title: NASCAR

text: In 1994, NASCAR announced the formation of the NASCAR SuperTruck Series presented by Craftsman. The first series race followed in 1995. In 1996, the series was renamed the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series to emphasize Craftsman's involvement. The series was first considered something of an oddity or a "senior tour" for NASCAR drivers, but eventually grew in popularity and has seen drivers move straight to the Cup Series without running a full season in NASCAR Xfinity Series competition. These include Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards (who both ran for Roush Racing). In addition, veteran drivers who have had only moderate success at the other two levels of the sport have revitalized their careers in the truck series, including Ron Hornaday Jr., Todd Bodine, Mike Skinner, and Johnny Benson.


title: NASCAR

text: Beginning in 2009, the series became the Camping World Truck Series. In 2019, per a branding request made by Camping World, the series was rebranded as the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series.


title: NASCAR

text: As noted previously, the Chase format was extended to the Truck Series in 2016. The format is identical to that used in the Xfinity Series, except that only eight drivers qualify for the Chase (instead of 12 in the Xfinity Series) and only two drivers are eliminated at the end of each preliminary round (instead of four in the Xfinity Series). As in both the Cup Series and Xfinity Series, four drivers are eligible for the series title entering the final race. Similar to Cup, starting in 2017 "The Chase" moniker was dropped and is now simply referred to as the Truck Series Playoffs.


title: NASCAR

text: On May 8, 2018, NASCAR and Camping World announced the Truck Series title sponsor would be moved to Camping World subsidiary Gander Outdoors starting in 2019. The contract through 2022 is scheduled to continue as planned. The series was renamed again in 2020 to the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series before returning to the Camping World Truck Series name in 2021.


title: NASCAR

text: On August 26, 2022 it was announced that the original series' sponsor, Craftsman, would return as the title sponsor starting in the 2023 season.


title: NASCAR

text: The ARCA Menards Series is a racing series that races at big touring series tracks and local racing series tracks. It is primarily a Midwestern United States series. NASCAR acquired the series on April 27, 2018 after being privately owned for 60 years.


title: NASCAR

text: The NASCAR Pinty's Series is a NASCAR racing series in Canada that derives from the old CASCAR Super Series (founded in 1981 and bought out by NASCAR in 2006). The new series has races through six of Canada's provinces for a total of 13 events with TV coverage on TSN. Many drivers are content running in Canada while others move up to bigger NASCAR series including J. R. Fitzpatrick and D. J. Kennington. The cars are a bit different from the cars seen in America, being more akin to a late model, though steel tube-framed silhouette bodies powered by V8 engines is still the norm.


title: NASCAR

text: In December 2006, NASCAR also announced the creation of a new series in Mexico, the NASCAR Corona Series (now PEAK Mexico Series), replacing the existing Desafío Corona Series, to begin in 2007.


title: NASCAR

text: In 2004, NASCAR also began to sanction a mini stock racing series in Mexico, known as the Mexico T4 Series.


title: NASCAR

text: In early 2012, NASCAR announced that it would sanction the existing European-based Racecar Euro Series as a "NASCAR Touring Series". On July 1, 2013, with partnership from NASCAR Whelen Engineering, the series was renamed the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.


title: NASCAR

text: In addition to the six main national series, NASCAR operates several other racing divisions under the NASCAR Roots banner.


title: NASCAR

text: Many local race tracks across the United States and Canada run under the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series banner, where local drivers are compared against each other in a formula where the best local track champion of the nation wins the Whelen All-American Weekly Series National Championship. The Whelen All-American series is split into four car divisions as well as state and track championships separately. Each division champion receives a point-fund money payout and even more goes to the National champion (driver with most points out of the four division winners). The Whelen All-American Series is the base for stock car racing, developing NASCAR names such as Clint Bowyer, Jimmy Spencer, Tony Stewart, the Bodine brothers, and many others along the way.


title: NASCAR

text: The Whelen Modified Tour races open-wheel "modified" cars in Northern and Southern divisions. This is NASCAR's oldest division, and the modern division has been operating since 1985 as the Winston Modified Series and later in 1994 as the Featherlite Trailers Modified Series.


title: NASCAR

text: The ARCA Menards Series' feeder divisions, which consists of East and West divisions, race pro-stock cars that are similar to older Xfinity Series cars, although they are less powerful. The east division was originally divided into the Busch North series, which raced in Northeastern states, and the Busch East Series, which raced throughout Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states. The west division was originally known as the Winston West Series and raced throughout Southwestern and Coastal Pacific states. In 2008, the series came together in east and west divisions under sponsorship from Camping World as the Camping World Series. K&N Filters took over the sponsorship in 2010. 2019 was the last season for both of the series before they are to go under the ARCA banner in 2020 as part of the unification of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and West and the ARCA Menards Series. The series became known as the ARCA Menards Series East and ARCA Menards Series West starting in 2020, meaning 2019 was also K&N's last year as the series title sponsor.


title: NASCAR

text: In the past, NASCAR also sanctioned the AutoZone Elite Division, which raced late-model cars that were lighter and less powerful than Cup Series cars, and was originally split into four divisions: Northwest, Southwest, Southeast, and Midwest. At the end of 2005, NASCAR announced that the AutoZone Elite Division would be discontinued after the 2006 season due to having trouble securing NASCAR-sanctioned tracks to successfully host AutoZone Elite Division events, plus escalating costs of competing and downsizing of the Division in recent years. In 2003, NASCAR standardized rules for its AutoZone Elite and Grand National divisions regional touring series as to permit cars in one series to race against cars in another series in the same division. The top 15 (Grand National) or 10 (AutoZone Elite) in each series will race in a one-race playoff, called the NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown, to determine the annual AutoZone Elite and Grand National champions. This event has been hosted at Irwindale Speedway in California since its inception.


title: NASCAR

text: Many drivers move up through the series before reaching the Cup Series. In 2002, over 9,000 drivers had licenses from NASCAR to race at all levels.


title: NASCAR

text: The winners of the All-American Series National Championship, the ARCA Menards Series, ARCA East and ARCA West championships, the Whelen Modified and Grand National Divisions, and the three national series are invited to Las Vegas in December to participate in Champions Week ceremonies.


title: NASCAR

text: In 2010, NASCAR officially sanctioned its first sim racing eSports series, partnering with "iRacing" to form the NASCAR iRacing.com Series. This sim racing series is made of up of five "Amateur Series" divisions, the NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series, and the PEAK Antifreeze NASCAR iRacing Series (NPAiS), one of iRacing's World Championship Series. Each year, the champion of the NASCAR iRacing.com World Championship Series is invited to NASCAR's Championship Weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway to receive $10,500 prize money and NASCAR championship trophy at the track.


title: NASCAR

text: In 2018, "iRacing" announced a new, sanctioned qualifying ladder system for the NPAiS, the Road to Pro Series, using virtual Chevrolet and Toyota Camping World Trucks. At the same time, the NASCAR iRacing Pro Series would switch to using the Xfinity Series Camaro, Mustang and Camry models, in order to replicate the progression to the real life Cup series cars used in the NPAiS.


title: NASCAR

text: In 2020, Coca-Cola became the entitlement sponsor of the series and it was renamed the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series. With the sponsorship, the prize pool increased to $300,000. Additionally, six races will be televised on NBCSN.


title: NASCAR

text: The series was created as a developmental league by NASCAR and "iRacing" for aspiring gamers ages 13–16. The simulator begins with US Legends cars before moving to Modified Tour cars.


title: NASCAR

text: Although NASCAR frequently publicizes the safety measures it mandates for drivers, these features have historically only been adopted long after they were initially developed, and only in response to an injury or fatality. Fire-retardant driver suits were required only years after the death of Fireball Roberts, who died from complications of burns suffered in a crash when flames engulfed his car during a Charlotte race. Only after the deaths of Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin and Tony Roper in 2000 and Dale Earnhardt in 2001 did NASCAR revisit the idea of decreasing the G-forces a driver sustained during a crash. Other examples of available safety features that were slow to be implemented include the "kill switch" throttle, which was mandated after the death of Adam Petty, along with the requirements of an anti-spill bladder in fuel cells. The impact-absorbing "SAFER Barrier" had been in use as early as 1998, but NASCAR hesitated to install those walls out of concerns that they may bring about unintended consequences of aggravating the crashes, and possibly because of the effort needed to clean up the debris from the damaged walls. Dale Earnhardt fatally suffered a fracture to the base of his skull after his car slammed into the concrete wall in the 2001 Daytona 500. Earnhardt's death prompted NASCAR to implement the SAFER barrier and consider drastic improvements to the safety of the drivers. One of these would require all drivers to use the "HANS device" (Head And Neck Support Device), a device that keeps the driver's neck from going forward in a wreck. The mandate came about in October after Blaise Alexander, racing for the ARCA series, died in a crash that resulted in the same injuries sustained as Earnhardt. NASCAR redesigned the racing vehicle with safety improvements, calling it the Car of Tomorrow, which debuted in 2007. The car had a higher roof, wider cockpit, and the driver seat was located more toward the center of the vehicle.


title: NASCAR

text: The death of Dale Earnhardt has been seen as a "wake-up" call for NASCAR. NASCAR has been far more aggressive with safety changes since Earnhardt's death, and , no NASCAR driver has been involved in a fatal accident since.


title: NASCAR

text: NASCAR has been the target of criticism on various topics from various sources. Some critics note the significant differences between today's NASCAR vehicles and true "stock" cars. Others frequently cite the dominance of the France family in NASCAR's business structure, policies, and decision making. Recently, the increased number of Cup drivers competing consistently in the Xfinity Series races has been hotly debated. Another general area of criticism, not only of NASCAR but other motorsports as well, includes questions about fuel consumption, emissions and pollution, and the use of lead additives in the gasoline. Originally scheduled for 2008, NASCAR adopted the use of unleaded fuel in all three of its top series in 2007. In 2011, NASCAR switched to E15 "green" fuel (15% ethanol and 85% gasoline) for all three touring series.


title: NASCAR

text: As NASCAR has made moves to improve its national appeal, it has begun racing at new tracks, and ceased racing at some traditional ones – a sore spot for the traditional fan base. Most recently, NASCAR has been challenged on the types and frequency of caution flags, with some critics suggesting the outcome of races is being manipulated, and that the intention is not safety, as NASCAR claims, but closer racing.


