title: Stairway to Heaven

text: The first few bars were played alone during Page and Plant tours in lieu of the final notes of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", and in November 1994 Page and Plant performed an acoustic version of the song at a Tokyo news station for Japanese television. "Stairway to Heaven" was also performed at Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert at the O2 Arena, London on 10 December 2007.


title: Stairway to Heaven

text: Plant cites the most unusual performance of the song ever as being that performed at Live Aid: "with two drummers (Phil Collins and Tony Thompson) while Duran Duran cried at the side of the stage – there was something quite surreal about that."


title: Stairway to Heaven

text: A different version of this song by Led Zeppelin is featured on the remastered deluxe 2CD version of "Led Zeppelin IV". Titled "Stairway to Heaven ", it was recorded on 5 December 1970, at Island Studio, No. 1, in London with engineer Andy Johns and assistant engineer Diggs. This version runs 8:04, while the original version runs 8:02.


title: Stairway to Heaven

text: "Stairway to Heaven" is often rated among the greatest rock songs of all time. According to music journalist Stephen Davis, although the song was released in 1971, it took until 1973 before the song's popularity ascended to truly "anthemic" status. As Page recalled, "I knew it was good, but I didn't know it was going to be almost like an anthem... But I knew it was the gem of the album, sure."


title: Stairway to Heaven

text: "Stairway to Heaven" continues to top radio lists of the greatest rock songs, including a 2006 "Guitar World" readers poll of greatest guitar solos. On the 20th anniversary of the original release of the song, it was announced via US radio sources that the song had logged up an estimated 2,874,000 radio plays. As of 2000, the song had been broadcast on radio over three million times. In 1990, a Tampa Bay area, Florida station (then WKRL) kicked off its all-Led Zeppelin format by playing "Stairway to Heaven" for 24 hours straight. It is also the biggest-selling single piece of sheet music in rock history, clocking up an average of 15,000 copies yearly. In total, over one million copies have been sold.


title: Stairway to Heaven

text: Despite pressure from Atlantic Records, the band would not authorise the editing of the song for single release. Page told "Rolling Stone" in 1975, "We were careful to never release it as a single", which forced buyers to buy the entire album.


title: Stairway to Heaven

text: In 2004, "Rolling Stone" magazine put it at number 31 on their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", and was re-ranked at number 61 in 2021. An article from 29 January 2009 "Guitar World" magazine rated Jimmy Page's guitar solo at number one in the publication's 100 Greatest Guitar Solos in Rock and Roll History.


title: Stairway to Heaven

text: In 2001, the New York City-based classic rock radio station WAXQ conducted a listener survey to create a countdown of 1,043 rock songs (the number corresponding with the station’s position on the dial at 104.3 FM). "Stairway To Heaven" garnered the most votes from listeners. WAXQ has conducted the survey annually since then; in each subsequent countdown that has followed, including the most recent in November 2021, "Stairway To Heaven" has been the top-ranked song.


title: Stairway to Heaven

text: Plant once gave $10,000 to listener-supported radio station KBOO in Portland, Oregon during a pledge drive after the disc jockey solicited donations by promising the station would never play "Stairway to Heaven". Plant was station-surfing in a rental car he was driving to the Oregon Coast after a solo performance in Portland and was impressed with the non-mainstream music the station presented. When asked later for the reason why, Plant replied that it wasn't that he didn't like the song, but he'd heard it before.


title: Stairway to Heaven

text: Page's opening acoustic guitar arpeggios bear a resemblance to the 1968 instrumental "Taurus" by the Los Angeles-based rock band Spirit, written by Spirit guitarist Randy California. In the liner notes to the 1996 reissue of Spirit's self-titled debut album, California wrote: "People always ask me why 'Stairway to Heaven' sounds exactly like 'Taurus', which was released two years earlier. I know Led Zeppelin also played 'Fresh Garbage' in their live set. They opened up for us on their first American tour."


title: Stairway to Heaven

text: In May 2014, Spirit bassist Mark Andes and a trust acting on behalf of California filed a copyright infringement suit against Led Zeppelin and injunction against the "release of the album containing the song" in an attempt to obtain a writing credit for California, who died in 1997. A lack of resources was cited as one of the reasons that Spirit did not file the suit earlier; according to a friend of California's mother, "Nobody had any money, and they thought the statute of limitations was done... It will be nice if Randy got the credit." If the Spirit lawsuit had been successful, past earnings due to the song—estimated at more than US$550 million—would not have been part of the settlement, but the publisher and composers may have been entitled to a share of future profits.


title: Stairway to Heaven

text: On 11 April 2016, Los Angeles district judge Gary Klausner ruled that there were enough similarities between the song and the instrumental for a jury to decide the claim, and a trial was scheduled for 10 May. The copyright infringement action was brought by Michael Skidmore, a trustee for the late guitarist, whose legal name was Randy Wolfe. On 23 June, the jury ruled that the similarities between the songs did not amount to copyright infringement. In July, Skidmore's attorney filed a notice of appeal against the court's decision. In March 2017, the verdict was appealed, with a main argument being that the jury should have been able to hear a recorded version of "Taurus". On 28 September 2018, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit allowed the appeal, vacating in part and remanding to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California for a new trial on several evidentiary and procedural issues. On 10 June 2019, the Ninth Circuit granted rehearing "en banc", meaning the case would be reheard by a larger panel of eleven judges.


title: Stairway to Heaven

text: A "Bloomberg Businessweek" article shortly after that decision noted that a Ninth Circuit judge's interpretation of the laws implied that key elements of many classic rock songs, including "Stairway to Heaven", that were recorded prior to 1978 were not protected by copyright to begin with. The panel declared that the scope of copyright for those songs is limited to what was included in the deposit copy of the song's sheet music provided to the Copyright Office; at trial Page had testified that the deposit copy included neither the intro that was under dispute nor his guitar solo. "Bloomberg" reporter Vernon Silver found that the deposit copies of other classic rock songs from that era, such as "Hotel California", "Born to Run" and "Free Bird", include only the song's basic chords, lyrics and melody, without any solos or other distinctive musical touches. Copyright law experts could not say whether those elements are copyrighted or not; Led Zeppelin's lawyers have argued they are even if not included in the deposit copy. Silver made an electronic mashup of several of these elements from different songs and included it with the article.


title: Stairway to Heaven

text: On 9 March 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, California, ruled in favor of Led Zeppelin, in that "Stairway to Heaven" does not infringe on the copyright of "Taurus". The full Ninth Circuit used their decision to overturn the controversial "inverse ratio rule" which it had relied over the past several decades in past copyright rulings, stating "Because the inverse ratio rule, which is not part of the copyright statute, defies logic, and creates uncertainty for the courts and the parties, we take this opportunity to abrogate the rule in the Ninth Circuit and overrule our prior cases to the contrary." This verdict immediately applied to pending cases within the Ninth: a long battle over Katy Perry's "Dark Horse" in which a jury had found against her for was overturned a week after the Ninth's verdict in "Stairway to Heaven", in part of the Ninth's new finding and that in the case of "Dark Horse", the similarity argument weighed heavily on the inverse ratio rule. On 5 October, the Supreme Court of the United States denied to grant "certiorari" to Andes and the trust, leaving the Ninth's circuit ruling in place in favour of Led Zeppelin. The court's decision precludes further appeals, thus ending the copyright dispute.


title: Stairway to Heaven

text: In a January 1982 broadcast of the Trinity Broadcasting Network television program "Praise the Lord" hosted by Paul Crouch, it was claimed that hidden messages were contained in many popular rock songs through a technique called backmasking. One example of such hidden messages that was prominently cited was in "Stairway to Heaven". The alleged message, which occurs during the middle section of the song ("If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now...") when played backward, was purported to contain the Satanic references: "Here's to my sweet Satan / The one whose little path would make me sad whose power is Satan, / He'll give you, he'll give you 666 / There was a little tool shed where he made us suffer, sad Satan."


title: Stairway to Heaven

text: Following the claims made in the television program, California assemblyman Phil Wyman proposed a state law that would require warning labels on records containing backmasking. In April 1982, the Consumer Protection and Toxic Materials Committee of the California State Assembly held a hearing on backmasking in popular music, during which "Stairway to Heaven" was played backward and self-described "neuroscientific researcher" William Yarroll claimed that the human brain could decipher backward messages.


title: Stairway to Heaven

text: The band itself has mostly ignored such claims. Swan Song Records responded to the allegations by stating: "Our turntables only play in one direction—forwards." Led Zeppelin audio engineer Eddie Kramer called the allegations "totally and utterly ridiculous. Why would they want to spend so much studio time doing something so dumb?" Robert Plant expressed frustration with the accusations in a 1983 interview in "Musician" magazine: "To me it's very sad, because 'Stairway to Heaven' was written with every best intention, and as far as reversing tapes and putting messages on the end, that's not my idea of making music."


title: Paramilitary

text: A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carry out duties that a country's military or police forces are unable or unwilling to handle. Other organizations may be considered paramilitaries by structure alone, despite being unarmed or lacking a combat role.


title: Paramilitary

text: Though a paramilitary is, by definition, not a military, it is usually equivalent to a light infantry force in terms of strength, firepower, and organizational structure. Paramilitaries use "military" equipment (such as long guns and armored personnel carriers; usually military surplus resources), skills (such as battlefield medicine and bomb disposal), and tactics (such as urban warfare and close-quarters combat) that are compatible with their purpose, often combining them with skills from other relevant fields such as law enforcement or search and rescue. They rarely use extensive military equipment such as artillery and armed military aircraft.


title: Paramilitary

text: In peacetime, paramilitaries are often assigned to protect high-profile sites, such as government facilities, infrastructure, airports, seaports, or borders. They may also be tasked with roles of VIP protection or counterterrorism. Depending on the organization the paramilitary operates under, they may also be reassigned until they are needed again; for example, members of a police tactical unit may be assigned to standard patrol duties until requested.


