title: Theremin

text: To control volume, the performer's other hand acts as the grounded plate of another variable capacitor. As in the tone circuit, the distance between the performer's hand and the volume control antenna determines the capacitance and hence natural resonant frequency of an LC circuit inductively coupled to another fixed LC oscillator circuit operating at a slightly higher resonant frequency. When a hand approaches the antenna, the natural frequency of that circuit is lowered by the extra capacitance, which detunes the oscillator and lowers its resonant plate current.


title: Theremin

text: In the earliest theremins, the RF plate current of the oscillator is picked up by another winding and used to power the filament of another diode-connected triode, which thus acts as a variable conductance element changing the output amplitude. The harmonic timbre of the output, not being a pure tone, was an important feature of the theremin. Theremin's original design included audio frequency series/parallel LC formant filters as well as a 3-winding variable-saturation transformer to control or induce harmonics in the audio output.


title: Theremin

text: Modern circuit designs often simplify this circuit and avoid the complexity of two heterodyne oscillators by having a single pitch oscillator, akin to the original theremin's volume circuit. This approach is usually less stable and cannot generate the low frequencies that a heterodyne oscillator can. Better designs (e.g., Moog, Theremax) may use two pairs of heterodyne oscillators, for both pitch and volume.


title: Theremin

text: Important in theremin articulation is the use of the volume control antenna. Unlike touched instruments, where simply halting play or damping a resonator in the traditional sense silences the instrument, the thereminist must "play the rests, as well as the notes", as Clara Rockmore observed.


title: Theremin

text: If the pitch hand is moved between notes, without first lowering the volume hand, the result is a "swooping" sound akin to a swanee whistle or a glissando played on the violin. Small flutters of the pitch hand can be used to produce a vibrato effect. To produce distinct notes requires a pecking action with the volume hand to mute the volume while the pitch hand moves between positions.


title: Theremin

text: Thereminists such as Carolina Eyck use a fixed arm position per octave, and use fixed positions of the fingers to create the notes within the octave, allowing very fast transitions between adjacent notes.


title: Theremin

text: Although volume technique is less developed than pitch technique, some thereminists have worked to extend it, especially Pamelia Kurstin with her "walking bass" technique and Rupert Chappelle.


title: Theremin

text: Recent versions of the theremin have been functionally updated: the Moog Ethervox, while functionally still a theremin, can also be used as a MIDI controller, and as such allows the artist to control any MIDI-compatible synthesizer with it, using the theremin's continuous pitch to drive modern synths. The Harrison Instruments Model 302 Theremin uses symmetrical horizontal plates instead of a vertical rod and horizontal loop to control pitch and volume, with the volume increasing as the hand approaches the plate. Music From The Ether manufactures a modernized vacuum tube replica of the RCA AR-1264 and a transistorized theremin which the customer may customize with a desired wood species, as well as many available tolex colors with matching knobs.


title: Theremin

text: The critic Harold C. Schonberg described the sound of the theremin as "(a) cello lost in a dense fog, crying because it does not know how to get home."


title: Theremin

text: The first orchestral composition written for theremin was Andrei Pashchenko's "Symphonic Mystery", which premiered in 1924. However, most of the sheet music was lost after its second performance.


title: Theremin

text: Other concert composers who have written for theremin include Bohuslav Martinů, Percy Grainger, Christian Wolff, Joseph Schillinger, Moritz Eggert, Iraida Yusupova, Jorge Antunes, Vladimir Komarov, Anis Fuleihan, and Fazıl Say. Another large-scale theremin concerto is Kalevi Aho's Concerto for Theremin and Chamber Orchestra "Eight Seasons" (2011), written for Carolina Eyck.


title: Theremin

text: Edgard Varèse completed the composition ‘’Equatorial’’ for two Theremin Cellos and percussion in 1934. His work was a stated influence throughout the career of Frank Zappa, who also composed for theremin.


title: Theremin

text: Maverick composer Percy Grainger chose to use ensembles of four or six theremins (in preference to a string quartet) for his two earliest experimental "Free Music" compositions (1935–37) because of the instrument's complete 'gliding' freedom of pitch.


title: Theremin

text: Musician Jean-Michel Jarre used the instrument in his concerts Oxygen In Moscow and Space of Freedom in Gdańsk, providing also a short history of Léon Theremin's life.


title: Theremin

text: The five-piece Spaghetti Western Orchestra use a Theremin as a replacement for Edda Dell'Orso's vocals in their interpretation of Ennio Morricone's "Once Upon a Time in the West".


title: Theremin

text: Other notable contemporary Theremin players include Pamelia Kurstin, Peter Theremin, Natasha Theremin, Katica Illényi. and Lydia Kavina, Dutch classical musician Thorwald Jørgensen has been described as "one of the most important exponents of classical music on the theremin".


title: Theremin

text: In 2019 a group of 289 theremin players (Matryomin ensemble) (including daughter, granddaughter and great-grandson Lev Theremin - Natasha Theremin, Masha Theremin and Peter Theremin) in Kobu, Japan, achieved a Guinness world record as the largest theremin ensemble. The name "Matryomin" is a portmanteau of the words "matryoshka" and "theremin".. The theremin concerto "Dancefloor With Pulsing" by the French composer Regis Campo was written for Carolina Eyck and premiered with the Brussels Philharmonic in 2018.


title: Theremin

text: Theremins and theremin-like sounds started to be incorporated into popular music from the end of the 1940s (with a series of Samuel Hoffman/Harry Revel collaborations) and has continued, with various degrees of popularity, to the present.


title: Theremin

text: Lothar and the Hand People were the first rock band known to perform live with a theremin in November 1965. In fact, Lothar was the name they gave to their Moog theremin.


title: Theremin

text: The Beach Boys' 1966 single "Good Vibrations"—though it does not technically contain a theremin—is the most frequently cited example of the instrument in pop music. The song actually features a similar-sounding instrument invented by Paul Tanner called an Electro-Theremin. Upon release, the single prompted an unexpected revival in theremins and increased the awareness of analog synthesizers. In response to requests by the band, Moog Music began producing their own brand of ribbon-controlled instruments which would mimic the sound of a theremin.


title: Theremin

text: Frank Zappa also included the theremin on the albums Freak Out! (1966) and We're Only In It for The Money (1967)


title: Theremin

text: Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin used a variation of the theremin (pitch antenna only) during performances of "Whole Lotta Love" and "No Quarter" throughout the performance history of Led Zeppelin, an extended multi-instrumental solo featuring theremin and bowed guitar in 1977, as well as the soundtrack for "Death Wish II", released in 1982.


title: Theremin

text: Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones also used the instrument on the group's 1967 albums "Between the Buttons" and "Their Satanic Majesties Request".


title: Theremin

text: Tesla guitarist Frank Hannon used a theremin in the band's song "Edison's Medicine" from the 1991 album "Psychotic Supper". Hannon is also seen using the instrument in the song's music video at the 2:40 mark.


title: Theremin

text: The Lothars are a Boston-area band formed in early 1997 whose CDs have featured as many as four theremins played at once – a first for pop music.


title: Theremin

text: Although credited with a "Thereman" on the track "Mysterons" from the album "Dummy", Portishead actually used a monophonic synthesizer to achieve theremin-like effects, as confirmed by Adrian Utley, who is credited as playing the instrument; on the songs "Half Day Closing", "Humming", "The Rip", and "Machine Gun" he has actually used a custom made theremin.


title: Theremin

text: Page McConnell, keyboardist of the American rock band Phish, plays the theremin on rare occasions. His last notable performance was on 6 August 2017, the final evening of the band's 13-night residency at Madison Square Garden.


title: Theremin

text: When Simon and Garfunkel performed their song "The Boxer" during a concert at Madison Square Garden in December, 2003, they utilized a theremin. The original recording of the song had featured a steel guitar and a piccolo trumpet in unison in the solo interlude, but for this performance, thereminist Rob Schwimmer played the solo.


title: Theremin

text: Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich was one of the first to incorporate parts for the theremin in orchestral pieces, including a use in his score for the film "Odna" ( — 1931, Leonid Trauberg and Grigori Kozintsev). While the theremin was not widely used in classical music performances, the instrument found great success in many motion pictures, notably, "Spellbound", "The Red House", "The Lost Weekend" (all three of which were written by Miklós Rózsa, the composer who pioneered the use of the instrument in Hollywood scores), "The Spiral Staircase", "Rocketship X-M", "The Day the Earth Stood Still", "The Thing from Another World", "Castle In the Air", and "The Ten Commandments". The theremin is played and identified as such in the Jerry Lewis movie "The Delicate Delinquent". The theremin is prominent in the score for the 1956 short film "A Short Vision", which was aired on "The Ed Sullivan Show" the same year that it was used by the Hungarian composer Mátyás Seiber. More recent appearances in film scores include "Monster House", "Ed Wood" and "The Machinist" (both featuring Lydia Kavina), as well as "First Man" (2018).


title: Theremin

text: A theremin was "not" used for the soundtrack of "Forbidden Planet", for which Bebe and Louis Barron built disposable oscillator circuits and a ring modulator to create the electronic tonalities used in the film.


title: Theremin

text: Los Angeles-based thereminist Charles Richard Lester is featured on the soundtrack of "Monster House" and has performed the US premiere of Gavriil Popov's 1932 score for "Komsomol – Patron of Electrification" with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen in 2007.


title: Theremin

text: In Lenny Abrahamson's 2014 film, "Frank", Clara, the character played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, plays the theremin in a band named Soronprfbs.


title: Theremin

text: Charlie Rosen, orchestrator of the Broadway musical "Be More Chill", credits the show as being the first on Broadway to have a theremin in its band.


title: Theremin

text: "The First Theremin Concert for Extraterrestrials" was the world's first musical METI broadcast dispatched from the Evpatoria deep-space communications complex in Crimea, and was sent seven years before NASA's Across the Universe message. Seven different melodies were transmitted from audio-cassette recordings of the theremin being played by Lydia Kavina, Yana Aksenova, and Anton Kerchenko, all from the Moscow Theremin Center. These seven melodies were:


title: Theremin

text: They were played in succession six times over the span of three days from August–September 2001 during the transmission of Teen Age Message, an interstellar radio message.