title: NASCAR

text: There have been a few accidents involving fans during races and even some off the tracks, but no spectator has ever been killed during a race in an accident relating to the race, although a fan was killed by a lightning strike in 2012 after the 2012 Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono was called short due to the storm. It was revealed in 2008 that a wrongful death lawsuit against NASCAR stemming from the crash of a company plane was settled for $2.4 million.


title: NASCAR

text: For years, NASCAR had been under criticism for allowing the Confederate flag to be flown during races. Former chairman Brian France tried to ban the flying of Confederate flags at race tracks in 2015, which caused anger among fans. It had previously asked fans to voluntarily stop flying the flag after the 2015 Charleston church shooting, but this did not end the practice. Bubba Wallace, the only African-American NASCAR top-circuit driver, drove the 2020 spring Martinsville race in a car with Black Lives Matter livery, and appeared in an anti-racism video with a number of white drivers. On June 10, 2020, in the wake of protests related to the murder of George Floyd, NASCAR announced that the display of the Confederate flag will be prohibited from all of its events and properties.


title: NASCAR

text: In February 2022, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a lawsuit against Bitconnect that the Securities Act of 1933 extends to targeted solicitation using social media. In April 2022, a class-action lawsuit was filed in Florida against the LGBcoin cryptocurrency company, NASCAR, stock car racing driver Brandon Brown, and political commentator Candace Owens alleging that the defendants made false or misleading statements about the LGBcoin and that the founders of the company had engaged in a pump and dump scheme.


title: NASCAR

text: In 2006, Toyota announced they would be joining NASCAR's ranks. Toyota generated early success winning several races off performances from Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch. Any increase in foreign competition is expected to raise the price of putting a car on the track.


title: NASCAR

text: Another topic on the NASCAR circuit is the increase in foreign born drivers and the effects they may have on the future of NASCAR. Juan Pablo Montoya, Patrick Carpentier, and Dario Franchitti are among the foreign-born big names who have crossed over from Formula One and the Indy racing circuit. These drivers have made an impact on NASCAR not only by winning races and dominating road courses, but by expanding NASCAR's point of view.


title: NASCAR

text: NASCAR included a race at the Mexican road course Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in the Nationwide Series schedule from 2005 through 2008, as well as a race in Montreal, Canada at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve from 2007 through 2012, with the Camping World Truck Series adding a date at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in 2013. There has been talk of possible expansion with exhibition races in Japan and a return to Canada.


title: NASCAR

text: Expanding into international markets could increase NASCAR's popularity and allow foreign sponsors and manufacturers to get involved in the sport. Some think this could be a very positive move for NASCAR, which has seen its television ratings drop 21 percent between 2005 and 2007. During the same 2-year period, NASCAR also saw the greatest drop in tickets prices observed in over a decade. In 2010, NASCAR saw television ratings drop 10% from the year before, which was down 33% off its peak in 2005. Some think that an increase in international diversity would translate into growth and generate greater opportunities for NASCAR fans.


title: NASCAR

text: In October 2000, Turner Sports acquired the digital rights to NASCAR, and subsequently took over its website, which features news, information, and interactive features (such as "RaceView" and "RaceBuddy") surrounding its series. While NASCAR had extended Turner's contract to operate the site through 2016, the association announced in January 2012 that it would take operation of the site back in-house in 2013. As a result, a new NASCAR.com was launched on January 3, 2013, which features a multimedia-oriented design enhanced to provide a higher level of fan interaction, and provide an improved second screen experience for viewers on mobile devices.


title: NASCAR

text: On May 7, 2019, NASCAR announced a sports betting content partnership with The Action Network to provide editorial content and analysis to NASCAR.com, including recommended picks and value bets. NASCAR said the partnership was intended to prepare for the spread of legal sports betting in the U.S. following the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning the federal PASPA sports betting prohibition. NASCAR previously struck an exclusive deal with sports data solutions provider Genius Sports to develop an official NASCAR gaming offering for legal sportsbooks.


title: NASCAR

text: NASCAR Digital Media is a television production company located in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. The company is a subsidiary of NASCAR and produces programs designed to promote the sport of professional stock car racing. It also manages the NASCAR website, as well as some websites related to the sport such as Racing-Reference and Jayski's Silly Season Site (as of 2019, after ESPN.com stopped hosting the website).


title: NASCAR

text: While originally not officially connected to NASCAR, International Speedway Corporation (ISC) was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1953 to construct and manage tracks at which NASCAR holds competitions. In May 2019, it was announced that NASCAR would purchase ISC and inherit 12 tracks. On October 18, 2019, the acquisition of ISC by NASCAR was completed. This made the company a division within NASCAR.


title: NASCAR

text: The Grand American Road Racing Association (Grand-Am) was a sanctioning body of sports car racing. While it was founded independently of NASCAR by several members of the France family, NASCAR took over Grand-Am, but allowed it to operate autonomously. The series merged with the American Le Mans Series in 2014 as a part of NASCAR's purchase of IMSA.


title: NASCAR

text: NASCAR Technical Institute located in Mooresville, North Carolina, is the country's first technical training school to combine a complete automotive technology program and a NASCAR-specific motor sports program, and is the exclusive educational partner of NASCAR.


title: NASCAR

text: NASCAR Kinetics was established in 2009 with the mission of connecting college students nationwide to NASCAR, and mentored its last round of students in 2013.


title: NASCAR

text: Movies about NASCAR racing include "Days of Thunder" (1990), "" (2005), "" (2006), "Ta Ra Rum Pum" (2007), and "Logan Lucky" (2017).


title: NASCAR

text: NASCAR racing heavily influenced Pixar's "Cars" franchise, with the third film in particular drawing inspiration from NASCAR's history.


title: NASCAR

text: NASCAR drivers have made appearances in many television series and TV movies, including "The Cleveland Show", "Sullivan & Son", and "Last Man Standing".


title: NASCAR

text: NASCAR partnered up with popular Roblox game Jailbreak, and the partnership was launched on November 5.


title: Patreon

text: Patreon (, ) is a membership platform that provides business tools for content creators to run a subscription service. It helps creators and artists earn a monthly income by providing rewards and perks to their subscribers. Patreon charges a commission of 9 to 12 percent of creators' monthly income, in addition to payment processing fees.


title: Patreon

text: Patreon is used by YouTube videographers, webcomic artists, writers, podcasters, musicians, adult content creators, and other categories of creators who post regularly online. It allows artists to receive funding directly from their fans, or patrons, on a recurring basis or per work of art. The company is based in San Francisco.


title: Patreon

text: Patreon was co-founded in May 2013 by developer Sam Yam and musician Jack Conte, who was looking for a way to make a living from his YouTube videos. They developed a platform that allowed 'patrons' to pay a set amount of money every time an artist created a work of art. The company raised $2.1 million in August 2013 from a group of venture capitalists and angel investors. In June 2014, Patreon raised a further $15 million in a series A round led by Danny Rimer of Index Ventures. In January 2016, the company closed on a fresh round of $30 million in a series B round, led by Thrive Capital, which put the total raised for Patreon at $47.1 million.


title: Patreon

text: They signed up more than 125,000 "patrons" in their first 18 months. In late 2014, the website announced that patrons were sending over $1,000,000 per month to the site's content creators.


title: Patreon

text: In March 2015, Patreon acquired Subbable, a similar voluntary subscription service created by the Green brothers, John and Hank Green, and brought over Subbable creators and contents, including CGP Grey, Destin Sandlin's "Smarter Every Day", and the Green brothers' own "CrashCourse" and "SciShow" channels. The merger was consequent to an expected migration of payment systems with Amazon Payments that Subbable used.


title: Patreon

text: In October 2015, the site was the target of a large cyber-attack, with almost 15 gigabytes of password data, donation records, and source code taken and published. The breach exposed more than 2.3 million unique e-mail addresses and millions of private messages. Following the attack, some patrons received extortion emails demanding Bitcoin payments in exchange for the protection of their personal information.


title: Patreon

text: In January 2017, Patreon announced that it had sent over $100,000,000 to creators since its inception.


title: Patreon

text: In May 2017, Patreon announced that it had over 50,000 active creators and 1 million monthly patrons, and was on track to send over $150 million to creators in 2017.


title: Patreon

text: In June 2017, Patreon announced a suite of tools for creators to run membership businesses on the Patreon platform. Notable improvements included a customer relationship management system, a mobile app called Lens, and a service to set up exclusive livestreams.


title: Patreon

text: In October 2021, Patreon confirmed they were looking into implementing Crypto Currencies and NFTs after creators expressed interests in having the opportunity to offer exclusive memberships and benefits to their patrons through a coin or token.


title: Patreon

text: In March 2022, Patreon announced that they have more than 250,000 creators who are using the platform, and there are more than 8 million active patrons from 200+ countries.


title: Patreon

text: In September 2022, Patreon announced they were laying off 80 people, representing about 17% of their staff.


title: Patreon

text: Patreon users are grouped by content type, such as video/films, podcast, comedy, comics, games, and education. These content creators set up a page on the Patreon website, where patrons can choose to pay a fixed amount to a creator on a monthly basis. Alternatively, content creators can configure their page so that patrons pay every time the artist releases a new piece of art. A creator typically displays a goal that the ongoing revenue will go towards, and can set a maximum limit of how much they receive per month. Patrons can cancel their payment at any time. Creators typically provide membership benefits (commonly in the form of exclusive content or behind-the-scenes work) for their patrons, depending on the amount that each patron pays.


title: Patreon

text: Patrons can unlock monetary tiers that increase the content type they see from the user. Several content creators on Patreon are also YouTubers. They can create content on multiple platforms, and while the YouTube videos may be available to the public, the patrons receive private content made exclusively for them in exchange for aiding the Patreon user's goal. Patreon takes a 5% commission on pledges. , the average pledge per patron was around $12, and a new patron pledged to a creator every 5.5 seconds.


title: Patreon

text: , almost half of the artists on Patreon produce YouTube videos, while most of the rest are writers, webcomics artists, musicians, or podcasters. , Patreon's Community Guidelines allow nudity and suggestive imagery as long as they are clearly marked, but prohibit content that may be deemed pornographic or as glorifying sexual violence.