title: Paramilitary

text: A paramilitary may fall under the command of a military, train alongside them, or have permission to use their resources, despite not actually being part of them. In some instances, paramilitaries may train members of an actual military in tactics they specialize in, such as arrest procedures.


title: Paramilitary

text: Under the law of war, a state may incorporate a paramilitary organization or armed agency (such as a law enforcement agency or a private volunteer militia) into its combatant armed forces. The other parties to a conflict have to be notified thereof.


title: Paramilitary

text: Some countries' constitutions limit freedom of association by prohibiting paramilitary organizations outside government use. In most cases, there is no definition of paramilitary, and court decisions are responsible for defining that concept.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: On 7 February 2018, the coalition established in 2014 to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) delivered massive air and artillery strikes on the Syrian pro-government forces near the towns of Khasham and Al Tabiyeh in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate. The United States explained the attack by stating that the pro-government forces had "initiated an unprovoked attack against well-established Syrian Democratic Forces headquarters" in the area, while Coalition service members were "co-located with SDF partners during the attack 8 kilometers (5 mi) east of the agreed-upon Euphrates River de-confliction line". The Russian defense ministry's statement released on 8 February 2018 referred to the incident at the village of Salihiyah (located south of the SDF-held town of Abu Hamam in the Abu Kamal District) and said that it was caused by reconnaissance actions of Syrian militia that had not been cleared with the Russian operations command; the statement stressed that there were no Russian service members in the "designated district of the Deir ez-Zor province of Syria".


title: Battle of Khasham

text: The US military stated that one hundred Syrian pro-government fighters were killed in the US attack, prompting Syria to accuse the United States of carrying out a "brutal massacre" of its troops and Russia to accuse the US of being economically motivated in its actions, citing nearby oil fields. As information about casualties among Russian Wagner Group mercenaries in the strike emerged, the incident was billed by media as "the first deadly clash between citizens of Russia and the United States since the Cold War".


title: Battle of Khasham

text: In September 2014, the United States began to undertake efforts to establish a global coalition with the declared aim of countering the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Since September 2014, the US had conducted military operations in Syria, primarily against ISIL forces as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. The primary US-backed force in the northeastern part of Syria is the Syrian Democratic Forces, a group composed predominantly of Kurdish and Arab militiamen. In 2017, backed by US forces, the SDF captured Raqqa from the Islamic State and has since advanced to the Euphrates River, where a deconfliction line was established by the governments of the United States and Russia. On several occasions, US forces struck Syrian pro-government units operating in the area. In November 2017, the US government made it known that they were expanding their goals in Syria beyond routing ISIL forces, to pressure the Syrian government to make concessions at the Geneva talks. This intent was, in mid-January 2018, clearly broadcast by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who said the Trump administration would maintain an open-ended military presence in Syria to counter Iranian influence and ensure the departure of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: Russia had been conducting air military operations in Syria in support of the Syrian government since 30 September 2015. Furthermore, Russian private military contractors ("volunteers"), notably those associated with the Wagner Group, had been engaged in ground operations throughout that time, although their presence was never officially confirmed by the Russian government.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: In February 2018, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, Commander of U.S. Air Forces Central Command, talked about the circumstances before the attack: "The coalition observed a slow buildup of personnel and equipment the previous week, and we reminded Russian officials of the SDF and coalition presence via the telephone deconfliction line. This was well in advance of the enemy forces' attack. I know you're going to ask, so I'm going to be clear that I will not speculate on the composition of this force or whose control they were under." Harrigian presented the U.S. strike as demonstration of the coalition's readiness "to prevent a resurgence of ISIS".


title: Battle of Khasham

text: On 22 February 2018, "The Washington Post" cited unnamed sources in U.S. intelligence as alleging that the communications intercepted days before and after the incident between Russian businessman Yevgeniy Prigozhin, who was believed to finance the Wagner Group, and senior Syrian officials, such as Mansour Fadlallah Azzam, as well as Kremlin officials, suggested that Prigozhin had "secured permission" from an unspecified Russian minister to go ahead with a "fast and strong" move in early February and was awaiting approval from the Syrian government. A few days before, Prigozhin had been indicted by the Grand Jury for the District of Columbia on charges related to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. A publication by the Ukraine-based anti-Kremlin Inform Napalm alleged the operation had been cleared with the Russian military command by Sergey Kim, the chief of Wagner's operations department and a former Russian Marine officer.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: According to the U.S. military's official statement, around 10 p.m. local time on the night of 7 February 2018, a force of 500 pro-government fighters consisting of local militiamen, Syrian Army regulars, Iranian-trained Afghan Shia fighters, and reportedly Russian contractors launched an assault on a Syrian Democratic Forces headquarters near the town of Khasham, located on the Euphrates River in Syria. Supported by T-72 and T-55 tanks, the pro-government troops first shelled the SDF base with artillery, mortars, and rockets in what U.S. military officials described as a "coordinated attack." Around 20–30 shells landed within 500 meters of the headquarters. According to the U.S. military, the presence of U.S. special operations personnel in the targeted base elicited a response by coalition aircraft, including AC-130 gunships, F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets, unmanned aerial vehicles (MQ-9), AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, B-52s, and F-22s. Nearby U.S artillery batteries, including a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, shelled Syrian forces as well. According to sources in the Russian private military company—Wagner Group, cited by news media as well as the Pentagon—U.S. forces were in constant contact with the official Russian liaison officer posted in Deir ez-Zor throughout the engagement and only opened fire after they had received assurances that no regular Russian troops were in action or at risk.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: The clashes lasted four hours and saw more than 100 Syrian pro-government fighters killed, with one SDF fighter injured, according to the coalition. No U.S. troops were reported killed or wounded.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: According to two unnamed U.S. defense officials cited by CNN on 8 February, the U.S. military had assessed that Russian contractors had been involved, with one saying some of the contractors had been killed in the airstrikes. A Kurdish militia commander and an ex-Russian officer also claimed Russian private military contractors (PMCs) were present and suffered casualties during the strikes. During the two weeks following the incident, U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and other U.S. military officials repeatedly stated that U.S. military commanders were in contact with their official Russian counterparts prior to, during, and after the clash and the U.S military were told by their Russian counterparts that there were no Russians in the paramilitary formation.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: On 13 February 2018, unclassified footage depicting the coalition's targeted airstrikes on a pro-government T-72 tank position and a reported Russian contractor artillery position in the Khasham area was released by the U.S. Department of Defense.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: In an official statement that was released by the "ISIS Hunters" unit of the Syrian military, they had received intelligence that ISIL forces were moving towards Khasham and government forces decided to move from the Euphrates so to cut off ISIL's line of attack. At this point, armed groups were spotted east of Khasham, in SDF-held territory, which then attacked the government's troops. The groups were quickly pushed back. The military claimed that, according to intercepted radio traffic, the groups were partly ISIL and partly Kurds, and retreated towards the Conoco factory. At this point, pro-government units were hit by airstrikes. According to Syrian military sources, some 55 pro-government fighters were killed, including around 10 Russian fighters.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: Three weeks after the incident, Germany's "Der Spiegel" published their own investigative report based on evidence gleaned from multiple first-hand sources (participants and witnesses) in the area. According to this report, pro-Syrian government forces spent a week prior to the event gathering in the Deir ez-Zor military airport, which is located to the West of the Euphrates river and South of the city of Deir, which is the capital city of Deir ez-Zor governorate. In the vicinity of this city, the Euphrates river runs roughly from the North-West to the South-East (flowing into neighboring Iraq) and splits the city in two. The Syrian government controlled all areas West of the river (including the great majority of Deir ez-Zor city) and also a salient on the river's East bank across from this capital city, whereas the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) controlled almost all other territory East of the river (excluding this salient and the islands in the river).