title: Color

text: Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associated with objects or materials based on their physical properties such as light absorption, reflection, or emission spectra. By defining a color space, colors can be identified numerically by their coordinates.


title: Color

text: Because perception of color stems from the varying spectral sensitivity of different types of cone cells in the retina to different parts of the spectrum, colors may be defined and quantified by the degree to which they stimulate these cells. These physical or physiological quantifications of color, however, do not fully explain the psychophysical perception of color appearance.


title: Color

text: Color science includes the perception of color by the eye and brain, the origin of color in materials, color theory in art, and the physics of electromagnetic radiation in the visible range (i.e. "light").


title: Color

text: Electromagnetic radiation is characterized by its wavelength (or frequency) and its intensity. When the wavelength is within the visible spectrum (the range of wavelengths humans can perceive, approximately from 390 nm to 700 nm), it is known as "visible light".


title: Color

text: Most light sources emit light at many different wavelengths; a source's "spectrum" is a distribution giving its intensity at each wavelength. Although the spectrum of light arriving at the eye from a given direction determines the color sensation in that direction, there are many more possible spectral combinations than color sensations. In fact, one may formally define a color as a class of spectra that give rise to the same color sensation, although such classes would vary widely among different species, and to a lesser extent among individuals within the same species. In each such class, the members are called "metamers" of the color in question. This effect can be visualized by comparing the light sources' spectral power distributions and the resulting colors.


title: Color

text: The familiar colors of the rainbow in the spectrum—named using the Latin word for "appearance" or "apparition" by Isaac Newton in 1671—include all those colors that can be produced by visible light of a single wavelength only, the "pure spectral" or "monochromatic" colors. The table at right shows approximate frequencies (in terahertz) and wavelengths (in nanometers) for spectral colors in the visible range. Spectral colors have 100% purity, and are fully saturated. A complex mixture of spectral colors can be used to describe any color, which is the definition of a light power spectrum.


title: Color

text: The color table should not be interpreted as a definitive list; the spectral colors form a continuous spectrum, and how it is divided into distinct colors linguistically is a matter of culture and historical contingency. Despite the ubiquitous ROYGBIV mnemonic used to remember the spectral colors in english, the inclusion or exclusion of colors in this table is contentious, with disagreement often focused on indigo and cyan. Even if the subset of color terms is agreed, their wavelength ranges and borders between them may not be.


title: Color

text: The "intensity" of a spectral color, relative to the context in which it is viewed, may alter its perception considerably according to the Bezold–Brücke shift; for example, a low-intensity orange-yellow is brown, and a low-intensity yellow-green is olive green.


title: Color

text: The color of an object as perceived by an observer is not an intrinsic quality of that object, but depends on several factors:


title: Color

text: To summarize, the color of an object is a complex result of its surface properties, its transmission properties, and its emission properties, all of which contribute to the mix of wavelengths in the light leaving the surface of the object. The perceived color is then further conditioned by the nature of the ambient illumination, and by the color properties of other objects nearby, and via other characteristics of the perceiving eye and brain.


title: Color

text: Although Aristotle and other ancient scientists had already written on the nature of light and color vision, it was not until Newton that light was identified as the source of the color sensation. In 1810, Goethe published his comprehensive "Theory of Colors" in which he provided a rational description of colour experience, which 'tells us how it originates, not what it is'. (Schopenhauer)


title: Color

text: In 1801 Thomas Young proposed his trichromatic theory, based on the observation that any color could be matched with a combination of three lights. This theory was later refined by James Clerk Maxwell and Hermann von Helmholtz. As Helmholtz puts it, "the principles of Newton's law of mixture were experimentally confirmed by Maxwell in 1856. Young's theory of color sensations, like so much else that this marvelous investigator achieved in advance of his time, remained unnoticed until Maxwell directed attention to it."


title: Color

text: At the same time as Helmholtz, Ewald Hering developed the opponent process theory of color, noting that color blindness and afterimages typically come in opponent pairs (red-green, blue-orange, yellow-violet, and black-white). Ultimately these two theories were synthesized in 1957 by Hurvich and Jameson, who showed that retinal processing corresponds to the trichromatic theory, while processing at the level of the lateral geniculate nucleus corresponds to the opponent theory.


title: Color

text: In 1931, an international group of experts known as the "Commission internationale de l'éclairage" (CIE) developed a mathematical color model, which mapped out the space of observable colors and assigned a set of three numbers to each.


title: Color

text: The ability of the human eye to distinguish colors is based upon the varying sensitivity of different cells in the retina to light of different wavelengths. Humans are trichromatic—the retina contains three types of color receptor cells, or cones. One type, relatively distinct from the other two, is most responsive to light that is perceived as blue or blue-violet, with wavelengths around 450 nm; cones of this type are sometimes called "short-wavelength cones" or "S cones" (or misleadingly, "blue cones"). The other two types are closely related genetically and chemically: "middle-wavelength cones", "M cones", or "green cones" are most sensitive to light perceived as green, with wavelengths around 540 nm, while the "long-wavelength cones", "L cones", or "red cones", are most sensitive to light that is perceived as greenish yellow, with wavelengths around 570 nm.


title: Color

text: Light, no matter how complex its composition of wavelengths, is reduced to three color components by the eye. Each cone type adheres to the principle of univariance, which is that each cone's output is determined by the amount of light that falls on it over all wavelengths. For each location in the visual field, the three types of cones yield three signals based on the extent to which each is stimulated. These amounts of stimulation are sometimes called "tristimulus values".


title: Color

text: The response curve as a function of wavelength varies for each type of cone. Because the curves overlap, some tristimulus values do not occur for any incoming light combination. For example, it is not possible to stimulate "only" the mid-wavelength (so-called "green") cones; the other cones will inevitably be stimulated to some degree at the same time. The set of all possible tristimulus values determines the human "color space". It has been estimated that humans can distinguish roughly 10 million different colors.


title: Color

text: The other type of light-sensitive cell in the eye, the rod, has a different response curve. In normal situations, when light is bright enough to strongly stimulate the cones, rods play virtually no role in vision at all. On the other hand, in dim light, the cones are understimulated leaving only the signal from the rods, resulting in a colorless response. (Furthermore, the rods are barely sensitive to light in the "red" range.) In certain conditions of intermediate illumination, the rod response and a weak cone response can together result in color discriminations not accounted for by cone responses alone. These effects, combined, are summarized also in the Kruithof curve, which describes the change of color perception and pleasingness of light as a function of temperature and intensity.


title: Color

text: While the mechanisms of color vision at the level of the retina are well-described in terms of tristimulus values, color processing after that point is organized differently. A dominant theory of color vision proposes that color information is transmitted out of the eye by three opponent processes, or opponent channels, each constructed from the raw output of the cones: a red–green channel, a blue–yellow channel, and a black–white "luminance" channel. This theory has been supported by neurobiology, and accounts for the structure of our subjective color experience. Specifically, it explains why humans cannot perceive a "reddish green" or "yellowish blue", and it predicts the color wheel: it is the collection of colors for which at least one of the two color channels measures a value at one of its extremes.


title: Color

text: The exact nature of color perception beyond the processing already described, and indeed the status of color as a feature of the perceived world or rather as a feature of our "perception" of the world—a type of qualia—is a matter of complex and continuing philosophical dispute.


title: Color

text: A color vision deficiency causes an individual to perceive a smaller gamut of colors than the standard observer with normal color vision. The effect can be mild, having lower "color resolution" (i.e. anomalous trichromacy), moderate, lacking an entire dimension or channel of color (e.g. dichromacy), or complete, lacking all color perception (i.e. monochromacy). Most forms of color blindness derive from one or many of the three classes of cone cells either being missing, having a shifted spectral sensitivity or having lower responsiveness to incoming light. In addition, cerebral achromatopsia is caused by neural anomalies in those parts of the brain where visual processing takes place.


title: Color

text: Some colors that appear distinct to an individual with normal color vision will appear metameric to the color blind. The most common form of color blindness is congenital red-green color blindness, affecting ~8% of males. Individuals with the strongest form of this condition (dichromacy) will experience blue and purple, green and yellow, teal and gray as colors of confusion, i.e. metamers.


title: Color

text: Outside of humans, which are mostly "trichromatic" (having three types of cones), most mammals are dichromatic, possessing only two cones. However, outside of mammals, most vertebrate are "tetrachromatic", having four types of cones, and includes most, birds, reptiles, amphibians and bony fish. An extra dimension of color vision means these vertebrates can see two distinct colors that a normal human would view as metamers. Some invertebrates, such as the mantis shrimp, have an even higher number of cones (12) that could lead to a richer color gamut than even imaginable by humans.


title: Color

text: The existence of human tetrachromats is a contentious notion. As many as half of all human females have 4 distinct cone classes, which could enable tetrachromacy.


title: Color

text: However, a distinction must be made between "retinal (or weak) tetrachromats", which express four cone classes in the retina, and "functional (or strong) tetrachromats", which are able to make the enhanced color discriminations expected of tetrachromats. In fact, there is only one peer-reviewed report of a functional tetrachromat. It is estimated that while the average person is able to see one million colors, someone with functional tetrachromacy could see a hundred million colors.


title: Color

text: In certain forms of synesthesia, perceiving letters and numbers (grapheme–color synesthesia) or hearing sounds (chromesthesia) will evoke a perception of color. Behavioral and functional neuroimaging experiments have demonstrated that these color experiences lead to changes in behavioral tasks and lead to increased activation of brain regions involved in color perception, thus demonstrating their reality, and similarity to real color percepts, albeit evoked through a non-standard route. Synesthesia can occur genetically, with 4% of the population having variants associated with the condition. Synesthesia has also been known to occur with brain damage, drugs, and sensory deprivation.


