros challenged the Pullman Thorns, a non-APFA team. The Thorns were undefeated going into this game with a record of 3–0. The scoring summary is unknown. For the Pros, Hank Gillo and Mace Roberts both scored rushing touchdowns; for the Thorns, LaForest had two rushing touchdowns. The Pros converted two extra points, while the Thorns only converted one. The final score of the game was a 14–13 victory for the Pros. ### Week 8: at Gary Elks November 14, 1920, at Gleason Field After a two-game winning streak, the Pros played the Gary Elks, a non-APFA team, at Gleason Field, with 2,000 people in attendance. The Elks game into the game with an undefeated 5–0–1 record. The Pros were the first team to score when Gilo had a 20-yard rushing touchdown in the first quarter; the extra point was missed, however. The score would stay 6–0 until Smeltzer of the Elks caught a pass from Leverette in the fourth quarter. The extra point was made, and the final score of the game was a 7–6 loss for the Pros. ### Week 9: at Decatur Staleys November 21, 1920, at Staley Field In week 9, the Pros battled the Decatur Staleys in front of 3,000 fans. In the first quarter, Staley back Ralph Lanum scored a 23-yard rushing touchdown. This touchdown was Lanum's only score of the entire 1920 season. Ed Sternaman of the Staleys scored a 10-yard rushing touchdown in the second quarter. Also, George Halas caught a 15-yard receiving touchdown from Jimmy Conzelman to have the game 21–0 going into halftime. In the third quarter, the Staleys did not score, but the Pros put points on the board. Wally Hess caught a 15-yard pass from Emmett Specht for a touchdown. In the final quarter, Halas scored a 26-yard receiving touchdown, and the game ended 28–7. ### Week 10: at Chicago Boosters November 25, 1920, at DePaul Field In their final game of the 1920 season, the Pros played the Chicago Boosters, a non-APFA team. The Boosters came into the game with an undefeated record of 3–0–4. The scoring summary is unknown, but four players of the Boosters—Annan, Bond, Reilly, Applehans—scored a touchdown. The final score of the game was a 27–0 loss for the Pros. ## Standings ## Post season With a losing record, the Pros could not contend for the APFA Championship. After the season was over, the team hired Max Hicks to be the coach for the following season. The Pros' 1920 record of 2–5–2 would be their best outing until 1924; the team folded two years later. Sportswriter Bruce Copeland compiled the 1920 All Pro team, but no player made the list. As of 2012, no players from the 1920 Hammond Pros were enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Yonkers, New York

City in New York, United States

Yonkers (/ˈjɒŋkərz/) is the third-most populous city in the U.S. state of New York and the most-populous city in Westchester County. A centrally located municipality within the New York metropolitan area, Yonkers had a population of 211,569 at the 2020 United States census. Yonkers is classified as an inner suburb of New York City, immediately north of the Bronx and approximately 2.4 miles (4 km) north of Marble Hill (the northernmost point in Manhattan). Downtown Yonkers is centered around Getty Square, where the municipal government is located. The downtown area, which also houses local businesses and nonprofit organizations, is a retail hub for the city and the northwest Bronx. Major shopping areas are in Getty Square on South Broadway, at the Cross County Shopping Center and the Ridge Hill Mall, and along Central Park Avenue. The city has a number of attractions, including Tibbetts Brook Park, Untermyer Park and Gardens, the Hudson River Museum, the Saw Mill River, the Science Barge, Sherwood House, and access to the Hudson River. Yonkers is also known as the City of Seven Hills: Park, Nodine, Ridge, Cross, Locust, Glen, and Church Hills. The city has continued to experience significant gentrification since the inception of the 21st century. ## Name The area was granted to Adriaen van der Donck, the patroon of Colendonck, in July 1645. Van der Donck was known locally as Jonkheer ('young gentleman'), an honorific title derived from the Dutch jonk ('young') and heer ('lord'). The title, similar to "esquire", is linguistically comparable to the German Junker. Jonkheer was shortened to Jonker (possessive Jonkers), from which the name Yonkers derives. The city's residents are known as Yonkersonians, Yonkersites, Yonkers, or Yonks. ## History ### Early settlements The indigenous Native American village of Nappeckamack was located near the Neperah stream (now the Saw Mill River, also known as Nepperhan Creek), which flowed into the Shatemuck (Hudson River). The land on which the city is built was once part of Colen Donck, a 24,000-acre (97-square-kilometer) Dutch land grant. It ran 12 miles (19 km) north from the present-day Manhattan–Bronx border at Marble Hill, and from the Hudson River east to the Bronx River. Adriaen van der Donck (d. 1655) built a saw mill near the confluence of Nepperhan Creek and the Hudson River. Near the site of Van der Donck's mill is the Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site, a manor house owned by Dutch colonists. The historic house museum is also an archive. The original structure was built by white workers and enslaved people for Frederick Philipse and his wife, Margaret Hardenbroeck de Vries, around 1682. Philipse was a wealthy Dutchman who, at his death, had amassed an estate which included present-day Yonkers and several other Hudson River towns. Philipse's great-grandson, Frederick Philipse III, was a prominent loyalist during the American Revolution who had economic and political ties to English businesspeople. Because of his political leanings, he fled to England. American colonists in New York State confiscated and sold all lands and property belonging to the Philipse family. ### Gentrification and redlining Yonkers has undergone several changes to neighborhoods in an effort to revitalize the city, which has included gentrification. Changes were made to its waterfront, which included revitalizing its green space. Residents of the western area of downtown Yonkers opposed the Pierpointe, a condominium-complex development proposal that would build over 1,900 condominiums (including six 38-story towers), during the 1980s struggle against segregation. According to critics, the development would bring homelessness and gentrification to the area. Downtown gentrification has raised concerns that poorer residents might be forced out of the city. A Yonkers Arts Gallery painting, But It's Ours: The Redline Between Poverty and Wealth by Shanequa Benitez, illustrates the effects of gentrification on Yonkers. In an effort to combat redlining, the city announced the Yonkers Greenway: a $14 million rail trail along former railways such as the New York and Putnam Railroad. The 3.1-mile (5.0 km) greenway will run from Van Cortlandt Park to Getty Square. Construction, expected to begin in spring 2024, is planned to be completed in 2026. ### Incorporation and growth The Village of Yonkers was incorporated in the western Town of Yonkers in 1854, and incorporated as a city in 1872. In 1873, the southern Town of Yonkers (outside the City of Yonkers) became the Town of Kingsbridge; this included Woodlawn Cemetery and the present-day neighborhoods of Kingsbridge, Riverdale, and Woodlawn Heights. The Town of Kingsbridge was annexed by New York City the following year as part of the Bronx. In 1898, Yonkers, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island voted on a referendum to determine if they wanted to become part of New York City. Although the referendum passed elsewhere, Yonkers and neighboring Mount Vernon were not included in the consolidated city and remained independent. Some residents call Yonkers "the sixth borough" because of its location on the New York City border, its urban character, and the merger referendum. A 1942 subway connection was planned between Getty Square and the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, which terminates in Riverdale at 242nd Street (slightly south of the city line). The plan was dropped. In 1937, a 175-foot (53 m) water tower collapsed in the Nodine Hills area; nine people were initially injured. The injury total increased by three after the collapse, bringing the number to 12. About 100,000 U.S. gallons (380,000 L) of water from the tower spilled, causing flooding in the area that crushed cars and damaged homes. Construction of a new tower began in 1938, and it became operational the following year. ### Wartime During the American Civil War, 254 Yonkers residents joined the U.S. Army and Navy. They enlisted primarily in four regiments: the 6th New York Heavy Artillery, the 5th New York Volunteer Infantry, the 17th New York Volunteers, and the 15th NY National Guard. During the New York City draft riots, Yonkers formed the Home Guards. The guards were a force of constables formed to protect Yonkers from rioting which was feared to spread from New York City (it did not). Seventeen Yonkers residents were killed during the Civil War. During World War I, 6,909 Yonkers residents (about seven percent of the city's population) entered military service. Most Yonkers men joined the 27th Division or the 77th Division. One hundred thirty-seven city residents were killed during the war. In the 1918 sinking of the USS President Lincoln, seventeen sailors from Yonkers survived. Civilians helped the war effort by joining organizations such as the American Red Cross. The Yonkers chapter of the Red Cross had 126 members in 1916; by the end of the war, 15,358 Yonkers residents belonged to the chapter. Mostly women, they prepared surgical dressings, created hospital garments for the wounded, and knit articles of clothing for refugees and soldiers. In addition to joining the Red Cross, Yonkers residents donated $19,255,255 to a number of war drives. The city's factories were converted to produce items for World War II, such as tents and blankets from the Alexander Smith and Sons carpet factory and tanks from the Otis Elevator factory. Increased competition from less-expensive imports resulted in a decline in manufacturing in Yonkers after the war, and a number of industrial jobs were lost. ### Industry Yonkers was originally a small farming town which produced peaches, apples, potatoes, oats, wheat, and other agricultural goods to be shipped to New York City along the Hudson River. Water power created manufacturing jobs. Elisha Otis invented a safety elevator in 1853, and the Otis Elevator Company opened the world's first elevator factory on the Hudson near present-day Vark Street. The company moved to larger quarters during the 1880s, which later became the Yonkers Public Library. Around that time, the Alexander Smith and Sons Carpet Company in the Saw Mill River Valley expanded to 45 buildings, 800 looms, and more than 4,000 workers. It was known as one of the world's premier carpet-producing centers. In addition to manufacturing, Yonkers played a key role in the development of recreational sports in the United States. Scottish-born John Reid founded Saint Andrew's Golf Club in the city in 1888; it was the first golf course in the United States. That year, the New York City and Northern Railway Company (later the New York Central Railroad) connected Yonkers to Manhattan and points north. A three-mile spur to Getty Square operated until 1943. Bakelite, the first completely-synthetic plastic, was invented c. 1907 in Yonkers by Leo Baekeland and was manufactured there until the late 1920s. During the early 20th century, Yonkers hosted the Brass-Era automaker Colt Runabout. Although the vehicle reportedly ran well, the company went out of business. Yonkers was the headquarters of hat manufacturer Waring Hat Company, which was the largest in the nation when it opened. On January 4, 1940, Yonkers resident Edwin Howard Armstrong transmitted the first FM radio broadcast on the W2XCR station from the Yonkers home of co-experimenter C. R. Runyon. Yonkers had the longest-running pirate radio station, which was owned by Allan Weiner and operated during the 1970s and 1980s. The Alexander Smith Carpet Company, one of the city's largest employers, ceased operations during a June 1954 labor dispute. In 1983, the Otis Elevator factory closed. A Kawasaki railcar-assembly plant opened in 1986 in the former Otis plant. With the loss of manufacturing jobs, Yonkers became a commuter town. Some neighborhoods, such as Crestwood and Park Hill, became popular with wealthy New Yorkers who wanted to live outside Manhattan without giving up urban conveniences. Yonkers' transportation infrastructure, which included three commuter railroad lines and five parkways and thruways, made it a desirable city in which to live. A 15-minute drive from Manhattan, it has a number of prewar homes and apartment buildings. Yonkers' manufacturing sector has also revived during the early 21st century. In 2024, Kawasaki rail reached a milestone with its 5,000th railway car. ### Racial discrimination and United States v. Yonkers In 1960, the population of Yonkers was 95.8 percent white and four percent Black. The city developed a national reputation for racial tension during the 1980s and 1990s, based on a long-term battle between the city and the NAACP over the construction of subsidized, low-income housing projects. Yonkers planned to use federal funding for urban renewal exclusively downtown; other groups, led by the NAACP, believed that the resulting concentration of low-income housing in traditionally-poor neighborhoods would perpetuate poverty. Although the city had been warned in 1971 by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development about further construction of low-income housing in west Yonkers, it continued to support subsidized housing in this area between 1972 and 1977. In 1980, the NAACP and the federal government filed suit against the city of Yonkers and its board of education in United States v. Yonkers. After a 1985 decision and an unsuccessful appeal, Yonkers' schools were integrated three years later. According to a ruling by federal judge Leonard B. Sand, Yonkers engaged in institutional segregation in housing and educational policies for more than 40 years. He connected the city's opposition to ending racial segregation from its public schools to the unlawful concentration of public housing and discrimination in private housing. Yonkers gained national and international attention during the summer of 1988, when it backed out of its previous agreement to build municipal public housing in the eastern parts of the city (an agreement it had made in a consent decree after losing its appeal in 1987). After its reversal, the city was found in contempt of the federal courts. Sand imposed a fine on Yonkers which began at $100 and doubled every day, capped at $1 million per day by an appeals court, until the city capitulated to the federally-mandated plan. The city remained in contempt of court until September 9, 1988, when its city council relented as the financial impact threatened to close a library and reduce sanitation. The city also considered massive layoffs, which would have adversely affected its ability to provide services to the upper classes it was trying to retain. Nicholas C. Wasicsko, Yonkers' youngest mayor (elected at age 28), struggled in city politics. He helped end the city's contempt-of-court ruling, but was voted out of office as a result. Wasicsko's story, subject of the 2015 miniseries Show Me a Hero, was adapted from a 1999 nonfiction book of the same name by Lisa Belkin. The 2007 documentary Brick by Brick: A Civil Rights Story also covers racial discrimination and housing segregation in Yonkers. As a result of the federal lawsuit, Yonkers' public-school enrollment dropped from 54 percent of the city's eligible population to under 30 percent as thousands of white families left the city for its suburbs or enrolled their children in private schools; this effectively gutted the city's middle class and tax base. The school district's estimated cost of integration was over $262 million. Forced to cut programs, Yonkers schools fell steeply in national rankings as test scores sharply declined. By 1995, The New York Times called the city's desegregation effort "a profound disappointment to blacks and whites alike". Michael Sussmann, the NAACP's lawyer during the case, blamed Sand for failing to allocate federal funds to help relieve the cost of integration. ### 21st century Areas of Yonkers which bordered similar neighborhoods in Riverdale began seeing an influx of Orthodox Jews during the 2000s, and the Riverdale Hatzalah volunteer ambulance service began serving neighborhoods in the southwest part of the city. The Sherwood Park Cemetery is a small Jewish cemetery. Two former Alexander Smith and Sons Carpet Company loft buildings (at 540 and 578 Nepperhan Avenue) have been repurposed to house the YoHo Artist Community, which has private studios there. Yonkers Raceway, a harness racing track, renovated its grounds and clubhouse and added video slot machines in 2006 to become Yonkers Raceway & Empire City Casino. MGM Resorts International bought the raceway and casino in 2018 for $850 million. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the city opened several test sites at the ParkCare Pavilion of St. John's Riverside Hospital (considered a COVID-19 hotspot). The test site was operated by the New York State Department of Health during the pandemic. More test sites opened in the city as students prepared to return to school for in-person instruction. In February 2023, the Yonkers City Council approved the US Post Office on Main Street for local-landmark status after its 1989 listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. On September 29, 2023, a state of emergency was declared in the city after flash flooding affected most of the Hudson Valley and New York City. Most area parkways were closed and flooding was also reported in neighboring Mount Vernon. After the flooding, crews pumped water out of Yonkers homes. The city has been used as a location for films and television series, and the City Hall courtroom is used for film scenes and commercials. The city along with neighboring Mount Vernon saw an increase in revenue grow from 2016. Catch Me If You Can (2002) and Mona Lisa Smile (2003) were partially filmed in the city. Yonkers is the setting of two feature films by local filmmaker Robert Celestino: Mr. Vincent (1997) and Yonkers Joe (2008). The city is the setting for the 2005 film A Tale of Two Pizzas, and Tyler, the Creator released "Yonkers" in 2011. Neil Simon's play, Lost in Yonkers, and its film version are set in the city. A new Lionsgate Studios facility hosts the Spanish multimedia communications group Mediapro, and a planned $500 million expansion would make it the largest such facility in the Northeast. ## Geography Yonkers covers an area of 20.3 square miles (53 km²), including 18.1 square miles (47 km²) of land and 2.2 square miles (5.7 km²) of water. On the east, the Bronx River separates Yonkers from Mount Vernon, Tuckahoe, Eastchester, Bronxville, and Scarsdale. The town of Greenburgh is on the north, and the Hudson River forms the western border. Yonkers borders the Riverdale, Woodlawn, and Wakefield sections of The Bronx from the south. The city is spread over hills rising from near sea level on the east bank of the Hudson River to 416 feet (127 m) above sea level at Sacred Heart Church, whose spire can be seen from Long Island, New York City, and New Jersey. Yonkers is considered a City of Seven Hills: Park, Nodine, Ridge, Cross, Locust, Glen, and Church Hills. Much of the city developed around the Saw Mill River, which enters Yonkers from the north and flows into the Hudson River at Getty Square. Portions of the river had been buried in flumes under parking lots, but have been uncovered (daylighted). Daylighting promotes the restoration of habitat for plants, fish, and other fauna, and helps develop an understanding of where Native Americans camped in spring and summer. ## Demographics Yonkers is the third-most populous city in New York State. In the 2018 American Community Survey, 34.8 percent of Yonkers residents spoke Spanish and 4.2 percent of the population was West Indian. Yonkers has a sizeable Arab population, mainly from the Levant (especially Jordanians and Palestinians). There is also a sizeable Albanian population in the city. In the 2010 census, there were 195,976 people in Yonkers and its population density was 10,827.4 people per square mile (4,180.5 people/km²). There were 80,839 housing units, with an average density of 4,466.2 per square mile (1,724.4/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 55.8 percent white, 18.7 percent African American, 0.7 percent Native American, 5.9 percent Asian, 0.1 percent Pacific Islander, 14.7 percent from other races, and 4.1 percent from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any racial background were 34.7 percent of the population. Non-Hispanic whites were 41.4 percent of the population in 2010, down from 89.9 percent in 1970. Data from the 2020 census indicated that Yonkers' population grew by eight percent from 2010 to 2020, an increase from 195,976 to 211,569. Yonkers surpassed Rochester as the third-most populous city in New York, behind New York City and Buffalo. The Hispanic population increased, as the non-Hispanic population decreased to 33 percent from 41.4 percent in 2010. The Hispanic and Latino population increased to 40 percent, and the Asian population increased to 5.9%. The city reported a decrease in its white population from 55.8 to 46.3 percent. ### 2020 census ## Neighborhoods Yonkers includes several small residential enclaves and communities which form four quarters, demarcated by the Saw Mill River. There are at least 38 neighborhoods, but many of their original names are rarely used except by older residents and real-estate brokers. ### Northeast Yonkers Northeast Yonkers is a primarily Irish-American and Italian-American area. House sizes vary, from small houses set close together to larger homes in neighborhoods such as Lawrence Park West and mid-rise apartment buildings along Central Avenue (NY 100). Central Avenue (officially Central Park Avenue) is a shopping area. Notable former residents include Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, whose childhood home was at 100 Pembrook Drive. The area contains the affluent neighborhoods of Crestwood, Colonial Heights, and Cedar Knolls, and the wealthy enclaves of Beech Hill and Lawrence Park West. It includes a gated community off the eastern Grassy Sprain Reservoir, known as Winchester Villages. Notable places include St. Vladimir's Seminary, Sarah Lawrence College, and the Tanglewood Shopping Center, former home of the Tanglewood Boys gang. The area is also home to the Ridge Hill Mall shopping center, which contains a Legoland Discovery Center Westchester, the first Legoland Discovery Center to open in the Northeast area of the United States. Northeast Yonkers is somewhat more expensive than the rest of the city and, due to the proximity of several Metro-North commuter railroad stations, its residents generally work for Manhattan corporations. ### Northwest Yonkers Northwest Yonkers neighborhoods vary, spanning from the Hudson River to the New York State Thruway (I-87) and from Ashburton Avenue north to the Hastings-on-Hudson border. With the Hudson River bordering it on the west, northwest Yonkers has many Victorian-era homes with panoramic views of the Palisades. The Victorian architecture and number of 19th-century estates in northwest Yonkers has attracted filmmakers. An interest in historic preservation has developed, demonstrated on streets such as Shonnard Terrace, Delavan Terrace, and Hudson Terrace. On Delavan Terrace, the 1854 Smith-Collins House was included in a 1983 article in The New York Times. The house was demolished in 2007, and former city-council president Chuck Lesnick called for legislation which would make the demolition of a 75-year-old landmark in the city subject to the landmark-review process. Neighborhoods include Nepera Park, Runyon Heights, Homefield, Glenwood, and Greystone. Landmarks include the Hudson River Museum, the Lenoir Nature Preserve, and Untermyer Park and Gardens. The two-block section of Palisade Avenue between Chase and Roberts Avenues in northwest Yonkers is colloquially known as "the north end" or "the end". The only retail area in northwest Yonkers, it was known for its soda fountain, Urich's Stationery, and Robbins Pharmacy. It was the end of a trolley line that has since been replaced by a Bee-line Bus route. Nepperhan Avenue in Nepera Park is a shopping district in the area. ### Southeast Yonkers Residents of southeast Yonkers are primarily Irish- and Italian-American. A number of recent immigrants from Ireland live in the area. Its architecture more closely resembles that of parts of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island than of points north. Southeast Yonkers is within walking distance of the Woodlawn and Wakefield neighborhoods of the Bronx. Eastern McLean Avenue, home to an Irish community shared with Woodlawn, is considered the hub of Yonkers by some. A portion of Midland Avenue in the Dunwoodie neighborhood has been called the city's Little Italy. Southeast Yonkers landmarks include the Cross County Shopping Center, Yonkers Raceway and St. Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoodie, which was visited by Pope John Paul II in October 1995 and by Pope Benedict XVI in April 2008. ### Southwest Yonkers Getty Square is Yonkers' downtown and its civic center and central business district. Much of southwest Yonkers grew along the railroad and trolley (now bus) lines along South Broadway and in Getty Square which run to New York City. Clusters of apartment buildings surrounded the stations of the Yonkers branch of the New York and Putnam Railroad and the Third Avenue Railway trolley lines; these buildings are now served by the Bee-Line Bus System. The railroad companies built neighborhoods of mixed housing which ranged from apartment buildings to large mansions in areas such as Park Hill, where a funicular accessed the train station in the valley. Off South Broadway and Yonkers Avenue are residential neighborhoods such as Lowerre, Nodine Hill, Park Hill, and Hudson Park. They have a mixture of architectural styles which include dense clusters of apartment buildings, blocks of stores with apartments above, multifamily row houses, and detached single-family homes. The Ludlow Park, Hudson Park, and Van Cortlandt Crest neighborhoods have a larger number of detached houses. Southwest Yonkers, traditionally home to African American and white residents, has seen an influx of immigrants from Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, South Asia, and the Middle East. Many residents are of African, Caribbean, Italian, Polish, or Mexican descent. Some neighborhoods on the Riverdale border contain an increasing number of Orthodox Jews. The area is home to historical and educational institutions which include Philipse Manor Hall, the Science Barge, the Beczak Environmental Education Center, and a 2003 Yonkers Public Library building. The revitalization of Getty Square has helped facilitate the growth of southwest Yonkers. During the early 21st century, several luxury apartment buildings were built along the Hudson River. A Victorian-era pier was renovated, and a new public library was housed in the remodeled Otis Elevator factory. Peter X. Kelly's restaurant, X20 Xaviar's on the Hudson, is on the renovated pier. In 2020, several more rental buildings were placed at the river's edge on Alexander Street. Sawyer Place is an 18-story building on the site of the original old mill. New proposals and current projects are intended to revitalize downtown Yonkers. ## Government Phillipse Manor Hall was the site of the first Yonkers Village Hall and City Hall from 1868 to c. 1906. Yonkers is governed by a strong mayor–council system. The Yonkers City Council has seven members: six, elected from each of the six districts, and a president. The mayor and city-council president are elected in a citywide vote. The mayor is Democrat Mike Spano, and the council president is Lakisha Collins-Bellamy. Yonkers, like the rest of Westchester County and New York state, is a Democratic stronghold at the national level. The city chose George H. W. Bush over Bill Clinton and Ross Perot for president in 1992, but has voted solidly Democratic ever since. Recent mayors have included Republicans Phil Amicone and John Spencer, and the city council has been primarily controlled by Republicans. Yonkers is represented in the State Assembly, by Democrats J. Gary Pretlow and Nader Sayegh, and in the State Senate by Democrats Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Shelley Mayer. In the House of Representatives, Democrat Jamaal Bowman represents the city. ## Education Yonkers Public Schools operates the city's public schools. There are several elementary Catholic schools, and one Muslim school; the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York operates Catholic schools in Westchester County. The Academy for Jewish Religion, a rabbinical and cantorial school, is in the Getty Square neighborhood. Sarah Lawrence College, with a Bronxville mailing address, is located in Yonkers. Westchester Community College (part of the State University of New York system) operates a number of extension centers in Yonkers, with the largest in the Cross County Shopping Center. Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary is in Crestwood. The Japanese School of New York was in Yonkers for one year; the school moved to Queens on August 18, 1991, and to Greenwich, Connecticut on September 1, 1992. Three branches are operated by the Yonkers Public Library: Crestwood, Riverfront, and Grinton I. Will. The Carnegie Library, funded by Andrew Carnegie, was demolished in May 1982 to make way for the expansion of Nepperhan Avenue as an arterial road. ## Transportation ### Mass transit Yonkers has the eleventh-highest rate of public-transit ridership among cities in the United States, and 27 percent of the city's households do not own a car. Bus service is provided by the Westchester County Bee-Line Bus System (the state's second-largest bus system), and the MTA Bus Company has express routes to Manhattan. Yonkers is the top terminus of the Bee-Line Bus service area, which includes Westchester and the northern Bronx, and the Getty Square intermodal hub serves millions of passengers per year. The Metro-North Railroad serves Yonkers with two heavy-rail commuter lines: the Hudson Line and the Harlem Line. The Ludlow, Yonkers, Glenwood, and Greystone stations are on the Hudson Line, which provides commuter service to New York City. The Yonkers station is also served by all of Amtrak's named Empire Service trains except for the Lake Shore Limited. Several Harlem Line stations are on or near the city's eastern border. These include Wakefield, Mount Vernon West, Fleetwood, Bronxville, Tuckahoe and Crestwood. The area was served by the commuter New York and Putnam Railroad from the late 19th century until its closure in 1958. Its right-of-way has been paved and is used as a public park and part of the Empire State Trail, which spans 750 miles (1,210 km) from New York City to Buffalo and Rouses Point via Albany. Until December 2009, New York Water Taxi operated a ferry service from downtown Yonkers to Manhattan's Financial District. From 2018 to 2020, Yonkers had a dockless bikeshare program operated by LimeBike. It has an electric-scooter program which was begun in August 2020 by Bird, making Yonkers the first city in New York with such a program. ### Roads and paths Limited-access highways in Yonkers include Interstate 87 (the New York State Thruway) and the Saw Mill, Bronx River, Sprain Brook and Cross County Parkways. US 9, NY 9A, and NY 100 are major surface streets. The main line of the former New York and Putnam Railroad has been converted into the South County Trailway, a paved walking and bicycling path. It runs north–south in Yonkers from the Hastings-on-Hudson border in the north to the Bronx border in the south at Van Cortlandt Park, where it is known as the Putnam Greenway. The Croton Aqueduct tunnel has a hard-packed dirt trail, the Old Croton Aqueduct Trailway, running above it for most of its length in Yonkers; a few on-street routes are on the edge of the Getty Square neighborhood. ## Fire department The city is served by the Yonkers Fire Department (YFD), which has 459 firefighters under the command of a fire commissioner and three deputy chiefs. Founded in 1896, the YFD operates from 14 fire stations throughout the city in two battalions commanded by two assistant chiefs for each shift. The department responds to about 16,000 emergency calls annually. In its fire apparatus fleet, the YFD has 10 engine companies, six ladder companies, one squad (rescue-pumper) company, one rescue company, one fireboat, one air cascade unit, one USAR (urban search and rescue) collapse unit, one foam unit, one hazmat unit, and several special, support, and reserve units. ## Economy Yonkers is home to several brewing companies, most notably the Simple Motive Brewing Company and Yonkers Brewing Company. The Yonkers Brewing Company opened in 2015 in the Yonkers Trolley Barn, a former trolley station which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Before its opening, brewing in the city had been associated with former mobster Dutch Schultz. The Simple Motive Brewing Company opened in the Carpet Mills Art District at the Mills, a 55,000-square-foot (5,100 m²) former warehouse, in 2023 after years of delays. The city had an unemployment rate of 18.7 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic, with about 17,800 people out of work. The unemployment rate increased to 19.4 percent in July 2020, the highest in Yonkers history. Unemployment was 2.8 percent in April 2023, the lowest in city history. ### Principal employers According to Yonkers' 2023 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, its principal employers were: 1. Montefiore IT – 780 employees 2. Liberty Lines Transit – 689 3. Yonkers Raceway – 566 4. Stew Leonard's – 511 5. Kawasaki Rail – 455 6. Consumer Reports – 508 7. American Sugar Refining – 318 8. Macy's – 285 9. Cintas – 220 ## Notable people ## Sister cities Yonkers is twinned with: - Ternopil, Ukraine (1991) - Kamëz, Albania (2011)