title: Patreon

text: Unlike other online platforms such as YouTube and Facebook, which use trained algorithms to identify potentially inappropriate content, Patreon's trust and safety team monitors users and investigates complaints of Terms of Service violations.


title: Patreon

text: In July 2017, far-right YouTube personality Lauren Southern was banned from Patreon over concerns about Génération Identitaire's blocking of NGO ships in the Mediterranean, ferrying migrants to Europe off the Libyan coast. A letter she received from Patreon said she was removed for "raising funds in order to take part in activities that are likely to cause loss of life," referring to an incident in May involving Southern, and the larger Defend Europe mission in July, which she covered on YouTube. Philosopher, writer, and podcast host Sam Harris, who also received contributions from patrons on the website, objected to Patreon's approach and announced that he would be leaving the platform because of it. Shortly thereafter Patreon deleted the account of "It's Going Down", a left-wing news website, for allegedly doxing.


title: Patreon

text: In December 2018, Patreon banned Milo Yiannopoulos a day after he created an account and also banned Carl Benjamin because he used homophobic and racist slurs in a YouTube interview in February 2018. Benjamin claimed that Patreon had taken his words out of context and that "the video in question should not fall under Patreon's rules because it was on YouTube."


title: Patreon

text: This ban was criticized by Sam Harris and some American libertarians, who have accused it of being politically motivated. Furthermore, Jordan Peterson announced a plan to launch an alternative service that will be safe from political interference, and jointly announced with Dave Rubin in a January 1, 2019, video that they will be leaving Patreon by January 15, 2019, as a direct response to its treatment of Carl Benjamin and has since effected that change.


title: Patreon

text: Patreon banned comedian Owen Benjamin following alleged hate speech. Benjamin filed an arbitration claim for $2.2 million (later upped to $3.5 million) and told fans to file identical claims against Patreon as required by the Terms of Use in an attempt to pressure them into a settlement. Benjamin said that the suit(s) had a basis due to a disrupted economic relationship. Patreon launched a counter-suit against 72 individuals who filed arbitration claims and sought a preliminary injunction to stay all arbitration proceedings pending the outcome of its counter-suit. The injunction was denied, meaning that Patreon may be required to prefund the arbitration claims against itself up to $10,000 per claim. Patreon had previously changed its terms of service on January 1, 2020, to end the conditions under which the suits attempted by Benjamin's supporters (but not himself) occurred, as the lawsuits were filed on January 6. The terms-of-service update stated that only the person banned from the platform would be allowed to file a complaint and that any arbitration fees would have to be paid by the person or entity filing the complaint. The suits open the door to lawsuits from supporters of other Patreon users banned from the platform, with freelance journalist Lauren Southern preparing her suit.


title: Patreon

text: During the 2022 Russian war in Ukraine, Patreon maintained their business in Russia despite international pressure on western companies operating in Russia to cease.


title: Patreon

text: At the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Patreon closed the largest Ukrainian account run by Comeback Alive fund (savelife.in.ua), which raised money for helping volunteers and veteran divisions.


title: Patreon

text: In December 2017, Patreon announced a service fee starting on December 18, 2017, where some fees would be charged to the patrons rather than all fees being paid by the creator. This caused a backlash from several creators, including some who saw members of their fanbase withdraw small pledges in response. Under the new payment model, a $1 pledge would have cost a patron $1.38, and a $5 pledge would have cost $5.50, representing a 38% and 10% rise respectively. Due to this backlash and the loss of many pledges for creators, Patreon announced that they would not be rolling out these changes, and apologized to their users.


title: Patreon

text: On October 24, 2020, Patreon announced that it would ban all accounts "that advance disinformation promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory."


title: Patreon

text: In March 2014, Patreon announced via email that creators of sexual content on their platform would no longer be allowed to use PayPal services through Patreon to fulfill subscription payments. In July 2016, Patreon emailed their content creators announcing that payments through PayPal would resume for adult-oriented creators. Those who worked within the "Not Safe For Work" categories on Patreon could accept payments through PayPal via PayPal's subsidiary Braintree. However, in October 2017, Patreon reverted its stance on NSFW content, introducing new restrictions. They published an expanded version of the community guidelines with a broader definition of sexual content, triggering a backlash from some adult content creators. A petition in protest of the changes gathered 1,800 signatures, which drew a response from Jack Conte.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: "Itiyoophiyaa"), was an empire that historically spanned the geographical area of present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea from the establishment of the Solomonic dynasty by Yekuno Amlak approximately in 1270 until the 1974 coup d'etat of Emperor Haile Selassie by the Derg. By 1896, the Empire incorporated other regions such as Hararghe, Gurage and Wolayita, and saw its largest expansion with the federation of Eritrea in 1952. Throughout much of its existence, it was surrounded by hostile forces in the African Horn; however, it managed to develop and preserve a kingdom based on its ancient form of Christianity.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: Founded in 1270 by the Solomonic Dynasty nobleman Yekuno Amlak, who claimed to descend from the last Aksumite king and ultimately the Biblical Menelik I and the Queen of Sheba, it replaced the Agaw kingdom of the Zagwe. While initially a rather small and politically unstable entity, the Empire managed to expand significantly under the crusades of Amda Seyon I (1314–1344) and Yeshaq I (1414–1429), temporarily becoming the dominant force of the African Horn. Yeshaq's reign was however challenged by Sultan Jamal ad-Din II which led to Yeshaq's death. Under the rule of Zara Yaqob (1434–1468), the Hadiya Sultanate was invaded by Ethiopia and the captured Hadiya princess Eleni converted to Christianity leading to her marriage to Zara Yacob. Muslims in the region as well as Adal Sultanate rejected the marriage alliance and repeatedly invaded Ethiopia, finally succeeding under Imam Mahfuz. Mahfuz's ambush and defeat by Emperor Lebna Dengel brought about the early 16th-century Jihad of the Adalite Imam Ahmed Gran, who was only defeated in 1543 with the help of the Portuguese. Greatly weakened, much of the Empire's southern territory and vassals were lost due to the Oromo migrations. In the north, in what is now Eritrea, Ethiopia managed to repulse Ottoman invasion attempts, although losing its access to the Red Sea to them.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: Reacting to these challenges, in the 1630s Emperor Fasilides founded the new capital of Gondar, marking the start of a new golden age known as the Gondarine period. It saw relative peace, the successful integration of the Oromo and a flourishing of culture. With the deaths of Emperor Iyasu II (1755) and Iyoas I (1769) the realm eventually entered a period of decentralization, known as the "Era of the Princes." Regional warlords fought for power, with the Emperor being a mere puppet.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: Emperor Tewodros II (r. 1855–1868) put an end to that state, reunified the Empire and led it into the modern period before dying during the British Expedition to Abyssinia. His successor Yohannes IV engaged primarily in war and successfully fought the Egyptians and Mahdists before dying against the latter in 1889. Emperor Menelik II, now residing in Addis Ababa, subjugated many peoples and kingdoms in what is now western, southern, and eastern Ethiopia, like Kaffa, Welayta, Aussa, and the Oromos. Thus, by 1898 Ethiopia expanded into its modern territorial boundaries. In the north, he was confronted with an expanding Italy. Decisively defeating it at the Battle of Adwa in 1896 using imported modern weapons, Menelik ensured Ethiopia's independence and confined Italy to Eritrea.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: Later, after the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, Mussolini's Italian Empire occupied Ethiopia and established the Italian East Africa, merging it with neighboring Eritrea and Italian Somaliland colony to the south-east. After World War II, the Italians were driven out of Ethiopia with the help of the British army. The Emperor returned from exile and the country was one of the founding members of the United Nations, and in 1962 annexed Eritrea. However, the 1973 Wollo famine and domestic discontent led to the fall of the Empire in 1974.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: By 1974, Ethiopia was one of only three countries in the world to have the title of Emperor for its head of state, together with Japan and Iran. It was the second-to-last country in Africa to use the title of Emperor, as after it came the short-lived Central African Empire, which lasted between 1976 and 1979 under Emperor Bokassa I.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: Human occupation in Ethiopia began early, as evidenced by the findings. According to the Kebra Nagast, Menelik I founded the Ethiopian empire in the 10thcentury BC. In the 4thcentury, under King Ezana of Axum, the kingdom adopted Christianity as the state religion that evolved into the Orthodox Tewahedo (Ethiopian Orthodox and Eritrean Orthodox) denominational Church. It was thus one of the first Christian states.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: After the conquest of Aksum by Queen Gudit (or Yodit), a period began which some scholars refer to as the Ethiopian Dark Ages. According to Ethiopian tradition, she ruled over the remains of the Aksumite Empire for 40 years before transmitting the crown to her descendants. Gudit's origin has been extensively debated. Scholars debate whether she was a Jew, an Agaw, a Beja, and an enslaved servant of an Aksumite emperor who wanted to lead pagans against Christianity. Others argued that she was from the Sultanate of Showa and a daughter of the king of Lasta, situated in Bugna. The Italian scholar Carlo Conti Rossini described her as a Bani al-Hamwiyah, while another source pointed to the Sidama people in the area called Sasu, probably south of the Blue Nile, where Aksumite rulers also obtained caravans for commodities of gold and coin, which are thought the main motive for Gudit's raid.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: The earliest Muslim state in Ethiopia, the Makhzumi dynasty with its capital in Wahal, Hararghe region succeeds Queen Yodit. The Zagwe kingdom, another dynasty with its capital at Adafa, emerged not far from modern day Lalibela in the Lasta mountains. The Zagwe continued the Orthodox Christianity of Aksum and constructed many rock-hewn churches such as the Church of Saint George in Lalibela. The dynasty would last until its overthrow by a new regime claiming descent from the old Aksumite kings.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: An unholy alliance between Muslim and Christian states had occurred in this period. In 1270, the Zagwe dynasty was overthrown by a rebel named Yekuno Amlak claiming lineage from the Aksumite kings and, hence, from Solomon. Yekuno Amlak successfully received massive aid from the Muslim Sultanate of Shewa against Zagwe. The eponymously named Solomonic dynasty was founded and ruled by the Abyssinians, from whom Abyssinia gets its name. In 1279 the deposed Sultan of Shewa Dil Marrah successfully appealed to Yekuno Amlak to restore his rule, however it wouldn't last long, because its renegade province Ifat would eventually invade it and create the Ifat Sultanate. During the Ifat Sultanate, Muslim relations with the Solomonic dynasty soured. In the 14th century Emperor Amda Seyon would invade Ifat and essentially dismantle it as a regional power. Ifat's descendants would return to the Horn of Africa and launch a powerful regional state, the Adal Sultanate.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: In 1529, the Adal Sultanate's forces led by Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi invaded the Ethiopian Empire in what is known as the Ethiopian–Adal war. The Adal occupation lasted fourteen years. During the conflict, the Adal Sultanate employed cannons provided by the Ottoman Empire. In the aftermath of the war, Adal annexed Ethiopia, uniting it with territories in what is now Somalia. In 1543, with the help of the Portuguese Empire, the Solomonic dynasty was restored.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: In 1543, Emperor Gelawdewos beat Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi armies and Ahmad himself was killed at the Battle of Wayna Daga, close to Wegera. This victory allowed the empire to reconquer progressively the Ethiopian Highlands. In 1559 Gelawdewos was killed attempting to invade Adal Sultanate at the Battle of Fatagar, and his severed head was paraded in Adal's capital Harar.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: The Ottoman Empire made another attempt at conquering Ethiopia, from 1557, establishing Habesh Eyalet, the province of Abyssinia, by conquering Massawa, the Empire's main port and seizing Suakin from the allied Funj Sultanate in what is now Sudan. In 1573 Sultanate of Harar attempted to invade Ethiopia again however Sarsa Dengel successfully defended the Ethiopian frontier.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: The Ottomans were checked by Emperor Sarsa Dengel's victory and sacking of Arqiqo in 1589, thus containing them on a narrow coastline strip. The Afar Sultanate maintained the remaining Ethiopian port on the Red Sea, at Baylul.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: Oromo migrations through the same period, occurred with the movement of a large pastoral population from the southeastern provinces of the Empire. A contemporary account was recorded by the monk Abba Bahrey, from the Gamo region. Subsequently, the empire organization changed progressively, with faraway provinces taking more independence. A remote province such as Bale is last recorded paying tribute to the imperial throne during Yaqob reign (1590-1607).