title: Battle of Khasham

text: These Iranian-backed forces that had gathered consisted of members of the Syrian Army's elite 4th Armoured Division, members of the militias of the local Bekara and Albo Hamad Arab tribes, and members of the Iranian-controlled Fatemiyoun and Zainebiyoun brigades. Contrary to what was widely reported at the time, "Der Spiegel" later reported that according to witnesses, no Russian mercenaries were part of this formation. At the time, Russia and the United States had an agreement that no more than 400 pro-Syrian government fighters could be in the (Syrian-government controlled) salient on the river's East bank. As with the deconfliction line, the Syrian government itself never officially agreed to this limit but due to its dependence on Russia, the Syrian Army had nevertheless been, by and large, "de facto" adhering to them; the Iranian government also never joined either of these two bilateral U.S.–Russian agreements. Compared to its influence over the Syrian government, the Russian government had significantly less influence over Iran's government, military, and proxies in Syria, which constituted a large portion of pro-Syrian government ground forces in both Deir ez-Zor and throughout Syria. The Syrian government's dependence on these ground forces for territorial control (a consequence of severe manpower shortages in the Syrian military) gave Iran significant influence over it, to the extent that Russia and Iran had to increasingly compete for control and influence over the Syria government. "Der Spiegel" report did not indicate whether this formation was under Iranian or Syrian command or what attempt, if any, Russia made to force the Syrian and Iranian governments to comply with these U.S.–Russian agreements.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: At around 5 a.m. on 7 February 2018, around 250 of these fighters attempted to cross the Euphrates over a military pontoon bridge located to the South-East of both the Deir ez-Zor airport and the SDF base near the city of Khasham. Warning shots fired by the United States military stopped this (morning) advance and these fighters withdrew back to the West of the Euphrates; these warning shots did not result in any injuries. According to "Der Spiegel", witnesses said that no Russian mercenaries were part of this group.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: Later that same day, under the cover of darkness, about twice as many pro-Syrian government fighters successfully crossed a different bridge that was located to the North-East of the Deir ez-Zor airport. They arrived at the village of Marrot, which is to the North-West of both Khusham and the nearby SDF base. At around 10 p.m. that night, these fighters began to advance South-East toward Khusham. Concurrently, another group of Syrian tribal militia and Shia fighters began to advance Northward towards Khasham from Tabiyeh, a Syrian-government controlled town located East of the Euphrates that is significantly closer to Khasham (and the nearby the SDF base) than Marrot is. The United States military once again opened fire, but this time with the intention of inflicting casualties. According to "Der Spiegel" report, no Russians were in either formation; yet there was a small contingent of Russian PMCs stationed in Tabiyeh who were not participating in the fighting. Notwithstanding that, between 10 and 20 of the Russians were killed in the U.S. strikes, while most of the formations' deaths were reportedly among the servicemen of the 4th Division of the Syrian Army. Further strikes were carried out on the mornings of February 8 and 9 on tribal militia members that had come to retrieve dead bodies.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: Similarly, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 68 pro-government fighters were killed during the day in the area, including 45 who died in the coalition airstrikes, with most being Syrians. The remaining 23 pro-government personnel, including 15 Russians PMCs, were not killed in the airstrikes, but instead caught in a booby-trapped explosion at an arms depot at Al Tabiyeh. The PMCs were accompanying government forces as they advanced towards the SDF-held oil and gas fields.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: Shortly after the strikes, various Russian unofficial sources began to publicize information that a number of Russian "volunteers" (PMCs) had been killed in the strikes, with some posts on Russian social media making claims of over 200 Russian PMCs being killed, although the veracity of this information was questioned and could not be confirmed. A known critic of the company that hired the contractors, Yevgeny Shabayev, also claimed 218 PMCs were killed and that the families were still waiting for their remains. Additionally, a Russian military doctor, a leader of a PMC-linked paramilitary Cossack organization and a source with ties to Wagner claimed 80–100 PMCs were killed and 200 wounded.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: Contrary to the claims of hundreds of deaths among the PMCs, a Russian investigative group, the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), confirmed 10 contractor deaths and estimated a total of between 20 and 30 had died. A Russian journalist also believed between 20 and 25 PMCs died in the strikes. On 17 February, a "Wagner" leader, Andrey Troshev, was quoted as saying 14 "volunteers" died in the battle. Three other "Wagner" commanders also stated the claim of 200 dead was an exaggeration and that 15 PMCs were killed at the most.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: A Russian newspaper, citing Russian military and contractor sources, reported pro-government forces were attempting to capture the Conoco (locally called Al Tabiyeh) gas field from the SDF.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: In the wake of the incident, in absence of any official comments in response to allegations about Russian fatalities, details about Russian citizens' involvement and casualties in the U.S. strike began to be made public through social and mass media, provoking resentment and outrage from sections of the Russian public. The issue gained additional sensitivity in Russia in view of the upcoming presidential election in March 2018. Prominent among those figures who were early on publicising information about presumably high numbers of Russian casualties in the U.S. strike was Igor Strelkov, who in late February 2018 was registered as an authorized representative of Sergey Baburin, the leader of the nationalist Russian All-People's Union and a candidate for the 2018 Russian presidential election.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: Bloomberg, as well as other commentators, opined that both the Russian government and the Trump administration in their official statements appeared to seek to obfuscate any role of the Russian government in the incident. Irek Murtazin of Novaya Gazeta and analyst Yury Barmin speculated that the Russian military command (the MoD) might have wittingly let the Wagner unit find itself in harm's way.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: On 12 February 2018, Grigory Yavlinsky called on president Vladimir Putin to present an account of whether any Russian military forces have been involved in the battle. Meanwhile, Russia's government-run news agency TASS acknowledged, with reference to a Cossack organisation, the death in a battle near Deir ez-Zor of a Russian "volunteer", sotnik Vladimir Loginov, a resident of the Kaliningrad Region. The news media also identified by name four more Russians killed during the strike, including Kirill Ananiev, a veteran member of the banned National Bolshevik Party. News outlets also noted that Vladimir Putin abruptly cancelled most of his previously announced engagements scheduled for 12 and 13 February, his press service citing his ill health, and instead had a secret conference with his top military chiefs; he also had a telephone conversation with U.S. president Donald Trump on 12 February, with no details revealed.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: Russian politician and an authorised representative of the Communist Party's candidate for the 2018 Russian presidential election Pavel Grudinin, Viktor Alksnis, speaking on the Radio Liberty, voiced an opinion that the U.S. strike was designed as a demonstration of the U.S.'s military superiority as well as their dominance in the region and might have serious geopolitical consequences for Russia.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: On 14 February, the presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted the possibility of some Russian citizens being in Syria, who were not part of Russia's armed forces, but dismissed reports of mass casualties as false. The following day, the Russian foreign ministry's spokesperson Maria Zakharova conceded that five Russian citizens might have been killed in the U.S. attack; she emphasized that these persons were not members of the Russian Armed Forces.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: Chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee Vladimir Shamanov, citing reported casualties among Russian PMCs, said the Russian parliament was working on a bill that would legally regulate activities of private military contractors, which he said was necessary.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: On 16 February, Viktor Alksnis said that the preliminary figure of Russian fatalities in the strike, based on information from the relatives and friends, stood at 334, mainly the personnel of the 5th storm squadron; he also said that, according to his information, personnel of Russia's Special Operations Forces were also involved in "the raid" on 7 February. This was in contrast to CIT's earlier confirmation by name of no more than eight dead. On the same day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during Euronews channel interview said, "[The United States] seem to be seeking to isolate a vast part of the Syrian territory from the rest of the country in violation of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity." According to an insider source quoted on 19 February by Vedomosti, there were 50 citizens of Russia and Ukraine dead as a result of the U.S. strike.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: On 20 February 2018, the Russian foreign ministry released a statement which while admitting that there had been citizens of Russia and "countries of the CIS" killed and wounded in the course of the "recent clash" in Syria, no Russian service members or their materiel had in any way been involved. Following this statement, the foreign ministries of Belarus and Kazakhstan were reported to be checking if there were casualties among their countries' citizens, but stated they had no information that confirms Belarusians or Kazakhstanis had been killed or wounded.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: In late February 2018, CNN quoted multiple Russian sources as claiming that those who sought to publicise information about the casualties in the 7 February strike were being harassed and hushed presumably by people loyal to Yevgeny Prigozhin.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: Several Russian online news outlets, with a reference to Syria's media as well as ex-KGB officer Igor Panarin, publicised unconfirmed reports that the Su-57 fighters, which were in February 2017 deployed to Syria, had taken part in strikes against rebel targets in Eastern Ghouta killing about ten U.S. personnel (military instructors) as well as other Western countries' instructors stationed in the rebel stronghold, despite no known U.S. military presence in the region; the strikes were presented as retaliation for the U.S. attack at Khasham. A short-term deployment of two Su-57s to Syria was confirmed by the Russian defence minister Sergey Shoygu on 1 March 2018; earlier, military correspondent of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" was cited as saying that according to his information the Su-57s had "excellently" carried out their mission in Eastern Ghouta.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: On 12 April 2018, outgoing U.S. Central Intelligence Agency director Mike Pompeo, during his Senate hearing for the position of the United States Secretary of State, commented, "This administration announced a nuclear posture review that has put Russia on notice that we are going to recapitalize our deterrent force. In Syria, now, a handful of weeks ago the Russians met their match. A couple hundred Russians were killed."


title: Battle of Khasham

text: The death of the Russian investigative journalist Maksim Borodin, who wrote about the deaths of mercenaries in Syria in mid-April 2018 was linked by media to his publications about the Wagner Group's casualties in the clash at Khasham.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: On 10 February 2018, a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone destroyed a T-72 tank of pro-government forces in an air strike near the Al Tabiyeh gas field. The tank itself was not firing on the SDF and the coalition, but other elements in the formation were.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: On 2 March 2018, at least two pro-government fighters were reportedly killed by coalition air raids near Khasham.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: On 27 March 2018, U.S. officials, including U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis, said a contingent of pro-Syrian government forces and Russian "mercenaries" had again similarly amassed near coalition forces in Deir ez-Zor the week prior, but the potential confrontation was this time defused after the U.S. military contacted Russian officers. Mattis believed the forces were under Russian control, as the pro-government troops pulled back after U.S. forces spoke with their Russian counterparts.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: On 29 April 2018, pro-government forces launched an assault against four SDF villages on the Euphrates, initially capturing them. However, the SDF later retook the villages, with local sources claiming coalition aircraft bombed pro-government positions in response.


title: Battle of Khasham

text: On 11 May 2018, the coalition stated that SDF units responded to artillery fire from an unknown source on the outskirts of Deir ez-Zor; the SDF returned fire, leading to the destruction of one enemy artillery piece. No casualties were reported on either side of the engagement. The coalition discussed the development with Russian counterparts along established "deconfliction" lines.


title: Forecasting Love and Weather

text: Forecasting Love and Weather () is a 2022 South Korean television series directed by Cha Young-hoon and starring Park Min-young, Song Kang, Yoon Park, and Yura. This series depicts the cheerful love story of people working in Korea Meteorological Administration who break, fall and rise up again, and their everyday life together in the office. It premiered on JTBC on February 12, 2022, and aired every Saturday and Sunday at 22:30 (KST) for 16 episodes. It is available for streaming on Netflix.


title: Forecasting Love and Weather

text: "Forecasting Love and Weather" featured in Global Top 10 weekly list of the most-watched international Netflix TV shows for 6 weeks in a row from February 21 to April 3.


title: Forecasting Love and Weather

text: Inside a national weather service, love proves just as difficult to predict as rain or shine for a diligent forecaster and her free-spirited coworker.