Geography of Newfoundland and Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province in Canada. The Strait of Belle Isle separates the province into two geographical regions, Labrador and the island of Newfoundland. The province also includes over seven thousand small islands. Labrador is the easternmost part of the Canadian Shield, a vast area of ancient metamorphic rock comprising much of northeastern North America. Colliding tectonic plates have shaped much of the geology of Newfoundland. Gros Morne National Park has a reputation of being an outstanding example of tectonics at work, and as such has been designated a World Heritage Site. The Long Range Mountains on Newfoundland's west coast are the northeasternmost extension of the Appalachian Mountains. The fauna of Labrador is typical of that of similar areas of North America while the island of Newfoundland has considerably fewer mammals and no native amphibians. The north–south extent of the province (46°36'N to 60°22'N), prevalent westerly winds, cold ocean currents and local factors such as mountains and coastline combine to create the various climates of the province. Northern Labrador is classified as a polar tundra climate, southern Labrador is considered to be a subarctic climate while most of Newfoundland would be considered to be a cool summer subtype of a humid continental climate. The provincial capital is St. John's, located at the extreme eastern edge of the island, Newfoundland, on the Avalon Peninsula. About half of the province's economy is based on its abundant natural resources, notably petroleum, minerals, forestry and the fishery. ## Physical geography Newfoundland is roughly triangular, with each side being approximately 500 kilometres (310 mi), and having an area of 108,860 square kilometres (42,030 sq mi). Newfoundland and its associated small islands have a total area of 111,390 square kilometres (43,010 sq mi). Newfoundland extends between latitudes 46°36'N and 51°38'N. It lies at similar latitudes to Great Britain, and the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. Labrador is an irregular shape: the western part of its border with Quebec is the drainage divide for the Labrador Peninsula. Lands drained by rivers that flow into the Atlantic Ocean are part of Labrador, the rest belongs to Quebec. Labrador’s extreme northern tip, at 60°22'N, shares a short border with Nunavut on Killiniq Island. Labrador’s area (including associated small islands) is 294,330 square kilometres (113,640 sq mi). Together, Newfoundland and Labrador make up 4.06% of Canada’s area. The island of Newfoundland is separated from Labrador by the Strait of Belle Isle, which is 125 kilometres (78 mi) long and from 60 to 15 kilometres (37.3 to 9.3 mi) wide. In addition to the island of Newfoundland, the province is made up of 12 larger islands with a total area of 2,505 square kilometres (967 sq mi) and 7,170 smaller islands with a total area of 3,598 square kilometres (1,389 sq mi). ## Geology A large part of the island of Newfoundland is an extension of the Appalachian system. Major bays, peninsulas, river systems and mountain ranges are typically oriented southwest to northeast, parallel to the Appalachians. The eastern part of the island (the Avalon Peninsula and Burin Peninsula) is mostly folded sedimentary rocks with some intrusions of igneous rock and was part of southwestern Europe or Northern Africa about 250 million years ago. The oldest rocks are Precambrian. Small remnants of Cambrian and Ordovician rocks occur along the coast. Bell Island in Conception Bay is a good example of gently sloping Ordovician sedimentary rock. The plateau in the Avalon Peninsula averages 250 metres (820 ft) above sea level. The rest of the island is composed of a great variety of Paleozoic rocks of sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic origin. Along the west coast lie the Long Range Mountains, which are formed by an elongated block of the Earth's crust (a horst) which rises to about 600 metres (2,000 ft) above sea level. This part of the island was once part of the eastern margin of continental North America. The island's highest points, the Lewis Hills and Gros Morne, are located within this mountain range. To the east is a depression or graben about 30 kilometres (19 mi) wide, which is occupied by Deer Lake and Grand Lake. The main plateau of the central part of the island, which was once the sea bottom of the ancient Iapetus Ocean, has been heavily eroded by water and ice. Steep, solitary rock knobs, called "tolts" in Newfoundland (elsewhere known as inselbergs or monadnocks), which jut 100 metres (330 ft) or more above the generally flat terrain are the remnants of a former higher landscape level. Glaciers which helped shape these tolts left other evidence around Newfoundland. Large blocks of stone called glacial erratics have been left scattered across much of the landscape. The long narrow lakes of the west coast, notably those in Gros Morne National Park resulted from glacial erosion. The lack of good soil on most parts of the island is a result of the scouring effect of glaciers during the most recent ice age. Newfoundland's nickname, "The Rock", is partially a result of the ice ages. One of the most noteworthy aspects of Newfoundland geology is a result of the constant movement of tectonic plates. Approximately 500 million years ago, the action of these plates forced sections of the oceanic crust that had been underlying the Iapetus Ocean up and over the eastern margin of the North American plate. Sections of oceanic crust which overlie continental crust are known as ophiolites. Gros Morne National Park was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it is one of the best places in the world to see the effects of plate tectonics and one of the few places where rocks formed at the Mohorovicic Discontinuity between the crust and the upper mantle of the Earth can be seen. Another notable geology site is at Mistaken Point, where rocks containing probably the oldest metazoan fossils in North America and the most ancient deep-water marine fossils in the world are found preserved in layers of volcanic ash. Labrador is the easternmost part of the Canadian Shield and is composed of ancient Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks. The interior averages about 450 metres (1,480 ft) above sea level and is cut by large, east-flowing rivers, such as the Churchill River and its tributaries. The northern coast is largely mountainous. The Torngat Mountains, Kaumajet Mountains and Kiglapait Mountains dominate this area with the highest peak being Mount Caubvick at 1,652 metres (5,420 ft). Torngat Mountains National Park Reserve was created in 2005 to preserve part of this area. ## Biosphere The biosphere is subdivided into distinct geographical regions called biomes. Newfoundland and Labrador are divided into two biomes: tundra and taiga. Northern Labrador is part of the tundra, while southern Labrador is part of the taiga. Newfoundland is not typical of either biome, as it lacks much of the plant and animal life that are characteristic to these biomes. During the last ice age the island of Newfoundland was completely covered by glaciers and swept clean of life. Only those species which were able to recolonize the island after the glaciers retreated about 18,000 years ago are considered "native". Similarly, only freshwater-fish capable of surviving seawater swam to the island. Labrador has 42 native mammals, Newfoundland is home only to 14, with no snakes, raccoons, skunks or porcupines. Large herds of Woodland caribou can be found in the barren interior regions of the island. Two animals formerly resident in Newfoundland have been declared extinct: the Great auk, a flightless seabird, and the Newfoundland wolf, a subspecies of the Gray wolf. The Labrador duck, believed to have nested in Labrador, was one of the first North American bird species to be recorded as becoming extinct. Many rare herbaceous plants and insects occur on the island. The west coast of the island supports over 200 plant species. Rare species such as Long’s braya (Braya longii) and Fernald’s braya (B. fernaldii), are endemic to Newfoundland. Brayas are small perennial herbs of the family Brassicaceae. They are only found on a narrow strip of land extending approximately 150 kilometres (93 mi) on the extreme western portion of the Great Northern Peninsula, a limestones barrens habitat. The braya population is low due to habitat loss from gravel quarrying. Researchers have only found three populations of Long's braya, and 14 or 15 populations of Fernald's brayas. Researchers have focused on how various types of disturbances affect the long-term viability of these populations. The Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, with many partners, is studying the rare plant flora of the island of Newfoundland and in 2002 announced a recovery plan for the braya species. Many plants and animals have been introduced to Newfoundland, either by chance or deliberately. Moose, snowshoe hare, American red squirrel, eastern chipmunk, and masked shrew, and others, were brought to the island through specific wildlife mandates. Moose were introduced in 1904 and are now the dominant ungulate on the island. An unusual experiment conducted in 1964 involved relocating a small herd of bison onto Brunette Island in Fortune Bay. The last of these animals is thought to have died by 1994. Rats and mice were unintentionally introduced while mink escaped from fur farms. Coyotes are a very recent addition to the fauna of Newfoundland. How coyotes got onto the island is still debated by wildlife officials, but it is probable that they crossed the ice from Cape Breton Island in the 1980s. Newfoundland has no native amphibians, but frogs were introduced onto the island in the 1860s and toads almost a century later. The marine waters around the province are considered boreal, or sub-Arctic, in nature. A great deal of the coastline is rock-strewn, allowing an extensive variety of plant and animal life to thrive. The leading plants of the shoreline are the large brown seaweeds, such as bladder, forked and knotted Wracks, and winged and sugar kelps, though there are also a number of red and green seaweeds present. Common animals of the seashore region include barnacles, tortoiseshell limpet, common periwinkle, blue mussels, sea anemones, sea slugs, sea urchins, starfish, and rock crabs. The deeper waters are home to a variety of fish, such as Atlantic cod, sculpins and cunners, halibut, haddock, sharks, and marine mammals, such as dolphins, porpoises, and whales. Whales seen off Newfoundland include Pilot whales, minkes, sei whales, fin whales and humpbacks. Harp and hooded seals are usually found in the spring, giving birth to their young on coastal ice floes. The tundra is a sub-Arctic zone with long, cold winters and short, warm summers. Precipitation is low. Soil a meter below ground and deeper is permanently frozen (permafrost), which does not allow water to drain easily through the soil, so it collects in shallow pools. Trees and shrubs are stunted since their roots cannot grow into the permafrost. Low shrubs, lichens, mosses, and small herbaceous plants are found instead. The most common mammals on the tundra are the barren-ground caribou, Arctic wolf, Arctic fox, Arctic hare, lemmings, and voles. Occasional sightings of muskoxen have been made near Cape Chidley, Labrador's most northerly point. The polar bear is the dominant carnivore of the tundra, but is an occasional visitor to coastal Newfoundland, especially in the spring. Many birds migrate to Labrador in spring to lay their eggs and raise their young before returning south for the winter, including the common eider, harlequin duck, Common redpoll and American pipit. The Labrador tundra is also permanent home to ptarmigan. Southern Labrador is mostly taiga. It is characterized by low winter temperatures, a longer growing season, and more precipitation than the tundra. Soils are typically lacking important nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. The taiga is dominated by coniferous trees, notably balsam fir and black spruce, though the deciduous white birch, trembling aspen and mountain ash are also present. The most common animals are the moose, American black bear, Canada lynx, red fox, pine marten, short-tailed weasel, and American mink. Beavers, muskrats, and river otters thrive in the many rivers, streams, and wetlands. Willow ptarmigan, common raven, and blackpoll warbler inhabit the forests of southern Labrador while golden eagles, rough-legged hawks and peregrine falcons nest on steep cliffs. ## Climate The province has been divided into seven climate types, but in broader terms Newfoundland is considered to be a cool summer subtype of a humid continental climate, which is greatly influenced by the sea since no part of the island is more than 100 kilometres (62 mi) from the ocean. Northern Labrador is classified as a polar tundra climate, southern Labrador is considered to have a subarctic climate. Monthly average temperatures, rainfall and snowfall for four communities are shown in the attached graphs. St. John's represents the east coast, Gander the interior of the island, Corner Brook the west coast of the island and Wabush the interior of Labrador. The detailed information and information for 73 communities in the province is available from a government website. The data used in making the graphs is the average taken over thirty years. Error bars on the temperature graph indicate the range of daytime highs and night time lows. Snowfall is the total amount which fell during the month, not the amount accumulated on the ground. This distinction is particularly important for St. John's where a heavy snowfall can be followed by rain so that no snow remains on the ground. Surface water temperatures on the Atlantic side reaches a summer average of 12 °C (54 °F) inshore and 9 °C (48 °F) offshore to winter lows of −1 °C (30 °F) inshore and 2 °C (36 °F) offshore. Sea temperatures on the west coast are warmer than Atlantic side by 1 to 3 °C (approximately 2 to 5 °F). The sea keeps winter temperatures slightly higher and summer temperatures a little lower on the coast than at places inland. The maritime climate produces more variable weather, ample precipitation in a variety of forms, greater humidity, lower visibility, more clouds, less sunshine, and higher winds than a continental climate. Some of these effects can be seen in the graphs. Labrador's climate differs from that of the island not only because it is further north, but also because the interior does not see the moderating effects of the ocean. Weather systems affecting Newfoundland usually originate from the west, over mainland Canada, or from the southwest, from the east coast of the United States. Cyclonic storms consist of an area of low atmospheric pressure characterized by inward spiraling winds that rotate counter clockwise in the northern hemisphere. Such storms passing to the south of the island bring strong northeasterly winds sweeping in off the open North Atlantic Ocean. These storms are sometimes referred to as Nor'easters and are responsible for the worst of Newfoundland's weather. High winds sweeping over a large surface of ocean can build up very large waves. The frequency and severity of storms is greatest between November and March, although they may occur at any time of the year. One of these storms was the "Independence Hurricane", which struck eastern Newfoundland on September 9, 1775. About 4000 sailors, mostly from the British Isles, were reported to have been drowned. During a violent storm on February 15, 1982, the drilling rig Ocean Ranger capsized and sank on the Grand Banks, 300 kilometres (190 mi) east of St. John's. The entire 84-man crew perished, making it the worst Canadian marine disaster in decades. Newfoundland and Labrador has the strongest winds of any of the provinces, with most places having average annual wind speeds over 20 kilometres per hour (12 mph). Freezing rain is common in Newfoundland where it is known as "silver thaw". Freezing drizzle or freezing rain occurs on average of 150 hours each winter, most commonly in March. One such storm struck St. John's on April 11, 1984, and lasted three days. Ice almost 15 centimetres (5.9 in) thick disrupted electrical power to 200,000 people on the Avalon Peninsula for days. Newfoundland receives less than 1600 hours of sunshine per year, much lower than the Canadian average of 1925 hours. Summer months average 187 hours of sun while the December average is 60 hours. Newfoundland is also known for its fog which occurs most often in the spring and early summer because of the contrast between sea and air temperatures. Argentia has 206 days of fog per year. Fog in Newfoundland is frequently accompanied by strong onshore winds; while usually winds disperse fog, here the fog is too widespread for this to occur. ### St. John's weather extremes Of all the major Canadian cities, St. John's is the foggiest (124 days, next to Halifax's 122), snowiest (359 centimetres (141 in), next to Quebec City's 343 centimetres (135 in)), wettest (1514 millimetres (59.6 in), next to Halifax's 1491 millimetres (58.7 in)), windiest (24.3 km/h (15.1 mph) average speed, next to Regina's 20.7 km/h (12.9 mph)), and cloudiest (1,497 hours of sunshine, next to Charlottetown's 1,818 hours). St. John's has one of the mildest winters in Canada (third mildest city next to Victoria and Vancouver), yet has the most freezing rain days of any major Canadian city. ## Hydrography ### Fresh water Shallow soil and bedrock deeply scored by glaciers are responsible for the numerous lakes and ponds, and short, swift flowing rivers scattered across Newfoundland and Labrador. The area of freshwater in Newfoundland and Labrador is 31,340 square kilometres (12,100 sq mi), covering 7.7% of the total surface of area of the province and accounting for 3.5% of the freshwater area of Canada. ### Ocean The west coast of Newfoundland borders on the Gulf of St. Lawrence while all other coasts face the Atlantic Ocean. Labrador's coast borders the Labrador Sea, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. The Strait of Belle Isle connects the Gulf of St. Lawrence with the Labrador Sea and is the narrowest channel separating Newfoundland from mainland Canada. The Cabot Strait separates Newfoundland from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. The continental shelf off Newfoundland is known as the Grand Banks. The cold Labrador Current and the warm Gulf Stream meet on the Grand Banks, making the area not only one of the richest fishing grounds in the world, but also one of the foggiest areas. The Grand Banks are an area of significant petroleum production with Hibernia, White Rose and Terra Nova oil fields all located there. ### Icebergs and pack ice Approximately 90% of icebergs in the North Atlantic come from about 100 iceberg-producing glaciers on the Greenland coast. Once detached from the glaciers, icebergs are transported southward through the Davis Strait by the Labrador Current. Approximately 40,000 medium to large icebergs annually calve from Greenland glaciers, and depending on wind, and air and water temperature, between 400 and 800 of these go as far south as 48° north latitude (St. John's). Icebergs are most commonly seen in the waters off Newfoundland in the spring and early summer. Despite their size, the icebergs of Newfoundland move an average of 17 kilometres (11 mi) a day. The average mass of icebergs in the Grand Banks area is between one and two hundred thousand tonnes. These icebergs represent a significant threat to shipping and off-shore oil platforms and the hazard is aggravated by dense fog in this area. During the first half of each year the waters off Newfoundland may become covered with floes of sea ice or "pack ice". While icebergs are composed of fresh water, pack ice is frozen sea water. The severity of ice varies considerably, depending on the strength and direction of the wind and air temperature. Most of the pack ice off Newfoundland's northern and eastern shores originates off Labrador. While some of the pack ice off the west coast also comes from the sea off Labrador via the Strait of Belle Isle, most of it originates in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Beginning in January the pack ice begins to advance south, borne by the Labrador Current until (usually) in April the rate of melting overtakes the rate of advance and the ice retreats northward. The leading edge of the pack ice is known as "The Front" and is important to the annual seal hunt off Newfoundland's north coast. ## Time zones Newfoundland is located in a unique time zone in North America. It is a half an hour ahead of Atlantic Time, one and a half hours ahead of Eastern Canada and 4 1⁄2 hours ahead of the west coast of the country. Labrador operates on Atlantic Time, except for the coast between L'Anse au Clair and Norman's Bay, which is on Newfoundland time. ## Natural resources All currency is in Canadian dollars. Exploitation of natural resources is a major part of the economic geography of Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2005 the gross domestic product (GDP) of Newfoundland and Labrador was approximately fourteen billion dollars. Service industries accounted for over $8 billion and resource-based activities such as mining, oil production, fishery and forest-based industries (sawmills and paper mills) accounted for the remainder. ### Minerals and petroleum Mines in Labrador, the iron ore mine at Wabush/Labrador City, and the new nickel mine in Voisey's Bay produced a total of $2.5 billion worth of ore in 2006. A new mine at Duck Pond (30 kilometres (18 mi) south of the now-closed mine at Buchans), started producing copper, zinc, silver and gold in 2007 and prospecting for new ore bodies continues. Mining accounted for 3.5% of the provincial GDP in 2006. The province produces 55% of Canada’s total iron ore. Quarries producing dimension stone such as slate and granite, account for less than $10 million worth of material per year. Oil production from offshore oil platforms on Hibernia, White Rose and Terra Nova oil fields on the Grand Banks was 110 million barrels (17,000,000 m³) which contributed 15% of the provinces GDP in 2006. Total production from the Hibernia field from 1997 to 2006 was 733 million barrels (116,500,000 m³) with an estimated value of $36 billion. Remaining reserves are estimated at almost 2 billion barrels (320,000,000 m³) as of December 31, 2006. Exploration for new reserves is ongoing. ### Fishing and aquaculture The fishing industry remains an important part of the provincial economy, employing 26,000 and contributing over $440 million to the GDP. The combined harvest of fish such as cod, haddock, halibut, herring and mackerel was 150,000 tonnes (165,000 tons) valued at about $130 million in 2006. Shellfish, such as crab, shrimp and clams, accounted for 195,000 tonnes (215,000 tons) with a value of $316 million in the same year. The value of products from the seal hunt was $55 million. Aquaculture is a new industry for the province, which in 2006 produced over 10,000 tonnes of Atlantic Salmon, mussels and Steelhead Trout worth over $50 million. ### Forestry Newsprint is produced by the paper mill in Corner Brook, (capacity of 420,000 tonnes (462,000 tons) per year). Until March 31, 2009, there was a second papermill located in Grand Falls, but due to the 2008/2009 economic crisis the mill shut down. The value of newsprint exports varies greatly from year to year, depending on the global market price. Lumber is produced by numerous mills in Newfoundland. ### Agriculture Agriculture in Newfoundland in limited to areas south of St. John's, near Deer Lake and in the Codroy Valley. Elsewhere the soil is mostly unsuitable for farming. Potatoes, rutabagas, known locally as "turnips", carrots and cabbage are grown for local consumption. Wild blueberries, partridge berries and bakeapples are harvested commercially and used in jams and wine making. ## Human geography Newfoundland and Labrador had a population of 505,469 (2005 estimate) and a population density of 1.27 per km² (3.1 per sq mi). The provincial capital is St. John's, which had a population of 181,113 in 2005). St John's is located at the extreme eastern edge of the island on the Avalon Peninsula. The other cities are Mount Pearl and Corner Brook. Human inhabitation in Newfoundland and Labrador can be traced back over 9,000 years to the people of the Maritime Archaic Tradition. They were gradually displaced by people of the Dorset Culture and finally by the Innu and Inuit in Labrador and the Beothuks on the island. The oldest known European contact was made over a thousand years ago when the Vikings briefly settled in L'Anse aux Meadows. Five hundred years later, European explorers (John Cabot, Gaspar Corte-Real, Jacques Cartier and others), fishermen from England, Portugal, France and Spain and Basque whalers (the remains of several whaling stations have been found at Red Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador) began exploration and exploitation of the area. Early European (primarily from England, Ireland and France) settlement in Newfoundland was confined to the coast. The rich cod fishery on the Grand Banks and along the shore of the island was the primary reason for these settlements. The rugged shoreline provided many small, but isolated, harbors (outports) from which to conduct the fishery. The Avalon Peninsula was, and is, the most populous part of the island, and as such had the best developed system of early roads and trails. Transportation between communities on other parts of the coast, especially the south coast between Fortune Bay and Port aux Basques, was exclusively by boat. Almost all communities are now accessible by roads which are part of the provincial road system. The now-defunct Newfoundland Railway, built in the latter part of the 19th century, and the development of the lead, zinc and copper mine at Buchans and the paper mill in Grand Falls in the early 20th century marked the beginning of the settlement of the interior of the island. Despite these developments the majority of the population is still found along the coast. Settlement of Labrador followed a similar pattern, with the interior being settled only in the latter part of the 20th century with the development of the iron ore mines at Wabush, hydroelectric generation at Churchill Falls and the military base at Goose Bay. Aboriginal peoples include the Innu, Inuit and Métis of Labrador and the Mi'kmaq in Newfoundland. One aboriginal group, the Beothuks, became extinct in the early 19th century. ## See also - Newfoundland - Labrador - Geography of Canada - List of airports in Newfoundland and Labrador - List of municipalities in Newfoundland and Labrador\#Cities - Islands of Newfoundland and Labrador - Border between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador - Canada–France Maritime Boundary Case