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: The reign of Iyasu the Great (1682-1706) was a major period of consolidation. It also saw the dispatching of embassies to Louis XIV's France and to Dutch India. The Early Modern period was one of intense cultural and artistic creation. Notable philosophers from that area are Zera Yacob and Walda Heywat. The city of Gondar became the capital in 1636, with several fortified castles built in the town and in its surrounding areas. After the death of Iyasu I the empire fell into a period of political turmoil.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: From 1769 to 1855, the Ethiopian empire passed through a period known as the "Princes Era" (in Amharic: "Zemene Mesafint"). This was a period of Ethiopian history with numerous conflicts between the various Ras (equivalent to the English dukes) and the Emperor, who had only limited power and only dominated the area around the contemporary capital of Gondar. Both the development of society and culture stagnated in this period. Religious conflict, both within the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and between them and the Muslims were often used as a pretext for mutual strife. The Princes Era ended with the reign of Emperor Tewodros II.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: In 1868, following the imprisonment of several missionaries and representatives of the British government, the British engaged in the punitive Expedition to Abyssinia. This campaign was a success for Britain and the Ethiopian Emperor committed suicide.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: From 1874 to 1876, the Empire expanded into Eritrea, under Yohannes IV King of Tembien, whose forces led by Ras Alula won the Ethiopian-Egyptian War, decisively beating the Egyptian forces at the Battle of Gundet, in Hamasien. In 1887 Menelik king of Shewa invaded the Emirate of Harar after his victory at the Battle of Chelenqo.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: The 1880s were marked by the Scramble for Africa. Italy, seeking a colonial presence in Africa, was awarded Eritrea by Britain which led to the Italo-Ethiopian War of 1887–1889 and the scramble for Eritrea's coastal regions between King Yohannes IV of Tembien and Italy. After the death of Emperor Yohannes IV, Italy signed a treaty with Shewa (an autonomous kingdom within the empire), creating the protectorate of Abyssinia.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: Due to significant differences between the Italian and Amharic translations of the treaty, Italy believed they had subsumed Ethiopia as a protectorate, while Menelik II of Shewa repudiated the protectorate status in 1893. Insulted, Italy declared war on Ethiopia in 1895. The First Italo-Ethiopian War resulted in the 1896 Battle of Adwa, in which Italy was decisively defeated, as the Ethiopians were numerically superior, better equipped and supported by Russia and France. As a result, the Treaty of Addis Ababa was signed in October, which strictly delineated the borders of Eritrea and forced Italy to recognize the independence of Ethiopia.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: Beginning in the 1890s, under the reign of the Emperor Menelik II, the empire's forces set off from the central province of Shoa to incorporate through conquest inhabited lands to the west, east and south of its realm. The territories that were annexed included those of the western Oromo (non-Shoan Oromo), Sidama, Gurage, Wolayta, and Dizi. Among the imperial troops was Ras Gobena's Shewan Oromo militia. Many of the lands that they annexed had never been under the empire's rule, with the newly incorporated territories resulting in the modern borders of Ethiopia.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: Delegations from the United Kingdom and FranceEuropean powers whose colonial possessions lay next to Ethiopiasoon arrived in the Ethiopian capital to negotiate their own treaties with this newly-proven power.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: In 1935 Italian soldiers, commanded by Marshal Emilio De Bono, invaded Ethiopia in what is known as the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. The war lasted seven months before an Italian victory was declared. The Ethiopian Empire was incorporated into the Italian colony of Italian East Africa. The invasion was condemned by the League of Nations, though not much was done to end the hostility.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: During the conflict, both Ethiopian and Italian troops committed war crimes. Ethiopian troops are known to have made use of Dum-Dum bullets (in violation of the Hague Conventions) and mutilated captured soldiers (often with castration). Italian troops used sulfur mustard in chemical warfare, ignoring the Geneva Protocol that it had signed seven years earlier. The Italian military dropped mustard gas in bombs, sprayed it from airplanes and spread it in powdered form on the ground. 150,000 chemical casualties were reported, mostly from mustard gas. In the aftermath of the war Italy annexed Ethiopia, uniting it with Italy's other colonies in eastern Africa to form the new colony of Italian East Africa, and Victor Emmanuel III of Italy adopted the title "Emperor of Abyssinia".


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: On 10 June 1940, Italy declared war on the United Kingdom and France, as France was in the process of being conquered by Nazi Germany at the time and Benito Mussolini wished to expand Italy's colonial holdings. The Italian conquest of British Somaliland in August 1940 was successful, but the war turned against Italy afterward. Haile Selassie returned to Ethiopia from England to help rally the resistance. The British began their own invasion in January 1941 with the help of Ethiopian freedom fighters, and the last organized Italian resistance in Italian East Africa surrendered in November 1941, ending Italian rule.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: At the request of Emperor Haile Selassie and the auspices of the newly formed United Nations led by Britain and the United States, the British Military Administration in Eritrea was federated with Ethiopia in 1952 by UN Resolution 390 (A). After fierce resistance, and the start of an armed rebellion in Eritrea, the Emperor decided to end the federation in 1962 and annexed Eritrea into a province of Ethiopia. The Eritrean war for independence caused a string of events that led to the end of the empire in 1974 and the toppling of the Derg government in 1991, resulting in the independence of Eritrea by the Eritrean People's Liberation Front.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: The government's failure to adequately respond to the 1973 Wollo famine, the growing discontent of urban interest groups, and high fuel prices due to the 1973 oil crisis led to a revolt in February 1974 by the army and civilian populace. In June, a group of military officers formed the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army also known as the Derg to maintain law and order due to the powerlessness of the civilian government following the widespread mutiny.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: In July, Emperor Haile Selassie gave the Derg key concessions to arrest military and government officials at every level. Soon both former Prime Ministers Tsehafi Taezaz Aklilu Habte-Wold and Endelkachew Makonnen, along with most of their cabinets, most regional governors, many senior military officers and officials of the Imperial court were imprisoned. In August, after a proposed constitution creating a constitutional monarchy was presented to the Emperor, the Derg began a program of dismantling the imperial government to forestall further developments in that direction. The Derg deposed and imprisoned the Emperor on 12 September 1974 and chose Lieutenant General Aman Andom, a popular military leader and a Sandhurst graduate, to be acting head of state. This was pending the return of Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen from medical treatment in Europe when he would assume the throne as a constitutional monarch. However, General Aman Andom quarrelled with the radical elements in the Derg over the issue of a new military offensive in Eritrea and their proposal to execute the high officials of Selassie's former government. After eliminating units loyal to him: the Engineers, the Imperial Bodyguard and the Air Force, the Derg removed General Aman from power and executed him on 23 November 1974, along with some of his supporters and 60 officials of the previous Imperial government.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: Brigadier General Tafari Benti became the new chairman of the Derg and the head of state. The monarchy was formally abolished in March 1975, and Marxism-Leninism was proclaimed the new ideology of the state. Emperor Haile Selassie died under mysterious circumstances on 27 August 1975 while his personal physician was absent. It is commonly believed that Mengistu Haile Mariam killed him, either by ordering it done or by his own hand although the former is more possible.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: According to Bahrey, there were ten social groups in the feudal Ethiopia of his time, i.e. at the end of the 16th century. These social groups consisted of the monks; the debtera; lay officials (including judges); men at arms giving personal protection to the wives of dignitaries and to princesses; the shimaglle, who were the lords and hereditary landowners; their farm labourers or serfs; traders; artisans; wandering singers; and the soldiers, who were called chewa. According to modern thinking, some of these categories are not true classes. But at least the shimaglle, the serfs, the chewa, the artisans and the traders constitute definite classes. Power was vested in the Emperor and those aristocrats he appointed to execute his power, and the power enforcing instrument consisted of a class of soldiers, the chewa.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: From the reign of Amde Tseyon, Chewa regiments, or legions, formed the backbone of the Empire military forces. The Ge’ez term for these regiments is ṣewa (ጼዋ) while the Amharic term is č̣äwa (ጨዋ). The normal size of a regiment was several thousand men. Each regiment was allocated a fief (Gult), to ensure its upkeep ensured by the land revenue.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: In 1445, following the Battle of Gomit, the chronicles record that Emperor Zara Yaqob started garrisoning the provinces with Chewa regiments.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: One of the Chewa regiments, known as the "Abe Lahm" in Geez, or the "Weregenu", in Oromo, lasted, and participated to the Battle of Adwa, only to be phased out in the 1920s.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: The modern army was created under Ras Tafari Makonnen, in 1917, with the formation of the Kebur Zabagna, the imperial guard.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: The economy consisted of centuries old barter system with "primitive money" and currency of various kinds until 20th century in the framework of feudal system. Peasants worked to produce and fixated their activities to taxation, marketing infrastructure and agrarian production.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: In 1905, Menelik II established the first bank, Bank of Abyssinia following concession from British occupied National Bank of Egypt in December 1904, that used to monopolize all government public funds, loans, print banknotes, mint coins and other privileges. It expanded branches to Harar, Dire Dawa, Gore and Dembidolo and agencies in Gambela and transit office in Djibouti. In 1932, it was renamed as "Bank of Ethiopia" following paid compensation by Emperor Haile Selassie. To promote industrial and manufacturing expansion, Haile Selassie, with assistance of National Economic Council, embarked development plan encompassing three Five-Years Master Plan from 1957 to 1974. Between 1960 and 1970, Ethiopia enjoyed an annual 4.4% growth rate in per capita and growth domestic product (GDP). There was an increase of manufacturing growth rate from 1.9% in 1960/61 to 4.4% in 1973/74, with wholesale, retail trade, transportation, and communication sectors increased from 9.5% to 15.6%.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: As feudalism became the central tenet in the Ethiopian Empire, it developed into an authoritarian system with institutionalized social inequality. As land became the prime commodity, its acquisition became the main driving force behind imperialism, especially from the reign of Menelik II onwards.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: As part of Emperor Haile Selassie's modernization efforts, the traditional monarchical regime was reformed through the introduction of the 1931 and 1955 constitutions, which introduced an unitary parliamentary system with two legislative bodies: the Chamber of Senate (Yeheggue Mewossegna Meker Beth) and Chamber of Deputies (Yeheggue Memeriya Meker Beth). Under the 1956 constitution Article 56, no one can be simultaneously a member of both chambers, who meet at the beginning or ending of each session.