title: Color

text: The philosopher Pythagoras experienced synesthesia and provided one of the first written accounts of the condition in approximately 550 BCE. He created mathematical equations for musical notes that could form part of a scale, such as an octave.


title: Color

text: After exposure to strong light in their sensitivity range, photoreceptors of a given type become desensitized. For a few seconds after the light ceases, they will continue to signal less strongly than they otherwise would. Colors observed during that period will appear to lack the color component detected by the desensitized photoreceptors. This effect is responsible for the phenomenon of afterimages, in which the eye may continue to see a bright figure after looking away from it, but in a complementary color.


title: Color

text: When an artist uses a limited color palette, the human eye tends to compensate by seeing any gray or neutral color as the color which is missing from the color wheel. For example, in a limited palette consisting of red, yellow, black, and white, a mixture of yellow and black will appear as a variety of green, a mixture of red and black will appear as a variety of purple, and pure gray will appear bluish.


title: Color

text: The trichromatic theory is strictly true when the visual system is in a fixed state of adaptation. In reality, the visual system is constantly adapting to changes in the environment and compares the various colors in a scene to reduce the effects of the illumination. If a scene is illuminated with one light, and then with another, as long as the difference between the light sources stays within a reasonable range, the colors in the scene appear relatively constant to us. This was studied by Edwin H. Land in the 1970s and led to his retinex theory of color constancy.


title: Color

text: Both phenomena are readily explained and mathematically modeled with modern theories of chromatic adaptation and color appearance (e.g. CIECAM02, iCAM). There is no need to dismiss the trichromatic theory of vision, but rather it can be enhanced with an understanding of how the visual system adapts to changes in the viewing environment.


title: Color

text: Colors vary in several different ways, including hue (shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet), saturation, brightness, and gloss. Some color words are derived from the name of an object of that color, such as "orange" or "salmon", while others are abstract, like "red".


title: Color

text: In the 1969 study "Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution", Brent Berlin and Paul Kay describe a pattern in naming "basic" colors (like "red" but not "red-orange" or "dark red" or "blood red", which are "shades" of red). All languages that have two "basic" color names distinguish dark/cool colors from bright/warm colors. The next colors to be distinguished are usually red and then yellow or green. All languages with six "basic" colors include black, white, red, green, blue, and yellow. The pattern holds up to a set of twelve: black, gray, white, pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, and azure (distinct from blue in Russian and Italian, but not English).


title: Color

text: Individual colors have a variety of cultural associations such as national colors (in general described in individual color articles and color symbolism). The field of color psychology attempts to identify the effects of color on human emotion and activity. Chromotherapy is a form of alternative medicine attributed to various Eastern traditions. Colors have different associations in different countries and cultures.


title: Color

text: Different colors have been demonstrated to have effects on cognition. For example, researchers at the University of Linz in Austria demonstrated that the color red significantly decreases cognitive functioning in men. The combination of the colors red and yellow together can induce hunger, which has been capitalized on by a number of chain restaurants.


title: Color

text: Color plays a role in memory development too. A photograph that is in black and white is slightly less memorable than one in color. Studies also show that wearing bright colors makes you more memorable to people you meet.


title: Color

text: Color reproduction is the science of creating colors for the human eye that faithfully represent the desired color. It focuses on how to construct a spectrum of wavelengths that will best evoke a certain color in an observer. Most colors are not spectral colors, meaning they are mixtures of various wavelengths of light. However, these non-spectral colors are often described by their dominant wavelength, which identifies the single wavelength of light that produces a sensation most similar to the non-spectral color. Dominant wavelength is roughly akin to hue.


title: Color

text: There are many color perceptions that by definition cannot be pure spectral colors due to desaturation or because they are purples (mixtures of red and violet light, from opposite ends of the spectrum). Some examples of necessarily non-spectral colors are the achromatic colors (black, gray, and white) and colors such as pink, tan, and magenta.


title: Color

text: Two different light spectra that have the same effect on the three color receptors in the human eye will be perceived as the same color. They are metamers of that color. This is exemplified by the white light emitted by fluorescent lamps, which typically has a spectrum of a few narrow bands, while daylight has a continuous spectrum. The human eye cannot tell the difference between such light spectra just by looking into the light source, although the color rendering index of each light source may affect the color of objects illuminated by these metameric light sources.


title: Color

text: Similarly, most human color perceptions can be generated by a mixture of three colors called "primaries". This is used to reproduce color scenes in photography, printing, television, and other media. There are a number of methods or color spaces for specifying a color in terms of three particular primary colors. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages depending on the particular application.


title: Color

text: No mixture of colors, however, can produce a response truly identical to that of a spectral color, although one can get close, especially for the longer wavelengths, where the CIE 1931 color space chromaticity diagram has a nearly straight edge. For example, mixing green light (530 nm) and blue light (460 nm) produces cyan light that is slightly desaturated, because response of the red color receptor would be greater to the green and blue light in the mixture than it would be to a pure cyan light at 485 nm that has the same intensity as the mixture of blue and green.


title: Color

text: Because of this, and because the "primaries" in color printing systems generally are not pure themselves, the colors reproduced are never perfectly saturated spectral colors, and so spectral colors cannot be matched exactly. However, natural scenes rarely contain fully saturated colors, thus such scenes can usually be approximated well by these systems. The range of colors that can be reproduced with a given color reproduction system is called the gamut. The CIE chromaticity diagram can be used to describe the gamut.


title: Color

text: Another problem with color reproduction systems is connected with the initial measurement of color, or colorimetry. The characteristics of the color sensors in measurement devices (e.g. cameras, scanners) are often very far from the characteristics of the receptors in the human eye.


title: Color

text: A color reproduction system "tuned" to a human with normal color vision may give very inaccurate results for other observers, according to color vision deviations to the standard observer.


title: Color

text: The different color response of different devices can be problematic if not properly managed. For color information stored and transferred in digital form, color management techniques, such as those based on ICC profiles, can help to avoid distortions of the reproduced colors. Color management does not circumvent the gamut limitations of particular output devices, but can assist in finding good mapping of input colors into the gamut that can be reproduced.


title: Color

text: Additive color is light created by mixing together light of two or more different colors. Red, green, and blue are the additive primary colors normally used in additive color systems such as projectors and computer terminals.


title: Color

text: Subtractive coloring uses dyes, inks, pigments, or filters to absorb some wavelengths of light and not others. The color that a surface displays comes from the parts of the visible spectrum that are not absorbed and therefore remain visible. Without pigments or dye, fabric fibers, paint base and paper are usually made of particles that scatter white light (all colors) well in all directions. When a pigment or ink is added, wavelengths are absorbed or "subtracted" from white light, so light of another color reaches the eye.


title: Color

text: If the light is not a pure white source (the case of nearly all forms of artificial lighting), the resulting spectrum will appear a slightly different color. Red paint, viewed under blue light, may appear black. Red paint is red because it scatters only the red components of the spectrum. If red paint is illuminated by blue light, it will be absorbed by the red paint, creating the appearance of a black object.


title: Color

text: Structural colors are colors caused by interference effects rather than by pigments. Color effects are produced when a material is scored with fine parallel lines, formed of one or more parallel thin layers, or otherwise composed of microstructures on the scale of the color's wavelength. If the microstructures are spaced randomly, light of shorter wavelengths will be scattered preferentially to produce Tyndall effect colors: the blue of the sky (Rayleigh scattering, caused by structures much smaller than the wavelength of light, in this case, air molecules), the luster of opals, and the blue of human irises. If the microstructures are aligned in arrays, for example, the array of pits in a CD, they behave as a diffraction grating: the grating reflects different wavelengths in different directions due to interference phenomena, separating mixed "white" light into light of different wavelengths. If the structure is one or more thin layers then it will reflect some wavelengths and transmit others, depending on the layers' thickness.


title: Color

text: Structural color is studied in the field of thin-film optics. The most ordered or the most changeable structural colors are iridescent. Structural color is responsible for the blues and greens of the feathers of many birds (the blue jay, for example), as well as certain butterfly wings and beetle shells. Variations in the pattern's spacing often give rise to an iridescent effect, as seen in peacock feathers, soap bubbles, films of oil, and mother of pearl, because the reflected color depends upon the viewing angle. Numerous scientists have carried out research in butterfly wings and beetle shells, including Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke. Since 1942, electron micrography has been used, advancing the development of products that exploit structural color, such as "photonic" cosmetics.


title: Lisa Niemi

text: Lisa Niemi Swayze (born May 26, 1956) is an American writer, dancer, choreographer, actress, and director. She is the widow of actor and dancer Patrick Swayze.


title: Lisa Niemi

text: Lisa Anne Haapaniemi was born in Houston, Texas, the only daughter of six children born to Edmond, a Red Cross worker, and Karin Haapaniemi, a registered nurse. Niemi has said her father and her mother's professions were her inspiration and encouragement. She is of Finnish ancestry. She graduated from the Houston Ballet Dance Company in 1974. She shortened her surname from Haapaniemi to Niemi in 1977 for her theatre stage name. The Finnish family name translates to "Aspen peninsula".


title: Lisa Niemi

text: Lisa Niemi Swayze wrote, directed and starred in the 2003 film "One Last Dance" alongside her husband. "One Last Dance" was based on "Without a Word", a successful play written 18 years before which had won six Drama Critics Awards. Niemi said, "It was basically based on our experiences as concert dancers in New York, and it affected people a lot."


title: Lisa Niemi

text: She co-starred in "Steel Dawn" (1987) with Swayze and co-starred in "Beat Angel" (2004). Niemi also appeared in "Letters from a Killer", "Next of Kin", "Younger and Younger", "Live! From Death Row", "She's Having a Baby" and "Slam Dance". Niemi directed "Dance", a 1990 film.


title: Lisa Niemi

text: Niemi co-starred as Carla Frost in 23 episodes of the TV series "Super Force" from 1990 to 1991. She once again directed her husband, this time in an episode of his TV series "The Beast". The episode, titled "No Turning Back", aired on April 9, 2009. It was his last performance before his death.