ANT catalog

Classified catalog of hacking tools by the NSA

The ANT catalog (or TAO catalog) is a classified product catalog by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) of which the version written in 2008–2009 was published by German news magazine Der Spiegel in December 2013. Forty-nine catalog pages with pictures, diagrams and descriptions of espionage devices and spying software were published. The items are available to the Tailored Access Operations unit and are mostly targeted at products from US companies such as Apple, Cisco and Dell. The source is believed to be someone different than Edward Snowden, who is largely responsible for the global surveillance disclosures during the 2010s. Companies whose products could be compromised have denied any collaboration with the NSA in developing these capabilities. In 2014, a project was started to implement the capabilities from the ANT catalog as open-source hardware and software. ## Background The Tailored Access Operations unit has existed since the late 1990s. Its mission is to collect intelligence on foreign targets of the United States by hacking into computers and telecommunication networks. It has been speculated for years before that capabilities like those in the ANT catalog existed. In 2012, Edward Snowden organized a CryptoParty together with Runa Sandvik, a former colleague of Jacob Appelbaum at The Tor Project. In June 2013, Snowden took internal NSA documents which he shared with Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, resulting in the global surveillance disclosures. ## Publication Jacob Appelbaum co-authored the English publication in Der Spiegel with Christian Stöcker [de] and Judith Horchert, which was publicized on 29 December 2013. The related English publication on the same day about the TAO by Der Spiegel was also authored by the same people, and including Laura Poitras, Marcel Rosenbach, Jörg Schindler [de] and Holger Stark [de]. On December 30, Appelbaum gave a lecture about "the militarization of the Internet" at the 30th Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg, Germany. At the end of his talk, he encouraged NSA employees to leak more documents. Apple denied the allegations that it collaborated on the development of DROPOUTJEEP in a statement to journalist Arik Hesseldahl from All Things Digital (part of the Wall Street Journal*'s Digital Network). The Verge questioned how the program developed in later years, since the document was composed in the early period of the iPhone and smartphones in general. Dell denied collaborating with any government in general, including the US government. John Stewart, senior vice president and chief security officer of Cisco stated that they were "deeply concerned and will continue to pursue all avenues to determine if we need to address any new issues." Juniper stated that they were working actively to address any possible exploit paths. Huawei stated they would take appropriate audits to determine if any compromise had taken place and would communicate if so. NSA declined to comment on the publication by Der Spiegel*. Bruce Schneier wrote about the tools on his blog in a series titled "NSA Exploit of the Week". He stated that because of this, his website got blocked by the Department of Defense. ### Content The published catalog pages were written between 2008 and 2009. The price of the items ranged from free up to $250,000. ## Follow-up developments Security expert Matt Suiche noted that the software exploits leaked by the Shadow Brokers could be seen as genuine because it matched with names from the ANT catalog. John Bumgarner has stated to IEEE Spectrum that US government suspicion of Huawei is based on its own ability to add backdoors as shown in the ANT catalog. ### NSA Playset The NSA Playset is an open-source project inspired by the NSA ANT catalog to create more accessible and easy to use tools for security researchers. Most of the surveillance tools can be recreated with off-the-shelf or open-source hardware and software. Thus far, the NSA Playset consists of fourteen items, for which the code and instructions can be found online on the project's homepage. After the initial leak, Michael Ossman, the founder of Great Scott Gadgets, gave a shout out to other security researchers to start working on the tools mentioned in the catalog and to recreate them. The name NSA Playset came originally from Dean Pierce, who is also a contributor (TWILIGHTVEGETABLE(GSM)) to the NSA Playset. Anyone is invited to join and contribute their own device. The requisites for an addition to the NSA Playset is a similar or already existing NSA ANT project, ease of use and a silly name (based on the original tool's name if possible). The silly name requisite is a rule that Michael Ossman himself came up with and an example is given on the project's website: "For example, if your project is similar to FOXACID, maybe you could call it COYOTEMETH." The ease of use part stems also from the NSA Playset's motto: "If a 10 year old can't do it, it doesn't count\!" ## See also - Cyberwarfare in the United States - Equation Group - MiniPanzer and MegaPanzer - Stuxnet - WARRIOR PRIDE ## Explanatory notes

Baldies

1995 video game

Baldies is a 1995 real-time strategy video game developed by Creative Edge Software and originally published by Atari Corporation for the Atari Jaguar CD. It was later ported to the PC, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Macintosh. In the game, the player manages a community of Baldies in order to build structures, increase their population, and create weapons to fight against enemies known as Hairies. There are four classes of Baldies and each structure has specific properties to assist the player. Its gameplay combines strategy with simulation and god game elements. Up to four players can participate in a multiplayer mode via local area network (LAN) on PC. Baldies began production in 1993 for the Amiga platform, intended to be published first by Mindscape and then by GameTek. It was spearheaded by Creative Edge founder David Wightman, who served as lead programmer and designer. Wightman designed the game's concept to have the depth of the god game Populous (1989) and accessibility of the puzzle–strategy game Lemmings (1991). The original Amiga version received a demo published as covermount with an issue of CU Amiga magazine, but was never published until it was ported and finished on Jaguar CD. Ports for 3DO Interactive Multiplayer and Amiga CD32 began development but were never released. The game garnered generally favorable reception from critics; praise was given to its novel style and level of gameplay freedom given to players, though the simplistic graphics, learning curve, and controls were a point of contention for reviewers. It was followed by Skull Caps (1998). ## Gameplay Baldies is a real-time strategy game with simulation and god game elements that is primarily played from a top-down perspective, similar to SimCity, Populous, Lemmings, and Mega-Lo-Mania. The main objective is to advance the Baldies' civilization across 100 levels, each one taking place across various locations and increasing in difficulty. The player has god-like powers capable of changing the outcome of Baldies. They interact with the game's world and manage a community of Baldies using a hand cursor in order to build structures, increase their population, and create weapons to fight against enemies known as Hairies. The player does not have full direct control of the Baldies themselves and their actions or movement. Instead, they will wander around the playfield until they are picked up with the hand. The player can assign Baldies one of four job classes, indicated by the color of clothing representing their current role. The role of all Baldies can be changed by dropping them into the corresponding room of a house. Dropping Baldies into a house's bedroom is the only way to breed more Baldies. Red Baldies are workers that generate energy to terraform the playfield. Once four big houses are constructed, they can grow angel wings that let them fly. Blue Baldies act as builders of houses, barracks or laboratories. They can prevent structures from falling apart during a disaster. Grey Baldies function as soldiers to fight against Hairies. They can be equipped with weapons outside of barracks. White Baldies work as scientists at laboratories, making weapons and inventions by experimenting with animals that roam the playfield. Each structure has specific properties to assist the player. Without any kind of structure, the player is incapable of breeding Baldies, develop inventions or fabricate ammunition. There are hazards and traps scattered across the playfield that can prove beneficial or harmful to the Baldies and Hairies alike. The player can use environmental objects on the playfield like trees to hide Baldies for strategic purposes against Hairies. The game is over if all Baldies on the playfield are defeated by Hairies. Progress is manually saved after completing a level if a Memory Track cartridge is present, but the player can otherwise play through the game using passwords in the Atari Jaguar CD version. The PlayStation and Sega Saturn versions supports memory cards to save progress. The Jaguar CD version came bundled with a controller overlay and features support for the ProController. The PlayStation and Saturn versions supports the PlayStation Mouse and Shuttle Mouse respectively. In the PC version, up to four players can participate in a multiplayer mode via local area network (LAN), where the last unit standing is the winner of the match. ## Development Baldies was created by Creative Edge Software, an Edinburgh-based game developer founded by David Wightman in 1989. Creative Edge had previously worked on titles such as Euro Soccer (1992), an adaptation based on the 1993 family comedy film Surf Ninjas for Amiga, and Soccer Superstars (1995). It was co-produced by Faran Thomason, Larry Pacey, and Vince Zampella of Atari Corporation. Wightman served as the game's lead programmer and designer, with technical manager David Elliott as well as Daniel Leyden, Duncan McDinhln, and former Imagitec Design staffer Sean Connolly providing additional hardware and programming support. Alan Duncan, David Brown, and Paul Docherty were responsible for the artwork. Baldies began production in February 1993 for the Amiga platform, intended to be published first by Mindscape and then by GameTek. Wightman designed the game's concept from scratch to have the gameplay depth of the god game Populous (1989) and accessibility of the puzzle–strategy game Lemmings (1991). Wightman described it as a cross between Populous and Lemmings, as well as SimCity (1989) and the real-time strategy game Mega-Lo-Mania (1991). The claymation cutscenes were produced in-house by Creative Edge. The Amiga version received a demo that was published as covermount with the May 1995 issue of CU Amiga magazine, but was never published until it was ported and finished on Atari Jaguar CD. According to Wightman, Creative Edge obtained development kits for Jaguar from Atari, converting and rewritting 90% of assembly code from the Amiga version to work with the Jaguar's architecture. Wightman stated that the game was intended to be bundled with a mouse peripheral, as Atari was clearing out their ST mouse inventory, but had to be released without it as mouse support for the game was not completed in time. ## Release Baldies was first announced for Atari Jaguar CD in 1995. It was showcased at the 1995 ECTS Spring event and E3 1995. It was initially scheduled for a Q2 1995 launch window, then for an August 1995 release date, and later slated for a vague late 1995 release. The title was covered during an event where the press was invited to Atari and showcased at another event hosted by Atari dubbed "Fun 'n' Games Day". It was published in North America and Europe in December 1995, being the smallest game released for Jaguar CD in terms of memory size (at 75 MB). Ports for 3DO Interactive Multiplayer and Amiga CD32 were also in development alongside the Amiga version, but neither version were ever released. A PC port was first set to be published by Atari Interactive before the division closed down in May 1996, and was instead published in North America by Panasonic Interactive Media on November 28. To market the game, Panasonic set up a campaign tour of bald promoters distributing free demos in New York. The PC port was then published in Europe by Sold-Out Software on February 13, 1998. Banpresto later distributed PC and Macintosh versions in Japan under the title Baldy Land on December 4, as well as a trial version for Microsoft Windows. A PlayStation port was first published in Japan by Banpresto on November 19, 1998, then later in Europe by Phoenix Games on August 8, 2003, and in North America by Mud Duck Productions on October 3, 2003. A Sega Saturn port was only released in Japan by Banpresto on November 26, 1998. In 2006, the game's trademark renewal was cancelled. ## Reception Baldies garnered generally favorable reception from critics. VideoGames compared the game with Cannon Fodder (1993) and noted its advanced artificial intelligence, but found the claymation sequences to be bleak. Next Generation highlighted its "cute" graphics, numerous levels, and novel premise. They also found its greatest strength to be the freedom of gameplay, which allows the player to delegate responsibilities any way they like among the baldies or enjoy the unpredictability of what they come up with when given only general guidance. Marc Abramson of the French ST Magazine commended the game's easy controls, sympathetic sounds, help system, thematic, and longevity, but faulted the compressed Wallace and Gromit-style introductory sequence and lamented the lack of a two-player mode. Electronic Gaming Monthly's four reviewers deemed the graphics as mediocre and the controls difficult to get used to, but said that the game was "a step in the right direction" for the Jaguar, citing its gameplay and amusing tactics for defeating enemies. GamePro said the graphics were excellent and found the simple controls easy to master, but felt the music was too repetitive. MAN\!AC's Oliver Ehrle labelled it as a cute Populous clone, citing its varied levels but expressed mixed thoughts regarding the overall audiovisual presentation. PC Entertainment's Christopher Lindquist noted the game's sense of humor and accessible gameplay, but complained about the same objective on every level and lack of additional difficulty levels. GameSpot's Chris Hudak called Baldies "the single weirdest game I have ever played", criticizing the concept as well as its execution. Coming Soon Magazine's Glenn Soucy praised the game's action, colorful graphics, and detailed structures. Power Play's Sascha Gliss disagreed, saying that it lacked the "playful lightness" that made Populous (1989) accessible. Jim Brumbaugh of the Adrenaline Vault found the visuals and music adequate. He also commended the mouse-driven gameplay for its easy controls but felt the game was lacking in the sound effects department, summarizing that "Baldies is an interesting idea, which could have used a little more 'punch'." PC Zone's Chris Anderson and Richie Shoemaker noted its learning curve and called the visuals dated. Gamezilla's Mitch Eatough gave the PC version positive remarks for its gameplay, graphical animations, and assortment of sound effects, but lamented the lack of online play in multiplayer mode. Atari Gaming Headquarters' Keita Iida described it as a "chaotic" cross between Populous and Lemmings (1991). Iida said the controls were okay but occasionally difficult when pointing an object due to lack of mouse and trackball controllers on Jaguar. Iida also questioned the game being on the Jaguar CD, writing that it could have been done on cartridge. Author Andy Slaven concurred with Iida regarding the Jaguar's controller not being suited for the game, but ultimately found it to be an entertaining action-strategy title and noted its sense of humor. ## Legacy Baldies was one of several projects by Creative Edge Software planned to be published by Atari for the Jaguar, but was the only one released prior to the platform being discontinued. The others were near completion prior to cancellation: Battle Lords (a Gauntlet-style hack and slash dungeon crawler), Chopper (a Choplifter-esque action game), Green-Thang (a run and gun platform game), and a soccer title. A follow-up title to Baldies named Skull Caps was developed by Creative Edge and published by Ubi Soft in 1999 for Windows.