title: Forecasting Love and Weather

text: In March 2021, it was reported that Cha Young-hoon will direct the series created by Gline's creative group, led by writer Kang Eun-kyung. During the same time, Park Min-young and Song Kang were considering appearing in the series as main leads. In May 2021, Yura and Yoon Park joined the cast of the series.


title: Forecasting Love and Weather

text: Kim Mi-kyung and Park Min-young are playing mother and daughter on-screen for the fourth time. Before this series, they appeared as mother and daughter in "Running", "Sungkyunkwan Scandal" and "Her Private Life". They also appeared together in 2014 KBS TV series "Healer".


title: Forecasting Love and Weather

text: On March 5, 2022, it was confirmed that actor Yoon Park had tested positive for COVID-19 as a precautionary measure. He had a self-diagnosis kit on March 4 and after testing positive. He was given the PCR test immediately as the filming for the drama had ended. The broadcast schedule seems to be uninterrupted.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The B61 nuclear bomb is the primary thermonuclear gravity bomb in the United States Enduring Stockpile following the end of the Cold War. It is a low to intermediate-yield strategic and tactical nuclear weapon featuring a two-stage radiation implosion design.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The B61 is of the variable yield ("dial-a-yield" in informal military jargon) design with a yield of 0.3 to 340 kilotons in its various mods. It is a Full Fuzing Option (FUFO) weapon, meaning it is equipped with the full range of fuzing and delivery options, including air and ground burst fuzing, and free-fall, retarded free-fall and laydown delivery. It has a streamlined casing capable of withstanding supersonic flight and is long, with a diameter of about . Basic weight is about , although the weights of individual weapons may vary depending on version and fuze/retardation configuration. As of 2020, it is undergoing a 12th modification. According to the Federation of American Scientists in 2012, the roughly 400 B61-12s will cost $28 million apiece.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: In 1961 a report was issued indicating Navy and Air Force interest in a lightweight bomb to replace existing weapons, but that both services had considerably different military requirements for such a weapon. However, the authors of the report believed that due to advances in technology it was possible for a single weapon to fulfill both requirements. This was followed by a report from Sandia in mid-1962, that believed that a lightweight nuclear bomb with full fuzing option was possible and that such a program could be completed in a short time-span, possibly by 1965 or 1966.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: Development of the weapon that would become the B61 was authorized in December 1962. The justification for the program was that the new weapon would modernize the nuclear arsenal, improve the capability of aircraft and simplify the nuclear weapons inventory by replacing lower-yield versions of the B28 and B43 nuclear bombs. The desired production date was June 1965.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The weapon was designated the TX-61 in January 1963. Due to the short time-scales, it was decided to make maximum use of off-the-shelf components such as those developed for the B57 nuclear bomb. Environmental conditions specified included an indefinite temperature range of to , shocks of up to 40g, and in flight temperatures of up to for up to 40 minutes. Parachute deployment was specified to produce a maximum load of .


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The weapon was designed and built by the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Production engineering began in 1965, with the first war-reserve B61-0 weapon accepted by the AEC in December 1966. However production was halted in May 1967 for design modifications to be made before resuming in January 1968. Shot Flintlock Halfbeak in June 1966 may have been a full yield test of the weapon with other tests conducted between 1963 and 1968 at the Nevada Test Site.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: During testing, spin motors were added to the weapon to produce a spin of 5 revolutions per second. This was to improve stability and decoupling during high speed delivery. Three alternatives to the weapon were also explored for still-classified reasons. The first alternative was halted due to its similarity to the original TX-61 design, and the Department of Defense was unfavorable to the second option which halted its exploration. The TX-61 design was ordered to "proceed along the lines" of the third alternative in May 1964, though it is unclear what that means.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: Total production of all versions was approximately 3,155, of which approximately 540 remain in active service, 415 in inactive service and 520 are awaiting dismantlement .


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: 13 versions of the B61 have been designed, known as Mod 0 through Mod 12. Of these, nine have entered production. Each shares the same physics package, with different yield options. The newest variant is the Mod 11, deployed in 1997, which is a ground-penetrating bunker busting weapon. The Russian Continuity of Government facility at Kosvinsky Kamen, finished in early 1996, was designed to resist US earth-penetrating warheads and serves a similar role as the American Cheyenne Mountain Complex. The timing of the Kosvinsky completion date is regarded as one explanation for U.S. interest in a new nuclear bunker buster and the declaration of the deployment of the Mod 11 in 1997: Kosvinsky is protected by about of granite.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The B61 unguided bomb should not be confused with the MGM-1 Matador cruise missile, which was originally developed under the bomber designation B-61.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The B61 has been deployed by a variety of US military aircraft. US aircraft cleared for its use have included the B-1 Lancer, B-2 Spirit, B-52 Stratofortress, F/A-18 Hornet, A-6 Intruder, F-15E Strike Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon. As part of NATO Nuclear Weapons Sharing, German and Italian Panavia Tornado aircraft can also carry B61s. The B61 can fit inside the F-22 Raptor's weapons bays and will also be carried by the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: B61 tactical variants are deployed with NATO allies in Europe as part of the NATO Nuclear Weapons Sharing Program. About 150 bombs are stored at six bases: Kleine Brogel in Belgium, Büchel Air Base in Germany, Aviano and Ghedi Air Base in Italy, Volkel Air Base in the Netherlands and Incirlik in Turkey. In 2012, NATO agreed to improve the capabilities of this force with the increased accuracy of the Mod 12 upgrade and the delivery of the F-35 aircraft. This added a modest standoff capability to the B61.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The B61 is a variable yield ("dial-a-yield" colloquially) dual use tactical and strategic bomb equipped with Full Fuzing Option (FUFO) designed for external carriage by high-speed aircraft. It has a streamlined casing capable of withstanding supersonic flight. The original B61-0 weapon was long, with a diameter of and a basic weight of with most later weapons having approximately the same dimensions and weight, except for the Mod 11 version which has a weight of approximately .


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The B61 is armed by ground-based personnel via an access panel located on the side of the bomb, which opens to reveal nine dials, two sockets, and a T-handle which manually triggers the "command disable" function. One of the sockets is for a MC4142 "strike enable" plug which must be inserted in order to complete critical circuits in the safety/arming and firing mechanisms. The other socket is the PAL connector, which has 23 pins marked with alphabetic letter codes.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The B61 "command disable" mechanism functions as follows: after entering the correct three-digit numeric code it is then possible to turn a dial to "DI" and pull back a T-shaped handle which comes away in the user's hand. This action releases a spring-loaded firing pin which fires the percussion cap on an MC4246A thermal battery, powering it up. Electrical power from the thermal battery is sufficient to "fry" the internal circuitry of the bomb, destroying critical mechanisms without causing detonation. This makes the bomb incapable of being used. Any B61 which has had the command disable facility activated must be returned to Pantex for repair.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The B61 can be set for airburst or groundburst detonation, and freefall, retarded freefall or laydown delivery, the latter two options being achieved through the use of a parachute to slow down the weapon during release from the delivery aircraft. Only the Mod 0 to 10 versions of the B61 are equipped with a parachute retarder (currently a 24-ft (7.3 m) diameter nylon/Kevlar chute). This offers the aircraft a chance to escape the blast in its retarded delivery modes, or allows the weapon to survive impact with the ground in laydown delivery mode. Contact preclusion can also be selected by the pilot. The weapon can be released at speeds up to Mach 2 and altitudes as low as . In one of the weapon's laydown modes, it detonates 31 seconds after weapon release.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The Mod 11 is a hardened penetration bomb with a reinforced casing and a delayed-action fuze; this allows the weapon to penetrate several metres into the ground before detonating, damaging fortified structures further underground. Developed from 1994, the Mod 11 went into service in 1997 replacing the older megaton-yield B53 bomb. About 50 Mod 11 bombs have been produced, their warheads converted from Mod 7 bombs. At present, the primary carrier for the Mod 11 is the B-2 Spirit.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: A Sandia document on the dates of the development phases of the US nuclear stockpile describes the B61-3 as an "improved Mod 2 w/IHE" and the B61-4 as "same as Mod 3 ex. Hi-Y".


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: A 1978 report on reducing or substituting beryllium in nuclear weapons noted that the B61-5 contained beryllium and that if the use of beryllium were to be restricted, the B61-5 could probably be replaced by the B61 Mod 3.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The B61 Mod 6 and Mod 8 bombs were developed for use by the US Navy beginning in March 1987 and cancelled at the end of the Cold War. The weapons weighed , had a length of and a diameter of , and were one-point safe, used insensitive high explosives (IHE) in their primary stages and utilized enhanced electrical safety (EES).


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The weapons were to be built by converting existing B61-0, −2 and −5 weapons into Mod 6 and 8 weapons and the weapons were to use B61-7 weapon parts where possible. By mass, the largest deviations from the B61-7 were the Acorn assembly, MC4137 TSSG (trajectory sensing signal generator) and the JTA (described as "ballast for WR").