title: Lisa Niemi

text: On September 29, 2009, Niemi Swayze released a memoir, "The Time of My Life", which became a New York Times Best Seller. The book was co-written by Patrick Swayze, and it was finished shortly before his death. On January 2, 2012, Niemi Swayze released another memoir, "Worth Fighting For", which also became a New York Times Best Seller.


title: Lisa Niemi

text: At age 14, at the Houston Ballet Dance Company, Niemi met the owner and director's son, Patrick Swayze; the two eventually got married when she was 19 years old. Niemi and Swayze were married on June 12, 1975, and remained married until Swayze's death from pancreatic cancer on September 14, 2009. Shortly after they wed, the couple moved to New York City to pursue their dance careers until the late 1970s, when they relocated to Los Angeles, California. In addition to dancing and filmmaking, they ran a construction business and raised horses together. The Swayzes had no children.


title: Lisa Niemi

text: In 1985, Lisa Swayze began living on a homestead near the Angeles National Forest, along with a "menagerie of dogs, prized Arabian horses and rodeo cattle". She also had a ranch in New Mexico.


title: Lisa Niemi

text: She is a licensed pilot and flew Swayze to his cancer treatments prior to his death. While filming "One Last Dance" in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Niemi was made an honorary citizen of the city. After her husband's death, she became the Chief Ambassador of Hope for Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. In July 2011, she was made a Dame of the Royal Order of Francis I of the Two Sicilies.


title: Lisa Niemi

text: On December 28, 2013, it was announced that she was engaged to Albert DePrisco, a jeweler. On May 25, 2014, the couple were married.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60, officially the Machine Gun, Caliber 7.62 mm, M60, is a family of American general-purpose machine guns firing 7.62×51mm NATO cartridges from a disintegrating belt of M13 links. There are several types of ammunition approved for use in the M60, including ball, tracer, and armor-piercing rounds.


title: M60 machine gun

text: It was adopted in 1957 and issued to units beginning in 1959. It has served with every branch of the U.S. military and still serves with the armed forces of other states. Its manufacture and continued upgrade for military and commercial purchase continues into the 21st century, although it has been replaced or supplemented in most roles by other designs, most notably the M240 machine gun in U.S. service.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60 is a belt-fed machine gun that fires the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge (similar to .308 Winchester), which is commonly used in larger rifles, such as the M14. It is generally used as a crew-served weapon and operated by a team of two or three individuals. The team consists of the gunner, the assistant gunner (AG), and the ammunition bearer. The gun's weight and the amount of ammunition it can consume when fired make it difficult for a single soldier to carry and operate. The gunner carries the weapon and, depending on his strength and stamina, anywhere from 200 to 1,000 rounds of ammunition. The assistant carries a spare barrel and extra ammunition, and reloads and spots targets for the gunner. The ammunition bearer carries additional ammunition and the tripod with associated traversing and elevation mechanism, if issued, and fetches more ammunition as needed during firing.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60 can be accurately fired at short ranges from the shoulder thanks to its design. This was an initial requirement for the design and a hold-over in concept from the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle. It may also be fired from the integral bipod, M122 tripod, and some other mounts.


title: M60 machine gun

text: M60 ammunition comes in a cardboard box containing a cloth bandolier of 100 pre-linked rounds. The M60 uses the M13 ammunition link, a change from the older M1 link system with which it was not compatible. The cloth bandolier is reinforced to allow it to be hung from the current version of the feed tray. Historically, units in Vietnam used B3A cans from C-rations packs locked into the ammunition box attachment system to roll the ammunition belts over for a straighter and smoother feed to the loading port to enhance reliability of feed. The later models changed the ammunition box attachment point and made this adaptation unnecessary.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60 has been adopted by various military agencies around the world. It also has been updated and modernized throughout the years to meet modern military requirements.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60 machine gun began development in the late 1940s as a program for a new, lighter 7.62 mm machine gun. It was partly derived from German guns of World War II (most notably the FG 42 and the MG 42), but it contained American innovations as well. Early prototypes, notably the T52 and T161 bore a close resemblance to both the M1941 Johnson machine gun and the FG 42. The final evaluation version was designated the T161E3. It was intended to replace the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle and M1919A6 Browning machine gun in the squad automatic weapon role, and in the medium machine gun role. One of the weapons tested against it during its procurement process was the FN MAG.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The U.S. Army officially adopted the T161E3 as the M60 in 1957. The decision to adopt the M60 instead of foreign designs, like modified versions of the proven German MG 42 or the still-unproven FN MAG, was largely due to strict Congressional restrictions requiring preference be given to the designs of United States arms manufacturers (even if a superior design was available from foreign sources) primarily out of desire to avoid paying licensing fees, but also out of a strong bias in favor of domestic products.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60 later served in the Vietnam War as a squad automatic weapon with many United States units. Every soldier in the rifle squad would carry an additional 200 linked rounds of ammunition for the M60, a spare barrel, or both. The up-gunned M113 armored personnel carrier ACAV added two M60 gunners beside the main .50 caliber machine gun, and the Patrol Boat, River had one in addition to two .50 cal mounts.


title: M60 machine gun

text: During the Vietnam War, the M60 received the nickname "The Pig" due to its bulky size and appetite for ammunition. Vietnam's tropical climate harshly affected weapons, and the M60 was no exception. Its light weight led to it being easily damaged and critical parts like the bolt and operating rod wore out quickly. Even so, soldiers appreciated the gun's handling, mechanical simplicity, and effective operation from a variety of firing positions. United States Navy SEALs used M60s with shorter barrels and no front sights to reduce weight. Some SEALs had feed chutes from backpacks to have a belt of hundreds of rounds ready to fire without needing to reload.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The Vietnam War is replete with stories that demonstrate the effectiveness of the M60 in combat. Medal of Honor recipient Lance Corporal Richard Pittman, a Marine with 1/5 (1st Battalion/5th Marine Regiment), used the M60 to successfully engage superior elements of the 324th North Vietnamese Army (NVA) Division in 1966. M60 gunner Pittman fought his way up the trail of his platoon as the fight commenced. After defeating two enemy machine gun positions and suppressing enemies in his immediate vicinity, Pittman advanced another 50 m into the face of more attacking NVA. After the fight, two-thirds of Pittman's platoon were dead or wounded. In 1968, Sergeant Pittman was presented with the Medal of Honor by President Lyndon B. Johnson.


title: M60 machine gun

text: In the 1980s, the M60 was partially replaced by the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon within Army infantry squads. Their new doctrine with the weapon reduced the general-purpose machine gun role in favor of portability and a greater volume of fire. However, many disliked the M249, as it was lacking in reliability and accuracy. In firefights the larger 7.62 mm round was preferred. In defensive roles, the M60 has better accuracy and a longer range to keep the enemy at bay. The M60 was retained in the vehicle-mounted and the general-purpose roles due to its greater power and range than the 5.56 mm M249.


title: M60 machine gun

text: In United States Marine Corps service, concerns about the M60's reliability, weight, and the high round counts of many M60s in service prompted the adoption of the M60E3 to replace most original M60s in infantry units. The M60E3 was five pounds lighter than the original M60. It included a forward pistol grip and had the bipod mounted to the receiver rather than the barrel. The weapon still was not durable and its performance was reduced.


title: M60 machine gun

text: In the early 1990s, Saco Defense addressed Navy Special Warfare requirements to develop a retrofit parts package for the machine gun. Called the M60E4, it was more reliable and durable than the M60E3, had a "duckbill" flash suppressor, and a shorter and thicker positive lock gas cylinder extension. NAVSPECWAR units began to receive it in late 1994, when it was designated the Mk 43 Mod 0.


title: M60 machine gun

text: In January 1994, the U.S. Army began the Medium Machine Gun Upgrade Kit program. The only two competitors were M60 and M240 versions. Saco offered an "enhanced" M60E3 with improved parts, and FN offered the M240 variant of its MAG; both weapons were upgrade kits of weapons already in service. Eighteen guns of each were tested until December 1995. There were two main performance areas: mean rounds between stoppages (MRBS-jams) and mean rounds between failures (MRBF-parts breaking). 50,000 rounds were fired through both guns. The M240 had 2,962 MRBS and 6,442 MRBF, compared to the M60's 846 MRBS and 1,669 MRBF. As a result, the M240 was declared the winner and accepted into infantry service. Although the M60 was lighter, had better balance, was more controllable, and there were many in the inventory, it did not work reliably enough.


title: M60 machine gun

text: Starting with Ranger battalions, the U.S. Army began adopting and modifying M240 variants to replace their remaining M60s in the early 1990s.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60, though largely phased out, continued to be used in the 21st century by U.S. Navy SEALs. It was the main 7.62 mm machine gun used by some U.S. special operations forces to the late 1990s. As of 2005 it was used by the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, and some reserve units.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60 is a gas-operated, air-cooled, belt-fed, automatic machine gun that fires from the open-bolt position and is chambered in 7.62×51mm NATO. It has a cyclic rate of fire of around 500–650 rounds per minute (RPM). Ammunition is usually fed into the weapon from a 100 or 250-round disintegrating, metallic split-link belt.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The design drew on many common concepts in firearms manufacture of the period, such as stamped sheet metal construction, belt feed (a modified mechanism for belt feed from the MG 42 with a single pawl), quick barrel replacement, a pistol grip and stock, and a semi bullpup design similar to the FG 42 (much of the action occupies the weapon's stock). The M60's operating system of an operating rod turning a rotating bolt was inspired by the FG 42, which was based on the much earlier Lewis Gun. The M60 was even constructed with a secondary assisting firing pin spring that is used in the FG 42 in semi-automatic mode even though it is actually unnecessary in the M60, which operates only in full automatic mode. The M60's gas operation is unique, and drew on technical advances of the period, particularly the White "gas expansion and cutoff" principle also exploited by the M14 rifle. The M60's gas system was simpler than other gas systems and easier to clean.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60 was designed for mass production, like the MG 42 it was based on. While the M1919 required much machining for its large, recoil-operated internal mechanisms, the M60's stamped sheet receiver had a gas-operated, carrier-cammed bolt mechanism; the same type of mechanism was used on the Lewis machine gun. The straight-line layout allowed the operating rod and buffer to run directly back into the buttstock and reduce the overall length of the weapon.