Macau Incident (1799)

Encounter of the French Revolutionary Wars

The Macau Incident was an inconclusive encounter between a powerful squadron of French and Spanish warships and a British Royal Navy escort squadron in the Wanshan Archipelago (or Ladrones Archipelago) off Macau on 27 January 1799. The incident took place in the context of the East Indies campaign of the French Revolutionary Wars, the allied squadron attempting to disrupt a valuable British merchant convoy due to sail from Qing Dynasty China. This was the second such attempt in three years; at the Bali Strait Incident of 1797 a French frigate squadron had declined to engage six East Indiamen on their way to China. By early 1799, the French squadron had dispersed, with two remaining ships deployed to the Spanish Philippines. There the frigates had united with the Spanish Manila squadron and sailed to attack the British China convoy gathering at Macau. The British commander in the East Indies, Rear-Admiral Peter Rainier was concerned about the vulnerability of the China convoy and sent reinforcements to support the lone Royal Navy escort, the ship of the line HMS Intrepid under Captain William Hargood. These reinforcements arrived on 21 January, only six days before the allied squadron arrived off Macau. Despite being outnumbered in ships and guns, Hargood sailed to meet the French and Spanish ships, and a chase ensued through the Wanshan Archipelago before contact was lost. Both sides subsequently claimed that the other had refused battle, although it was the allied squadron which withdrew, Hargood later successfully escorting the China convoy safely westwards. ## Background The East Indian trade was an essential component of the economy of Great Britain in the eighteenth century. Administered by the East India Company from British India, exotic trade goods were carried on large, well-armed merchant ships known as East Indiamen, which weighed between 500 and 1,200 long tons (510 and 1,220 t). Among the most valuable parts of the East India trade was an annual convoy from Canton, a port in Qing Dynasty China. Early each year, a large convoy of East Indiamen would assemble at Whampoa Anchorage in preparation for their six-month journey across the Indian Ocean and through the Atlantic to Britain. The value of the trade carried in this convoy, nicknamed the "China Fleet", was enormous: one convoy in 1804 was reported to be carrying goods worth over £8 million in contemporary values (the equivalent of £ as of 2024). British interests in the East Indies were protected by a large but scattered Royal Navy squadron under the overall command of Rear-Admiral Peter Rainier. By 1799, Rainier's command covered many thousands of square miles of ocean, including the strategically important ports of British India, Bombay, Madras and Calcutta and the coast of British Ceylon, as well as bases in the Red Sea, at Penang and in the Dutch East Indies. He also had to maintain a watch on hostile warships, particularly a French force at the remote island base of Île de France (now Mauritius), the Dutch at Batavia (now Djakarta) and the Spanish at Manila. The French had been the greatest threat, with a powerful squadron assembled in 1796 under Contre-amiral Pierre César Charles de Sercey menacing British shipping in the East Indies in 1796 and 1797. On 28 January 1797, Sercey's force intercepted six East Indiamen in the Bali Strait on their way to China. In the ensuing Bali Strait Incident only quick thinking by Commodore James Farquharson in Alfred saved the Indiamen. In the poor visibility, the Indiamen imitated Royal Navy warships and dissuaded Sercey from pressing his attack. Sercey's force had subsequently broken up as it proved too expensive to maintain as a cohesive force. By late 1798, Sercey was at anchor in Batavia with only two vessels, the 20-gun corvette Brûle-Gueule and the 40-gun frigate Preneuse, which had arrived in Batavia from a diplomatic mission to the Kingdom of Mysore in a state of near-mutiny; Captain Jean-Matthieu-Adrien Lhermitte had executed five men for disobedience en route. Sercey also learned that two additional frigates, Forte and Prudente would not be joining him: his orders had been countermanded by Governor Malartic on Île de France and these frigates were now cruising independently against British trade in the Indian Ocean. Sercey decided to augment his forces by uniting them with the allied Spanish squadron at Manila in the Spanish Philippines, his frigates arriving on 16 October 1798, although the admiral remained at Surabaya. The Spanish squadron had been severely damaged in a typhoon of April 1797 and repairs had taken nearly two years: when British frigates raided Manila in January 1798 not one Spanish ship was in a condition to oppose them. ## Incident at Macau News of the junction of the French and Spanish squadrons reached Rainier soon afterwards. With the assembling merchant ships at Macau were the frigates HMS Fox and HMS Carysfort and the 64-gun ship of the line HMS Intrepid, the escort commanded by Captain William Hargood. However Fox and Carysfort were detached with a local convoy in November 1798, and Rainier, whose forces were largely committed to the Red Sea following the recent French invasion of Egypt, gave urgent orders for the frigates to be replaced by the 38-gun HMS Virginie and 74-gun HMS Arrogant. The reinforcements sailed through the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea, arriving at Macau on 21 January 1799. The Franco-Spanish squadron, comprising the 74-gun ships of the line Europa and Montañés, and the frigates Santa María de la Cabeza and Santa Lucía, accompanied by Preneuse and Brûle-Gueule, sailed from Manila on 6 January 1799, under the command of Rear-Admiral Ignacio Maria de Álava. Alava's squadron crossed the South China Sea in three weeks, arriving in the Wanshan Archipelago near Macau on 27 January 1799 with the intention of attacking shipping at Macau and in the mouth of the Pearl River. Alava had been informed of the presence of Intrepid by Danish merchants but was unaware of the arrival of Rainier's reinforcements. Hargood immediately sailed to confront Alava, both squadrons initially forming lines of battle and steering towards one another, Virginie at the head of the British line. What followed has been the subject of dispute. Hargood reported that the Franco-Spanish squadron then turned and fled into the Wanshan Archipelago, where they anchored as darkness fell before withdrawing before dawn. He ascribes this to "their dread of a conflict that would in all probability have terminated in their disgrace". Alava however reported in the Manila Gazette that it was Hargood who had retreated into the Wanshan Archipelago, pursued closely by Europa. Alava claimed that he would have pressed the attack but for damage to the rigging on Montañés that allowed Hargood to escape. He does not explain why his squadron then withdrew without attacking the apparently unprotected assembled China Fleet anchored in Macau. ## Aftermath In historian C. Northcote Parkinson's assessment "It is perhaps fair to conclude that neither squadron was spoiling for a fight", although he describes Lhermitte's subsequent reaction as "disgust" and Sercey's as "fury". Richard Woodman considered that by this action the French threw "away at a stroke the chance not only of seizing a valuable convoy, but of establishing Franco-Spanish dominance in Indo-Chinese waters". Alava retired to Manila, the French ships departing for Batavia and subsequently returning to Île de France. There Preneuse was intercepted at the action of 11 December 1799 by a blockade squadron made up of HMS Tremendous and HMS Adamant, driven on shore and destroyed. Sercey subsequently returned to France, retired from the French Navy and became a planter on Île de France. Hargood sailed from Macau with the China Fleet on 7 February, passing unimpeded into the Indian Ocean. Alava did belatedly send Europa and frigate Fama back to Macau in May, but this achieved nothing. Rainier ensured that the 1800 China Fleet was well defended, but no further attacks were made on British shipping from China before the Peace of Amiens in 1802. Early in the Napoleonic Wars, in 1804, a powerful French squadron attacked the China Fleet at the Battle of Pulo Aura, but the East Indiamen succeeded in bluffing the French into withdrawing after a brief exchange of fire.

Typhoon Tingting

Pacific typhoon in 2004

Typhoon Tingting was a destructive tropical cyclone that produced record-breaking rains in Guam. The eighth named storm of the 2004 Pacific typhoon season, Tingting originated from a tropical depression over the open waters of the western Pacific Ocean. The storm gradually intensified as it traveled northwest, becoming a typhoon on June 28 and reaching its peak the following day while passing through the Mariana Islands. After maintaining typhoon intensity for three days, a combination of dry air and cooler sea surface temperatures caused the storm to weaken as it traveled northward. On July 1, the storm passed by the Bonin Islands, off the coast of Japan, before moving out to sea. By July 4, Tinting had transitioned into an extratropical cyclone. The remnants were last reported by the Japan Meteorological Agency, the Regional Specialized Meteorological Center for the western Pacific basin, near the International Date Line on July 13. While passing through the Mariana Islands, Typhoon Tingting produced torrential rains which triggered flooding and numerous landslides. In Guam, 554.99 mm (21.850 in) of rain fell in 24 hours, breaking the daily and monthly rainfall records for June. Winds gusted up to 212 km/h (132 mph), causing significant structural damage, amounting to $6 million in losses. One fatality occurred as a result of flooding and nine others resulted from rough seas. In the Mariana Islands, 71 homes were destroyed and hundreds were damaged; losses totaled $11.2 million. In Japan, two people were killed by rough seas. ## Meteorological history On June 24, 2004, an area of low pressure associated with developing convection formed about 1,110 km (690 mi) to the east-southeast of Guam. Early the next day, as the system began to intensify, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) began monitoring the low pressure as a tropical depression. With low wind shear and favorable diffluence, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) issued a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert for the storm at 0000 UTC, classifying it as Tropical Depression 11W twelve hours later. The depression traveled towards the northwest along the edge of a mid-latitude ridge. Outer bands began developing around the system, although the ridge to its north restricted outflow. About 24 hours after the JMA designated the depression, the agency upgraded it to a tropical storm and named it Tingting, which was contributed by Hong Kong and is a fairly common pet name for young girls. At 0600 UTC on June 26, the JTWC also classified Tingting as a tropical storm. As Tingting tracked northwestward, it continued to develop outflow in all directions. The storm slowly intensified as it traveled towards the Mariana Islands, strengthening into a severe tropical storm early on June 27. Later that day, a ragged eye began to form. The ridge influencing the track of Tingting moved eastward, causing the storm to begin a gradual turn towards the north At 0000 UTC on June 28, the JTWC upgraded the storm to a minimal typhoon, the equivalent of a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson scale, and the JMA followed about six hours later. Several hours later, Tingting passed through the central Mariana Islands, tracking near the small island of Sarigan, while continuing to intensify. At 0900 UTC, the typhoon reached its peak intensity with winds of 150 km/h (93 mph) according to both agencies and a minimum pressure of 955 hPa (955 mbar). With low wind shear, further strengthening was anticipated as it neared the Bonin Islands. However, the typhoon began to weaken due to increasing dry air and decreasing sea surface temperatures. On June 30, Tingting passed within 95 km (59 mi) east of Iwo Jima. Later that day, the storm's eye dissipated as convection around the center of circulation weakened. On July 1, the JTWC downgraded Tingting to a tropical storm. At 1200 UTC the following day, the JMA downgraded the storm to a severe tropical storm as winds decreased below 120 km/h (75 mph) (10-minute winds). Convection associated with the storm began to diminish as Tingting began to undergo an extratropical transition. Although the storm maintained its intensity as a severe tropical storm, it was moving into increasingly unfavorable conditions and weakening was anticipated. As Tingting tracked towards the northeast into the mid-latitude westerlies, it completed its extratropical transition on July 4. After becoming an extratropical cyclone, Tingting accelerated towards the north before abruptly stalling near the Kamchatka Peninsula. On July 6, the extratropical remnants of Tingting were absorbed by a developing area of low pressure located to the south of the former typhoon. However, the JMA continued to monitor Tingting as a separate system as it executed a counter-clockwise loop though July 10 before heading towards the International Date Line. The storm was last reported on July 13 to the west Aleutian Islands. ### Differences among warning centers The Japan Meteorological Agency uses 10-minute sustained winds for its tropical cyclone tracking information, while the Joint Typhoon Warning Center uses 1-minute sustained winds. JMA's peak intensity for Tingting was 150 km/h (93 mph) 10-minute sustained, or 160 km/h (99 mph) 1-minute sustained. The JTWC's peak intensity for Tingting was also 150 km/h (93 mph) 1-minute sustained, or 130 km/h (81 mph) 10-minute sustained. The Hong Kong Observatory also assessed Tingting to have winds of 150 km/h (93 mph) 10-minute sustained, or 160 km/h (99 mph) 1-minute sustained. However, Dr. Karl Hoarau of Cergy-Pontoise University near Paris, France proposed that Tingting was stronger than officially reported. He estimated that the storm reached peak 1-minute sustained winds between 160 and 185 km/h (99 and 115 mph) on June 28. ## Preparations and impact Throughout its track, Tingting was responsible for 12 fatalities, 10 in the Mariana Islands and two in Japan; it also left $23.7 million in damage behind, $17.2 million in the Mariana Islands and $6.5 million in Japan. ### Mariana Islands An estimated 300 people in Guam evacuated to emergency shelters in advance of Typhoon Tingting. Several schools throughout Guam were being used as shelters. A tropical storm warning and a flash flood warning, which were issued several hours before the typhoon warning, were kept in place for Guam until June 29. A small craft advisory was also issued for rest of the Mariana Islands. A typhoon warning was declared for most of the islands on June 27. The United States Air Force Base in the Mariana Islands was placed under Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness Four, the lowest level of readiness, as Tingting approached. As Typhoon Tingting approached the Mariana Islands, three Chinese women drowned in rough seas produced by the storm in Saipan. On June 28, Tingting produced strong winds throughout the region. Sustained winds on Guam reached 82 km/h (51 mph) with gusts to 106 km/h (66 mph); a pressure of 994.6 hPa (mbar) was also recorded on the island. Although located closer to the center of Tingting, Rota reported lower winds than Guam; the highest sustained wind reached 70 km/h (43 mph) with gusts of 93 km/h (58 mph). Due to the lack of sufficient observations on Tinian, the highest sustained winds recorded were suspected to be lower than what they really were. Winds of 56 km/h (35 mph) were recorded several times with gusts to 84 km/h (52 mph). Sustained winds on Saipan were recorded up to 100 km/h (62 mph) with gusts to 124 km/h (77 mph); a pressure of 984.9 hPa (mbar) was also recorded. The highest winds during Typhoon Tingting throughout the Mariana Islands were measured on Pagan Island where 106 km/h (66 mph) sustained winds were recorded along with a gust of 212 km/h (132 mph). Although Tingting passed about 400 km (250 mi) to the northeast of Guam, torrential rains from a monsoonal feeder band produced record-breaking rainfall. In the span of 24 hours, 554.99 mm (21.850 in) of rain fell on Guam, shattering both the record for highest single day rainfall and the monthly rainfall for June at 80.26 mm (3.160 in) and 371.09 mm (14.610 in) respectively. Most of the northern areas of the island received more than 510 mm (20 in) of rain but the southern areas of Guam reported much lower totals. At Anderson Air Force Base, a total of 287.78 mm (11.330 in) of rain was recorded over a 30-hour span. Rota recorded much less rainfall than Guam, having 145.28 mm (5.720 in) during 24 hours and a storm total of 221.99 mm (8.740 in). No rainfall was recorded on both Tinian and Pagan Island due to the lack of observations. On Saipan, a total of 197.61 mm (7.780 in) was measured. The record-breaking rainfall in Guam produced severe flooding and numerous landslides throughout the island. A total of 57 homes were destroyed and another 624 were damaged. Crop damages on the island amounted to $500,000 with most of the farmers reporting total crop losses. One person died after being swept away along a flooded road. Total property damages totaled to $6 million. Most of the damage on Rota resulted from flooding and high seas. The port on the island suffered $1 million in damages and crop losses amounted to $500,000. The same day that Tingting made its closest approach to Guam, a 19-year-old was swept off a reef and drowned in rough seas produced by the typhoon. On Tinian and Saipan, unlike Guam and Rota, most of the damage was a result of the winds. A total of 4 homes were destroyed and 24 others sustained major damage on Tinian while another 4 were destroyed, 81 sustained major damage, and another 101 were affected on Saipan. Schools on the two islands sustained a combined $92,737 in damages. At Saipan's port, an oil tanker sank, spilling thousands of gallons of oil into the water. Throughout the Saipan, 50 power lines, 20 transformers, and 6 power poles were damaged or destroyed, leaving 25 percent of the islands' residents without power and $300,000 in damages. An estimated 90 percent of the banana trees were knocked down, contributing to the $518,000 in crop losses. Property losses on the two islands was estimated at $1.6 million. On the islands of Alamagan, Pagan, and Agrihan all private homes, a total of six, were destroyed, the food stores and crops were lost, and the water supply was contaminated. The main public facility, which was used as a storm shelter on Alamagan, sustained heavy damage. Damages from the three islands amounted to $500,000. The following day, five people went out kayaking however, the rough seas overturned the kayaks and all five drowned. Numerous water rescues on jet skis had to be made as residents became stranded in their cars after driving into flooded roads. Damages throughout the islands amounted to $11.2 million. ### Japan Between June 30 and July 1, Tingting brushed the Bonin Islands with heavy rainfall and high winds. The storm dropped 105 millimetres (4.1 in) of precipitation on Chichi-jima, of which 77 mm (3.0 in) fell in 24 hours. Chichi-jima experienced the strongest winds associated with the cyclone in the Bonin Islands; sustained winds reached 65 km/h (40 mph) and gusts peaked at 146 km/h (91 mph). At 1500 UTC, a pressure of 959.4 hectopascals (28.33 inHg) was recorded on the island. The high winds produced by the storm caused power outages throughout the islands, with Chichi-jima losing power for nearly two hours. No known property damage resulted from the passage of Tingting. Throughout eastern Japan, large swells produced by Tingting caused moderate coastal damage and killed two people. In Urakawa District, Hokkaidō, the local fishing industry sustained considerable damage, amounting to 20.5 million JPY (US$240,000). Moisture from the storm also enhanced rainfall in the Shizuoka Prefecture, resulting in a record daily rainfall of 368 mm (14.5 in) in Shizuoka City on June 29. The rains led to significant flooding and several landslides; 921 homes were flooded and an estimated 160,000 residences were without power at the height of the storm. Damage was estimated to be 540 million JPY (US$6.3 million). ## Aftermath On July 9, the Government of the Mariana Islands requested that President George W. Bush declare a major disaster area for the commonwealth. Governor Juan N. Babauta reported that the islands needed at least $2.5 million to repair damages from the typhoon. The cost to repair infrastructure and clean up debris on Rota totaled $762,000. A helicopter carrying relief supplies was sent to the Pagan and Agrihan, where people had no food. The American Red Cross also provided $17,000 in assistance. The Government of Guam requested $6 million in aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to repair the damages from Tingting. On July 29, George Bush approved the request for a disaster declaration and federal aid began to be sent to the Mariana Islands and Guam. Almost a month later, the islands of Agrigan, Alamagan, and Pagan were granted public assistance. In mid-August, Typhoon Chaba caused significant damage in the Mariana Islands. A bill was passed following the storm to allow up to 500 people to be hired as temporary workers on Saipan and Tinian. In mid-September, a request was made by the commonwealth for $10 million in natural disaster mitigation following the effects of successive typhoons in the region. The funds were to be used for cleanup efforts, aid residents struggling in the wake of the storms and help reduce unemployment. ### Retirement The typhoon's name originated from Hong Kong; Tingting is a girls' given name (Chinese: 婷婷; Cantonese Yale: Tìng-tìng) from the area. It was part of a series of typhoon names that are reduplicated female, like Yanyan, Shanshan and Lingling. During the 38th session (2005) of the ESCA–WMO Typhoon Committee, Hong Kong requested that Tingting be removed from the lists of typhoon names. It would later be replaced with Lionrock (referring to Lion Rock). ## See also - Typhoon Yuri (1991)