title: Ethiopian Empire

text: In the parliamentary structure, the Chamber of Deputies consisted of 250 members elected every four years, whereas the Senate comprised of one-half of the Deputies (125) and were appointed by the Emperor in every 6 years.


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: Mortal Engines is a 2018 steampunk film directed by Christian Rivers and with a screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson, based on the 2001 novel of the same name by Philip Reeve, and starring Hera Hilmar, Robert Sheehan, Hugo Weaving, Jihae, Ronan Raftery, Leila George, Patrick Malahide, and Stephen Lang. An American–New Zealand co-production, the film is set in a post-apocalyptic world where entire cities have been mounted on wheels and motorised, and practise municipal Darwinism; its movie universe is different from that of the books.


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: Jackson purchased the rights to the book in 2009, but the film languished for several years before being officially announced in 2016. Jackson picked Rivers, who won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for his work on Jackson's "King Kong", to make his feature-length directorial debut with the project, and also brought on several members of his production teams from "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" film trilogies. Filming took place from April to July 2017 in New Zealand.


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: "Mortal Engines" had its world premiere on November 27, 2018, in London, was theatrically released in Australia and New Zealand on December 6, 2018, and in the United States on December 14, 2018. The film received negative reviews from critics, with some praising the visual effects and score, but with most criticizing the direction, screenplay and "lack of personality". It went down in history as one of the biggest box office bombs of all time, grossing $83.7 million against a production budget of $100–150 million and losing the studio an estimated $175 million.


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: Set more than a thousand years in the future following a cataclysmic conflict known as the Sixty Minute War, the remnants of mankind regroup and form mobile cities, called "Traction Cities". Under a philosophy known as "Municipal Darwinism", larger "predator" cities hunt and absorb smaller settlements in the "Great Hunting Ground", which includes Great Britain and Continental Europe. In opposition, settlements of the "Anti-Traction League" have developed an alternative civilization consisting of "static settlements" (traditional, non-mobile cities) in Asia led by Shan Guo (formerly China), protected by the "Shield Wall". Relics of 21st-century technology such as toasters, computers, and smartphones are valued by historians as "Old-Tech."


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: The city of London captures a small Bavarian mining town called Salzhaken, absorbing its population and resources, under orders of Lord Mayor Magnus Crome. Tom Natsworthy, an apprentice historian, arrives at London's "Gut" to collect Salzhaken's Old-Tech for London's Museum. Hester Shaw, a masked twenty-something woman among the Salzhakens, attempts to assassinate Thaddeus Valentine, Head of the Guild of Historians, but Tom intervenes, pursuing Hester to a chute. Hester escapes, but not before telling him that Valentine murdered her mother and scarred her face. When Tom informs Valentine of this, he pushes Tom down the chute.


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: Tom and Hester are forced to work together to traverse the Hunting Ground, surviving Southies, Scavs on a night hunt, and finding refuge in a vehicle called Scuttlebug, but the owners lock them in a cell, intending to sell them as slaves. Hester confides that Valentine killed her archaeologist mother Pandora after stealing a piece of Old-Tech she found in a dig in the Dead Continent of the Americas, while young Hester escaped with a necklace her mother gave her. Meanwhile, Valentine frees Shrike, a reanimated cyborg known as a "Stalker", from the offshore walking prison Sharkmoor, to find and kill Hester. At the slave market of Rustwater in the Outlands, Tom and Hester are rescued by Anti-Traction League agent Anna Fang. During the chaos, they are pursued by Shrike, whom Hester reveals she knows. Hester explains that Shrike had found and raised her after escaping Valentine, and Hester promised to let him turn her into a Stalker like himself, but she left after discovering that London had entered the Great Hunting Ground, giving her a chance to kill Valentine. In London, Valentine's good-natured daughter Katherine grows estranged from her father, especially after Apprentice Engineer Bevis Pod informs her that Valentine pushed Tom down the chute, and they learn Valentine's energy project in the re-purposed St Paul's Cathedral is more than it seems.


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: Hester and Tom travel on Anna's airship, the "Jenny Haniver", to the airborne city Airhaven, meeting other Anti-Traction League members. After questioning Hester, Tom realizes Pandora discovered a computer core for MEDUSA, a quantum energy-based superweapon used by the belligerents during the Sixty Minute War to instantly destroy entire cities, albeit shattering the Earth's crust into a thousand pieces that have rearranged the former continents. The Guild of Engineers has stolen the remaining components from Tom's museum workshop and built a MEDUSA under Valentine's orders. Shrike catches up with them, resulting in a fierce skirmish that critically wounds him and destroys Airhaven. Realizing that Hester is in love with Tom, he spares Tom and frees her of her promise before perishing. As Hester, Tom, and Anna travel to the Shield Wall of Batmunkh Gompa with the surviving Anti-Tractionists, Valentine kills Crome in a coup and musters support from Londoners by vowing to destroy the Shield Wall with MEDUSA and lead them to a new Hunting Ground in Asia. Anna convinces Shan Guo's Governor Kwan to launch the Anti-Tractionist airship fleet against London, but MEDUSA destroys the fleet and blasts a hole through the Shield Wall. After coming upon a stone carving of Medusa, Hester discovers that her mother's necklace hides a "crash drive", a kill switch for MEDUSA. Hester, Tom, Anna, and the remaining Anti-Tractionists lead a raid against London, braving the city's anti-aircraft guns.


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: Hester and Anna infiltrate St Paul's, and though Valentine mortally wounds Anna during a sword duel, Hester destroys MEDUSA with the crash drive. In a last-ditch attempt to destroy the Shield Wall, the now insane Valentine has his henchmen kill the city's control crew and put the city on full throttle on a collision course with the Wall. With Katherine's help, Tom uses the "Jenny Haniver" to destroy London's engine. Hester catches and fights Valentine aboard his airship, where he reveals that he is her father. Tom rescues Hester and shoots down Valentine's ship, which is crushed by London's slowing tracks, killing Valentine. With London stopped, Hester laughs victoriously while lying down. The surviving Londoners, now led by Katherine, make peace with the Anti-Tractionists of Shan Guo. As Governor Kwan welcomes the Londoners, Tom and Hester embrace each other and leave in the "Jenny Haniver" together to see the world.


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: Additional cameo actors: Michael Bennett and his wife, Pele, make uncredited cameos as two London residents; Philip Reeve and his son cameo as two Shan Guonese onlookers and Peter Jackson cameoes as Sooty Pete, one of London's guards.


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: In December 2009, New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson was reported to have begun development of a film based on Philip Reeve's novel "Mortal Engines". On October 24, 2016, production started on a feature film to be directed by Christian Rivers, marking his feature-length directorial debut. The script was written by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens, while Media Rights Capital and Universal Pictures would be financing the film. Shooting was scheduled to start in March 2017 in Wellington, New Zealand. Producers Zane Weiner and Amanda Walker, who both worked on "The Hobbit", spearheaded the New Zealand-based team, along with US-based Deborah Forte.


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: In February 2017, Robert Sheehan was cast in the film for the lead role alongside Ronan Raftery, while Hera Hilmar was cast as a female lead. Gwen Stefani, Ashley Eckstein and Nicky Whelan were also considered. In March 2017, more cast was announced including Stephen Lang, Jihae, and newcomer Leila George. Hugo Weaving, Patrick Malahide, Colin Salmon, and Regé-Jean Page joined the film in April 2017. Richard Armitage was offered a role but passed due to scheduling conflicts.


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: Principal photography on the film began in April 2017, with shooting occurring at Stone Street Studios in Wellington, New Zealand, and was completed in July 2017.


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: Visual effects were provided by Weta Digital and supervised by Ken McGaugh, Kevin Smith and Luke Millar. Weta designed the moving cities to actual scale in CG, which required building layout "puppets" that represented the different city tiers.