title: M60 machine gun

text: As with all such weapons, it can be fired from the shoulder, hip, or underarm position. However, to achieve the maximum effective range, it is recommended that a bipod-steadied position or a tripod-mounted position be used, and the gun fired in bursts of 3–5 rounds. The weapon is heavy and difficult to aim when firing without support, though the weight helps reduce the felt recoil. The large grip also allowed the weapon to be conveniently carried at the hip. The gun can be stripped using a live round of ammunition as a tool.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60 is often used with its own integrated bipod or with the M122 tripod. The M60 is considered effective up to 1,100 meters when firing at an area target and mounted on a tripod; up to 800 meters when firing at an area target using the integral bipod; up to 600 meters when firing at a point target; and up to 200 meters when firing at a moving point target. United States Marine Corps doctrine holds that the M60 and other weapons in its class are capable of suppressive fire on area targets out to 1,500 meters if the gunner is sufficiently skilled.


title: M60 machine gun

text: Originally, an experimental M91 tripod was developed for the M60, but an updated M2 tripod design, which became the M122, was selected over it. The M122 was replaced in the 2000s (decade) by a new mount, in time for the M60 to also be used with it.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60 family of weapons are capable of firing standard NATO rounds of the appropriate caliber. Most common in U.S. use are M61 armor-piercing, M62 tracer, and M80 Ball. For training purposes, M63 Dummy and M82 blanks are used. Newer tungsten-cored M993 Armor-piercing rounds may also be fired in the M60, though they did not enter the inventory until after the M60 was withdrawn from service in active-duty units.


title: M60 machine gun

text: When firing blanks, the M13 or M13A1 blank-firing adaptor (BFA) is necessary in order to produce enough gas pressure to cycle the weapon with blanks. All ammunition must be fixed in a NATO standard M13 disintegrating metallic split-link belt to feed into the weapon.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The standard combat ammunition mix for the M60 consists of sequences of four ball (M80) cartridges and one tracer (M62) in belts of 100 rounds. The four-to-one ratio theoretically allows the gunner to accurately "walk" the fire into the enemy. Tracer bullets do not fly quite the same trajectory as ball, and the weapon's sights must be used for accurate fire—particularly at ranges in excess of 800 meters, where 7.62×51mm NATO tracer bullets usually burn out and are no longer visible. This is a problem for all weapons in this caliber using this tracer round.


title: M60 machine gun

text: At the time of the M60's development, other designs, like the Belgian FN MAG and the German Rheinmetall MG 3 (MG42 derivative), had yet to enter production. In Army tests, the M60 proved fairly effective, but in the jungles of Southeast Asia, it displayed a number of troubling issues.


title: M60 machine gun

text: A common complaint was the weapon's weight; though the M60 was among the lightest 7.62 mm machine guns of the era, the weapon was poorly balanced and thus awkward to carry for long periods. The single most common complaint was that the M60 was unreliable in extreme conditions and prone to jamming and other malfunctions during heavy firing, especially when it was dirty. Sometimes spent casings would fail to extract and stay stuck inside the chamber, forcing a barrel change before it could be fired again.


title: M60 machine gun

text: Due to the rotating bolt design, the M60 required stoning of burrs or roughness on the lugs, which could increase headspace, occasionally causing cartridge case stretching and head separation. This required replacement of the bolt. The M60 sometimes (depending on the version) tore off the rims from fired cartridge cases during the extraction cycle, causing a jam that required a cleaning rod to be rammed down the barrel to extract the torn cartridge, a potentially deadly procedure while under fire in combat. The barrel latch mechanism (a swinging lever) could catch on the gunner's equipment and accidentally unlatch, causing the barrel to fall out of the gun. On new M60s, the lever was replaced with a push button mechanism that was less likely to be accidentally released, but few of the older M60s were modified due to expense, with many of the extant weapons still bearing them.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The grip/trigger housing assembly is held in place with a rather fragile leaf spring clip instead of the captive pins used in other designs. The spring clip has been known to be prone to breakage since the first trials at Aberdeen Proving Ground. Duct tape and cable ties have been seen on M60s in the field, placed there by their crews in case the spring clip breaks. The sear in the trigger mechanism gained a reputation for wearing down, and a malfunction could cause the gun to "run away". A second sear notch was eventually added to the operating rod to reduce the chance of this happening.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The nomenclature "M60" describes either the first adopted variant or, generically, the family of weapons were derived from it. Major variations include the M60E1 (an improved variant that did not enter production), the M60E2 (a variant designed to be used from fixed mounts as a co-axial for armored vehicles or in helicopter armament systems), the M60E3 (a lightweight variant) and the M60E4 (another improved variant, designated as the Mk 43 Mod 0 by the U.S. Navy).


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60C was adopted for use on fixed mounts on aircraft. It was characterized by the use of an electric solenoid to operate the trigger and a hydraulic system to charge the weapon. The M60D differed from the base model by employing spade grips, a different sighting system, and lacking a forearm. It was typically employed as a door gun on helicopters or as a pintle-mounted weapon as on the Type 88 K1 tank.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The initial variant was officially adopted by the U.S. Army in the late 1950s, though at this time it was only intended for the infantry. It was known as the T161 before it was adopted (specifically the T161E3), and was chosen over the competing T52 during testing in the 1950s. They both used a similar feed and were both gas-operated, but the T161 was easier to produce and its different internals performed better. The model that won the competition was the T161E3.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The model was type-classified in 1957, and entered production. It saw its first heavy use in the 1960s. The basic design has undergone some smaller changes, and has been produced by different manufacturers.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60E1 was the first major variant of the original M60. It did not go into full-scale production, though many of its features were included into the later E3 and E4 variants. Some of its features were also incorporated into the existing M60 production. This mainly changed how the gas cylinder, the barrel, and the bipod were connected; in the first iteration. The M60 and the M60E1 are two different versions. Opinions are varied on whether the M60E1 was officially adopted or not.


title: M60 machine gun

text: One of the more noticeable changes on the M60E1 is that the bipod attachment point was moved to the gas tube rather than the barrel (like on the later M60E3). It did not, however, have a forward pistol grip, as was added on the E3 variant.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60E2 is used on armored fighting vehicles, such as the M48A5, later M60 Patton versions and the K1 Type 88. It lacks many of the external components of the standard M60, including stock and grips. The M60E2 was electrically fired, but had a manual trigger as a backup, as well as a metal loop at the back for charging. The gas tube below the barrel was extended to the full length of the weapon to vent the gas outside the vehicle. This version achieved a mean time between failures of 1,669 during testing in the 1970s.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60E2 is used on the South Korea's K1 Type 88 tank as a co-axial weapon, along with an M60D on a pintle mount.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60B was a short-lived variant designed to be fired from helicopters, with limited deployment made in the 1960s and 1970s. It was not mounted, just held, and was soon replaced by the pintle-mounted M60D. The 'B' model differed most noticeably in that it had no bipod and featured a different rear stock than the regular model. It still had a pistol grip (as opposed to spade grips). The M60B's advantage over pintle-mounted variants was that it had a wider and much less restricted field of fire.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60C is a variant of the standard M60 for aircraft-mounting, such as in helicopter armament subsystems. It lacks things like the bipod, pistol grip, and iron sights. The main difference between the standard M60 and the "C" variant is the electronic control system and the hydraulic swivel system used. It could be fired from the cockpit by the pilot or co-pilot. It is an electronically controlled, hydraulic-powered, air-cooled, gas-operated, belt-fed weapon system. It used the M2, M6, and M16 armament subsystems and was mounted on the OH-13 Sioux, the OH-23 Raven, the UH-1B Huey, and comprised the standard fixed armament of the OV-10 Bronco. M60C production was on the order of several hundred. It was also used in the XM19 gun pod.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60D is a mounted variant of the standard M60. It can be mounted on boats, vehicles and as a pintle-mounted door gun in helicopters. When used in aircraft, it differs from the M60C in that it is not controlled by the pilot—rather, it is mounted in a door and operated by a member of the crew. Like the rest of the M60 family, it is an air-cooled, gas-operated, belt-fed weapon. Unlike other models, however, the M60D normally has spade grips and an aircraft ring-type sight or similar, as well as an improved ammunition feed system. A canvas bag is also affixed to the gun to capture ejected casings and links, preventing them from being sucked into the rotor blades or into an engine intake. The M60D was equipped on the UH-1B Huey (using the M23, XM29, M59, and the Sagami mounts), the CH-47 Chinook (using the M24 and M41 mounts) in both door and ramp locations, the ACH-47A "Guns-A-Go-Go" variant of the Chinook (using the XM32 and XM33 mounts), and on the UH-60 Black Hawk (using the M144 mount). The M60D is also used by the British on Royal Air Force Chinooks. In US service, the M60D has been primarily replaced by the M240H. The M60D is still manufactured by U.S. Ordnance and still used on the SH-60 Seahawk.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60E3 was fielded c. 1986 in an attempt to remedy problems with earlier versions of the M60 for infantry use. It is a lightweight, "improved" variant intended to reduce the load carried by the gunner. Unlike its predecessors, the M60E3 has several updated modern features. It has a bipod (attached to the receiver) for improved stability, ambidextrous safety, universal sling attachments, a carrying handle on the barrel, and a simplified gas system. However, these features also caused almost as many problems for the weapon as they fixed. There were different types of barrels used, but the lightweight barrel was not as safe for sustained fire at 200 rounds per minute as heavier types. However, some personnel claim to have witnessed successful prolonged firing of the weapon. The stellite superalloy barrel liner makes it possible, but the excessive heat generated by this process can quickly make the gun unusable. There were two main barrels, a lightweight barrel and another heavier type—the former for when lighter weight was desired, and the latter for situations where more sustained fire was required.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The reduced-weight components also reduced the durability of the weapon, making it more prone to rapid wear and parts breakage than the original. Most infantry units in the U.S. Army and Marine Corps have now switched over to the M240 as their general-purpose machine gun, which is more reliable (particularly when dirty) and seems to be well liked by the troops for its ruggedness, despite the fact that it weighs 27.6 lb (12.5 kg) compared to the standard M60 at 23.15 lb (10.5 kg).