History of Burger King

Overview of the history of Burger King

The predecessor to what is now the international fast food restaurant chain Burger King was founded on July 23, 1954, in Jacksonville, Florida, as Instant Burger King. Inspired by the McDonald brothers' original store location in San Bernardino, California, the founders and owners, Keith G. Cramer and his stepfather Matthew Burns, began searching for a concept. After purchasing the rights to two pieces of equipment called "Insta" machines, the two opened their first stores around a cooking device known as the Insta-Broiler. The Insta-Broiler oven proved so successful at cooking burgers, they required all of their franchises to carry the device. After the original company began to falter in 1959, it was purchased by its Miami, Florida, franchisees James McLamore and David R. Edgerton. The two initiated a corporate restructuring of the chain; the first step being to rename the company, Burger King. The duo ran the company as an independent entity for eight years, eventually expanding to over 250 locations in the United States, when they sold it to the Pillsbury Company in 1967. Pillsbury's management made several attempts at reorganization or restructuring the restaurant chain in the late 1970s and 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 initiated a restructuring of corporate business practices at all levels of the company. Changes to the company included updated franchise agreements, a broadening of the menu, and new store designs to standardize the look and feel of the company. While these efforts were initially effective, many of them were eventually discarded, resulting in Burger King falling into a fiscal slump that damaged the financial performance of both Burger King and its parent. Poor operating performance and ineffectual leadership continued to bog the company down for many years, even after it was acquired in 1989 by the British entertainment conglomerate Grand Metropolitan and its successor Diageo. Eventually, the institutional neglect of the brand by Diageo 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 loss-making chain and put the company up for sale in 2000. In the 21st century, the company returned 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 firm's 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, and a new restaurant concept called the BK Whopper Bar. These changes re-energized the company. Despite the successes of the new owners, the effects of the 2007–2008 financial crisis weakened the company's financial outlook while those of its immediate competitor McDonald's grew. The falling value of Burger King eventually lead to TPG and its partners divesting their interest in the chain in a $3.26 billion sale to 3G Capital of Brazil. Analysts from financial firms UBS and Stifel Nicolaus agreed that 3G will 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. 3G later took the company public again after a series of changes to its operations and structure. Burger King would eventually be merged with Canadian-based donut and coffee chain Tim Hortons. ## History ### Insta-Burger King Burger King was founded in 1953 in Jacksonville, Florida, as Insta-Burger King by Keith G. Cramer and his wife's uncle, Matthew Burns. Their first stores were centered around a piece of equipment known as the Insta-Broiler, which was very effective at cooking burgers. It proved so successful that, as they grew through franchising, they required all of their franchises to carry the device. While the Jacksonville chain kept expanding, two friends named James McLamore and David R. Edgerton, both alumni of the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration were seeking an opportunity to open their own business. McLamore had visited the original hamburger stand belonging to Dick and Mac McDonald in San Bernardino, California, and sensing potential in their innovative assembly line-based production system, decided to open a similar operation. McLamore and Edgerton acquired a license to operate an Insta-Burger King franchise and opened their first location on 4 December 1954 at 3090 NW 36th Street in Miami. By 1959, the pair had stores at several locations within the Miami-Dade area, and operations were growing at a fast rate. However, the partners discovered that the insta-broiler units' heating elements were prone to degradation from the drippings of the beef patties. The pair eventually created a mechanized gas grill that avoided the problems by cooking the meat patties in a different way inside the unit. The new cooking appliance, which they called a flame broiler, moved the patties over the flame vertically on a chain link conveyor over the heating elements, a design that imparted grill lines on the patties similar to those made on a charcoal grill. The new unit worked so well that they made the decision to replace all of their Insta-Broilers with the newly designed unit. Even though the original Insta-Burger King had rapidly expanded throughout the state and its operations totaled more than 40 locations by 1955, the group ran into financial difficulties. McLamore and Edgerton purchased the national rights to the chain in 1959 and rechristened the company as Burger King of Miami. The company eventually became known as Burger King Corporation and began selling territorial licenses to private franchisees across the US by 1959. Besides the creation of the company's signature piece of equipment, the flame broiler, the company added two more features during this period that have since become closely associated with the chain. The first to be created was its mascot, the Burger King in 1955. The character would become a staple of its advertising over the next 60 years. The second creation was the company's signature sandwich, the Whopper. It was created in 1957 by James McLamore and originally sold for 37 cents. McLamore created the burger after he noticed that a rival restaurant was having success selling a larger burger. Believing that the success of the rival product was its size, he devised the Whopper. The name was chosen because he felt that it conveyed "imagery of something big". Finally, the company made its first forays into advertising in the new medium of television with commercials for the chain in 1958. ### Pillsbury Company In 1967, the Pillsbury Company acquired Burger King and its parent company Burger King Corporation from McLamore and Edgerton. At the time of the purchase, BK had grown to 274 restaurants in the United States and had an estimated value of US$18 million. With the acquisition, Pillsbury was faced with a lack of consistency within the franchise framework. The Burger King Corporation franchising system set up by McLamore and Edgerton allowed the company to expand a great pace, but the lack of contractual restraints and controls on its franchisee operation led to inconsistencies in its products that in turn were a drag on the reputation of the chain. Additionally, the agreements gave the company too little power to prevent its franchises from doing as they wished with the business. One of the prime examples of the deficiencies in its former franchise structure can be illustrated by the relationship between Burger King and a Louisiana-based franchisee. Chart House, owned by brothers Billy and Jimmy Trotter, opened its first BK franchise in that state in 1963. By 1970 the Trotters' company had grown to over 350 stores across the country, with its own purchasing system, training program and inspection system. In 1973 Chart House attempted to purchase the chain from Pillsbury for $100 million, but Pillsbury declined. The Trotters then put forth a second plan that would have Pillsbury and Chart House spin off their respective holdings and merge the two entities into a separate jointly controlled company, which Pillsbury also declined. After the failed bids, the relationship between Pilsbury and the Trotters soured. When Chart House purchased several restaurants in Boston and Houston in 1979, Burger King sued the selling franchisees for not respecting their contractual right of first refusal and won, preventing the sale. The two parties eventually reach a settlement where Chart House kept the Houston locations in their portfolio. In the early 1980s Chart House spun off its Burger King restaurants to focus on its higher end chains; its Burger King holding company, DiversiFoods, was eventually acquired by Pillsbury $390 million in 1984 and folded into Burger King's operations. With the ongoing conflict with Chart House on the mind of the company's board in 1978, Burger King hired McDonald's executive Donald N. Smith to help revamp the company. Smith initiated a restructuring of all future franchising agreements. New owners were barred from living more than an hour's drive from their restaurants, corporations were not permitted to own franchises, and franchisees could no longer operate other chains. This new policy effectively limited the size of franchisees and prevented larger franchises from challenging Burger King as Chart House had. It also became a requirement for the corporation to own the properties of any new store and lease them to franchisees. 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. Beyond the changes to the franchise system, Smith also restructured Burger King's corporate operations to better compete against his former employer as well as then up and coming chain Wendy's. He broadened the product offering by adding the Burger King specialty sandwich line in 1979, and also added many non-hamburger sandwiches including new chicken and fish offerings. The new line was one of the first attempts by a major fast food chain to target a specific demographic, in this case adults aged between 18 and 34 years, members of which were presumably willing spend more on a higher quality product. The new products were successful and the company's sales increased by 15%. After Smith's departure from the company for soft drinks producer PepsiCo in 1980, the company began to see a system-wide decline in sales. Pillsbury 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 first acts was to initiate an advertising plan emphasizing claims that Burger King's flame-broiled burgers were better and larger than its rival's. The program, arguably the first attack ads on a food chain by a competitor, was controversial in that before it fast food ads only made allusions to the competition without ever mentioning them by name. McDonald's sued Burger King, their ad agency at the time J. Walter Thompson. The child actress Sarah Michelle Gellar was also implicated in the lawsuit because of her appearance in these television commercials. The suit was settled the following year on undisclosed terms. Despite the controversy, the ad plan, dubbed the Burger Wars, boosted same store sales. Brinker continued working for the company in this capacity until 1982 when he was promoted to president of Pillsbury's food service division, which included the company's other chains beyond Burger King. Brinker left the company in 1984 to take the helm at Dallas-based gourmet burger chain Chili's. With the departure of Smith and Brinker, Pillsbury allowed many of their changes to be relaxed, as well as scaled back on construction of new locations which had the effect of stalling corporate growth. By failing to follow through on the changes of the two men, Pillsbury caused its own value to diminish as it derived more than one third of its sales and two thirds of its profits from the burger chain. When the British alcoholic beverages company Grand Metropolitan PLC made a hostile bid for Pillsbury, the company devised a plan to spin off the financially flailing restaurant unit in hopes to raise an estimated US$2 billion that could be used to fend off the unwanted suitor. The complex potentially tax-free stock split plan would have led to the chain, along with its distribution system Distron, becoming a separate entity for the first time in over twenty years. Hoping that the special dividends created by the spin-off would have convinced shareholders not to accept the hostile bid, Pillsbury had its plans partially scuttled when the company's franchisees rejected the plan despite parts of which that would have given the franchises part ownership in the company and a seat on its new board. In a letter to Pillsbury chairman Phillip L. Smith, franchise representative Bill N. Pothitos stated that franchisees disapproved of the transaction on the grounds that they "strongly oppose this proposed course of conduct for one reason and one reason alone: It so restricts the ability of the Burger King Corporation to engage in future competitive growth and reinvestment in the Burger King system that our economic interests and investments will be placed in jeopardy." Another option floated by the company in December 1988 was to sell Burger King to a third party, a proposal that drew a favorable response from its franchises, never came to fruition. On top of the failure of the franchises to approve the spin-off, a series of lawsuits complicated the divestiture. Two legal challenges to the parent company were filed by investors, one in Pillsbury's home state of Minnesota and another in the state where it was incorporated, Delaware, in which the legality of the stock tender plan was questioned. These three events eventually forced Pillsbury to give up its bid to fend off Grand Metropolitan and agree to be acquired in November 1988 for a sum of US$5.7 billion. ### Grand Metropolitan Between the time of the initial sales agreement in November 1988 and the finalization of the acquisition of Pillsbury in January 1989, Grand Metropolitan set about putting its own corporate stamp on Burger King; the stated goal of Grand Met CEO Allen Sheppard was to upgrade the overall performance of the chain and improve its standing as the second largest fast-food burger chain globally. To that end, he had the company initiate a three-prong strategy of evaluation of operations, personnel moves, and structural changes and improvements to fortify the company. Following through on the CEO's opinion that the company needed a consistent marketing plan and management team to succeed, the company began its moves by replacing its chairman and CEO Jerry W. Levin with its own choice of executives, Barry J. Gibbons, chairman and managing director of Grand Metropolitan Retailing, Ltd., as chief executive and Ian A. Martin, Grand Met's top executive in the United States, as chairman. The moves came to no surprise to Wall Street analysts and franchisees, as they were expected due to reservations about Levin after his appointment by the outgoing management at Pillsbury. Grand Met's first major restructuring move was the dismantling of Burger Kings 50-year-old purchasing and distribution arm, Distron. Unhappy with the distribution group, the company originally thought to dispose of the division after the purchase but instead decided to reorganize it into two separate groups, one for procurement (Burger King Purchasing or BKP) and another for distribution (Burger King Distribution Services or BKDS). With the restructuring, the company eliminated many positions and ended up laying off over a hundred staff members as a consequence. During the five years that led up to the purchase, the restaurant chain had a series of a half dozen ad programs accompanied by even more marketing directors, a situation that led Adweek to describe it as "ill-conceived marketing and downright sloppy strategic planning" in 1987. In order to reverse the trend, in December 1988 Grand Met set about reevaluating all aspects of the programs from the messages the company was sending to the customer through its commercials to the possibility of dropping its advertising agency of record, N. W. Ayer. After a six-month evaluation, BK dropped Ayer in favor of a two-way combination of D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB\&B) for overall programs and Saatchi & Saatchi for specific advertising programs such as the introduction of new products. The company hoped that the "dual-agency partnership" would provide a synergy that would bring together "some of the best minds in the advertising business" to establish a brand identity, or as a company spokesman stated, "what the consumers take away with them after they visit us--what we stand for..." Grand Met also made several moves in an attempt to broaden BK's business operations while expanding its presence globally. The first move by the company was the creation of the BK Expressway business concept, a new store format designed for locations where a traditional stand-alone restaurant was impractical. The company introduced two separate formats designed to operate in different business environments; the first concept was intended as a kiosk-type store that would be placed in locations such as sports venues and airports. The second concept store, designed with two drive-thrus and a minimal or even non-existent dining room, was designed to go in locations that were limited by high land costs or limited space. Both types of these new, smaller stores operated with a condensed menu prepared on new equipment designed specifically for the more compact footprints of the new locations. Expressway locations were also designed with lower start-up costs in mind; franchisees were wooed with the promise of a much smaller investment, approximately one third as much, than would be required to open a more traditional location. In August of the same year, Grand Met set about expanding Burger King's operations in Europe by acquiring UK-based United Biscuits restaurant operations, including the nearly 400-location burger chain Wimpy. With the purchase, described as a "rare opportunity" by CEO Sheppard, Grand Met set about converting certain Wimpy locations that employed a counter service system into Burger King locations. The merger of the United Biscuits properties with BK grew the company from about 30 restaurants in the UK to more than 60 within a year of the purchase, with another 30 locations added in early 1990. While other "Wimpy" locations are still in operation presently, they are now independent from BK and no longer have the presence they once did. The 1990s led off with Grand Met taking Burger King's soft drink contract to Coca-Cola from Pepsi. Traditionally Burger King had sold soft drinks from the Coca-Cola Company in the United States, but in 1983, PepsiCo was able to garner the US$444 million beverage supplier contract from its rival. Despite extreme market debate over the future of the contract, it was renewed for a second term in 1987. A sweetened contract that strengthened marketing and advertising program ties between Burger King and itself allowed Pepsi to keep supplying soft drinks to BK. Leading up to the decision, Pepsi had sponsored over 100 separate cross-promotions and product tie-ins, including a Fourth of July promotion where BK gave away a free Pepsi with each purchase. This fit into the goals of BK, which was looking for a partner that would provide "outstanding, impactful promotional support." However, the contract only lasted three more years when, partially based upon Pepsi's growth as a restaurant operator with Pepsico's own fast food division (which is now an independent unit called Yum\! Brands), Burger King moved its beverage contract back to Coca-Cola. Accompanying the reintroduction of Coca-Cola, BK introduced its first major chicken sandwich since 1977; the new BK Broiler sandwich was a broiled sandwich targeting more health-conscious customers. The BK Broiler was a rapid hit and within six months of its introduction was selling more than a million units daily system wide. The company made an advertising coup that same year when it signed a 10-picture contract with the Walt Disney Company. The deal, which included such Disney films as The Lion King, Aladdin and Toy Story, came at the height of Disney's commercial rebirth. Accompanied with the new BK Kid's Club program, the company saw an impressive growth within the children's market. The company's new Kid's Club, its first major foray into a children's targeted ad campaign since the Burger King/Burger King Kingdom program of the 1970s, saw phenomenal growth with more than one million children signing up for the program within two months of its introduction. While many of the moves made by Grand Met were successful in generating additional sales and growth, the company continued to experience problems. While Fortune Magazine named CEO Gibbons as its Turnaround Champion for his success in reversing the fortunes of the company, several news outlets claimed that the changes he introduced were problematic because they deprived the company of valuable assets. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew destroyed the company headquarters. The building, located on Old Cutler Rd. in Miami, was right in the center of the path of the hurricane. Located on the shoreline at the terminus of 184th St. (Eureka Drive), the highest storm surge levels was recorded (16.9 ft) at the site. The building suffered more than $24 million in damage and pushed the company from its offices during one of its more significant product pushes. Not only was the company forced from its facilities, roughly 300 members of its 700+ staff were left homeless. Immediately after the storm, Gibbons began a program to help get the company back on track. The company's recovery was helped due to pre-planning before the storm's landfall; Corporate backoffice data was moved to Seattle, Washington before the storm struck in order to safeguard critical records, and the company established a temporary "command center" at the Doral Resort and Country Club in Miami within eight days of the hurricanes passing. Additional operations were temporarily decentralized by temporarily shifting some corporate functions to regional offices. The facility would eventually take more than a year to rebuild, finally opening in September 1993. Not only did Gibbons work to repair the damage to the company offices, he made it a priority to allow its staff to deal with their personal situations. He made staff members job descriptions more flexible, encouraging staff members to take the initiative to perform a wide range of tasks. A corporate day care system was established, allowing staff to bring their children to work. Staff members were allowed to take off as much time as needed to reestablish themselves and corporate dress codes were relaxed. The company brought in counselors, insurance experts, tax consultants, child care advisers and construction companies to help the staff reorient themselves. The company also went so far as to arrange emergency loans for its employees. By 1993, Gibbons had tired of the post, and named a new successor to the post. He initially resigned his post as CEO of the company and was replaced by his chosen successor, COO James B. Adamson. Gibbons retained his position as chairman until he left the company Adamson continued the company's plans to expand into new markets such as universities, gas stations, airports and sports arenas with the intention of looking into new channels of distribution. Over the next year and a half he worked on a series of initiatives to strengthen the company; in a back to basics campaign, he oversaw a streamlining Burger King's menu and worked to improve and strengthen relations with franchisees. His changes were credited with a 28 percent increase in sales in BK's fiscal year 1995 and same store sales that were up 6 percent. He left in early 1995 when Denny's made him an offer to take the reins of the competitor; he left the company credited with fixing the deficiencies left by Gibbons and was temporarily replaced with David Nash. He was elevated to chairman in July, with Robert Lowes as CEO. Lowes became chairman in November. ### Diageo In 1997, Grand Metropolitan merged with Guinness to form a company called Diageo in a deal worth US$22 billion. Franchisees alleged that Diageo ignored the chain in favor of its liquor business; there were two more CEOs in the time Diageo owned the company. This institutionalized neglect further hurt the standing of the brand, in turn causing significant financial damage to Burger King's franchisees. By the time of the sale, Burger King's revenues and market share had declined significantly, and the company had fallen to a near tie for second place with rival Wendy's in the US market for hamburger chain restaurants. For many years leading into the early 2000s, Burger King and its various owners plus many of its larger franchisees closed many under-performing stores. Several of its largest franchisees entered bankruptcy due to the issues surrounding the performance of the brand. Diageo maintained ownership of BK until 2000 when Diageo decided to focus solely on their beverage products and divest itself of the chain. In 2001, the company put forth a plan to float approximately 20 percent of BKC on the NYSE. Burger King's franchises representation group, The National Franchise Association (NFA), sought to block this because it believed that any money raised from the issue would not be put into helping bolster the then flagging BK, but would instead end up being used to help Diageo bolster its liquor brands. Instead, the NFA sought to purchase the chain from Diageo, but the deal collapsed when the NFA was unable to put together an acceptable financing package. ### TPG Capital In 2002, a troika of private equity firms led by TPG Capital with associates Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners agreed to purchase BK from Diageo for US$1.5 billion, with the sale becoming complete in December of that year. The new owners, through several new CEOs, moved to revitalize and reorganize the company, the first major move was to rename the BK parent as Burger King Brands. The investment group initially planned to take BK public within the two years of the acquisition, this was delayed until 2006. On 1 February 2006, Out-going CEO Greg Brenneman announced TPG's plans to turn Burger King into a publicly traded company by issuing an initial public offering (IPO). On February 16, the company announced it had filed its registration for the IPO with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Burger King began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BKC on May 18, 2006. The stock sale generated $425 million in revenue, the largest IPO of a US-based restaurant chain on record. The proceeds from the sale were used by the company help pay back a loan taken out taken by the company in February used to pay dividends to the investment firms. According to one analyst at Renaissance Capital, Wall Street investors were not alarmed by the large payout due to the increased financial stability of the company resulting from changes made by the investor groups during the interim between the purchase in 2002 and the stock offering. Incoming CEO John W. Chidsey backed the payouts, stating that the financial firms spent considerable time and capital turning the company around. By the middle of its fiscal year 2008, the company had seen significant domestic growth for the first time in several years; for more than a dozen financial quarters, the company showed revenue increases and domestic expansion. During the first half of the calendar year 2008, the company initiated a plan to revitalize its stores with a program to replace or remodel almost all of its North American locations by the beginning of its fiscal year 2009 in July 2008. The renovation plan was credited with helping the company increase same-store sales by as much as 5.4 percent over the previous fiscal year versus its competitors McDonald's and Yum Brand's 3 percent increase, but the total costs of the renovation program affected the company's revenue stream for the final quarters of its 2008 fiscal year. Wall Street analysts had originally projected net income to be approximately 27¢ per share, but the company only reported a 25¢ per share profit. The smaller profit announcement temporarily drove Burger King's stock prices down after the announcement. Despite the lower than expected profit and small decline in stock value, Wall Street analysts were upbeat about Burger King's future earnings because it was felt that the renovations would contribute to future profits; one such analyst stated that the renovations would "pay for themselves". Further modernization plans were introduced in 2009 with the company's "20/20" store designs and its "BK Whopper Bar" concept. The 20/20 concept, officially unveiled in Amsterdam on 10 October, featured a radical new design that featured bright colors, corrugated metal accents and plain brick walls that are designed to compete with chains in the fast casual restaurant market segment. A new system of in-store advertising was also introduced as part of the new format, static menu boards are to be replaced with high definition video displays. With the introduction of the 20/20 format, all future Burger King locations will be constructed using the design framework. Additionally, any future restaurant renovations must also conform to the new standard. The primary drawback of the design is its costs to the individual owners of BK restaurants; franchises must pay between $300,000–$600,000 to renovate their buildings to Burger King specs. The Whopper Bar is a concept from the company that upends its traditional fast food operations with a newer high end concept designed to compete with fast casual and casual dining restaurants. The new format is described by the company as a more "playful" variation on the standard Burger King location. The locations feature an open kitchen with a semi-circular metal counter top designed to allow customers to watch as its "Whopperistas" put together the order. The exposed kitchen concept allows customers to view the preparation of their foods. Decoration of the new locations is limited to plasma televisions playing looped videos of open flames. The concept is similar to the McCafé concept from rival McDonald's, and like the McCafé locations they are designed to go into malls, airports and casinos and other areas with limited amounts of space. With the opening of its Whopper Bar locations in the United States during 2010, Burger King reported that it would be the first time in its North American locations that beer would be available for purchase. Although beer is available at fast food restaurants throughout Europe, including Burger King, this is the first time a major fast food chain has attempted to sell beer in the United States. The company will be selling products from SABMiller and Anheuser-Busch including Budweiser, Bud Lite and Miller Lite in aluminum bottles designed to maintain temperature. The move, designed to target the important 30-and-under demographic, has been called risky by industry analysts because of the company is known as a fast food purveyor and not as an alcoholic beverages seller. Other industry consultants have disagreed with the assessment, believing that the move is a practical one because the company is growing with its aging customer base. ### 3G Capital The latest chapter in the company's ownership history began in September 2010 when TPG and its partners announced it would sell their 31 percent stake in Burger King to another private equity company, 3G Capital, for US$24 per share, or $3.26 billion. Between March 2004 and March 2009, the company experienced a score of consecutive profitable quarters that were credited with re-energizing the company, however with the slowing of the economy during the 2007–2008 financial crisis the company's business has declined while its immediate competitor McDonald's grew. Analysts, including John Glass of Morgan Stanley and David Tarantino of Robert W. Baird & Co., part of the reasons for the company's slowed performance is its continue reliance on the super fan. Market-research firm Sandelman & Associates reported that this segment had seen a decline in visits by this demographic group by more than 50 percent during the recession, while restaurant industry analyst Bonnie Riggs at market-research firm NPD Group reported the 18–24 transferred much of its business from the fast food segment to the fast casual segment, compounding the decline. The offer, representing a 46 percent premium over the stocks selling price at the time, came as a surprise to Burger King CEO John Chidsey. The proposed sale was expected to help the company repair its fundamental business structures and continue working to close the gap with McDonald's. Analysts commenting on the transaction stated that 3G will have to invest heavily in the company to help reverse its fortunes. David Palmer from UBS stated the company will need to work with its large group of franchise owners to brighten its locations and stabilize sales which could take several years and require significant reinvestment, while Steve West of Stifel Nicolaus stated that Burger King will need at least a year to right its fundamentals. Upon completion of the acquisition in October 2010, 3G began an immediate restructuring of the company. Seven of the top executives were released, while another 261 employees were laid off from the company's headquarters. Chidsey eventually resigned in April 2011, being replaced Alex Behring, one of 3G's managing partners. The position of CEO was taken over by Bernardo Hees shortly after the acquisition. As part of the restructuring, 3G also moved to change many aspects of corporate operations throughout 2011–2012. One of the first moves was to terminate Burger King's relationship with ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, replacing it with McGarryBowen. 3G also began a menu restructuring, with the first product being a revamped version of BK's Chicken Tenders product. Other new or reformulated products would follow. In terms of its franchise operations, Burger King initiated a move to become more like competitors Subway and KFC and began to sell off the majority of corporately owned restaurants in order to become an exclusive franchised operation. 3G also moved to mend relations with its American franchises, which had become rather rancorous during TPG's tenure. Several lawsuits were settled and corporate policies that were at the center of the corporate disputes with the franchises were ended or amended. In 2011 they partnered with British venture capital firm Justice Holdings to take the company public again. They also initiated a massive expansion of operations via franchising in the BRIC nations and Africa with more than 2500 new planned locations. In August 2014, Burger King announced its intent to acquire the Canadian restaurant and coffee shop chain Tim Hortons. 3G Capital purchased Tim Hortons at $65.50 per-share, and a new holding company was formed, based in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. 3G holds a 51% majority stake, Tim Hortons' existing shareholders owning 22%, and a 27% stake held by Burger King shareholders. Berkshire Hathaway partially funded the purchase by buying $3 billion worth of preferred shares. Burger King CEO Daniel Schwartz became CEO of the company, with existing Tim Hortons CEO Marc Caira becoming vice-chairman and director. The two chains retained separate operations post-merger, with Burger King remaining in its Miami headquarters. The deal was subject to approval by Tim Hortons shareholders and Canadian regulatory authorities. 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. From 1995 to 2005, Tim Hortons had been owned by Wendy's Restaurants, a competitor to Burger King. Although "tax inversions" (in which a company decreases the amount of taxes it pays by moving its headquarters to a country with lower rates, but maintains the majority of their operations in their previous location) have been a recent financial trend, it will not have as much of an impact on Burger King's reincorporation in Canada: the corporate tax rate in the United States is 39.1%, Canada's corporate tax rate is only 26%, but Burger King had used various sheltering techniques to reduce its tax rate to 27.5%. 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 (which had, until the Burger King merger, been primarily invoked by pharmaceutical firms). In 2018, Burger King moved into a new custom-built headquarters building down the street from its current headquarters, and then in 2019, Lennar moved into Burger King's former headquarters building. ## Timelines ### Key dates Some key dates include: - 1953: Insta-Burger King is founded in Jacksonville, FL, by Keith Cramer and Matthew Burns. - 1954: James McLamore and David Edgerton purchase Insta-Burger King and rename it Burger King. - 1955: The Burger King character is created. - 1957: The Whopper is launched. - 1958: BK releases its first TV advertisement. - 1959: Burger King establishes its franchising system. - 1967: Burger King ceases to be an independent entity when the Pillsbury Company purchases it for US$18 million ($128.3 million adjusted for inflation, 2014). - 1977: Donald N. Smith is brought in from rival McDonald's to help restructure the company and its franchising system. - 1980: Smith leaves the company for PepsiCo. - 1981: Norman E. Brinker is made head of Pillsbury's restaurant division, including Burger King. - 1982: Burger King produces one of the first attack advertisements when it airs several commercials disparaging its competitor's fried burgers. - 1984: Brinker leaves the company when he purchases Chili's. - 1989: Pillsbury is purchased by British liquor company Grand Metropolitan for $5.7 billion (bn)/£3.6 bn. - 1996: Company co-founder James McLamore dies. - 1997: A $22 bn/£13.9 bn merger between Grand Metropolitan and Guinness results in the formation of a new parent company, Diageo. - 2000: Diageo investigates a possible IPO or sale of the company. - 2001: A North American franchise group seeks to purchase the company. - 2002: Capital investment firm Texas Pacific Group purchases Burger King from Diageo in a deal initially worth $2.2 bn/£1.4 bn. - The deal between TPG and Diageo nearly fails, but eventually goes through at $1.6 bn/£1 bn. - 2006: Burger King is listed on the NYSE with the stock symbol BKC when the chain goes public in an IPO. - 2009: Company opens its 12,000th store, located in Beijing. - 2010: Brazil-based 3G Capital acquires Burger King in a deal worth $3.26 bn/BRL$5.6 bn. - 2011: Burger King begins a yearlong revamp of its menu and advertising programs. - 2012: Burger King is taken public once again on the NYSE with the symbol BKW. - 2014: Burger King merges with Canadian donut/coffee chain Tim Hortons in a deal worth $18 bn/CAD$19.6 bn. - 2019: Burger King plans to close up to 250 low-volume locations per year, with closures coming into effect in 2020. ### Ownership history Since being founded in 1954, Burger King has undergone five changes of ownership. Further, during the ownership tenure of Grand Metropolitan, Grand Met merged with Guinness in 1997 to form a new company, Diageo. TPG Capital's ownership was shared with Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, both of which held minority shares. During 3G Capital's ownership, 3G divested a 29% stake of the chain to Justice Holdings of Great Britain when the chain was again taken public in 2012. When Burger King merged with Tim Hortons in 2014, Berkshire Hathaway bought into the newly combined chain as part of an debt-equity financing deal. ### CEO history Since its founding, Burger King has had more than twenty CEOs. ## See also - History of KFC - History of McDonald's