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: "Mortal Engines" had its world premiere at the Empire, Leicester Square in London on November 27, 2018. It was released in New Zealand by Universal Pictures on December 6, 2018, and in the UK on December 8, 2018, and then released in the United States on December 14, 2018, in 3D, Dolby Cinema, and IMAX 3D.


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: "Mortal Engines" grossed $16 million in the United States and Canada, and $67.7 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $83.7 million, against a production budget of at least $100 million. "Deadline Hollywood" calculated that the film lost the studio $174.8 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues, making it a box office bomb.


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: In the United States and Canada, "Mortal Engines" was released alongside "" and "The Mule", and was initially projected to gross $10–13 million from 3,103 theaters in its opening weekend. After making just $2.8 million on its first day (including $675,000 from Thursday night previews), weekend estimates were lowered to $7 million. It went on to debut to $7.5 million, finishing fifth at the box office. The film fell 77% in its second weekend to $1.7 million, one of the largest drops for a wide release of all-time, and finished in 13th when "Aquaman", "Mary Poppins Returns", and "Bumblebee" were released during the Christmas holiday.


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, ""Mortal Engines" has no shortage of eye-catching special effects, but lacks enough high-octane narrative fuel to give this futuristic fantasy sufficient cinematic combustion." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 44 out of 100, based on reviews from 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave the film a 66% overall positive score and a "low" 43% "definite recommend"; social media monitor RelishMix noted online response to the film was "mixed, leaning negative."


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: "The Guardian" film critic Peter Bradshaw gave the film 2/5 stars, describing it as "steampunk Star Wars, with a bit of low-octane Gilliam and Gaiman on the side." Bradshaw also characterized "Mortal Engines" as a "tiringly frenetic and derivative fantasy-adventure movie." Similarly, "The Daily Telegraph" Tim Robey awarded "Mortal Engines" 2/5 stars, describing the film as a "mechanical, soulless dystopian theme park ride to nowhere." "Variety" reviewer Andrew Barker praised "Mortal Engines" opening chase sequence but criticized the "unwieldy, baffling, exhausting, and unintentionally hysterical" plot development. While praising the film's emotional depth and Junkie XL's score, Barker compared "Mortal Engines" unfavorably to other science fiction films such as "Cloud Atlas" and "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets".


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: On the more positive side, New Zealand website Stuff reviewer Graeme Tuckett awarded 4 out of 5, praising director Christian Rivers for the film's tone, pacing, choreography, sets, and costumes while noting the film's references to other series, including "Star Wars", "Mad Max", and "The City of Lost Children". Sandra Hall of "The Sydney Morning Herald" praised Peter Jackson for his world-building and "Mortal Engines" social, political, and historical commentary, awarding it 4 out of 5. The "Hindustan Times" reviewer Rohan Naahar awarded the film 3 out of 5, describing "Mortal Engines" as a "visually stunning adventure for kids" and praising the film's social and political subtext. IGN reviewer Rafael Motamayor awarded "Mortal Engines" 7.5 out of 10, praising the film's world-building and visuals while criticizing its "underwhelming" story. Motamayor also praised Stephen Lang's role as Shrike, opining that he injected "some much-needed humanity into an otherwise fully mechanical film."


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: Ben Kenigsberg of "The New York Times" observed that the movie borrowed elements from other films including "Star Wars", "Mad Max", "The Matrix", and "The Lord of the Rings". David Fear of "Rolling Stone" described the film adaptation as "a steampunk Frankenstein's monster made from spare parts", giving it 2.5 out of 5. Glenn Kenny of RogerEbert.com awarded the film 1.5 out of 4, describing the film's story pacing as "laughably portentous and kitschy" and likened the film to another box-office bomb, the Wachowskis' "Jupiter Ascending". Sandy Schaffer of Screen Rant awarded the film 2.5 out of 5, praising "Mortal Engines"' world design and visuals but criticizing what she termed as "its uninspired narrative and ungainly filmmaking."


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: Philip Reeve, author of the "Mortal Engines" novels, praised the film, stating, "Christian Rivers has done a fantastic job - a huge, visually awesome action movie with perfect pace and a genuine emotional core ... there are many changes to the characters, world, and story, but it's still fundamentally the same thing."


title: Mortal Engines (film)

text: The film won an award from the Visual Effects Society for its visual effects. At the 17th Visual Effects Society Awards on February 5, 2019, the visual effects team of Matthew Sandoval, James Ogle, Nick Keller, Sam Tack, were honoured in the category of "Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project" for their design of the moving city of "London".


title: Decibel

text: The decibel (symbol: dB) is a relative unit of measurement equal to one tenth of a bel (B). It expresses the ratio of two values of a power or root-power quantity on a logarithmic scale. Two signals whose levels differ by one decibel have a power ratio of 10 (approximately ) or root-power ratio of 10 (approximately ).


title: Decibel

text: The unit expresses a relative change or an absolute value. In the latter case, the numeric value expresses the ratio of a value to a fixed reference value; when used in this way, the unit symbol is often suffixed with letter codes that indicate the reference value. For example, for the reference value of 1 volt, a common suffix is "V" (e.g., "20 dBV").


title: Decibel

text: Two principal types of scaling of the decibel are in common use. When expressing a power ratio, it is defined as ten times the logarithm in base 10. That is, a change in "power" by a factor of 10 corresponds to a 10 dB change in level. When expressing root-power quantities, a change in "amplitude" by a factor of 10 corresponds to a 20 dB change in level. The decibel scales differ by a factor of two, so that the related power and root-power levels change by the same value in linear systems, where power is proportional to the square of amplitude.


title: Decibel

text: The definition of the decibel originated in the measurement of transmission loss and power in telephony of the early 20th century in the Bell System in the United States. The bel was named in honor of Alexander Graham Bell, but the bel is seldom used. Instead, the decibel is used for a wide variety of measurements in science and engineering, most prominently in acoustics, electronics, and control theory. In electronics, the gains of amplifiers, attenuation of signals, and signal-to-noise ratios are often expressed in decibels.


title: Decibel

text: The decibel originates from methods used to quantify signal loss in telegraph and telephone circuits. Until the mid-1920s, the unit for loss was "Miles of Standard Cable" (MSC). 1 MSC corresponded to the loss of power over one mile (approximately 1.6 km) of standard telephone cable at a frequency of  radians per second (795.8 Hz), and matched closely the smallest attenuation detectable to a listener. A standard telephone cable was "a cable having uniformly distributed resistance of 88 ohms per loop-mile and uniformly distributed shunt capacitance of 0.054 microfarads per mile" (approximately corresponding to 19 gauge wire).


title: Decibel

text: In 1924, Bell Telephone Laboratories received favorable response to a new unit definition among members of the International Advisory Committee on Long Distance Telephony in Europe and replaced the MSC with the "Transmission Unit" (TU). 1 TU was defined such that the number of TUs was ten times the base-10 logarithm of the ratio of measured power to a reference power.


title: Decibel

text: The definition was conveniently chosen such that 1 TU approximated 1 MSC; specifically, 1 MSC was 1.056 TU. In 1928, the Bell system renamed the TU into the decibel, being one tenth of a newly defined unit for the base-10 logarithm of the power ratio. It was named the "bel", in honor of the telecommunications pioneer Alexander Graham Bell.


title: Decibel

text: In 1954, J. W. Horton argued that the use of the decibel as a unit for quantities other than transmission loss led to confusion, and suggested the name "logit" for "standard magnitudes which combine by multiplication", to contrast with the name "unit" for "standard magnitudes which combine by addition".


title: Decibel

text: In April 2003, the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) considered a recommendation for the inclusion of the decibel in the International System of Units (SI), but decided against the proposal. However, the decibel is recognized by other international bodies such as the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The IEC permits the use of the decibel with root-power quantities as well as power and this recommendation is followed by many national standards bodies, such as NIST, which justifies the use of the decibel for voltage ratios. In spite of their widespread use, suffixes (such as in dBA or dBV) are not recognized by the IEC or ISO.


title: Decibel

text: The IEC Standard 60027-3:2002 defines the following quantities. The decibel (dB) is one-tenth of a bel: . The bel (B) is  ln(10) nepers: . The neper is the change in the level of a root-power quantity when the root-power quantity changes by a factor of "e", that is , thereby relating all of the units as nondimensional natural "log" of root-power-quantity ratios, . Finally, the level of a quantity is the logarithm of the ratio of the value of that quantity to a reference value of the same kind of quantity.


title: Decibel

text: Therefore, the bel represents the logarithm of a ratio between two power quantities of 10:1, or the logarithm of a ratio between two root-power quantities of :1.


title: Decibel

text: Two signals whose levels differ by one decibel have a power ratio of 10, which is approximately , and an amplitude (root-power quantity) ratio of 10 ().


title: Decibel

text: The bel is rarely used either without a prefix or with SI unit prefixes other than "deci"; it is preferred, for example, to use "hundredths of a decibel" rather than "millibels". Thus, five one-thousandths of a bel would normally be written 0.05 dB, and not 5 mB.


title: Decibel

text: The method of expressing a ratio as a level in decibels depends on whether the measured property is a "power quantity" or a "root-power quantity"; see "Power, root-power, and field quantities" for details.


title: Decibel

text: When referring to measurements of "power" quantities, a ratio can be expressed as a level in decibels by evaluating ten times the base-10 logarithm of the ratio of the measured quantity to reference value. Thus, the ratio of "P" (measured power) to "P" (reference power) is represented by "L", that ratio expressed in decibels, which is calculated using the formula:


title: Decibel

text: The base-10 logarithm of the ratio of the two power quantities is the number of bels. The number of decibels is ten times the number of bels (equivalently, a decibel is one-tenth of a bel). "P" and "P" must measure the same type of quantity, and have the same units before calculating the ratio. If in the above equation, then "L" = 0. If "P" is greater than "P" then "L" is positive; if "P" is less than "P" then "L" is negative.


title: Decibel

text: When referring to measurements of root-power quantities, it is usual to consider the ratio of the squares of "F" (measured) and "F" (reference). This is because the definitions were originally formulated to give the same value for relative ratios for both power and root-power quantities. Thus, the following definition is used:


title: Decibel

text: Similarly, in electrical circuits, dissipated power is typically proportional to the square of voltage or current when the impedance is constant. Taking voltage as an example, this leads to the equation for power gain level "L":


title: Decibel

text: where "V" is the root-mean-square (rms) output voltage, "V" is the rms input voltage. A similar formula holds for current.