title: M60 machine gun

text: U.S. Navy SEALs continued to use the "CAR-60" (M60E3) version due to its lighter weight and slower rate of fire, which allows a more effective duration of fire with allowable levels of ammunition carried.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The U.S. Air Force Security Forces received the M60E3 from 1988 to 1989. All USAF M60E3s were withdrawn from general issue by 1990, because it did not meet the vehicle mount requirements of the Cadillac Gage Ranger and due to overheating problems. The M60E3 did remain in the Air Force as weapons converted back to M60 configuration with the E3 X-stamped via locally installed kits issued from depot. The Air Force cut the barrel change times, sustained fire 100 rounds per minute change barrel every 10 minutes (M60) to five minutes (M60E3), and rapid fire 200 rounds per minute change barrel every five minutes to two minutes.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60E4 or Mk 43 is a 7.62×51mm NATO general-purpose machine gun. Evolved from the M60 series of machine guns, it has several improvements over the originals. The M60E4/Mk 43 series includes the Mod 0 and Mod 1 configurations.


title: M60 machine gun

text: It is the primary light machine gun used in some NATO countries and other U.S. Government export-approved countries. The Mk 43 machine gun currently is manufactured solely by U.S. Ordnance (USORD). USORD has produced it since 2000.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60E4/Mk 43 is one of the modernized variants in the generations of the old M60 family and incorporates a number of improvements over past the versions. Externally, it looks somewhat like the M60E3, but it has many internal changes and improvements that modernize the effectiveness and reliability of this weapon. In general it is a more reliable weapon than all previous M60s. Externally, it features a different forward grip, iron sights, butt stock and bipod. The M60E4/Mk 43 has higher pull for the belt, and is available in a variety of configurations. Older M60 models can be upgraded with a conversion kit manufactured by U.S. Ordnance to the M60E4/Mk 43. The M60E4/Mk 43 were primarily developed in the 1990s and have continued to be redeveloped in the 2000s (decade). Early Mk 43s had some distinct differences from the E4 (such as a duckbill flash suppressor), though by the 2000s these distinctions seemed to have ended.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The Navy has designated this weapon as the Mk 43 Mod 0. It was developed for the U.S. Navy SEALs to replace their existing stock of M60E3 machine guns fitted with shorter "assault barrels". These weapons are identical to standard M60E4s, with the exception of the barrel length, and can be used either as suppressive fire or direct fire weapons. The Mk 43 Mod 1 adds significantly more rail attachment points to the weapon's receiver cover and handguard.


title: M60 machine gun

text: U.S. Ordnance's website states in their FAQ, as of 2005, that the "M60E4 and the Mk 43 are the same weapon system". The M60E4 and Mk 43 variants in the past were roughly similar, although they are part of the same family. While it might be fair to say that the Mk 43s are a type of M60E4, there are technical differences between any given M60E4 model. Early Mk 43s have certain differences over M60E4 from the same period, the most obvious being the duck-bill flash hider and different handguard. This difference is no longer seen on the current Mk 43s still manufactured by U.S. Ordnance.


title: M60 machine gun

text: In Army trials during the 1990s the M60E4 produced by Saco Defense was pitted against the M240E4 (then called) produced by FN for a new medium machine gun to be used by the infantry. The competition was to replace the decades-old M60s. The M240E4 won, and was then classified as the M240B. While the M240B had been more reliable in the tests, it was noted to be a heavier weapon than the M60E4.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60E4/Mk 43 is a modern update to the entire series, such that it is also available in many of the previous configurations, such as a co-axial weapon. Kits are offered to convert older models to the E4 standard.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60E4/Mk 43 is a gas-operated, disintegrating-link, belt-fed, air-cooled machine gun that fires from an open bolt. It is the newest, upgraded variant of the M60 Series machine guns. It fires a 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge, which offers accuracy, reliability, and stopping power. It fires at a cyclic rate of around 500 to 600 rounds per minute, with an effective distance of 1200 yards (1100 meters). The weapon's controllable, yet lethal, rate of fire allows for accurate firing in the standing, kneeling and prone positions.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60E4/Mk 43 is ambidextrous, and shares its parts with all previous M60 configurations, including vehicle mounts. The adjustable front sight allows for zeroing of the primary and spare barrel, the chrome and induction hardening lengthens service life, and the ammunition is now mounted on the receiver, preventing damage, and thereby feed failure. The machine gun's light weight—20 to 21 pounds (9 to 10 kilograms)—and compact design make it easy to carry long distances and maneuver in tight spaces. It also allows for the weapon to be fired from the shoulder accurately.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60E4/Mk 43 Mod 0, typically used as an infantry machine gun, features an injection-molded composite handguard. The weapon system's quick-change barrel is crucial for safety and efficiency, particularly when the operator is under fire. With the lightweight bipod mounted to the receiver, the barrel can be changed without removing the bipod.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60E4/Mk 43 Mod 1 has multiple M1913 rail mounting points for mounting optics, aiming lasers, and accessories for around-the-clock capability. It mounts directly or adapts to all standard NATO tripod and vehicle mounts.


title: M60 machine gun

text: Barrels are stellite lined for sustained fire and extended barrel life. They are available in short, long and heavy fluted configurations for use in various applications. All major components of the M60E4/Mk 43 directly interchange with other M60 configurations. U.S. Ordnance manufactures a conversion kit that upgrades older M60s to its M60E4/Mk 43 model.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The M60E6 is an improvement on the M60E4 and the latest M60 variant. It won against the HK121 in the Danish Army's GPMG replacement program to replace the M/62 in March 2014. The weight has been reduced to , lighter than the M/62. Its rate of fire of around 500–650 rounds per minute (RPM) is significantly less than the M/62's 1,200 RPM, but it allows for better control, greater accuracy, more conservation of ammunition, more versatile firing positions, and less risk of collateral damage from losing control while shooting. The M60E6 features a redesigned quick-change barrel assembly with an offset barrel handle, which is also used to carry the weapon and allows for the replacement of a hot barrel without using protective gloves. Changes to the rail system and bipod have been made, and a significant number of internal improvements have also increased reliability.


title: M60 machine gun

text: A number of semi-automatic only variants have been produced for the civilian market in the United States. The internals have been extensively modified to make it essentially impossible to convert them to fire in fully automatic. If the design is approved by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), they are treated as belt-fed semi-automatic rifles; however, individual state and local regulations still apply.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The U.S. Ordnance company is the current maker authorized by Saco to produce mil-spec M60s and M60 parts. The company had charged $8,000 for a new semi-automatic M60.


title: M60 machine gun

text: The Desert Ordnance company is a current maker of M60s and M60 parts. The company charges between $13,000–$14,000 for a new semi-automatic M60, depending on the model.


title: M60 machine gun

text: There are a variety of M60 models, some that have been upgraded to the current M60E4 configuration, on the market as well, but they are heavily regulated and restricted by the National Firearms Act, and they cost over $40,000, with some models, such as a Maremont/SACO upgraded to M60E6 configuration costing as much as $65,000.


title: Leslie Grace

text: Leslie Grace Martínez (born January 7, 1995) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. For her work as a singer she has received three Latin Grammy Award nominations. She starred as Nina Rosario in Jon M. Chu's film adaptation "In the Heights" (2021).


title: Leslie Grace

text: Grace was born to Dominican parents on January 7, 1995, in The Bronx, a borough of New York City. Her mother runs a hair salon in South Florida. She was raised in Davie, Florida and attended Indian Ridge Middle School and Western High School, where she participated in musicals, talent shows, and choral performances. Singing and dancing from a young age, Grace entertained them along with her five older siblings since she was two. She speaks English and Spanish.


title: Leslie Grace

text: She recorded and released an independent Christian music album in partnership with CD Baby while in middle school. Her mainstream debut came with "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow", a bilingual cover of the 1961 Shirelles hit. Her bachata-tinged rendition peaked at number one on both the "Billboard" Tropical Songs chart and "Billboard" Latin Airplay charts, making her the youngest female artist to do so. Her self-titled second studio album, "Leslie Grace" (2013), reached number four on the "Billboard" Latin Albums chart, and number three on the "Billboard" Tropical Albums chart.


title: Leslie Grace

text: Among her nominations are "Best Contemporary Tropical Album" at the 14th Annual Latin Grammy Awards (in which she sang along with the Zarkana cast of Cirque du Soleil), "Female Tropical Artist of the Year" and "Tropical Album of the Year" at the 26th Premio Lo Nuestro. In 2014 she also obtained nominations in the Billboard Awards in the categories of "New Artist of the Year" and "Hot Latin Songs, Artist of the Year, Female".


title: Leslie Grace

text: Among her tours abroad is her presentation on the Caribbean island of Curaçao at the North Sea Jazz Festival, and the tour of the United States with the musical director Rayner Marrero and several bachata musicians in 2013. She also performed on "Sábado Gigante" with Don Francisco, and at the Chile Telethon and at the closing of the same at the National Stadium of Chile, where she sang in front of approximately 60,000 people.


title: Leslie Grace

text: In mid-2016 she participated as captain of the Univision reality show "Va por ti" with Luis Coronel, Chiquis Rivera and the host Galilea Montijo. After releasing the single "Aire" with Maluma, they made a tour of 14 concerts through Mexico. In the same year she released the single "Nada de amor".


title: Leslie Grace

text: In January 2017 she collaborated with the duo Play-N-Skillz, Wisin and Frankie J in the reggaeton-style cover of Selena's song, "Si una vez". And in February of the same year she was nominated for the Premios Lo Nuestro in the category "Female Artist of the Year – Pop / Rock".


title: Leslie Grace

text: As of June 2015, Grace is the face of Colgate toothpaste and has signed a distribution deal with Sony Music Latin and a worldwide contract with Sony/ATV.


title: Leslie Grace

text: On April 12, 2018, her collaboration with Super Junior's "Lo Siento" was released on S.M. Entertainment's YouTube channel.


title: Leslie Grace

text: On April 11, 2019, it was announced that Grace would be starring as Nina Rosario in the 2021 film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony Award-winning musical "In the Heights". The film originally set for a 2020 release date was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was released the following summer in movie theatres and HBO Max simultaneously. The film received near universal acclaim with many citing it as one of the best films of the year. Grace received praise from critics including David Ehrlich from "IndieWire" who wrote that she "shined" in the role. K. Austin Collins of "Rolling Stone" wrote, "Its highest accomplishment is that it succeeds as the star vehicle Hollywood seemed to demand." On July 21, 2021, Grace was cast as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl in HBO Max's "Batgirl". In August 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery cancelled plans to release the film, which was nearing completion.