Louis Laybourne Smith

Australian architect (1880–1965)

Louis Edouard Laybourne Smith CMG (1 April 1880 – 13 September 1965) was an Australian architect and educator in South Australia. Born in the Adelaide inner-southern suburb of Unley, he became interested in engineering and architecture while in the goldfields of Western Australia and later studied mechanical engineering at the School of Mines, serving an apprenticeship under architect Edward Davies. After graduating he accepted a position as a lecturer at the school, and was responsible for developing the first formal architecture course in the State in 1904. Between 1905 and 1914, he served as registrar at the school before leaving to join his long-time friend, Walter Bagot, at the architectural firm of Woods, Bagot and Jory. He remained with the firm until his death in 1965, and over the years was involved in a number of significant projects, including the South Australian National War Memorial and the original Australian Mutual Provident building on King William Street. Along with his teaching and professional duties, Laybourne Smith was a member of the South Australian Institute of Architects, the Federal Council of the Australian Institute of Architects, and the Australian Institute of Architects, as well as being on numerous committees and advising the State Government in the formation of both the State Building Act of 1923 and the 1939 Architects Act (which brought the Architects Board of South Australia into existence). During his life Laybourne Smith received a number of awards and honours, including Life Fellowship to the Royal Australian Institute of Architects and the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal, and was invested as a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. Today, the architectural school which he founded (now part of the University of South Australia) bears his name—the Louis Laybourne Smith School of Architecture. ## Early life and education Louis Laybourne Smith was born to Joseph and Annie Laybourne Smith on 1 April 1880, in Unley, South Australia. His parents had emigrated to Australia so that his father could take up a post as a chemist with F. H. Faulding & Co. However, it appears that Joseph Laybourne Smith found dentistry more to his liking, for he went on to gain qualifications in the field through the Australian College of Dentistry. Both Laybourne Smith's primary and secondary education were obtained at the nearby Windham and Way colleges; his education was interrupted in the mid-1890s when his parents decided to move to the goldfields of Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. According to Laybourne Smith, he became interested in machinery while in the goldfields. His parents decided to direct him towards architecture, as it "was the nearest thing to white-collar engineering work that they could think of". He was articled to A. A. E. Dancker for a period before returning to Adelaide in 1898. Laybourne Smith's parents had intended for him to study architecture at the University of Adelaide, but there were no courses available at the time. As a result, Laybourne Smith undertook to complete a mechanical engineering course part-time at the School of Mines, and (in order to pursue his interest in architecture) he was articled to Edward Davies from 1901. He proved to be an excellent student, winning scholarships in both his second and third years, and was the first person to finish the course within the proscribed four years. He completed his apprenticeship with Davies in 1904, and was admitted as an Associate to the South Australian Institute of Architects, although the ongoing impact of the depression made finding work difficult. In spite of this, he found employment as a draftsman, initially with Ernest Bayer and later with John Quinton Bruce. After graduating at the School of Mines, Laybourne Smith continued his studies at the University of Adelaide, completing a Bachelor of Science in 1911. This was surrendered in 1914 for a Bachelor of Engineering. ## Teaching career In 1903, Laybourne Smith was invited to lecture in mechanical engineering at the School of Mines—a position which Page states that Laybourne Smith was "delighted" to accept. He was thereafter elected as the school's registrar in 1905, and continued in that post full-time until 1914, after which he ran the school part-time until 1951. Even then, Laybourne Smith's involvement with the school did not end after Gavin Walkley took over, and he was still associated with the school when he died in 1965. While working at the school, Laybourne Smith initiated his own classes on architecture, gathering "a group of colleagues who instructed one another" in the field. After being approached in 1906 by the Council of the School of Mines, Laybourne Smith teamed with Walter Bagot to develop a new architecture course. The result was a three-year part-time Associate Diploma, although students were still expected to be articled to professional architects in order to gain more practical experience in the field. By 1916 the course was regarded as of sufficient quality to place its students "in the same rank as architectural students in other parts of the world". While the School of Mines no longer exists, the school of architecture founded by Laybourne Smith is now part of the University of South Australia, and since 1963 the Louis Laybourne Smith School of Architecture and Building has borne his name as its founder. ## Architectural career Upon leaving his full-time position at the School of Mines, Laybourne Smith acted as a "stand-in" for Walter Bagot at Bagot's architectural firm, Woods, Bagot and Jory, while Bagot was overseas. Edward Woods died in 1913, and three years later Laybourne Smith became a full partner in the newly named Woods, Bagot, Jory & Laybourne Smith. Laybourne Smith was to remain with the firm until his death in 1965. Laybourne Smith's friendship with Walter Bagot had spanned many years prior to the partnership, but their respective working methods was "so different that they seemed unlikely partners". While Baggot was "notorious" for the attention he gave to minor details in designs, Laybourne Smith was described as being just as happy to develop a sketch and to pass it on to the draftsmen to "work up" (although this does not represent a lack of attention, as his designs were "sketched in tiny, neat detail"). In spite of these differences, their respective strengths tended to balance one another: Bagot was a traditionalist in design, while Laybourne Smith brought an engineer's knowledge and "ingenuity" to the partnership. ### Works Laybourne Smith's first major work with Woods, Bagot & Jory was the refurbishment of the National Bank building on King William Street, and from there he graduated to work on a number of notable buildings within South Australia and interstate. Both the firm in general and Laybourne Smith in particular were traditionalists in their designs, to the point where Page reports that Laybourne Smith took as a compliment a description of one of his works in 1965 as "striped pants and all". This traditionalism was particularly evident in their work for the University of Adelaide. Between 1910 and 1945, the firm served as architects to the University of Adelaide, and Bagot strove towards congruity for the university. The result included a number of buildings that were designed by Laybourne Smith in a "Georgian revival" style, including the original heritage listed Student Union building and the main building of the Waite Agricultural Research Institute, which is also heritage listed and has been described as being "reministent of the great English country houses". Similarly, Laybourne Smith applied traditional designs to a number of ecclesiastical projects. These include St Cuthbert's Anglican Church in North Adelaide, which is heritage listed as an example of Gothic Revival architecture; and the romanesque St. Dominic's Chapel at the Cabra Dominican College in Cumberland Park. His background in engineering was put to good use on a number of projects. In particular, the John Martins store on Rundle Street (now Rundle Mall), was constructed by raising the top floor of the building on hydraulic jacks, building two new floors underneath while the remainder of the store continued to operate normally. Another of Laybourne Smith's buildings, the Australian Mutual Provident building on King William Street in Adelaide, was one of the first in the state to feature air conditioning, as this was considered to be quite an "innovative" addition in 1934. Other works by Laybourne Smith include the facade on the Balfours Cafe in Rundle Mall (heritage listed in part due to the innovative "building envelope", which is "independent of the internal structure"), the Repatriation General Hospital in Daw Park (developed by Laybourne Smith from sketch plans produced by Melbourne firm Stephenson & Turner), and the South Australian National War Memorial. This last structure represents a collaboration between Laybourne Smith, Walter Bagot, and Sydney-based sculptor Rayner Hoff. Although Walter Bagot produced the original design for the architectural competition in 1924, his design was, (along with the other entrants), deemed to be "unsuitable". After the entries were destroyed by fire late that year, Laybourne Smith, working with artist Rayner Hoff, was able to redraw the design largely from memory in order to enter the subsequent 1926 competition. In doing so they built upon Bagot's work, making the memorial "grander" in its scope—and this proved to be sufficient for the firm to be awarded the commission. ## Professional activities and associations Although Laybourne Smith continued to be involved in teaching and architectural design, he was also involved in professional organisations and committees. He was admitted to the South Australian Institute of Architects (SAIA) as an associate in 1904, made a fellow in 1907, elected to the council in 1909, and served two terms as President (1921–1923 and 1935–1937). In all, Laybourne Smith served on the SAIA council for 50 years, from 1909 to 1959. Laybourne Smith played a significant role in the formation of a national body of architects. He was a founding member of the Federal Council of the Australian Institute of Architects, first proposed in 1914 and officially formed in 1915, which served as a "first step" towards the formation of a national body. Between 1991 and 1922, he served as president of this body. After the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) was formed (now known as the Australian Institute of Architects), he served as a councillor for 11 years (between 1933 and 1944), and as the President of the institute from 1937 to 1938. In addition to his role on the councils, Laybourne Smith was an adviser during the development of the State Building Act of 1923, and he was largely responsible for the framing of the 1939 Architects Act, (which provided for the formal registration of architects in South Australia). Because of his work on the State Building act, Laybourne Smith sat on the Board of Referees responsible for adjudicating disputes, and his position on the Architects Board of South Australia was a direct result of his involvement in the creation of the Architects Act. ## Influence and awards Laybourne Smith is regarded as being one of the "key practitioners" of architecture in South Australia. In particular, he had a significant influence on the direction of architectural education in South Australia. His career spanned more than half a century, with much of it directly involved in education, and during that time he (and Walter Bagot) served as one of the "last links with the distant past of South Australian architecture"—having known (either directly or indirectly) most of the architects of the colonial era, while being responsible for the training of many of those who were to follow. Furthermore, he had a substantial impact on the development of architecture as a professional body through his involvement in the Architects Act of 1931 and the formation of a national body for architects. This political work also had a social dimension: his work on the Building Act Advisory Committee helped to highlight the low quality of the housing in the poorer areas of Adelaide, and this led to a change in how the public viewed what was acceptable as low-income housing. The South Australian Housing Trust was a direct result of his actions, and led to the provision of low cost rental housing to working families in the state. As well as having the architectural school named in his honour, in 1961 Laybourne Smith was awarded the Gold Medal by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, and prior to that date, in 1948, he was invested as a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. Two busts of his likeness have also been commissioned. One was by Rayner Hoff, with whom he had collaborated on the design for the South Australian National War Memorial, and is kept in the offices of Woods Bagot. The second was unveiled in 1961, and was sculpted by South Australian artist John Dowie. It can be found at the Louis Laybourne Smith School of Architecture at the University of South Australia. Laybourne Smith was a Life Fellow with both the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, (awarded in 1944), and a Fellow (1939) and Life Fellow (1944) of the Royal Institute of British Architects. ## Personal life Described as a "dapper young man with a moustache waxed into long points", he made for a "dynamic figure with a penetrating voice", and was noted for riding his Douglas motorcycle through the 1920s and 30s in his khaki overalls as he travelled between his professional practice, teaching duties and home life. On the home front, Louis Laybourne Smith married Frances Maude Davies, the daughter of Edward Davies to whom he had been articled, on 9 April 1903. They had three daughters and a son, Gordon Laybourne Smith, who ultimately followed his father into architecture. Laybourne Smith "consistently overworked"; architecture was said to be both his profession and his obsession. When his firm announced a retirement scheme he declared that he had no intention of retiring, and such proved to be the case—he died at his desk on 13 September 1965 at the age of 85. ## See also - Herbert Jory

Interstate 140 (North Carolina)