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The weapon's computer was the MC4139 Programmer, two of which are used on independent channels, and is identical to the programmer used on the B61-7. The MC3656 Main Battery is identical to the battery used on the B61-7 and is thermally operated, providing 120 seconds of power for the weapon, but initial power is supplied by the MC2238 Pulse Batteries which are activated by the weapon's pullout switches during separation from the aircraft.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The weapon contained two neutron generators for initiation, used a 2400 volt 0.6 μF capacitor for neutron generator firing and a 3300 volt 2.0 μF capacitor for the firing set. If neither the radar fuze or the contact crystals actuated, the weapon would detonate at 120 seconds from arming.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The weapons were to initially use the MC4175 Trajectory Sensing Signal Generators which are identical to the TSSG found in the B61-7, but starting from 1991, the Mod 6 was to get a new MC4137 Trajectory Sensing Signal Generator. The MC4175 stored the arming signal for the trajectory stronglink it its memory, so it featured a pair of rolamite acceleration switches designed to prevent the possibility of the signal being transferred to the stronglink before the rolamites were actuated by the spinning of the weapon in flight. The MC4137 instead is provided the unique signal from the MC4139 Programmer, which stores it in a volatile memory that erases after approximately seven seconds of lost power, meaning that without intent from the MC4139 and continuously applied power the MC4137 does not know how to arm the safelink.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The weapon was to feature a number of weapon stronglinks. Stronglinks are part of the weapon's safety systems and are designed to be robust enough that they can survive abnormal environments long enough for the weapon's weaklinks to fail. This requires weak and stronglinks to be colocated so they are exposed to the same environmental conditions in an accident.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The first stronglink was the MC2969 Intent Stronglink Switch which was also used on the B61-3, −4 and −7, W78, W80 and B83 weapons. The MC2969 consisted of a 14-pin ceramic-insulated bank of switches that would close upon the receipt of the proper intent unique signal (IUQS) to its electromechanical decoder. Receipt of the wrong signal would lock the MC2969 in the open position until a specific unlock signal was received.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The second stronglink was the MC2935 Trajectory Stronglink Switch of which there were two, one for each channel of the weapon's firing set. Like the MC2969, it mechanically locked if it received the wrong input signals, but unlike the MC2969 it could only be manually unlocked, which could only take place at the factory. Signals for the MC2935 come from either of the two MC4175s or the MC4137 Trajectory Sensing Signal Generators.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: A third stronglink existed inside the first exclusion region of the weapon and was involved in weapon arming. Details of the system are still classified.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: As of 2013 the Pentagon saw the B83 nuclear bomb as a "relic of the Cold War," believing that deploying a megaton-yield gravity bomb, the highest level nuclear weapon left in the U.S. inventory, to Europe was "inconceivable" at this point. It can also only be carried by the B-2 bomber, and integrating it onto additional aircraft would be costly. The Mod 12 upgrade is being pursued as a forward-deployed tactical/strategic nuclear weapon to protect NATO and Asian allies since it can be used from dual-capable fighter aircraft, as well as planned to arm the F-35 and B-21 Raider, and its lower yield options make it more flexible with less collateral effects. Recapitalizing the B61 is hoped to lead to the retirement of the B83, resulting in the elimination of the last megaton-yield U.S. bomb and leave the B61-series as the only U.S. gravity nuclear bomb.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: In 2013, the Pentagon and NNSA stated that if B61 refurbishment did not begin by 2019, components in the existing weapons could begin to fail. In 2013 Tom Collina of the Arms Control Association said that the new development could complicate arms control efforts with Russia.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: In January 2014, former Air Force Chief of Staff Norton A. Schwartz stated that the Mod 12 nuclear bomb upgrade would have enhanced accuracy and a lower yield with less fallout compared to previous versions of the weapon. Accuracy has not been a guarantee for air-dropped nuclear weapons, so consequently large warheads were needed to effectively impact a target; the Mod 11 nuclear earth-penetrator is accurate to 110–170 meters from the desired detonation location, so it requires a 400-kiloton warhead. The Mod 12 is accurate to 30 meters from a target and only requires a 50-kiloton warhead. Schwartz believes that greater accuracy would both improve the weapon and create a different target set it can be useful against. An example is the higher-yield Mod 11's role of attacking underground bunkers that need a ground burst to create a crater and destroy it through the shockwave. A 50-kiloton yield detonating on the ground produces a crater with a radius of 30–68 meters, depending on the density of the surface, effectively putting the bunker within the circular error probability.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: In 2014 critics said that a more accurate and less destructive nuclear weapon would make leaders less cautious about deploying it, while Schwartz said it would deter adversaries more because the U.S. would be more willing to use it in situations where necessary. The improved accuracy would make it more effective than the previous Mod 3/4 currently deployed to the continent. F-16 and Panavia Tornado aircraft cannot interface with the new bomb due to electronic differences, but NATO countries buying the F-35 would be able to utilize it. The first flight test for an inert Mod 12 was conducted in 2015, with a second successful test in August 2017.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: Despite claims the Mod 12 has an earth penetrating capability, the weapon does not have the reinforced structure like that of the Mod 11, which is required to function as an earth penetrating weapon. The Mod 11 will be retained in service for the ground penetrating mission.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The Mod 12 Life Extension Program continued in 2018 and on 29 June 2018 two successful non-nuclear system qualification flight tests at Tonopah Test Range were reported. In October 2018, the Mod 12 guided tail-kit assembly received Milestone C approval to enter the production phase; the TKA went through the traditional test program in under 11 months, achieving a 100% success rate for all 31 bomb drops. The B61-12 nuclear bomb completed its successful flight tests with the US Air Force's F-15E in June 2020. It was dropped from above 25,000ft and was in the air for approximately 55 seconds before hitting the target.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The first B61-12 bomb was produced in November 2021. The weapon replaces the B61 mod 3, mod 4 and mod 7 bombs while the B61-11 will be retained in the stockpile. It is expected that the LEP will extend the B61's life by at least 20 years. "Politico" reported in October 2022 that the US military planned to accelerate the deployment of the Mod 12 in Europe. This drew criticism from the Russian foreign minister Alexander Grushko, who accused the US government of "reducing the nuclear threshold" with the weapon's increased accuracy.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: The NNSA Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan anticipates Phase 1 development for the B61 Mod 13 Life Extension Program (LEP) beginning in 2037 with first production of the weapon in 2050.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: A W61 Earth Penetrator Warhead (EPW) with a yield of was developed for the AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missile and the MGM-134 Midgetman small ICBM. The weapon entered Phase 1 initial development in January 1985 and phase 4 production engineering in September 1992 before being cancelled in December of that year.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: In the Advanced Cruise Missile role, the weapon was to replace aging B53 bombs, but after the W61 cancellation the role was filled by the B61-11 bomb.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: A declassified technical report on the automation of pit handling at Pantex indicates that the B61-2 and B61-5 share a common pit design, as do the B61-3, B61-10 and W85. The B61-0 and B61-4 do not share a pit with any other weapon. As the B61-7 was a retrofit of the B61-1 and the B61-11 was a retrofit of the B61-7, they presumably share a common pit.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: In May 2010 the National Nuclear Security Administration asked Congress for $40 million to redesign the bomb to enable the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II to carry the weapon internally by 2017. This version is designated Mod 12. The four hundred Mod 12 bombs will be used by both tactical aircraft (such as the F-35) and strategic aircraft (such as the B-2) and the Tail Subassembly (TSA) will give them Joint Direct Attack Munition levels of accuracy, allowing the fifty kiloton warhead to have strategic effects from all carrying aircraft. However, refitting the 400 weapons is now expected to cost over $10 billion. The Mod 12 tail assembly contract was awarded to Boeing on November 27, 2012 for $178 million. Boeing will use their experience with the Joint Direct Attack Munition to yield JDAM-equivalent accuracy in a nuclear bomb. This contract is only the first part of the billion-dollar expense of producing and applying the tail kits, over and above the $10 billion cost to refurbish the warheads. The Mod 12 uses an internal guidance system and can glide to its target. On 1 July 2015, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) conducted the first of three flight tests of the Mod 12 tail kit assembly.


title: B61 nuclear bomb

text: According to the Federation of American Scientists in 2012, the roughly 400 B61-12s will cost $28 million apiece.


title: Karl Pilkington

text: Karl Pilkington (born 23 September 1972) is an English presenter, comedian, actor, voice-artist, producer and author.


title: Karl Pilkington

text: After working with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant as producer on their XFM radio show, Pilkington became a co-host of "The Ricky Gervais Show". He presented the Sky travel comedy series "An Idiot Abroad" and the Sky 1 travel comedy series "The Moaning of Life". He made his acting debut in Gervais' comedy-drama series "Derek" and co-founded the television production company RiSK Productions alongside Gervais and Merchant. He also co-created, co-wrote, and starred in the comedy series "Sick of It".


title: Karl Pilkington

text: Pilkington was born on 23 September 1972 in Sale, Greater Manchester. He grew up in the Racecourse Estate neighbourhood of Sale, and has an older sister and older brother. He has discussed having a close relationship with his parents, and has shared stories about his mother and father holding multiple jobs. However, he was never close to his siblings, which he attributed to being 10 years younger than them; he once said that it had been "years" since he had last talked to them. He attended Ashton-on-Mersey School in Sale. He said that he never liked school and struggled with the system, at some point losing all interest in it. He has claimed that he only attended school to sell items to his schoolmates, usually video games that he had purchased and made copies of. He said, "I wasn't going to school to learn, I was going to earn." At the age of 15, he dropped out of school to work as a cassette and disk printer through a Youth Training Scheme program.


title: Karl Pilkington

text: Pilkington moved to London to work as a producer at XFM, where he was later promoted to head of production. While there, he unintentionally caused Gail Porter to leave the station in tears after only one show; he criticised her performance, which Pilkington defended as an attempt to encourage improvement. After several years, he began work on "The Ricky Gervais Show". Initially, Pilkington was solely the programme's producer and rarely spoke on-air, but as Gervais and Merchant began to frequently invite him to make cameo appearances, Pilkington's eccentric personality came to prominence and his popularity increased. He was eventually included as a main presenter on the broadcasts, with large amounts of airtime devoted to his controversial opinions on various subjects, often due to his misunderstanding of the stories. He created many features for the broadcasts, including Monkey News, Rockbusters, Educating Ricky and many others.. Rockbusters, in particular, garnered the most attention, with regular emails being sent to the station from listeners in the hopes to win prizes. These prizes were often mundane and low quality and were often referred to as things Pilkington "picked up from around the office". In December 2005, Pilkington stood in for two BBC Radio 6 Music shows for Nemone, co-presenting with Russell Brand.