title: Decibel

text: The term "root-power quantity" is introduced by ISO Standard 80000-1:2009 as a substitute of "field quantity". The term "field quantity" is deprecated by that standard and "root-power" is used throughout this article.


title: Decibel

text: Although power and root-power quantities are different quantities, their respective levels are historically measured in the same units, typically decibels. A factor of 2 is introduced to make "changes" in the respective levels match under restricted conditions such as when the medium is linear and the "same" waveform is under consideration with changes in amplitude, or the medium impedance is linear and independent of both frequency and time. This relies on the relationship


title: Decibel

text: holding. In a nonlinear system, this relationship does not hold by the definition of linearity. However, even in a linear system in which the power quantity is the product of two linearly related quantities (e.g. voltage and current), if the impedance is frequency- or time-dependent, this relationship does not hold in general, for example if the energy spectrum of the waveform changes.


title: Decibel

text: For differences in level, the required relationship is relaxed from that above to one of proportionality (i.e., the reference quantities "P" and "F" need not be related), or equivalently,


title: Decibel

text: must hold to allow the power level difference to be equal to the root-power level difference from power "P" and "F" to "P" and "F". An example might be an amplifier with unity voltage gain independent of load and frequency driving a load with a frequency-dependent impedance: the relative voltage gain of the amplifier is always 0 dB, but the power gain depends on the changing spectral composition of the waveform being amplified. Frequency-dependent impedances may be analyzed by considering the quantities power spectral density and the associated root-power quantities via the Fourier transform, which allows elimination of the frequency dependence in the analysis by analyzing the system at each frequency independently.


title: Decibel

text: Since logarithm differences measured in these units often represent power ratios and root-power ratios, values for both are shown below. The bel is traditionally used as a unit of logarithmic power ratio, while the neper is used for logarithmic root-power (amplitude) ratio.


title: Decibel

text: The unit dBW is often used to denote a ratio for which the reference is 1 W, and similarly dBm for a reference point.


title: Decibel

text: , illustrating the consequence from the definitions above that "L" has the same value, 30 dB, regardless of whether it is obtained from powers or from amplitudes, provided that in the specific system being considered power ratios are equal to amplitude ratios squared.


title: Decibel

text: A change in power ratio by a factor of 10 corresponds to a change in level of . A change in power ratio by a factor of 2 or is approximately a change of 3 dB. More precisely, the change is ± dB, but this is almost universally rounded to 3 dB in technical writing. This implies an increase in voltage by a factor of . Likewise, a doubling or halving of the voltage, and quadrupling or quartering of the power, is commonly described as 6 dB rather than ± dB.


title: Decibel

text: Should it be necessary to make the distinction, the number of decibels is written with additional significant figures. 3.000 dB corresponds to a power ratio of 10, or , about 0.24% different from exactly 2, and a voltage ratio of , 0.12% different from exactly . Similarly, an increase of 6.000 dB corresponds to the power ratio is , about 0.5% different from 4.


title: Decibel

text: The decibel is useful for representing large ratios and for simplifying representation of multiplicative effects, such as attenuation from multiple sources along a signal chain. Its application in systems with additive effects is less intuitive, such as in the combined sound pressure level of two machines operating together. Care is also necessary with decibels directly in fractions and with the units of multiplicative operations.


title: Decibel

text: The logarithmic scale nature of the decibel means that a very large range of ratios can be represented by a convenient number, in a manner similar to scientific notation. This allows one to clearly visualize huge changes of some quantity. See "Bode plot" and "Semi-log plot". For example, 120 dB SPL may be clearer than "a trillion times more intense than the threshold of hearing".


title: Decibel

text: Level values in decibels can be added instead of multiplying the underlying power values, which means that the overall gain of a multi-component system, such as a series of amplifier stages, can be calculated by summing the gains in decibels of the individual components, rather than multiply the amplification factors; that is, = log("A") + log("B") + log("C"). Practically, this means that, armed only with the knowledge that 1 dB is a power gain of approximately 26%, 3 dB is approximately 2× power gain, and 10 dB is 10× power gain, it is possible to determine the power ratio of a system from the gain in dB with only simple addition and multiplication. For example:


title: Decibel

text: However, according to its critics, the decibel creates confusion, obscures reasoning, is more related to the era of slide rules than to modern digital processing, and is cumbersome and difficult to interpret.


title: Decibel

text: Quantities in decibels are not necessarily additive, thus being "of unacceptable form for use in dimensional analysis".


title: Decibel

text: Thus, units require special care in decibel operations. Take, for example, carrier-to-noise-density ratio "C"/"N" (in hertz), involving carrier power "C" (in watts) and noise power spectral density "N" (in W/Hz). Expressed in decibels, this ratio would be a subtraction ("C"/"N") = "C" − "N". However, the linear-scale units still simplify in the implied fraction, so that the results would be expressed in dB-Hz.


title: Decibel

text: According to Mitschke, "The advantage of using a logarithmic measure is that in a transmission chain, there are many elements concatenated, and each has its own gain or attenuation. To obtain the total, addition of decibel values is much more convenient than multiplication of the individual factors." However, for the same reason that humans excel at additive operation over multiplication, decibels are awkward in inherently additive operations:if two machines each individually produce a sound pressure level of, say, 90 dB at a certain point, then when both are operating together we should expect the combined sound pressure level to increase to 93 dB, but certainly not to 180 dB!; suppose that the noise from a machine is measured (including the contribution of background noise) and found to be 87 dBA but when the machine is switched off the background noise alone is measured as 83 dBA. [...] the machine noise [level (alone)] may be obtained by 'subtracting' the 83 dBA background noise from the combined level of 87 dBA; i.e., 84.8 dBA.; in order to find a representative value of the sound level in a room a number of measurements are taken at different positions within the room, and an average value is calculated. [...] Compare the logarithmic and arithmetic averages of [...] 70 dB and 90 dB: logarithmic average = 87 dB; arithmetic average = 80 dB.


title: Decibel

text: Addition on a logarithmic scale is called logarithmic addition, and can be defined by taking exponentials to convert to a linear scale, adding there, and then taking logarithms to return. For example, where operations on decibels are logarithmic addition/subtraction and logarithmic multiplication/division, while operations on the linear scale are the usual operations:


title: Decibel

text: Note that the logarithmic mean is obtained from the logarithmic sum by subtracting formula_14, since logarithmic division is linear subtraction.


title: Decibel

text: Attenuation constants, in topics such as optical fiber communication and radio propagation path loss, are often expressed as a fraction or ratio to distance of transmission. In this case, dB/m represents decibel per meter, dB/mi represents decibel per mile, for example. These quantities are to be manipulated obeying the rules of dimensional analysis, e.g., a 100-meter run with a 3.5 dB/km fiber yields a loss of 0.35 dB = 3.5 dB/km × 0.1 km.


title: Decibel

text: The human perception of the intensity of sound and light more nearly approximates the logarithm of intensity rather than a linear relationship (see Weber–Fechner law), making the dB scale a useful measure.


title: Decibel

text: The decibel is commonly used in acoustics as a unit of sound pressure level. The reference pressure for sound in air is set at the typical threshold of perception of an average human and there are common comparisons used to illustrate different levels of sound pressure. As sound pressure is a root-power quantity, the appropriate version of the unit definition is used:


title: Decibel

text: where "p" is the root mean square of the measured sound pressure and "p" is the standard reference sound pressure of 20 micropascals in air or 1 micropascal in water.


title: Decibel

text: Use of the decibel in underwater acoustics leads to confusion, in part because of this difference in reference value.


title: Decibel

text: Sound intensity is proportional to the square of sound pressure. Therefore the sound intensity level can also be defined as:


title: Decibel

text: The human ear has a large dynamic range in sound reception. The ratio of the sound intensity that causes permanent damage during short exposure to that of the quietest sound that the ear can hear is equal to or greater than 1 trillion (10). Such large measurement ranges are conveniently expressed in logarithmic scale: the base-10 logarithm of 10 is 12, which is expressed as a sound intensity level of 120 dB re 1pW/m. The reference levels for I and p have been chose such that this also corresponds to a sound pressure level of 120 dB re 20 μPa.


title: Decibel

text: Since the human ear is not equally sensitive to all sound frequencies, the acoustic power spectrum is modified by frequency weighting (A-weighting being the most common standard) to get the weighted acoustic power before converting to a sound level or noise level in decibels.


title: Decibel

text: The decibel is used in telephony and audio. Similarly to the use in acoustics, a frequency weighted power is often used. For audio noise measurements in electrical circuits, the weightings are called psophometric weightings.


title: Decibel

text: In electronics, the decibel is often used to express power or amplitude ratios (as for gains) in preference to arithmetic ratios or percentages. One advantage is that the total decibel gain of a series of components (such as amplifiers and attenuators) can be calculated simply by summing the decibel gains of the individual components. Similarly, in telecommunications, decibels denote signal gain or loss from a transmitter to a receiver through some medium (free space, waveguide, coaxial cable, fiber optics, etc.) using a link budget.


title: Decibel

text: The decibel unit can also be combined with a reference level, often indicated via a suffix, to create an absolute unit of electric power. For example, it can be combined with "m" for "milliwatt" to produce the "dBm". A power level of 0 dBm corresponds to one milliwatt, and 1 dBm is one decibel greater (about 1.259 mW).


title: Decibel

text: In professional audio specifications, a popular unit is the dBu. This is relative to the root mean square voltage which delivers 1 mW (0 dBm) into a 600-ohm resistor, or ≈ 0.775 V. When used in a 600-ohm circuit (historically, the standard reference impedance in telephone circuits), dBu and dBm are identical.


title: Decibel

text: In an optical link, if a known amount of optical power, in dBm (referenced to 1 mW), is launched into a fiber, and the losses, in dB (decibels), of each component (e.g., connectors, splices, and lengths of fiber) are known, the overall link loss may be quickly calculated by addition and subtraction of decibel quantities.