The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF; ) is a left-wing nationalist and communist political party in Russia that officially adheres to Marxist–Leninist philosophy. It is the second-largest political party in Russia after United Russia. The youth organisation of the party is the Leninist Young Communist League.


title: Communist Party of the Russian Federation

text: The CPRF can trace its origins to the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which was established in 1898 and the party split in 1903 into a Menshevik (minority) and Bolshevik (majority) faction; the latter, led by Vladimir Lenin, is the direct ancestor of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and is the party that seized power in the October Revolution of 1917. After the CPSU was banned in 1991 by then–Russian President Boris Yeltsin in the aftermath of the failed coup attempt, the CPRF was founded at the Second Extraordinary Congress of Russian Communists on 14 February 1993 as the successor organisation of the Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (CPRSFSR). It was the ruling party in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian Federal Assembly from 1998 to 1999.


text: The party's stated goal is to establish a new, modernized form of socialism in Russia. Immediate goals of the party include the nationalization of natural resources, agriculture and large industries within the framework of a mixed economy with predominate Socialist relations of production that allows for the growth of small and medium enterprises in the private/non-state sector.


text: The CPRF was founded on 14 February 1992 at the Second Extraordinary Congress of Russian Communists, where it declared itself to be the successor of the Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (CPRSFSR). It formed through the merger of successor groups to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), including Roy Medvedev's Socialist Party of the Working People (of left-socialist orientation), Alexei Prigarin's Union of Communists; and much of the membership of the Stalinist Russian Communist Workers Party (although party leader Viktor Anpilov rejected the new party). The CPRF quickly became the largest party in Russia, with 500,000 members soon after its founding, more than double all the other parties membership combined.


text: Gennady Zyuganov, a co-founder of the party along with senior former Soviet politicians Yegor Ligachev, Anatoly Lukyanov, Andrew Konstant and others, was elected to be party leader at the Second Extraordinary Congress. Zyuganov had been a harsh critic of Alexander Yakovlev, the so-called "godfather of glasnost", on the CPSU Central Committee. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, he became active in the Russian "national-patriotic" movement, being the chairman of the National Salvation Front (some authors call him a nationalist).


text: Following the CPRF's success in the 1995 legislative election, it emerged as the primary opposition to incumbent President Boris Yeltsin for the 1996 presidential election, whose approval rating was in single digits. In order to oppose Yeltsin, Zyuganov organised a "popular-patriotic bloc" of nationalist organisations to support his candidacy. After the election—which Yeltsin won with 54% of the vote—on 7 August 1996 the coalition supporting Zyuganov was transformed into an official organisation, the People's Patriotic Union of Russia (NPSR), consisting of more than 30 left-wing and nationalist organisations, including the Russian All-People's Union, led by Sergey Baburin. Zyuganov was its chairman. It went on to support Zyuganov in the 2000 presidential election. The NPSR was meant to form the basis of a two-party system, with the NPSR opposing the ruling "party of power".


text: The party suffered a sharp decline in the 2003 legislative election, going from 113 seats to 52. Zyuganov called the 2003 elections a "revolting spectacle" and accused the Kremlin of setting up a "Potemkin party", Rodina, to steal its votes. The CPRF was endorsed by Sergey Baburin's People's Union for the 2007 Russian parliamentary elections.


text: In the 2012 presidential election, Zyuganov denounced election irregularities in the 2011 legislative election, but he also expressed his opposition to the organisers of the mass demonstrations of December 2011, which he viewed as orchestrated by ultra-liberals exploiting unrest. The party played only a minor role as a catalyst in the protests. Party rallies on 18 December 2011 in protest of election irregularities in Moscow and Saint Petersburg were attended by only a few thousand, mostly elderly, party supporters.


text: In 2014, the party called for Russia to formally recognise the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic.


text: In 2021, the party's headquarters were raided by Russian authorities and a party official was barred from entering his office in the State Duma after it refused to accept the results of an online parliamentary election vote and attempting to file a lawsuit against the results.


text: Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the CPRF published a statement in support of the invasion and accused NATO of planning "to enslave Ukraine" and thus creating "critical threats to the security of Russia". It called for the "demilitarization and denazification" of Ukraine. The party framed the conflict as that between the Ukrainian Banderites and fascists, who have been perpetrating genocide against Russian speakers, and liberating Russian forces. The CPRF also accused the United States and NATO of deploying European fascist sympathizers and Middle Eastern terrorists to Ukraine to fight the Russian army. Three members of CPRF's Duma caucus, Vyacheslav Markhaev, Mykhailo Matveev, and Oleg Smolin, have expressed opposition to the war thus far.


text: Some younger members of the CPRF spoke publicly against the war in Ukraine, condemning it as "imperialist" and contrary to Marxist-Leninist principles.


text: As a result of the party's actions of supporting the invasion of Ukraine, 54 of the 57 CPRF lawmakers, including Zyuganov, have been sanctioned by the United States Department of Treasury, HM Treasury of the United Kingdom, Global Affairs Canada, Japan, Australia and the European Commission.


text: In July 2022, CPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov allowed the party to propose a merger with the left-conservative party A Just Russia — For Truth, but only if the new party adopted the communist program. The day before, the leader of the A Just Russia Sergey Mironov said that he "does not see any obstacles to the creation in Russia of a large coalition of left-wing patriotic forces".


text: The party's current programme was adapted in 2008, where the CPRF declared that it is the only political organisation that consistently upholds the rights of the workers and national interests. According to the programme, the strategic goal of the party is to build in Russia a "renewed socialism, Socialism of the 21st century". The program of the Communist Party declared that the party is guided by Marxism–Leninism, based on the experience and achievements of domestic and world science and culture. According to the party, there comes a "confrontation between the New World Order and the Russian people with its thousand-year history, and with its qualities", "communality and great power, deep faith, undying altruism and decisive rejection of lures mercantile bourgeois liberal-democratic paradise".


text: According to its program, the CPRF considers it necessary to reform the country in three phases. In the first phase, it is needed to achieve workers' power through representation by a coalition led by the CPRF. Achieving this goal will help eliminate the devastation from the standpoint of the party, the consequences conducted in the past decade of reforms, in particular by the nationalisation of property privatised in the 1990s. However, in this case small producers will remain and moreover will be organised to protect them from robbery by "big business, bureaucrats, and mafia groups". It is planned to reform the management of enterprises through the creation of councils at various levels. The party also plans to transform Russia into a Soviet republic. In the second stage, the role of councils and trade unions will increase even more. A gradual transition in the economy will be made to a socialist form of economic activity, but a small private equity is still retained. Finally, the third phase is to build socialism.


text: The First Secretary Gennady Zyuganov also expressed that they should learn from China's successful example and build Russian socialism. He also encouraged all party members to read "Selected works of Deng Xiaoping". He said during his visit to China in 2008: "Had we learned from the success of China earlier, the Soviet Union would not have dissolved".


text: The party is in favour of cooperation with the Russian Orthodox Church. According to the words of Zyuganov, the CPRF is a party of scientific, but not militant atheism. Propaganda of any religion is banned inside the party. The CPRF celebrates the rule of Joseph Stalin. Zyuganov and the party support social conservatism and voted in favor of the ban on the "promotion of non-traditional sexual relations to minors", commonly known as the Russian gay propaganda law. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine of 2022, the party has taken a pro-war stance. The party leader, Gennady Zyuganov, called in the Duma for a general mobilization.


text: The CPRF is legally registered in Russia. In organisational terms, it largely mirrors the CPSU, with the party being led by a Central Committee with a commitment to democratic centralism. It has regional offices in 81 federal subjects. Each regional office is controlled by the local (oblast, city, etc.) committee, headed by the First Secretary. The headquarters of the party is in Moscow. The Leninist Komsomol of the Russian Federation is the youth organisation of the party.


text: In 1993, the party founded the Union of Communist Parties – Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Since 2001, the organisation has been led by Gennady Zyuganov and it became part of the Central Committee.


text: The party has friendly relations with the Party of the European Left, but it is not a member of it. The party also has friendly relations with the Chinese Communist Party.


text: On 24 March 2017, the party sent a delegation to North Korea and signed a "protocol on cooperation" with the Workers' Party of Korea. During the visit, a stone was placed in the Juche Tower.


text: In October 2017 the party hosted the 19th International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties in the city of Saint Petersburg, marking the centenary of the October Revolution, with an attendance of over 100 parties from around the globe.


text: Left-wing nationalist newspaper "Sovetskaya Rossiya" has also friendly ties with the Communist Party, but is not officially affiliated with it.


text: Ultra-nationalist newspaper "Zavtra" used to support the Communist Party, but in 2005 it switched its support to Rodina.


text: According to the financial report of the CPRF, in 2006 the party received ₽127,453,237 rubles (3,998,835 US$):


text: On 19 October 2008, the leader of the party Gennady Zyuganov appealed to the citizens of Russia to financially support the party to implement its policy goals.