title: Karl Pilkington

text: Pilkington's presence on "The Ricky Gervais Show" podcasts significantly increased his fame. He has often been mentioned in interviews given by Gervais and is often the victim of Gervais' pranks and insults directed towards the spherical appearance of his bald head. After Pilkington said "I could eat a knob at night" on the podcast (in relation to "I'm a Celebrity" contestants eating a kangaroo penis), Gervais encouraged his listeners to sample the sound bite and mix it into dance music. The phrase spawned several dance music mixes, T-shirts and other merchandise. Many of Pilkington's quotes have since gained publicity, particularly on the Internet. Reuters described Pilkington as a "phenomenon" who had made "Internet history."


title: Karl Pilkington

text: On 23 November 2010, while appearing live on Richard Bacon's Radio 5 Live afternoon show, Gervais surprised Pilkington with an on-air phone call. This led to a conversation in which Pilkington, who claimed to have been interrupted while grouting his kitchen, claimed that he had not yet been paid for his work on "An Idiot Abroad" and concluded the interview with an improvised link into the hourly news.


title: Karl Pilkington

text: Pilkington has worked independently of Gervais and Merchant on several projects. He appeared as a guest on the shows "Flipside TV" and "The Culture Show", and appeared in several short films as part of the Channel 4 project "3 Minute Wonders".


title: Karl Pilkington

text: Merchant and Gervais have repeatedly denied claims that Pilkington's persona is their creation. In an on-air response to similar claims made by Chris Campling during a broadcast on Xfm, Merchant stated that he would be "ashamed" if the radio show had been scripted, adding that "I would not have squandered a character that good on this poxy radio station." Gervais concurred, pointing out that writing a single series' worth of six half-hour episodes of shows such as "The Office" and "Extras" consumed as long as a full year of their time. An interviewer for "The Daily Telegraph" concluded that Pilkington's behaviour is genuine.


title: Karl Pilkington

text: Pilkington appeared in an interview titled " Meet Karl Pilkington" on Gervais's live standup comedy DVD "Politics". The DVD of Gervais's film "The Invention of Lying" contains a special feature also called "Meet Karl Pilkington" that documents his participation in the film as a non-speaking caveman in another special feature, "The Dawn of Lying". He was given a small role in the final episode of "Extras".


title: Karl Pilkington

text: In September 2010, Pilkington starred in "An Idiot Abroad", a light-hearted Sky1 travel documentary series produced by Gervais and Merchant in which he visits the New 7 Wonders of the World while participating in various activities along the way. He wrote a book to accompany the series.


title: Karl Pilkington

text: The second series, subtitled "The Bucket List", debuted on 23 September 2011 on Sky 1 and features Pilkington partaking in ultimate experiences from a list selected for him. In June 2011, he won the Best Presenter award for "An Idiot Abroad" at the Factual Entertainment Awards. The third series of the show, "An Idiot Abroad: The Short Way Round", premiered in November 2012 and showed Pilkington and Warwick Davis travelling the Marco Polo route.


title: Karl Pilkington

text: He made his acting debut on 12 April 2012 in the Channel 4 comedy-drama "Derek", portraying caretaker and bus driver Dougie. He left the show after the first episode of the second series. From 2013 to 2015, Pilkington starred in a two-series Sky 1 documentary called "The Moaning of Life". From 2018 to 2020, he co-wrote and starred in a Sky 1 scripted sitcom called "Sick of It". In 2022, Pilkington starred in the ITV drama "The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe" as DC Phil Bayley. Pilkington has also performed voice-over work for such clients as Sky TV, One Stop Office Shop, FreeView, Vodafone, HMV, Sony PSP, WHSmith, Wickes and Unilever.


title: Karl Pilkington

text: In 2014, Pilkington designed and signed his own card for the Thomas Coram Foundation for Children charity. The campaign was launched by crafting company Stampin' Up! UK; his card, along with those designed and signed by other celebrities, was auctioned on eBay in May 2014.


title: Karl Pilkington

text: Pilkington resides in Sandbanks, Dorset. He is in a long-term cohabiting relationship with his partner, Suzanne, whom he frequently mentions in his work.


title: Karl Pilkington

text: Pilkington supported Manchester City as a child, but has supported Manchester United since the 1990s. In January 2020, he revealed on "Sunday Brunch" that he had been attempting to eat fewer animal products and described himself as a flexitarian.


title: Dustin Moskovitz

text: Dustin Aaron Moskovitz (; born May 22, 1984) is an American Internet entrepreneur who co-founded Facebook, Inc. (now known as Meta) with Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum and Chris Hughes. In 2008, he left Facebook to co-found Asana with Justin Rosenstein. In March 2011, "Forbes" reported Moskovitz to be the youngest self-made billionaire in the world, on the basis of his 2.34% share in Facebook. As of November 2022, his net worth is estimated at US$11.3 billion.


title: Dustin Moskovitz

text: Moskovitz was born in Gainesville, Florida and grew up in Ocala, Florida. He is Jewish. He attended Vanguard High School, graduating from the IB Diploma Program. Moskovitz attended Harvard University as an economics major for two years before he moved with Mark Zuckerberg to Palo Alto in order to work full-time on Facebook.


title: Dustin Moskovitz

text: Four people, three of whom were roommates—Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Chris Hughes, and Dustin Moskovitz—founded Facebook in their Harvard University dorm room in February 2004. Originally called thefacebook.com, it was intended as an online directory of all Harvard's students to help residential students identify members of other residences. In June 2004, Zuckerberg, Hughes and Moskovitz took a year off from Harvard and moved Facebook's base of operations to Palo Alto, California, and hired eight employees. They were later joined by Sean Parker. At Facebook, Moskovitz was the company's first chief technology officer and then vice president of engineering.


title: Dustin Moskovitz

text: On October 3, 2008, Moskovitz announced that he was leaving Facebook to form a new company called Asana with Justin Rosenstein, an engineering manager at Facebook. Asana's mission is to improve the efficiency of office workers, providing them with a tool to manage and track projects and tasks. Moskowitz has remained CEO, with Rosenstein now serving as Board Member and Advisor. In September 2020, Asana went public at a market value of about $5.5 billion in a direct listing. As of 2021, Asana has more than 107,000 paying customers.


title: Dustin Moskovitz

text: Moskovitz co-founded the philanthropic organization Good Ventures with his girlfriend (and now wife) Cari Tuna in 2011. In June 2012, Good Ventures announced a close partnership with charity evaluator GiveWell. Both organizations "are aiming to do as much good as possible" and thereby align with the goals of effective altruism. Good Ventures has donated approximately $100 million from 2011 onward to GiveWell top charities Against Malaria Foundation, GiveDirectly, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, and Deworm the World Initiative, as well as standout charities (see Good Ventures for more) and other effective altruist organizations.


title: Dustin Moskovitz

text: The collaboration with GiveWell led to a spinoff called the Open Philanthropy Project, whose goal is to figure out the best possible way to use large sums of money (starting with Moskovitz's multi-billion-dollar fortune) to do the best. The Open Philanthropy Project has since become a separate organization, and continuously increases its annual giving, having made over $170 million in grants in 2018 alone (see Open Philanthropy Project#Grants made for more). Moskowitz is a supporter of using rationality to guide his decision-making.


title: Dustin Moskovitz

text: Moskovitz and Tuna are also the youngest couples to sign Bill Gates and Warren Buffett's Giving Pledge, which commits billionaires to give away most of their wealth in the form of philanthropy.


title: Dustin Moskovitz

text: Moskovitz has voted for the Democratic Party candidates in each election in which he has voted, but he wrote: "Though we've voted for the Democratic nominee each of the times we've cast a ballot, we've considered ourselves independent thinkers who respect candidates and positions from both sides of the aisle." Prior to their donation for the 2016 election cycle, Moskovitz and Tuna had donated roughly $10,000 over their lifetime to federal candidates, most of it to Sean Eldridge, the husband of Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes.


title: Dustin Moskovitz

text: Moskovitz, through his support of the Open Philanthropy Project, has contributed to California YIMBY. The Open Philanthropy Project, mainly funded by Moskovitz and his wife, has donated around $500,000 to the cause.


title: Dustin Moskovitz

text: For the 2016 United States presidential election, Moskovitz announced that he and his wife would donate $20 million to support Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party nominee, arguing that the dangers of a Donald Trump presidency are significant, and that they were making their donation despite being skeptical of allowing large donors to influence election cycles through money. "The New York Times" quoted Moskovitz's blog post on the subject: "The Republican Party, and Donald Trump in particular, is running on a zero-sum vision, stressing a false contest between their constituency and the rest of the world." This made him the third-largest donor in the 2016 campaigns.


title: Dustin Moskovitz

text: For the 2020 United States presidential election, Moskovitz donated $24 million to support the Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden. Asana's own listed contributions for the election cycle, which are almost all directly from Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna, reached around $45 million. This makes Asana the second largest contributor to Biden's presidential campaign after Bloomberg LP.


title: Dustin Moskovitz

text: Moskovitz was also the biggest angel investor in the mobile photo-sharing site Path, run by another former member of Facebook, David Morin. It was reported that Moskovitz's advice was important in persuading Morin to reject a $100 million offer for the company from Google, made in February 2011. In 2020, Moskovitz led a $40 million dollar Series D funding round for fusion power start-up Helion Energy.


title: Dustin Moskovitz

text: Moskovitz and Tuna attend Burning Man regularly, and Moskovitz has written about his reasons for doing so.


title: Dustin Moskovitz

text: Moskovitz is played in the movie "The Social Network" by actor Joseph Mazzello. Responding to a question on Quora, Moskovitz said that the film "emphasizes things that didn't matter (like the Winklevoss brothers, whom I've still never even met and had no part in the work we did to create the site over the past 6 years) and leaves out things that did (like the many other people in our lives at the time, who supported us in innumerable ways)."