Highway in North Carolina

Interstate 140 (I-140) and North Carolina Highway 140 (NC 140) is a 25.4-mile (40.9 km) auxiliary Interstate Highway and state highway in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Officially designated the John Jay Burney Jr. Freeway, it serves as a bypass of Wilmington. The western terminus of the highway is at U.S. Route 17 (US 17) near Winnabow. It heads north in western Leland before turning to the east north of an interchange with U.S. Route 74 (US 74)/U.S. Route 76 (US 76). I-140 crosses the Cape Fear River north of Navassa and the Northeast Cape Fear River northwest of Wrightsboro. I-140 ends at Interstate 40 (I-40), and the route number changes to NC 140. NC 140 continues to the east, ending at US 17 in Kirkland. The need for a bypass north of Wilmington was identified by the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) in 1972. However, the first contract for construction was not awarded until 2000. In August 2005, the first segment of I-140 between I-40 and North Carolina Highway 133 (NC 133) opened. This was followed by a westward extension to U.S. Route 421 (US 421) and an eastward extension to US 17 in June 2006. US 17 was routed along the entirety of the freeway between Kirkland and US 421, running concurrently with I-140. Construction on the western segment between Winnabow and US 74/US 76 began in March 2010 and was opened in September 2014. This segment was temporarily designated as NC 140 as it lacked connection with I-140 to the east. The final segment between US 74/US 76 and US 421 began construction in 2014 and was completed in 2017. I-140 was routed along the entirety of the freeway west of I-40. Additionally, US 17 was removed from its concurrency with I-140, being rerouted through Wilmington in 2017. The remaining section between I-40 and Kirkland was subsequently renumbered as NC 140. ## Route description The western terminus of I-140 is located at a trumpet interchange with US 17 north of the community of Winnabow and southwest of Leland. The I-140 bridge crossing over US 17 at the interchange is named after Wilber E. Rabon, a former Brunswick County Commissioner. I-140 begins running to the northwest, paralleling NC 87 to the east. The highway adjusts and turns to the north, running to the west of a railroad track owned by Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point. The highway meets US 74/US 76 (exit 5) at a partial cloverleaf interchange. Immediately to the north of the interchange, I-140 enters a residential area, with neighborhoods located on both sides of the highway. The highway also makes a turn to the southeast and east, bypassing both Leland and Navassa to the north. Two additional interchanges at Mount Misery Road (exit 8) and Cedar Hill Road (exit 10) are located along I-140 in Brunswick County. The Interstate crosses the Cape Fear River along the L. Bobby Brown Bridge and enters New Hanover County to the northwest of Wilmington. Entering New Hanover County, I-140 crosses through an industrial area and begins a turn to the northeast. I-140 meets with US 421 (exit 14) at another partial cloverleaf interchange. Continuing past US 421, I-140 continues in a northeasterly direction, crossing the Northeast Cape Fear River on the Dan Cameron Bridge. The bridge measures 1.43 miles (2.30 km) in length with a main span of 479 feet (146 m) and 82 feet (25 m) of vertical clearance above the river, Rat Island, and adjacent marshlands. Northeast of the bridge, I-140 begins a turn to the east, running alongside a General Electric/Hitachi facility. I-140 meets with NC 133 (exit 17) north of Wrightsboro while turning to the southeast. Crossing Blue Clay Road, I-140 makes another turn to the northeast but turns back to the east before crossing under US 117 and NC 132. I-140 reaches its eastern terminus at a modified cloverleaf interchange with I-40 (exit 20). The ramp between I-140 East and I-40 West uses a flyover design instead of the traditional cloverleaf design. At the I-40 interchange, the route number changes to NC 140 as the freeway continues to the east. Between I-40 and US 17, the highway runs slightly to the southeast primarily through a wooded area. An interchange is currently under construction with the proposed US 17 Byp. (Military Cutoff Road) northeast of Murraysville. The eastern terminus of NC 140 is located at a trumpet interchange with US 17 in the census-designated place of Kirkland. US 17 merges onto the road and continues as a multilane arterial highway to the northeast. ## History ### First proposal: Raleigh to Sanford During the 1990s, North Carolina originally proposed the I-140 designation for 32.36 miles (52.08 km) along the recently upgraded US 1 freeway between the Raleigh–Cary line and Sanford. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) ultimately disapproved of the routing in their 1999 meeting. ### Wilmington northern bypass The idea of constructing a northern bypass for Wilmington was initially identified by NCDOT as a need in 1972. The outer loop was viewed as a means to help relieve traffic congestion along Market Street and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, serving as an additional crossing of the Cape Fear River and providing for better regional connectivity. However, the project was not included as part of the department's construction schedule until 1989. In 1991, NCDOT initiated the evaluation of a pair of proposed routes for the Northern Outer Loop. The northern routing was to have been approximately 22 miles (35 km) in length; it would have resulted in the relocation of 19 homes and 19 businesses while traversing 1,247 acres (505 ha) of wetlands, nine potential hazardous waste sites, and five historic sites. The southern routing was to have been approximately 20 miles (32 km) in length; it would have resulted in the relocation of 58 homes and eight businesses while traversing 2,064 acres (835 ha) of wetlands, seven potential hazardous waste sites, and eight historic sites. In November 1994, the North Carolina Board of Transportation elected to move forward with the southern routing. The initial 5.8-mile (9.3 km) link between I-40 and US 421 was originally to begin construction in 1998 and open by 2001. Due to significant opposition by both local residents and officials, NCDOT unveiled a revised routing in April 1996 that located the route one mile (1.6 km) north of the initial proposal. This revised "central route" was selected as the final routing by NCDOT in April 1997. At the time of its announcement, the route was estimated to cost $126.5 million (equivalent to $ in ) to complete and result in the displacement of 20 homes, eight businesses, the loss of 118 acres (48 ha) of wetlands, and the loss of 290 acres (120 ha) of farmland. Planning would continue through the late 1990s, culminating with the first contract awarded for its construction in November 2000 for the I-40 interchange. In 1997, local officials initially stated that an Interstate designation was sought for the bypass. In September 2002, the Federal Highway Administration announced that it would grant NCDOT's request and designate the Northern Outer Loop as Interstate 140. The designation was to apply to the initial western segment constructed between I-40 and US 421 and the initial eastern segment constructed between I-40 and US 17. At the time of its announcement, the designation was touted as a significant means to enhance economic development opportunities along its route in addition to potentially serving as a tie-in for moving the proposed eastern terminus of I-74 from Myrtle Beach to Wilmington. Later that month, it was announced the segment east of I-40, would be named the John J. Burney Freeway after the state senator and trustee of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. In an effort to protect scenic viewsheds for motorists utilizing the freeway, the Special Highway Overlay District of the New Hanover County Zoning Ordinance was adopted by the County Commission in June 2001. Some of the restrictions of the overlay include banning the construction of billboards, limiting outdoor storage, and increasing setback requirements for structures adjacent to the roadway. Only nine applications for billboards along I-140 were processed and approved prior to its passage. ### Construction and opening The initial $36.7-million (equivalent to $ in ) contract for construction of a 6.5-mile (10.5 km) segment of the eastern leg was awarded by NCDOT to Barnhill Contracting Company in November 2003. Its construction had been delayed due to several conflicts. This included the handling of stormwater runoff into Futch Creek and a slight redesign of an offramp at the Market Street interchange in Kirkland to avoid a 450-year-old oak tree. Construction of the eastern segment commenced on December 29, 2003. As late as May 2005, NCDOT remained undecided as to whether or not to open only a portion of the road prior to completion of the elevated section due to the bridge section running behind schedule. The first segment of I-140 opened to traffic on August 22, 2005. Formally dedicated with Governor Mike Easley and US Representative Mike McIntyre in attendance, the 3.2-mile (5.1 km) segment was located between I-40 and NC 133 (Castle Hayne Road). In November 2005, the North Carolina Board of Transportation voted unanimously to name the I-140 bridge across the Northeast Cape Fear River in honor of former Wilmington mayor and businessman Dan Cameron. In June 2006, NCDOT announced two additional segments of the I-140 project would open by the end of the month. Costing $187 million (equivalent to $ in ) to complete, the US 17 expressway segment between Market Street and I-40 and the segment between NC 133 and US 421 both opened to traffic on June 30, 2006. Concurrent with its opening, the routing of US 17 through Wilmington was also moved to the newly opened expressway; the previous routing of US 17 through Wilmington was changed to U.S. Highway 17 Business (US 17 Bus.), and the U.S. Highway 17 Truck (US 17 Truck) designation was removed from Military Cutoff Road and Oleander Drive upon the opening of the bypass, with through trucks being directed to utilize the newly constructed freeway. ### Brunswick County extension Originally, the freeway was scheduled to be extended west from its current terminus at US 421 to US 74/US 76 first. However, in 2009, NCDOT announced plans to complete the segment between US 17 in Winnabow and US 74/US 76 before the central segment, which would require a bridge across the Cape Fear River. In response to this decision, town leaders from Navassa filed a discrimination complaint against NCDOT, claiming the town was frequently denied funding for infrastructure improvements and other projects. Planning for future construction continued, and, in March 2010, NCDOT awarded an $81.7-million (equivalent to $ in ) contract to Barnhill Contracting Company. The project involved the construction of the 6.118-mile (9.846 km) segment between the US 74/US 76 intersection and US 17 south of Leland. Construction of the segment began in March 2010 as a result of receiving partial funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. As part of the expansion into Brunswick County, NCDOT designed several wildlife crossings to allow the black bear and other animals to safely cross the corridor in the vicinity of the Battle Royal Natural Heritage Site. The crossings included the extension of four bridges to provide some upland areas from animal crossings along water bodies and the construction of a 12-by-6-foot (3.7 by 1.8 m) wildlife tunnel just north of the US 74/US 76 interchange. The section between US 17 and US 74/US 76 was opened to traffic in September 2014. With the opening of the Brunswick segment, NC 140 was routed along the entirety of the new freeway. On January 14, 2015, the Certification of Rulemaking was released, confirming the establishment of the new designation along not only the Brunswick segment but all existing and future sections of the Wilmington bypass. The justification in the paperwork for using NC 140 was it would serve as a temporary designation until the entire bypass was complete and the remaining segments could be submitted to AASHTO approval as I-140. The other rationalization was to provide an alternate designation for the entire bypass if a proposal to return US 17 to the streets of Wilmington was enacted. This was prevalent as only the New Hanover segment of I-140 was concurrent with US 17. NCDOT officials in the summer of 2014 called for returning US 17 to its original routing through Wilmington on Market Street, with the exception of placing a part of it on Military Cutoff Road and Oleander Drive. This was due to traffic volume on these roads being large enough to merit a route designation. The proposal was endorsed by the Wilmington Area Transportation Advisory Committee in August 2014. AASHTO's Special Committee on U.S. Route Numbering approved the request on May 14, 2015. On May 17, 2017, US 17 was officially rerouted through Wilmington. On December 15, 2017, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held for the final section of the freeway between US 74/US 76 and US 421, officially completing I-140 around Wilmington. However, this segment of road did not officially open to traffic until December 19, 2017, due to the road requiring final construction and cleanup. The section costed $204 million (equivalent to $ in ) and included two 1.4-mile-long (2.3 km) bridges over the Cape Fear River, with 300,000 short tons (270,000 long tons) of stone and 5,000,000 cubic yards (3,800,000 m³) of fill material. I-140 was officially extended west to replace NC 140 between US 17 and US 74/US 76 on August 7, 2018. ## Future In 2002, the North Carolina Board of Transportation appropriated $10 million for the construction of an interchange at Blue Clay Road. The interchange would serve in providing better access to both Wilmington International Airport and the Cape Fear Community College North Campus. There is currently no timeline for the completion of the interchange. An interchange is currently being constructed with the proposed Hampstead Bypass as part of the extension of Military Cutoff Road and Hampstead Bypass. Once completed, US 17 Byp. and I-140/NC 140 will form a bypass of US 17 from Winnabow to Hampstead. Construction on the Military Cutoff Road extension began in 2017, and opened to traffic on September 28, 2023. Work is expected to begin on the Hampstead Bypass north of NC 210 in late 2020, with construction of the segment between NC 140 and NC 210 beginning in 2023. Roadwork of the entire bypass is expected to be completed in 2030. The proposed Cape Fear Crossing project is proposed to have its western terminus at I-140 in Brunswick County. The proposed freeway would extend east, crossing the Cape Fear River along a newly constructed bridge. The project is currently funded for right-of-way acquisition in the 2019–2029 State Transportation Improvement Plan. However, no construction funding is currently allocated to the project. Once funding is received, it would take approximately five years to complete. ## Exit list |}

Sága and Sökkvabekkr

Goddess and location in Norse mythology

In Norse mythology, Sága (, possibly meaning "seeress") is a goddess associated with the location Sökkvabekkr (Old Norse: ; "sunken bank", "sunken bench", or "treasure bank"). At Sökkvabekkr, Sága and the god Odin merrily drink as cool waves flow. Both Sága and Sökkvabekkr are attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and in the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. Scholars have proposed theories about the implications of the goddess and her associated location, including that the location may be connected to the goddess Frigg's fen residence Fensalir and that Sága may be another name for Frigg. ## Etymology The etymology of the name Sága is generally held to be connected to the Old Norse verb sjá, meaning "to see" (from Proto-Germanic \*sehwan). This may mean that Sága is to be understood as a seeress. Since Frigg is referred to as a seeress in the poem Lokasenna, this etymology has led to theories connecting Sága to Frigg. Rudolf Simek says that this etymology raises vowel problems and that a link to saga and segja (meaning "say, tell") is more likely, yet that this identification is also problematic. ## Attestations In the Poetic Edda poem Grímnismál, Sökkvabekkr is presented fourth among a series of stanzas describing the residences of various gods. In the poem, Odin (disguised as Grímnir) tells the young Agnar that Odin and Sága happily drink there from golden cups while waves resound: > In the Poetic Edda poem Helgakviða Hundingsbana I, the hero Sinfjötli references Sága in the name of a location found in a stanza where Sinfjötli flyts with Guðmundr. The location name, nes Ságu, has been variously translated as "Saga's Headland," "Saga's Cape," and "Saga's ness" Part of the stanza may be missing and, due to this, some editors have joined it with the stanza prior. Sága is mentioned once in both the Prose Edda books Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál, while Sokkvabekk is only mentioned once, in Gylfaginning. In chapter 35 of Gylfaginning, High tells Gangleri (described as king Gylfi in disguise) about the ásynjur. High follows a description of Frigg and her dwelling Fensalir with "Second is Saga. She dwells in Sokkvabekk, and that is a big place." In chapter 75 of the book Skáldskaparmál, Sága is present among a list of 27 ásynjur, but no information is provided about her there. ## Theories John Lindow says that due to similarity between Sökkvabekkr and Fensalir, "Odin's open drinking with Sága", and the potential etymological basis for Sága being a seeress has "led most scholars to understand Sága as another name for Frigg." Stephan Grundy states that the words Sága and Sökkvabekkr may be by-forms of Frigg and Fensalir, respectively, used for the purpose of composing alliterative verse. Britt-Mari Näsström theorizes that "Frigg's role as a fertility goddess is revealed in the name of her abode, Fensalir [...]", that Frigg is the same as Sága, and that both the names Fensalir and Sökkvabekkr "imply a goddes [sic] living in the water and recall the fertility goddess Nerthus". Näsström adds that "Sökkvabekkr, the subterranean water, alludes to the well of Urd, hidden under the roots of Yggdrasil and the chthonic function, which is manifest in Freyja's character." Rudolf Simek says that Sága should be considered "one of the not closer defined Asyniur" along with Hlín, Sjöfn, Snotra, Vár, and Vör, and that they "should be seen as female protective goddesses." Simek adds that "these goddesses were all responsible for specific areas of the private sphere, and yet clear differences were made between them so that they are in many ways similar to matrons." 19th century scholar Jacob Grimm comments that "the gods share their power and influence with goddesses, the heroes and priests with wise women." Grimm notes that Sökkvabekkr is "described as a place where cool waters rush" and that Odin and Sága "day to day drink gladly out of golden cups." Grimm theorizes that the liquid from these cups is: > - > the drink of immortality, and at the same time of poesy. Saga may be taken as wife or as daughter of Oðinn; in either case she is identical to him as god of poetry. With the Greeks the Musa was a daughter of Zeus, but often hear of three or nine Muses, who resemble our wise women, norns and schöpferins (shapers of destiny), and dwell beside springs or wells. The cool flood well befits the swanwives, daughters of Wish. Saga can be no other than our sage (saw, tale), the 'mære' [...] personified and deified.

3rd Sustainment Brigade (United States)

The 3rd Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade is a sustainment brigade of the United States Army headquartered at Fort Stewart, Georgia. The 3rd Division Sustainment Brigade (DSB) is responsible for providing logistical support to the 3rd Infantry Division, however the modular nature of the brigade means that it takes on other roles while deployed. Though its lineage dates back to 1957, the unit was not designated as a separate unit until 2005. The 3rd Division Sustainment Brigade has served three tours in Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, its first tour being the initial invasion and securing of the country, followed by a second tour of duty as logistics support for units around Baghdad, and finally as the multinational division supply lines in the northern division of the country. The Brigade left for a planned nine-month deployment to Afghanistan in late November 2012. ## Organization The 3rd Division Sustainment Brigade has a permanent organization of two attached battalions, however this number can be changed when the unit is deployed in a theater of operations. These permanent attachments include the 87th Division Sustainment Support Battalion (87th DSSB), (formerly known as the 87th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, CSSB) and a Division Special Troops Battalion (DSTB). The units are headquartered at Fort Stewart. Georgia, along with the brigade's Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC). Under non-deployment circumstances, the HHC of the Brigade would, in turn, be directly subordinate to the 3rd Infantry Division. ## History The unit was constituted 1 July 1957 in the regular army as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 3rd Infantry Division Trains, and activated at Fort Benning, Georgia. On 20 March 1963, the unit was consolidated with the 3rd Infantry Division Band, which has previously been organized in 1943 as the band, 3rd Infantry Division. On 15 March 1968, the unit was re-organized and re-designed as Headquarters and Headquarters Company and Band, 3rd Infantry Division Support Command. On 21 May 1972, the unit was re-organized and re-designed as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Infantry Division Support Command. It was deployed to as part of the Cold War buildup, should hostilities arise in the region with the Soviet Union. Though the unit was placed on alert constantly, it never saw action during its time in the region, which lasted from its activation until 1991. In the fall of 2002, the Division Support Command deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom I, earning the Presidential Unit Citation along with the rest of the 3rd Infantry Division. The Brigade and its division had spearheaded the invasion into the nation of Iraq, supporting the four brigades as they pushed through southern Iraq and into the capital of Baghdad. After the initial invasion and capture of Baghdad, the brigade remained in the city, supporting the 3rd Infantry Division as the unit conducted counterinsurgency and infrastructure activities in the area. It returned home to Fort Stewart in August 2003. The Division Support Command was renamed the Division Support Brigade and deployed to Iraq in the fall of 2004 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom III, leading coalition troops in control of the Baghdad area. Under Multinational Division, Baghdad. It returned home again in January 2006. The Division Support Brigade was reorganized as the 3rd Support Brigade on 15 June 2005, and re-designated as the 3rd Sustainment Brigade on 21 April 2006. In 2007, the Brigade saw its third deployment to Iraq during the Iraq War, relieving the 45th Sustainment Brigade of its areas of responsibility of Multinational Division, North, comprising over a dozen Forward Operating Bases. The Brigade deployed to Iraq in fall of 2007 following the Brigade Combat Teams and aviation brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, however, for this deployment, the unit did not support the Division directly, as its mission in Multinational Division, North covered facilities management, not unit logistics. Brigade projects focused on building infrastructure throughout northern Iraq. The brigade served a total of 15 months in the country, headquartered at Contingency Operating Base Q-West in Northern Iraq under the command of the 316th Expeditionary Support Command. It was relieved during a change of command ceremony on 9 August 2008, at which time it returned to Fort Stewart. It was replaced by the 16th Sustainment Brigade. Since its return, the brigade participated in an intramural soccer tournament at Fort Benning, something many of its members enjoyed doing, even while deployed. In late November 2012 the Brigade deployed to Afghanistan for its first tour in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. In September 2014, the brigade deployed a sixth time to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, to support sustainment and retrograde operations in seven middle eastern countries. In October, 2017, the brigade and Special Troops Battalion headquarters deployed to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, to support Operation Resolute Support, taking on the role of the 3rd Infantry Division Resolute Support Sustainment Brigade. During their planned 9-month tour they will oversee all logistics operations inside Afghanistan. In 2024, the 3rd Sustainment Brigade was renamed as the 3rd Division Sustainment Brigade (DSB) in order to realign with new Army sustainment doctrine and unit designations. ## Honors ### Unit Decorations ### Campaign streamers