text: The CPRF is strong in large cities and major industrial and scientific centers ("naukograds") as well as in the small towns and cities around Moscow. One of the few polling stations that gave a success to the CPRF during the 2007 Russian legislative election was at Moscow State University. The CPRF is also strong in the far east of Russia, in Siberia, and the Ural.


text: In all presidential elections that have been held in the Russian Federation, the CRPF's candidate has finished second. In 2012, several opposition politicians, including Boris Nemtsov, posited that Dmitry Medvedev admitted to them that Zyuganov would actually have won the 1996 Russian presidential election if not for fraud in favor of Boris Yeltsin. According to the official results, Zyuganov received 17.18% of the votes in the 2012 Russian presidential election. According to independent observers, there was large-scale fraud in favor of Vladimir Putin. Zyuganov called the election "one of thieves, and absolutely dishonest and unworthy".


text: In February 2005, the CPRF defeated the ruling pro-Kremlin party United Russia in elections to the regional legislature of Nenets Autonomous Okrug, obtaining 27% of the popular vote.


text: In the Moscow Duma election held on 4 December 2005, the party won 16.75% and 4 seats, the best ever result for the CPRF in Moscow. In the opinion of some observers, the absence of the Rodina party contributed to the Communists' success.


text: On 11 March 2007, elections took place for 14 regional and local legislatures. The CPRF performed very well and increased its votes in most of the territories; it came second in Oryol Oblast (23.78%), Omsk Oblast (22.58%), Pskov Oblast (19.21%) and Samara Oblast (18.87%), Moscow Oblast (18.80%), Murmansk Oblast (17.51%) and Tomsk Oblast (13.37%). These results testify that the CPRF is the most significant opposition party in Russia.


text: On 21 May 2007, the CPRF obtained an important success in the Volgograd's mayoral election. Communist candidate Roman Grebennikov won election as mayor with 32.47% of the vote and became the youngest mayor of a regional capital. In 2008, Roman Grebennikov switched his allegiance to United Russia, angering many Communists who accused him of using the CPRF as a tool to become elected.


text: On 7 April 2011, the CPRF candidate Ilya Potapov won the mayoral election in the town of Berdsk with a landslide victory over the United Russia candidates.


text: In 2015 gubernatorial elections, party's nominee Sergey Levchenko won the gubernatorial election in Irkutsk Oblast.


text: In the 2018 gubernatorial elections, Communist Party candidates Andrey Klychkov and Valentin Konovalov won the gubernatorial elections in the Oryol Oblast and Khakassia, respectively. In addition, in the election in Primorsky Krai, the party's candidate Andrey Ishchenko could pass in the second round of election in which lost, by official results. The result of those elections was declared invalid due to a large number of violations in connection with which recall election were scheduled for December 2018, but the Communist Party decided not to nominate its candidate for the new election.


text: In the 2018 elections to the regional parliaments, the Communist Party took first place in the voting on party lists in three regions. However, in two regions, United Russia still managed to get a relative majority in regional parliaments at the expense of deputies-single-mandate holders. Nevertheless, in Irkutsk Oblast, the party received a relative majority and is the largest faction in the Legislative Assembly.


text: Marxist theoretician Boris Kagarlitsky wrote in 2001: "It is enough to recall that within the Communist movement itself, Zyuganov's party was at first neither the sole organisation, nor the largest. Bit by bit, however, all other Communist organisations were forced out of political life. This occurred not because the organisations in question were weak, but because it was the CPRF that had received the Kremlin's official approval as the sole recognised opposition". Andrei Brezhnev, grandson of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, has criticised the CPRF's Zyuganov's rapprochement with the Russian Orthodox Church.


title: Black mamba

text: The black mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis) is a species of highly venomous snake belonging to the family Elapidae. It is native to parts of sub-Saharan Africa. First formally described by Albert Günther in 1864, it is the second-longest venomous snake after the king cobra; mature specimens generally exceed and commonly grow to . Specimens of have been reported. Its skin colour varies from grey to dark brown. Juvenile black mambas tend to be paler than adults and darken with age.


title: Black mamba

text: The species is both terrestrial (ground-living) and arboreal (tree-living); it inhabits savannah, woodland, rocky slopes and in some regions, dense forest. It is diurnal and is known to prey on birds and small mammals. Over suitable surfaces, it can move at speeds up to for short distances. Adult black mambas have few natural predators.


title: Black mamba

text: In a threat display, the black mamba usually opens its inky-black mouth, spreads its narrow neck-flap and sometimes hisses. It is capable of striking at considerable range and may deliver a series of bites in rapid succession. Its venom is primarily composed of neurotoxins that often induce symptoms within ten minutes, and is frequently fatal unless antivenom is administered. Despite its reputation as a formidable and highly aggressive species, the black mamba attacks humans only if it is threatened or cornered. It is rated as least concern on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species.


title: Black mamba

text: The first formal description of the black mamba was made in 1864 by German-born British zoologist Albert Günther. A single specimen was one of many species of snake collected by John Kirk, a naturalist who accompanied David Livingstone on the 1858–1864 Second Zambesi expedition. This specimen is the holotype and is housed in the Natural History Museum, London. The generic name of the species is derived from the Ancient Greek words "dendron" ("δένδρον"), "tree", and "aspis" ("ἀσπίς") "asp", and the specific epithet "polylepis" is derived from the Ancient Greek "poly" ("πολύ") meaning "many" and "lepis" ("λεπίς") meaning "scale". The term "mamba" is derived from the Zulu word ""imamba"". In Tanzania, a local Ngindo name is "ndemalunyayo" ("grass-cutter") because it supposedly clips grass.


title: Black mamba

text: In 1873, German naturalist Wilhelm Peters described "Dendraspis Antinorii" from a specimen in the museum of Genoa that had been collected by Italian explorer Orazio Antinori in what is now northern Eritrea. This was subsequently regarded as a subspecies and is no longer held to be distinct. In 1896, Belgian-British zoologist George Albert Boulenger combined the species "Dendroaspis polylepis" as a whole with the eastern green mamba ("Dendroaspis angusticeps"), a lumping diagnosis that remained in force until 1946 when South African herpetologist Vivian FitzSimons again split them into separate species. A 2016 genetic analysis showed the black and eastern green mambas are each other's closest relatives, and are more distantly related to Jameson's mamba ("Dendroaspis jamesoni"), as shown in the cladogram below.


title: Black mamba

text: The black mamba is a long, slender, cylindrical snake. It has a coffin-shaped head with a somewhat pronounced brow ridge and a medium-sized eye. The adult snake's length typically ranges from but specimens have grown to lengths of . It is the longest species of venomous snake in Africa and the second-longest venomous snake species overall, exceeded in length only by the king cobra. The black mamba is a proteroglyphous (front-fanged) snake, with fangs up to in length, located at the front of the maxilla. The tail of the species is long and thin, the caudal vertebrae making up 17–25% of its body length. The body mass of black mambas has been reported to be about , although a study of seven black mambas found an average weight of , ranging from for a specimen of total length to for a specimen of total length.


title: Black mamba

text: Specimens vary considerably in colour, including olive, yellowish-brown, khaki and gunmetal but are rarely black. The scales of some individuals may have a purplish sheen. Individuals occasionally display dark mottling towards the posterior, which may appear in the form of diagonal crossbands. Black mambas have greyish-white underbellies. The common name is derived from the appearance of the inside of the mouth, dark bluish-grey to nearly black. Mamba eyes range between greyish-brown and shades of black; the pupil is surrounded by a silvery-white or yellow colour. Juvenile snakes are lighter in colour than adults; these are typically grey or olive green and darken as they age.


title: Black mamba

text: The number and pattern of scales on a snake's body are a key element of identification to species level. The black mamba has between 23 and 25 rows of dorsal scales at midbody, 248 to 281 ventral scales, 109 to 132 divided subcaudal scales, and a divided anal scale. Its mouth is lined with 7–8 supralabial scales above, with the fourth and sometimes also the third one located under the eye, and 10-14 sublabial scales below. Its eyes have 3 or occasionally 4 preocular and 2–5 postocular scales.


title: Black mamba

text: The black mamba inhabits a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa; its range includes Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Mozambique, Eswatini, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, and Angola. The black mamba's distribution in parts of West Africa has been disputed. In 1954, the black mamba was recorded in the Dakar region of Senegal. This observation, and a subsequent observation that identified a second specimen in the region in 1956, has not been confirmed and thus the snake's distribution in this area is inconclusive.


title: Black mamba

text: The species prefers moderately dry environments such as light woodland and scrub, rocky outcrops and semi-arid savanna. It also inhabits moist savanna and lowland forests. It is not commonly found at altitudes above , although its distribution does include locations at in Kenya and in Zambia. It is rated as a species of least concern on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of endangered species, based on its huge range across sub-Saharan Africa and no documented decline.


title: Black mamba

text: The black mamba is both terrestrial and arboreal. On the ground, it moves with its head and neck raised, and typically uses termite mounds, abandoned burrows, rock crevices and tree cracks as shelter. Black mambas are diurnal; in South Africa, they are recorded to bask between 7 and 10 am and again from 2 to 4 pm. They may return daily to the same basking site.


title: Black mamba

text: Skittish and often unpredictable, the black mamba is agile and can move quickly. In the wild, black mambas seldom tolerate humans approaching more closely than about . When it perceives a threat, it retreats into brush or a hole. When confronted it is likely to engage in a threat display, gaping to expose its black mouth and flicking its tongue. It also is likely to hiss and spread its neck into a hood similar to that of the cobras in the genus "Naja".


title: Black mamba

text: During the threat display, any sudden movement by the intruder may provoke the snake into performing a series of rapid strikes, leading to severe envenomation. The size of the black mamba and its ability to raise its head a large distance from the ground enables it to launch as much as 40% of its body length upwards, so mamba bites to humans can occur on the upper body. The black mamba's reputation for being ready to attack is exaggerated; it is usually provoked by perceived threats such as the blocking of its movements and ability to retreat. The species' reputed speed has also been exaggerated; it cannot move more quickly than .