title: Decibel

text: In connection with video and digital image sensors, decibels generally represent ratios of video voltages or digitized light intensities, using 20 log of the ratio, even when the represented intensity (optical power) is directly proportional to the voltage generated by the sensor, not to its square, as in a CCD imager where response voltage is linear in intensity.


title: Decibel

text: Thus, a camera signal-to-noise ratio or dynamic range quoted as 40 dB represents a ratio of 100:1 between optical signal intensity and optical-equivalent dark-noise intensity, not a 10,000:1 intensity (power) ratio as 40 dB might suggest.


title: Decibel

text: Sometimes the 20 log ratio definition is applied to electron counts or photon counts directly, which are proportional to sensor signal amplitude without the need to consider whether the voltage response to intensity is linear.


title: Decibel

text: However, as mentioned above, the 10 log intensity convention prevails more generally in physical optics, including fiber optics, so the terminology can become murky between the conventions of digital photographic technology and physics. Most commonly, quantities called "dynamic range" or "signal-to-noise" (of the camera) would be specified in 20 log dB, but in related contexts (e.g. attenuation, gain, intensifier SNR, or rejection ratio) the term should be interpreted cautiously, as confusion of the two units can result in very large misunderstandings of the value.


title: Decibel

text: Photographers typically use an alternative base-2 log unit, the stop, to describe light intensity ratios or dynamic range.


title: Decibel

text: Suffixes are commonly attached to the basic dB unit in order to indicate the reference value by which the ratio is calculated. For example, dBm indicates power measurement relative to 1 milliwatt.


title: Decibel

text: In cases where the unit value of the reference is stated, the decibel value is known as "absolute". If the unit value of the reference is not explicitly stated, as in the dB gain of an amplifier, then the decibel value is considered relative.


title: Decibel

text: This form of attaching suffixes to dB is widespread in practice, albeit being against the rules promulgated by standards bodies (ISO and IEC), given the "unacceptability of attaching information to units" and the "unacceptability of mixing information with units". The IEC 60027-3 standard recommends the following format: "L" (re "x") or as "L", where "x" is the quantity symbol and "x" is the value of the reference quantity, e.g., "L" (re 1 μV/m) = 20 dB or "L"= 20 dB for the electric field strength "E" relative to 1 μV/m reference value.


title: Decibel

text: If the measurement result 20 dB is presented separately, it can be specified using the information in parentheses, which is then part of the surrounding text and not a part of the unit: 20 dB (re: 1 μV/m) or 20 dB (1 μV/m).


title: Decibel

text: Outside of documents adhering to SI units, the practice is very common as illustrated by the following examples. There is no general rule, with various discipline-specific practices. Sometimes the suffix is a unit symbol ("W","K","m"), sometimes it is a transliteration of a unit symbol ("uV" instead of μV for microvolt), sometimes it is an acronym for the unit's name ("sm" for square meter, "m" for milliwatt), other times it is a mnemonic for the type of quantity being calculated ("i" for antenna gain with respect to an isotropic antenna, "λ" for anything normalized by the EM wavelength), or otherwise a general attribute or identifier about the nature of the quantity ("A" for A-weighted sound pressure level). The suffix is often connected with a hyphen, as in "dBHz", or with a space, as in "dB HL", or enclosed in parentheses, as in "dB(sm)", or with no intervening character, as in "dBm" (which is non-compliant with international standards).


title: Decibel

text: Since the decibel is defined with respect to power, not amplitude, conversions of voltage ratios to decibels must square the amplitude, or use the factor of 20 instead of 10, as discussed above.


title: Decibel

text: Probably the most common usage of "decibels" in reference to sound level is dB SPL, sound pressure level referenced to the nominal threshold of human hearing: The measures of pressure (a root-power quantity) use the factor of 20, and the measures of power (e.g. dB SIL and dB SWL) use the factor of 10.


title: Heterochromia iridum

text: Heterochromia is a variation in coloration. The term is most often used to describe color differences of the iris, but can also be applied to color variation of hair or skin. Heterochromia is determined by the production, delivery, and concentration of melanin (a pigment). It may be inherited, or caused by genetic mosaicism, chimerism, disease, or injury. It occurs in humans and certain breeds of domesticated animals.


title: Heterochromia iridum

text: Heterochromia of the eye is called heterochromia iridum or heterochromia iridis. It can be complete or sectoral. In complete heterochromia, one iris is a different color from the other. In sectoral heterochromia, part of one iris is a different color from its remainder. In central heterochromia, there is a ring around the pupil or possibly spikes of different colors radiating from the pupil.


title: Heterochromia iridum

text: Though multiple causes have been posited, the scientific consensus is that a lack of genetic diversity is the primary reason behind heterochromia, at least in domestic animals. This is due to a mutation of the genes that determine melanin distribution at the 8-HTP pathway, which usually only become corrupted due to chromosomal homogeneity. Though common in some breeds of cats, dogs, cattle and horses due to inbreeding, heterochromia is uncommon in humans, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the United States, and is not associated with lack of genetic diversity.


title: Heterochromia iridum

text: The affected eye may be hyperpigmented (hyperchromic) or hypopigmented (hypochromic). In humans, an increase of melanin production in the eyes indicates hyperplasia of the iris tissues, whereas a lack of melanin indicates hypoplasia.


title: Heterochromia iridum

text: Eye color, specifically the color of the irises, is determined primarily by the concentration and distribution of melanin. Although the processes determining eye color are not fully understood, it is known that inherited eye color is determined by multiple genes. Environmental or acquired factors can alter these inherited traits.


title: Heterochromia iridum

text: The color of the mammalian, including human, iris is very variable. However, there are only two pigments present, eumelanin and pheomelanin. The overall concentration of these pigments, the ratio between them, variation in the distribution of pigment in the layers of the stroma of the iris and the effects of light scattering all play a part in determining eye color.


title: Heterochromia iridum

text: Heterochromia is classified primarily by onset: as either genetic or acquired. Although a distinction is frequently made between heterochromia that affects an eye completely or only partially (sectoral heterochromia), it is often classified as either genetic (due to mosaicism or congenital) or acquired, with mention as to whether the affected iris or portion of the iris is darker or lighter. Most cases of heterochromia are hereditary, or caused by genetic factors such as chimerism, and are entirely benign and unconnected to any pathology, however, some are associated with certain diseases and syndromes. Sometimes one eye may change color following disease or injury.


title: Heterochromia iridum

text: Acquired heterochromia is usually due to injury, inflammation, the use of certain eyedrops that damage the iris, or tumors.


title: Heterochromia iridum

text: Partial heterochromia is most often a benign trait of genetic origins, but, like complete heterochromia, can be acquired or be related to clinical syndromes.


title: Heterochromia iridum

text: In sectoral heterochromia, areas of the same iris contain two different colors, the contrasting colors being demarcated in a radial, or sectoral, manner. Sectoral heterochromia may affect one or both eyes.


title: Heterochromia iridum

text: It is unknown how rare sectoral heterochromia is in humans, but it is considered to be less common than complete heterochromia.


title: Heterochromia iridum

text: Central heterochromia is also an eye condition where there are two colors in the same iris; but the arrangement is concentric, rather than sectoral. The central (pupillary) zone of the iris is a different color than the mid-peripheral (ciliary) zone. Central heterochromia is more noticeable in irises containing low amounts of melanin.


title: Heterochromia iridum

text: Heterochromia of the eye was first described as a human condition by Aristotle, who termed it "heteroglaucos".


title: Heterochromia iridum

text: Notable historical figures thought to have heterochromia include the Byzantine emperor Anastasius the First, dubbed "dikoros" (Greek for 'having two pupils'). "His right eye was light blue, while the left was black, nevertheless his eyes were most attractive", is the description of the historian John Malalas. A more recent example is the German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic, Johann Wolfgang Goethe.


title: Heterochromia iridum

text: The "Alexander Romance", an early literary treatment of the life of Alexander the Great, attributes heterochromia to him. In it he is described as having one eye light and one eye dark. However, no ancient historical source mentions this. It is used to emphasise the otherworldly and heroic qualities of Alexander.


title: Heterochromia iridum

text: In the Ars Amatoria, the Roman poet Ovid describes the witch Dipsas as having 'double pupils'. Kirby Flower Smith suggested that this could be understood as heterochromia, though other scholars have disagreed. The Roman jurist and writer Cicero also mentions the same feature of 'double pupils' as being found in some Italic women. Pliny the Elder related this feature to the concept of 'the evil eye'.


title: Heterochromia iridum

text: The twelfth-century scholar Eustathius, in his commentary on the Iliad, reports a tradition in which the Thracian Thamyris (son of the nymph Argiope), who was famed for his musical abilities, had one eye that was grey, whilst the other was black. W. B. McDaniel suggests that this should be interpreted as heterochromia.


title: Heterochromia iridum

text: Although infrequently seen in humans, complete heterochromia is more frequently observed in species of domesticated mammals. The blue eye occurs within a white spot, where melanin is absent from the skin and hair (see Leucism). These species include the cat, particularly breeds such as Turkish Van, Turkish Angora, Khao Manee and (rarely) Japanese Bobtail. These so-called odd-eyed cats are white, or mostly white, with one normal eye (copper, orange, yellow, green), and one blue eye. Among dogs, complete heterochromia is seen often in the Siberian Husky and few other breeds, usually Australian Shepherd and Catahoula Leopard Dog and rarely in Shih Tzu. Horses with complete heterochromia have one brown and one white, gray, or blue eye—complete heterochromia is more common in horses with pinto coloring. Complete heterochromia occurs also in cattle and even water buffalo. It can also be seen in ferrets with Waardenburg syndrome, although it can be very hard to tell at times as the eye color is often a midnight blue.


title: Heterochromia iridum

text: Sectoral heterochromia, usually sectoral hypochromia, is often seen in dogs, specifically in breeds with merle coats. These breeds include the Australian Shepherd, Border Collie, Collie, Shetland Sheepdog, Welsh Corgi, Pyrenean Shepherd, Mudi, Beauceron, Catahoula Cur, Dunker, Great Dane, Dachshund and Chihuahua. It also occurs in certain breeds that do not carry the merle trait, such as the Siberian Husky and rarely, Shih Tzu. There are examples of cat breeds that have the condition such as Van cat.