Southward expansion of the Han dynasty

Series of Chinese military campaigns by the Han dynasty

The southward expansion of the Han dynasty was a series of Chinese military campaigns and expeditions in what is now modern Southern China and Northern Vietnam. Military expansion to the south began under the previous Qin dynasty and continued during the Han era. Campaigns were dispatched to conquer the Yue tribes, leading to the annexation of Minyue by the Han in 135 BC and 111 BC, Nanyue in 111 BC, and Dian in 109 BC. Han Chinese culture took root into the newly conquered territories and the Baiyue and Dian tribes were eventually assimilated or displaced by the Han Empire. Evidence of Han dynasty influences are apparent in artifacts excavated in the Baiyue tombs of modern southern China. This sphere of influence eventually extended to various ancient Southeast Asian kingdoms, where contact led to the spread of Han Chinese culture, trade and political diplomacy. The increased demand for Chinese silk also led to the establishment of the Silk Road connecting Europe, the Near East, and China. ## Background Military campaigns against the Baiyue began under the Qin, the dynasty that preceded the Han. The First Emperor of the Qin craved for the resources of the Baiyue and ordered military expeditions against the region between 221 and 214 BC. He sent a large contingent of soldiers against Lingnan in 214 BC, comprising conscripted merchants and soldiers. Military garrisons were installed, the Lingqu Canal was constructed, and new areas were placed under Qin administration. The collapse of the Qin caused the dissolution of Qin administration in southern China. Indigenous Yue kingdoms emerged in the former Qin territories, including the Nanyue kingdom in Guangxi, Guangdong, and Vietnam, Minyue in Fujian, and Eastern Ou in Zhejiang. Supported by the Han military, Minyue was established in 202 BC and Eastern Ou in 192 BC after the fall of the Qin dynasty. Zhao Tuo, a former Chinese commander of the Qin, established Nanyue in 208 BC after the death of the emperor Qin Shi Huang. Emperor Gaozu, first emperor of the Han dynasty, approved Zhao Tuo's new title as king. Zhao was born in the city of Zhending in Central China, and the ruling class of the new kingdom was composed of Chinese officials from the former Qin dynasty. In 180 BC, Zhao offered to submit as a vassal state and the Han accepted, a decision partly based on his family's northern Han Chinese ancestry. ## Military campaigns ### Campaigns against Minyue and Eastern Ou Military campaigns were launched against the Baiyue under the reign of the Han emperor Wu. The Eastern Ou Kingdom requested Han military assistance when Minyue invaded the kingdom in 138 BC. Supreme commander Tian Fen opposed Han intervention. Tian told the emperor that the Yue tribes could not be trusted. Battles between the Yue tribes occurred frequently, and Tian believed that protecting them was not a responsibility of the Han court. The Han official Zhuang Zhu convinced the emperor to intervene in the war. Zhuang's argument was based on the emperor's role as the Son of Heaven, a concept in Chinese political philosophy. In Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, Zhuang is reported to have said: > The only thing we should worry about is whether we have strength enough to rescue them and virtue enough to command their loyalty... Now a small country has come to report its distress to the Son of Heaven. If he does not save it, to whom can it turn for aid? And how can the Son of Heaven claim that the rulers of all other states are like sons to him if he ignores their pleases? The Minyue surrendered after a Han naval force led by Zhuang Zhu was dispatched from Shaoxing in northern Zhejiang, and withdrew from Eastern Ou. The Yue tribes of Eastern Ou were transferred to the north, between the Yangtze River and Huai River. A second intervention was launched in 135 BC after Minyue, ruled by Zou Ying, invaded Nanyue, ruled by Zhao Mo. Nanyue had been a Han vassal since 180 BC. Zhao asked the Han for their support, and the emperor responded by sending an army led by Wang Hui and Han Anguo against Minyue. Zou Ying was assassinated with a spear by his younger brother Zou Yushan, who plotted against the ruler with the royal family and prime minister. Ying beheaded the corpse and gave the head to a messenger, who delivered it to Wang as a sign of Minyue's surrender. After the assassination, Minyue was succeeded by a state divided into a dual monarchy composed of the kingdom of Minyue, controlled by a Han proxy ruler, and the kingdom of Dongyue, ruled by Zou Yushan. As general Yang Pu returned north with his soldiers after the Han–Nanyue War in 111 BC, he requested the emperor's permission to annex Dongyue. The emperor refused after he considered the morale of the troops. Zou Yushan had promised to supply an army to assist the Han in their war against the Nanyue. The army never arrived and Zou blamed the weather conditions, while secretly maintaining a diplomatic relationship with Nanyue. Zou began a rebellion against the Han after learning of Yang's plot against him. A Han military campaign was dispatched and led by General Han Yue, General Yang Pu, military commander Wang Wenshu, and two marquises of Yue ancestry. The revolt was repressed and the Han annexed Dongyue in the last months of 111 BC, conquering the remaining territory of the former Minyue. Sima Qian records that the entire population of Dongyue was exiled, a claim that is implausible. ### Campaign against Nanyue In the 110s BC, Jiushi (樛氏), the empress dowager of Nanyue, wife of the deceased Zhao Yingqi and a native Han Chinese, mooted the unification of Nanyue with Han China. This proposal was met with resistance in the Nanyue nobility which, although nominally tributary to the Han, had not paid tribute in years. The queen was executed by Lü Jia, leader of those who had opposed her, in the summer of 112 BC. The Han dynasty took umbrage at the diplomats killed with her and saw this event as an act of rebellion. Emperor Wu sent a military campaign consisting of 2,000 soldiers led by General Han Qianqiu to quell the revolt. The general died in battle and the Han forces lost. The second campaign, led by the generals Lu Bode and Yang Pu, was dispatched by sea with 100,000 soldiers in the fall of 112 BC. They reached the city of Panyu, located in modern Guangzhou, in 111–110 BC and defeated the rebels. Lingnan was once again brought under Chinese control, and nine Chinese commanderies were created to administer Guangdong, the island of Hainan, and the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam. The two Han commanderies located in Hainan were abandoned in 82 BC and 46 BC, despite the Han government's interest in the area's rare resources. In the early years of the Eastern Han, following the usurpation of Wang Mang and the re-establishment of the Han, the tribal elites of Nanyue remained loyal to the Han. In 40 AD, revolts against Han rule were led by the Trung sisters near the Red River Delta. The rebellion was defeated in 43 by the general Ma Yuan, a participant in the battles that followed Wang Mang's usurpation. The Han reestablished control of Nanyue. The Trung sisters were executed or killed during the fighting. In popular accounts, they vanished in the sky, fell sick, or took their own lives by jumping into a river and drowning. Violence in the region continued, and there were seven periods of unrest between 100 and 184. A new strategy was adopted, orchestrated by the official Li Gu, that sought to appoint honest officials, exile hostile tribes, and pit tribal leaders against each other. The strategy was only partially successful. ### Campaign against Dian In 135 BC, Tang Meng led the earliest Han expedition against Dian, establishing the Jianwei commandery in southwestern China. The Dian tribes were involved in the trade of livestock, horses, fruit, and slaves, and was attractive to the Han because of their resources and metalworking expertise. Trade routes between Dian and the rest of the Han empire were opened up by Han soldiers. The Han continued their expansion northward, and annexed the territory near Shu. Due to the Han–Xiongnu War on the north, the rising cost of administration in the distant state led to the Han abandoning the commandery. A group of Chinese explorers were captured by the Dian for four years. They were part of an expedition traveling southwards to establish an alternative trade route for the goods reported in Central Asian markets in 122 BC. Dian was conquered during a military campaign launched by Emperor Wu of Han in 109 BC, and the Yizhou commandery was established in the former kingdom. Archaeologists discovered the king of Dian's imperial seal inscribed by the Han, confirming Dian's surrender and status as a subject of the Han. The Dian led a series of unsuccessful rebellions against Han rule, beginning with two revolts in 86 BC and 83 BC. Chen Li, governor of the Zangge commandery, crushed a rebellion in 28–25 BC. Under Wang Mang's reign as usurper of the Han throne between 9–23 AD, hostilities in southwestern China persisted. Wang sent military campaigns to quell the unrest. Seventy percent of the soldiers in one campaign died from illness. Another campaign, comprising 100,000 men and with double the supplies, was not fruitful. Rebellions continued in 42-45 and 176. The Han expanded further during Emperor Ming's reign (57–75 AD). The new commandery of Yongchang (永昌郡) was established in what is modern Baoshan, Yunnan in the former Dian Kingdom. The Dian tribes west of Yuexi/Yuesui Commandery (越巂, modern Xichang in southern Sichuan) submitted to Han rule in 114 AD. Emperor Huang (r. 146–168) encouraged the cultural assimilation of the tribes during his reign between. Under Emperor Huangti, sinicization of the Dian involved the teaching of Chinese ethics and Han Chinese culture was promoted in Yunnan. Despite periodic unrest, the Dian Kingdom was eventually absorbed into the Han Empire. Conquered by the Han dynasty, Han Chinese settlers began moving into the lowlands once inhabited by the Dian. Over the centuries, the Dian were assimilated by the Han Chinese and were virtually extinct by the 11th century AD. ## Historical significance ### Chinese migration and cultural assimilation Han Chinese migration from northern and central China populated Yunnan and Guangdong. The political turmoil that followed Wang Mang's usurpation led to another wave of Chinese migration. Han settlers and soldiers from the north were affected by diseases common in tropical regions, such as malaria and schistosomiasis. Sinicization of the Yue and Dian tribes was brought about by a combination of Han imperial military power, regular Han Chinese settlement and an influx of Han Chinese refugees. The military invasions and an influx Han Chinese immigrants created a culture that merged Han Chinese traditions with indigenous elements. Evidence from modern archaeological digs in the area reveal the extent of Han Chinese influence. Han dynasty tombs in Guangzhou, Guangdong show that the native tools and ceramics were gradually replaced by those modeled after Chinese styles by the Western Han. Excavations from the period have uncovered bronze mirrors, stoves, wells, incense burners, tripods, and lanterns manufactured in the style of the Han Chinese. Cultural assimilation in Guangxi and Guizhou happened during the late Western Han and occurred later than in Guangdong. As in Guangdong, a number of Han-style mirrors, coins, ceramics, bronze, iron, and lacquerware were discovered in the region's tombs. Modern Yunnan in southwestern China was annexed into the Han Empire after the establishment of a Chinese prefecture in 109 BC. The growing influence of Chinese culture is apparent in excavated Dian artifacts, and coins, ceramics, mirrors, and bronzes have been discovered in Dian manufactured with Han stylistic elements. Dian art adopted the aesthetics of Han imports and by 100, the indigenous Dian culture had largely disappeared. Northern Chinese culture had become largely ingrained in the south. The expansion of China from the North China Plain to the south, a process that began in the Qin dynasty, had reached its height under the Han. ### Trade and foreign contact The southward expansion of the Han dynasty brought the empire into contact with the civilizations of Southeast Asia. Chinese cultural and technological influence spread to nearby Southeast Asian kingdoms. Remnants of Chinese pottery from the Han dynasty have been excavated in Sumatra, Borneo, and Java that date from the 1st century. Archaeologists have also discovered bronze axes in Cambodia that were based on the design of Chinese axes. Han dynasty emperors and their successors maintained commercial and diplomatic ties with various South and Southeast Asian kingdoms. Han dynasty ships traveled as far as India, expanding the horizon for new foreign markets for Chinese goods and services through maritime trade within the orbit of the Indian Ocean. Trade relationships were also established between China and foreign empires through the conquered territories. Trade connected China with the Indian Mauryan, Sātavāhana and Shunga Empires, the Persian Parthian Empire, and the European Roman Mediterranean. Roman dancers and entertainers were sent to Luoyang as a gift to China from a Burmese kingdom in 120. A kingdom referred to in the Book of Han as Huangzhi delivered a rhinoceros in the year 2 AD as a tribute. An Indian embassy arrived in China between 89 and 105. Roman merchants from the province of Syria visited Nanyue in 166, Nanjing in 226, and Luoyang in 284. Foreign products have been found at archaeological sites excavating tombs in southern China. Originating with the overseas demand for Chinese silk, the ancient Silk Road trade routes were responsible for the transmission of goods and services as well as ideas between ancient Europe, the Near East, and China. ## See also - Military of the Han dynasty - Han dynasty in Inner Asia

Blazing Star

1998 shooter video game

Blazing Star is a shoot 'em up video game developed by Yumekobo and published by SNK in 1998 for the Neo Geo arcade and home systems. It is a follow-up to Pulstar (1995) and features side-scrolling action similar to its predecessor and different ships with varying characteristics. It was made less challenging than its predecessor, and the graphic quality was improved upon. The game was released to mixed reviews. It was commended for its graphics and boss design, and for keeping the Neo Geo shooter scene alive. It has received greater recognition in retrospective reviews when re-released on smartphones and home consoles through the ACA Neo Geo series. Critics continued to praise the boss battles and graphics, but criticized the uneven stage design. ## Gameplay Blazing Star is a side-scrolling shoot 'em up similar to its predecessor Pulstar (1995) and the classic shooter R-Type (1987). The story revolves around cyborgs that, remembering their humanity, team up to destroy artificial intelligence systems developing the cybernetic armies they were once a part of. The player can choose from playing as one of these cyborgs, each piloting a ship equipped with different shot types, power, and speed. Tapping the fire button will unleash a standard shot, or it can be tapped rapidly for a different shot type, or held down for a charge attack. Upon releasing the fire button during a charge, it will unleash a powerful focused shot which can also be dispersed to cover a large area with smaller bullets. The effect and range of these attacks varies depending on the player's ship. Power-ups are littered across each stage that boost the power of the ship's weaponry. There are also other items that will increase the player's score and count towards their ranking at the end of each stage. Some of these are only revealed if the player eliminates specific waves of enemies. Some of the later stages introduce more stage hazards like narrow passages. Each stage ends with a boss fight which the player must be completed in the allotted time to get bonus points added to their score. If not completed under the time limit, the player is forced to continue to the next stage without collecting additional points. ## Development Blazing Star was the first game developed by Yumekobo, a company formerly known as Aicom but rebranded to mark their new direction of working closely with SNK. Initial discussions began with the concept for a follow-up to their shooter Pulstar, however they wanted their new game to maintain a degree of independence from the original. With significant changes made to the gameplay style and setting, the team treated their new game as a gaiden and did not want to use Pulstar in the title. Yumekobo's president at the time opposed this, wanting Pulstar in the title for business reasons. At some point the game was titled Pulstar Blast. The publisher SNK entered the dispute, saying they did not want Yumekobo's new shooter to be associated to Pulstar in the west because it received poor reception there due to its high difficulty. The team settled on the title Blazing Star for its western release, chosen among others including Zero Hour and The Zenith. Not wanting to keep the names different between regions, Yumekobo's president decided to make Blazing Star the title in all regions. The team had trouble designing the attack patterns and enemy placements to establish the right level of difficulty. Interesting combat patterns made the game more difficult, but the game was boring otherwise. The director of Pulstar thought the original game was too difficult and wanted the new shooter to have a charge shot for an easier challenge. Although much of the game changed through development, the charge shot was one of the early concepts that was kept along with the goal to create impressive scenery. Yumekobo staff believed the game's best selling point was its detailed graphics. The artists had to overcome challenges creating the textures, animation, and reducing the sprites to 16 colors each due to Neo Geo hardware limitations. The system's sprite limit restricted the number of bullets they could place on-screen. There was still some sprite flickering in the final game due to crossing this threshold. The character Leefa has a kogal personality and was modeled after Yuko Asahina from Tokimeki Memorial at the request of the game designers. JB was modeled after the actor Jean Reno, and Asayuki was based on a character for a previous game the character designer worked on that was never released. Unique endings were planned for each character but were later cut, the details of which were divulged in an issue of Neo Geo Freak. ## Release Blazing Star was released on the Neo Geo arcade system (MVS) in 1998, and the home system (AES) on February 26, 1998. A Neo Geo CD release was planned but abandoned. The game was re-released on iOS and Android in July 2012, and on the Wii via the Virtual Console in Japan on August 21 later that year. The smartphone versions include multiplayer support via Bluetooth and a practice mode that lets the player start from any stage they have cleared. Hamster Corporation rereleased the game for the Nintendo Switch via the eShop on May 2, 2017 as part of their ACA Neo Geo series. As with all games released under the ACA Neo Geo brand, the game includes Hamster's additional scoring modes, screen filter options, and difficulty settings. This version later came to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One digital storefronts on February 8, 2018. Blazing Star is also included in SNK's Neo Geo Mini dedicated console. A port developed by DotEmu for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux and asm.js was released by SNK Playmore as part of the Humble NEOGEO 25th Anniversary Bundle on December 15, 2015. It was also released on GOG.com on May 30, 2017. ## Reception Critics commended Blazing Star as a testament to SNK's devotion to the Neo Geo hardware and keeping classic genres such as shoot 'em ups alive. Edge wrote that side-scrolling shooters were rare to find, but the game should satisfy fans of the genre. They praised the colorful backgrounds and 3D special effects. Video Games agreed that the graphics were nice, but felt some of the backgrounds were pale and it ultimately did not offer "The Ultimate in Neo Geo graphics" as was advertised on the game's packaging. Next Level argued that the game took better advantage of the Neo Geo hardware than Pulstar with its improved background and lighting effects. Journalists found the game similar to its predecessor, but Video Games in particular thought Pulstar was the better game. They gave Blazing Star a score of 72% and felt it was too short, not challenging enough, and lacking in sophisticated level design. They did however like the bosses, as did Next Level and Edge who both appreciated the game for carrying on the large boss trend from Pulstar. Edge ultimately felt that the "frenetic, old-school gameplay...will keep the Neo Geo's devotees happy." In 2014, HobbyConsolas identified it as one of the twenty best games for the Neo Geo AES. The iOS and Android ports of Blazing Star were well-received. TouchArcade commended the strategic gameplay, impressive 2D backgrounds, and felt it featured "some of the most intricate shooter gameplay you can find in the vast pool of shmups available on the App Store." Their biggest criticisms were the touch screen controls which they felt were sluggish. Pocket Gamer agreed about the controls, writing that their finger would get in the way of action occasionally. They still thought the game was addictive and "the equivalent of the machine in the corner that the hardened veterans congregate around, dropping in coin after coin as they inch their way up the leaderboards." Reviewing the Arcade Archives release, Nintendo Life called it a "perfect port", noting that it even retained the frame rate slowdown when the screen is filled with sprites. Their biggest complaints were the game's aged pre-rendered graphics and the sharp difficulty increase in the latter stages, but they felt these were minor issues. They felt Hamster Corporation's Hi-Score and Caravan modes were perfect complements to Blazing Star. Nintendo World Report felt that it had an uneven level design, wishing the earlier levels had more stage hazards. They did however appreciate the game for maintaining a degree of simplicity without sacrificing gameplay depth, and called it "one of the more accessible and fun shoot-em-ups out there". ## Legacy Retro Gamer and Harcore Gaming 101 wrote that the game is sometimes remembered for its poorly-translated English text. Some articles, including one by linguist Ben Zimmer, have cited the game's game over message, “You fail it", as inspiring the popular interjection "Fail".

The Tip-Off (Spooks)

"The Tip-Off" is the third episode of series seven of the British espionage television series Spooks, and the 59th episode overall. It was originally broadcast on digital channel BBC Three on 28 October 2008, and repeated on frontline channel BBC One on 3 November. The episode was written by Russell Lewis; with additional writing by Ben Richards; and directed by Peter Hoar. In the episode, Ben Kaplan (Alex Lanipekun) goes undercover to infiltrate an Al-Qaeda cell in London during a dry run before an expected attack. However, it later becomes apparent the terrorists are going to attack during the dry run. Actor Alex Lanipekun believed the episode became a sort of "coming of age" for his character, as he had to deal with issues dealing with undercover operations including not to get close to a terrorist. The episode introduces the "Sugarhorse" story arc, which continues through to the series finale. In making the scene where Lucas North was waterboarded, Richard Armitage who portrays him was subjected to the actual torture to ensure the scene's authenticity. It was seen by over five million viewers after its original broadcast, and was given generally positive reviews. However, it received criticism for featuring the waterboarding scene. ## Plot Chief of Section D Ros Myers (Hermione Norris) introduces Lucas North (Richard Armitage) to one of Adam Carter's assets, Pakistani intelligence officer Marlin (Emilio Doorgasingh). Marlin has information about a planned attack by Al-Qaeda; a cell intends to create Internet chatter, followed by a dry run, after which they will commence a series of suicide attacks. The ringleader behind this is Nadif Abdelrashid (Ariyon Bakare) who was previously responsible for similar attacks in Turkey and Somalia. Ben Kaplan is in his first undercover operation disguised as a recent convert to Islam and becomes part of the cell. As part of his cover, Ben shares a flat with Jawad (Tariq Jordan), another member. However, over the course of the operation Ben becomes close to Jawad, which Ben's handler Lucas advises against, as Jawad is not an innocent. When Malcolm Wynn-Jones (Hugh Simon) discovers the chatter, Ben relays to the team that the dry run will commence the following day. On the day, Ben finds that Abdelrashid intends to carry out the attack ahead of schedule and during the dry run after Ben, Jawad, and two other men are given bombs. Ben relays this message to Lucas. Ros dispatches CO19 to apprehend Abdelrachid in his office, who intends to remote detonate the bombs. Another CO19 squad, as well as Lucas and Jo Portman (Miranda Raison) follow the cell members to a street market, which they will use to maximise civilian casualties. Ben admits he is MI5 to Jawad, who runs in panic and attempts to manually detonate his bomb; this results in getting gunned down by CO19 officers, much to Ben's dismay. After stopping another two bombs, Jawad's mobile phone rings, revealing Abdelrashid is not the "Mr. Big"; it is Marlin. He remote detonates the last bomb, killing the terrorist and the two CO19 officers holding him. Although one bomb did detonate, Harry Pearce (Peter Firth) views the operation a success, as the other three did not, and no civilians were killed. Ben tells Lucas he was right about Jawad; he chose to become a bomber over seeing his family. Lucas receives a call from Marlin, who asks to meet with him. During the confrontation, Marlin admits he was forced to become Mr. Big when terrorists kidnapped his family. Now knowing he has failed, he commits suicide. In a subplot, rainwater falls onto Lucas's face, which triggers a flashback where he was tortured by FSB interrogators during his eight-year imprisonment in Russia. The interrogators question him on "Sugarhorse." Lucas relays this to Harry, who claims not knowing what Sugarhorse is. However, he later visits a retired spycatcher Bernard Qualtrough (Richard Johnson) believing there is high level mole within MI5. He only reveals that Sugarhorse is MI5's "best kept secret" that only five people, including Richard Dolby (Robert East), the Director General, and himself, know the details of. Harry later returns to Qualtrough's bookstore to find out who the mole might be, starting by looking into Dolby's file. ## Production The episode was written by Russell Lewis, with additional writing by Ben Richards. Ben Kaplan became the central character of the episode. Actor Alex Lanipekin, who portrays Ben, stated that "The Tip-Off" was a "kind of a coming of age" for the character, dealing with his first undercover operation. Lanipekun expanded: > First time he went undercover in episode three, and having to deal with death, with Adam, and then also in [the episode] with someone where he goes undercover with to try and infiltrate a cell, and then he gets close to the person that he is supposed to be watching. And there's that kind of duality there and that borderline, and Ben stepping over the line, and having coming to terms to what the agenda is at the end of episode three; we don't have to understand [the terrorists], we have to stop them and that is actually an important moment for the character. The episode also introduces a story-arc, about Sugarhorse, that would be resolved by the end of the seventh series. Hermione Norris describes Sugarhorse as "a group of spies who were brought together after the ending of the cold war to infiltrate, at the highest level, all forms of Russian intelligence so that if a nuclear power ever came into being and was at the hands of the Russian people, MI5 and MI6 could infiltrate it and stop it." The cast read the brief on Sugarhorse, but were then told to shred it in order to maintain its secrecy from fans. In a flashback sequence of the episode, Lucas is subjected to waterboarding, a method of torture. In order to ensure the authenticity of the sequence, Armitage was subjected to the actual torture. He agreed to perform the sequence after he was convinced by consultants from the FSB and CIA. Armitage was only waterboarded for a short time, and was filmed in slow motion to make it appear as if he was on for longer. Kudos film and television, the production company behind Spooks, had to follow several health and safety provisions from an advisor to ensure the sequence strictly adheres to the advice. The advisor and a medic were present during filming. The ambient temperature of the room was raised to make Armitage as comfortable as possible. However, after the sequence was shot, Armitage changed his opinion entirely, stating; "I only lasted five to ten seconds, and the sound of my voice crying out to stop isn't me acting." ## Broadcast and reception The episode was originally broadcast on the digital channel BBC Three from 11 pm on Tuesday, 28 October 2008, after the broadcast of the second episode on BBC One. The episode would later be repeated on BBC One on Monday, 3 November 2008 during the 9 pm to 10 pm time slot, except in Northern Ireland, where it was withheld until 10:35 pm. There is no ratings data available for the BBC Three broadcast. On the BBC One broadcast, the episode was seen by 5.2 million viewers, an improvement of 140,000 from the previous episode, with a 21.6 per cent audience share, winning its time slot against the return of detective series Taggart on ITV1, and other terrestrial channels. According to the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board, the episode received final viewing figures of 5.59 million, making the episode the 17th most seen broadcast on BBC One, and 32nd in overall television the week it was shown. Mof Gimmers of TV Scoop was positive towards the episode, calling it "a tense week for Section D" and added "our guys did a pretty good job." Gimmers also thought Ben "did well on his first undercover mission too, didn't you think? Apart from verging on sympathy for the young brainwashed bombers. Still, he's young. He'll get over it." On Ros' role in the episode, Gimmers said "I don't think I'll ever be able to say I'm "warming" to such an ice queen as Ros, but I will admit to a growing admiration." Scott Matthewman of The Stage stated "the seventh series of the spy show continues apace," and praised the episode for "the superb performance of Hermione Norris as Ros Myers, fast becoming the twisted moral centre of the show. Both she and Peter Firth's Harry Pearce get some great dialogue every week, so it's a shame that the rest of the cast aren’t afforded the same luxury." The Guardian columnist Zoe Williams criticised the actual waterboarding in the torture scene, saying "it's really unpleasant, [Armitage] concurred. 'I only lasted five to 10 seconds, and the sound of my voice crying out to stop isn't me acting.' Pal, that's nice that you're not showing off but this is all wrong and despicable: it's like locking yourself and 10 friends into a loo on a commuter train, to see what it would be like on the train to Auschwitz. If you can make it stop whenever you like, you're learning nothing and kicking people in the face while you're at it."