title: Compass

text: A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with magnetic north. Other methods may be used, including gyroscopes, magnetometers, and GPS receivers.


title: Compass

text: Compasses often show angles in degrees: north corresponds to 0°, and the angles increase clockwise, so east is 90°, south is 180°, and west is 270°. These numbers allow the compass to show azimuths or bearings which are commonly stated in degrees. If local variation between magnetic north and true north is known, then direction of magnetic north also gives direction of true north.


title: Compass

text: Among the Four Great Inventions, the magnetic compass was first invented as a device for divination as early as the Chinese Han Dynasty (since c. 206 BC), and later adopted for navigation by the Song Dynasty Chinese during the 11th century. The first usage of a compass recorded in Western Europe and the Islamic world occurred around 1190.


title: Compass

text: The magnetic compass is the most familiar compass type. It functions as a pointer to "magnetic north", the local magnetic meridian, because the magnetized needle at its heart aligns itself with the horizontal component of the Earth's magnetic field. The magnetic field exerts a torque on the needle, pulling the North end or "pole" of the needle approximately toward the Earth's North magnetic pole, and pulling the other toward the Earth's South magnetic pole. The needle is mounted on a low-friction pivot point, in better compasses a jewel bearing, so it can turn easily. When the compass is held level, the needle turns until, after a few seconds to allow oscillations to die out, it settles into its equilibrium orientation.


title: Compass

text: In navigation, directions on maps are usually expressed with reference to geographical or true north, the direction toward the Geographical North Pole, the rotation axis of the Earth. Depending on where the compass is located on the surface of the Earth the angle between true north and magnetic north, called magnetic declination can vary widely with geographic location. The local magnetic declination is given on most maps, to allow the map to be oriented with a compass parallel to true north. The locations of the Earth's magnetic poles slowly change with time, which is referred to as geomagnetic secular variation. The effect of this means a map with the latest declination information should be used. Some magnetic compasses include means to manually compensate for the magnetic declination, so that the compass shows true directions.


title: Compass

text: There are other ways to find north than the use of magnetism, and from a navigational point of view a total of seven possible ways exist (where magnetism is one of the seven). Two sensors that use two of the remaining six principles are often also called compasses, i.e. the gyrocompass and GPS-compass.


title: Compass

text: A "gyrocompass" is similar to a gyroscope. It is a non-magnetic compass that finds true north by using an (electrically powered) fast-spinning wheel and friction forces in order to exploit the rotation of the Earth. Gyrocompasses are widely used on ships. They have two main advantages over magnetic compasses:


title: Compass

text: Large ships typically rely on a gyrocompass, using the magnetic compass only as a backup. Increasingly, electronic fluxgate compasses are used on smaller vessels. However, magnetic compasses are still widely in use as they can be small, use simple reliable technology, are comparatively cheap, are often easier to use than GPS, require no energy supply, and unlike GPS, are not affected by objects, e.g. trees, that can block the reception of electronic signals.


title: Compass

text: GPS receivers using two or more antennae mounted separately and blending the data with an inertial motion unit (IMU) can now achieve 0.02° in heading accuracy and have startup times in seconds rather than hours for gyrocompass systems. The devices accurately determine the positions (latitudes, longitudes and altitude) of the antennae on the Earth, from which the cardinal directions can be calculated. Manufactured primarily for maritime and aviation applications, they can also detect pitch and roll of ships. Small, portable GPS receivers with only a single antenna can also determine directions if they are being moved, even if only at walking pace. By accurately determining its position on the Earth at times a few seconds apart, the device can calculate its speed and the true bearing (relative to "true north") of its direction of motion. Frequently, it is preferable to measure the direction in which a vehicle is actually moving, rather than its heading, i.e. the direction in which its nose is pointing. These directions may be different if there is a crosswind or tidal current.


title: Compass

text: GPS compasses share the main advantages of gyrocompasses. They determine true North, as opposed to magnetic North, and they are unaffected by perturbations of the Earth's magnetic field. Additionally, compared with gyrocompasses, they are much cheaper, they work better in polar regions, they are less prone to be affected by mechanical vibration, and they can be initialized far more quickly. However, they depend on the functioning of, and communication with, the GPS satellites, which might be disrupted by an electronic attack or by the effects of a severe solar storm. Gyrocompasses remain in use for military purposes (especially in submarines, where magnetic and GPS compasses are useless), but have been largely superseded by GPS compasses, with magnetic backups, in civilian contexts.


title: Compass

text: The first compasses in ancient Han dynasty China were made of lodestone, a naturally magnetized ore of iron. Later compasses were made of iron needles, magnetized by striking them with a lodestone, which appeared in China by 1088 during the Song Dynasty, as described by Shen Kuo. Dry compasses began to appear around 1300 in Medieval Europe and the Islamic world. This was supplanted in the early 20th century by the liquid-filled magnetic compass.


title: Compass

text: Modern compasses usually use a magnetized needle or dial inside a capsule completely filled with a liquid (lamp oil, mineral oil, white spirits, purified kerosene, or ethyl alcohol are common). While older designs commonly incorporated a flexible rubber diaphragm or airspace inside the capsule to allow for volume changes caused by temperature or altitude, some modern liquid compasses use smaller housings and/or flexible capsule materials to accomplish the same result. The liquid inside the capsule serves to damp the movement of the needle, reducing oscillation time and increasing stability. Key points on the compass, including the north end of the needle are often marked with phosphorescent, photoluminescent, or self-luminous materials to enable the compass to be read at night or in poor light. As the compass fill liquid is noncompressible under pressure, many ordinary liquid-filled compasses will operate accurately underwater to considerable depths.


title: Compass

text: Many modern compasses incorporate a baseplate and protractor tool, and are referred to variously as "orienteering", "baseplate", "map compass" or "protractor" designs. This type of compass uses a separate magnetized needle inside a rotating capsule, an orienting "box" or gate for aligning the needle with magnetic north, a transparent base containing map orienting lines, and a bezel (outer dial) marked in degrees or other units of angular measurement. The capsule is mounted in a transparent baseplate containing a "direction-of-travel" (DOT) indicator for use in taking bearings directly from a map.


title: Compass

text: Other features found on modern orienteering compasses are map and romer scales for measuring distances and plotting positions on maps, luminous markings on the face or bezels, various sighting mechanisms (mirror, prism, etc.) for taking bearings of distant objects with greater precision, gimbal-mounted, "global" needles for use in differing hemispheres, special rare-earth magnets to stabilize compass needles, adjustable declination for obtaining instant true bearings without resorting to arithmetic, and devices such as inclinometers for measuring gradients. The sport of orienteering has also resulted in the development of models with extremely fast-settling and stable needles utilizing rare-earth magnets for optimal use with a topographic map, a land navigation technique known as "terrain association". Many marine compasses designed for use on boats with constantly shifting angles use dampening fluids such as isopar M or isopar L to limit the rapid fluctuation and direction of the needle.


title: Compass

text: The military forces of a few nations, notably the United States Army, continue to issue field compasses with magnetized compass dials or cards instead of needles. A magnetic card compass is usually equipped with an optical, lensatic, or prismatic sight, which allows the user to read the bearing or azimuth off the compass card while simultaneously aligning the compass with the objective (see photo). Magnetic card compass designs normally require a separate protractor tool in order to take bearings directly from a map.


title: Compass

text: The U.S. M-1950 military lensatic compass does not use a liquid-filled capsule as a damping mechanism, but rather electromagnetic induction to control oscillation of its magnetized card. A "deep-well" design is used to allow the compass to be used globally with a card tilt of up to 8 degrees without impairing accuracy. As induction forces provide less damping than fluid-filled designs, a needle lock is fitted to the compass to reduce wear, operated by the folding action of the rear sight/lens holder. The use of air-filled induction compasses has declined over the years, as they may become inoperative or inaccurate in freezing temperatures or extremely humid environments due to condensation or water ingress.


title: Compass

text: Some military compasses, like the U.S. M-1950 (Cammenga 3H) military lensatic compass, the Silva 4b "Militaire", and the Suunto M-5N(T) contain the radioactive material tritium () and a combination of phosphors. The U.S. M-1950 equipped with self-luminous lighting contains 120 mCi (millicuries) of tritium. The purpose of the tritium and phosphors is to provide illumination for the compass, via radioluminescent tritium illumination, which does not require the compass to be "recharged" by sunlight or artificial light. However, tritium has a half-life of only about 12 years, so a compass that contains 120 mCi of tritium when new will contain only 60 when it is 12 years old, 30 when it is 24 years old, and so on. Consequently, the illumination of the display will fade.


title: Compass

text: Mariners' compasses can have two or more magnets permanently attached to a compass card, which moves freely on a pivot. A "lubber line", which can be a marking on the compass bowl or a small fixed needle, indicates the ship's heading on the compass card. Traditionally the card is divided into thirty-two points (known as "rhumbs"), although modern compasses are marked in degrees rather than cardinal points. The glass-covered box (or bowl) contains a suspended gimbal within a binnacle. This preserves the horizontal position.


title: Compass

text: A thumb compass is a type of compass commonly used in orienteering, a sport in which map reading and terrain association are paramount. Consequently, most thumb compasses have minimal or no degree markings at all, and are normally used only to orient the map to magnetic north. An oversized rectangular needle or north indicator aids visibility. Thumb compasses are also often transparent so that an orienteer can hold a map in the hand with the compass and see the map through the compass. The best models use rare-earth magnets to reduce needle settling time to 1 second or less.


title: Compass

text: Small compasses found in clocks, mobile phones, and other electronic devices are solid-state microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) compasses, usually built out of two or three magnetic field sensors that provide data for a microprocessor. Often, the device is a discrete component which outputs either a digital or analog signal proportional to its orientation. This signal is interpreted by a controller or microprocessor and either used internally, or sent to a display unit. The sensor uses highly calibrated internal electronics to measure the response of the device to the Earth's magnetic field.


title: Compass

text: Apart from navigational compasses, other specialty compasses have also been designed to accommodate specific uses. These include:


title: Compass

text: The magnetic compass is very reliable at moderate latitudes, but in geographic regions near the Earth's magnetic poles it becomes unusable. As the compass is moved closer to one of the magnetic poles, the magnetic declination, the difference between the direction to geographical north and magnetic north, becomes greater and greater. At some point close to the magnetic pole the compass will not indicate any particular direction but will begin to drift. Also, the needle starts to point up or down when getting closer to the poles, because of the so-called magnetic inclination. Cheap compasses with bad bearings may get stuck because of this and therefore indicate a wrong direction.


title: Compass

text: Magnetic compasses are influenced by any fields other than Earth's. Local environments may contain magnetic mineral deposits and artificial sources such as MRIs, large iron or steel bodies, electrical engines or strong permanent magnets. Any electrically conductive body produces its own magnetic field when it is carrying an electric current. Magnetic compasses are prone to errors in the neighborhood of such bodies. Some compasses include magnets which can be adjusted to compensate for external magnetic fields, making the compass more reliable and accurate.


title: Compass

text: A compass is also subject to errors when the compass is accelerated or decelerated in an airplane or automobile. Depending on which of the Earth's hemispheres the compass is located and if the force is acceleration or deceleration the compass will increase or decrease the indicated heading. Compasses that include compensating magnets are especially prone to these errors, since accelerations tilt the needle, bringing it closer or further from the magnets.


title: Compass

text: Another error of the mechanical compass is turning error. When one turns from a heading of east or west the compass will lag behind the turn or lead ahead of the turn. Magnetometers, and substitutes such as gyrocompasses, are more stable in such situations.


title: Compass

text: A magnetic rod is required when constructing a compass. This can be created by aligning an iron or steel rod with Earth's magnetic field and then tempering or striking it. However, this method produces only a weak magnet so other methods are preferred. For example, a magnetised rod can be created by repeatedly rubbing an iron rod with a magnetic lodestone. This magnetised rod (or magnetic needle) is then placed on a low friction surface to allow it to freely pivot to align itself with the magnetic field. It is then labeled so the user can distinguish the north-pointing from the south-pointing end; in modern convention the north end is typically marked in some way.


title: Compass

text: If a needle is rubbed on a lodestone or other magnet, the needle becomes magnetized. When it is inserted in a cork or piece of wood, and placed in a bowl of water it becomes a compass. Such devices were universally used as compass until the invention of the box-like compass with a 'dry' pivoting needle sometime around 1300.


title: Compass

text: Originally, many compasses were marked only as to the direction of magnetic north, or to the four cardinal points (north, south, east, west). Later, these were divided, in China into 24, and in Europe into 32 equally spaced points around the compass card. For a table of the thirty-two points, see compass points.


title: Compass

text: In the modern era, the 360-degree system took hold. This system is still in use today for civilian navigators. The degree system spaces 360 equidistant points located clockwise around the compass dial. In the 19th century some European nations adopted the "grad" (also called grade or gon) system instead, where a right angle is 100 grads to give a circle of 400 grads. Dividing grads into tenths to give a circle of 4000 decigrades has also been used in armies.


title: Compass

text: Most military forces have adopted the French "millieme" system. This is an approximation of a milli-radian (6283 per circle), in which the compass dial is spaced into 6400 units or "mils" for additional precision when measuring angles, laying artillery, etc. The value to the military is that one angular mil subtends approximately one metre at a distance of one kilometer. Imperial Russia used a system derived by dividing the circumference of a circle into chords of the same length as the radius. Each of these was divided into 100 spaces, giving a circle of 600. The Soviet Union divided these into tenths to give a circle of 6000 units, usually translated as "mils". This system was adopted by the former Warsaw Pact countries (e.g. Soviet Union, East Germany), often counterclockwise (see picture of wrist compass). This is still in use in Russia.


title: Compass

text: Because the Earth's magnetic field's inclination and intensity vary at different latitudes, compasses are often balanced during manufacture so that the dial or needle will be level, eliminating needle drag which can give inaccurate readings. Most manufacturers balance their compass needles for one of five zones, ranging from zone 1, covering most of the Northern Hemisphere, to zone 5 covering Australia and the southern oceans. This individual zone balancing prevents excessive dipping of one end of the needle which can cause the compass card to stick and give false readings.


title: Compass

text: Some compasses feature a special needle balancing system that will accurately indicate magnetic north regardless of the particular magnetic zone. Other magnetic compasses have a small sliding counterweight installed on the needle itself. This sliding counterweight, called a 'rider', can be used for counterbalancing the needle against the dip caused by inclination if the compass is taken to a zone with a higher or lower dip.


title: Compass

text: Like any magnetic device, compasses are affected by nearby ferrous materials, as well as by strong local electromagnetic forces. Compasses used for wilderness land navigation should not be used in proximity to ferrous metal objects or electromagnetic fields (car electrical systems, automobile engines, steel pitons, etc.) as that can affect their accuracy. Compasses are particularly difficult to use accurately in or near trucks, cars or other mechanized vehicles even when corrected for deviation by the use of built-in magnets or other devices. Large amounts of ferrous metal combined with the on-and-off electrical fields caused by the vehicle's ignition and charging systems generally result in significant compass errors.


title: Compass

text: At sea, a ship's compass must also be corrected for errors, called deviation, caused by iron and steel in its structure and equipment. The ship is "swung", that is rotated about a fixed point while its heading is noted by alignment with fixed points on the shore. A compass deviation card is prepared so that the navigator can convert between compass and magnetic headings. The compass can be corrected in three ways. First the lubber line can be adjusted so that it is aligned with the direction in which the ship travels, then the effects of permanent magnets can be corrected for by small magnets fitted within the case of the compass. The effect of ferromagnetic materials in the compass's environment can be corrected by two iron balls mounted on either side of the compass binnacle in concert with permanent magnets and a Flinders bar. The coefficient formula_1 represents the error in the lubber line, while formula_2 the ferromagnetic effects and formula_3 the non-ferromagnetic component.


title: Compass

text: A similar process is used to calibrate the compass in light general aviation aircraft, with the compass deviation card often mounted permanently just above or below the magnetic compass on the instrument panel. Fluxgate electronic compasses can be calibrated automatically, and can also be programmed with the correct local compass variation so as to indicate the true heading.


title: Compass

text: A magnetic compass points to magnetic north pole, which is approximately 1,000 miles from the true geographic North Pole. A magnetic compass's user can determine true North by finding the magnetic north and then correcting for variation and deviation. Variation is defined as the angle between the direction of true (geographic) north and the direction of the meridian between the magnetic poles. Variation values for most of the oceans had been calculated and published by 1914. Deviation refers to the response of the compass to local magnetic fields caused by the presence of iron and electric currents; one can partly compensate for these by careful location of the compass and the placement of compensating magnets under the compass itself. Mariners have long known that these measures do not completely cancel deviation; hence, they performed an additional step by measuring the compass bearing of a landmark with a known magnetic bearing. They then pointed their ship to the next compass point and measured again, graphing their results. In this way, correction tables could be created, which would be consulted when compasses were used when traveling in those locations.


title: Compass

text: Mariners are concerned about very accurate measurements; however, casual users need not be concerned with differences between magnetic and true North. Except in areas of extreme magnetic declination variance (20 degrees or more), this is enough to protect from walking in a substantially different direction than expected over short distances, provided the terrain is fairly flat and visibility is not impaired. By carefully recording distances (time or paces) and magnetic bearings traveled, one can plot a course and return to one's starting point using the compass alone.


title: Compass

text: Compass navigation in conjunction with a map ("terrain association") requires a different method. To take a map bearing or "true bearing" (a bearing taken in reference to true, not magnetic north) to a destination with a protractor compass, the edge of the compass is placed on the map so that it connects the current location with the desired destination (some sources recommend physically drawing a line). The orienting lines in the base of the compass dial are then rotated to align with actual or true north by aligning them with a marked line of longitude (or the vertical margin of the map), ignoring the compass needle entirely. The resulting "true bearing" or map bearing may then be read at the degree indicator or direction-of-travel (DOT) line, which may be followed as an "azimuth" (course) to the destination. If a "magnetic" north bearing or "compass bearing" is desired, the compass must be adjusted by the amount of magnetic declination before using the bearing so that both map and compass are in agreement. In the given example, the large mountain in the second photo was selected as the target destination on the map. Some compasses allow the scale to be adjusted to compensate for the local magnetic declination; if adjusted correctly, the compass will give the true bearing instead of the magnetic bearing.


title: Compass

text: The modern hand-held protractor compass always has an additional direction-of-travel (DOT) arrow or indicator inscribed on the baseplate. To check one's progress along a course or azimuth, or to ensure that the object in view is indeed the destination, a new compass reading may be taken to the target if visible (here, the large mountain). After pointing the DOT arrow on the baseplate at the target, the compass is oriented so that the needle is superimposed over the orienting arrow in the capsule. The resulting bearing indicated is the magnetic bearing to the target. Again, if one is using "true" or map bearings, and the compass does not have preset, pre-adjusted declination, one must additionally add or subtract magnetic declination to convert the "magnetic bearing" into a "true bearing". The exact value of the magnetic declination is place-dependent and varies over time, though declination is frequently given on the map itself or obtainable on-line from various sites. If the hiker has been following the correct path, the compass' corrected (true) indicated bearing should closely correspond to the true bearing previously obtained from the map.