title: Hokkien

text: Quanzhou was historically the cultural center for Hokkien, as various traditional Hokkien cultural customs such as Nanguan music, Beiguan music, glove puppetry, and the Kaoka (高甲戲) and Lewan (梨園戲) genres of Hokkien opera originated from Quanzhou. This was mainly due to the fact that Quanzhou had become an important trading and commercial port since Tang dynasty and had prospered into an important city. After the Opium War in 1842, Xiamen (Amoy) became one of the major treaty ports to be opened for trade with the outside world. From the mid-19th century onwards, Xiamen slowly developed to become the political and economical center of the Hokkien-speaking region in China. This caused the Amoy dialect to gradually replace the position of dialects from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou. From the mid-19th century until the end of World War II, western diplomats usually learned Amoy as the preferred dialect if they were to communicate with the Hokkien-speaking populace in China or Southeast Asia. In the 1940s and 1950s, Taiwan also tended to incline towards Amoy dialect.


title: Hokkien

text: The retreat of the Republic of China to Taiwan in 1949 drove party leaders to seek to both culturally and politically assimilate the islanders. As a result, laws were passed throughout the 1950s to suppress Hokkien and other languages in favor of Mandarin. By 1956, speaking Hokkien in ROC schools or military bases was illegal. However, popular outcry from both older islander communities and more recent Mainlander immigrants prompted a general wave of education reform, during which these and other education restrictions were lifted. The general goal of assimilation remained, with Amoy Hokkien seen as less ‘native’ and therefore preferred.


title: Hokkien

text: However, from the 1980s onwards, the development of Taiwanese Min Nan pop music and media industry in Taiwan caused the Hokkien cultural hub to shift from Xiamen to Taiwan. The flourishing Taiwanese Min Nan entertainment and media industry from Taiwan in the 1990s and early 21st century led Taiwan to emerge as the new significant cultural hub for Hokkien.


title: Hokkien

text: In the 1990s, marked by the liberalization of language development and mother tongue movement in Taiwan, Taiwanese Hokkien had undergone a fast pace in its development. In 1993, Taiwan became the first region in the world to implement the teaching of Taiwanese Hokkien in Taiwanese schools. In 2001, the local Taiwanese language program was further extended to all schools in Taiwan, and Taiwanese Hokkien became one of the compulsory local Taiwanese languages to be learned in schools. The mother tongue movement in Taiwan even influenced Xiamen (Amoy) to the point that in 2010, Xiamen also began to implement the teaching of Hokkien dialect in its schools. In 2007, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan also completed the standardization of Chinese characters used for writing Hokkien and developed Tai-lo as the standard Hokkien pronunciation and romanization guide. A number of universities in Taiwan also offer Taiwanese degree courses for training Hokkien-fluent talents to work for the Hokkien media industry and education. Taiwan also has its own Hokkien literary and cultural circles whereby Hokkien poets and writers compose poetry or literature in Hokkien.


title: Hokkien

text: Thus, by the 21st century, Taiwan had become one of the most significant Hokkien cultural hubs of the world. The historical changes and development in Taiwan had led Taiwanese Hokkien to become the most influential pole of the Hokkien dialect after the mid-20th century. Today, the Taiwanese prestige dialect (Taiyu Youshiqiang/Tongxinqiang ) is heard on Taiwanese media.


title: Hokkien

text: Hokkien dialects are typically written using Chinese characters (, "Hàn-jī"). However, the written script was and remains adapted to the literary form, which is based on classical Chinese, not the vernacular and spoken form. Furthermore, the character inventory used for Mandarin (standard written Chinese) does not correspond to Hokkien words, and there are a large number of informal characters (, "thè-jī" or "thòe-jī"; 'substitute characters') which are unique to Hokkien (as is the case with Cantonese). For instance, about 20 to 25% of Taiwanese morphemes lack an appropriate or standard Chinese character.


title: Hokkien

text: While most Hokkien morphemes have standard designated characters, they are not always etymological or phono-semantic. Similar-sounding, similar-meaning or rare characters are commonly borrowed or substituted to represent a particular morpheme. Examples include "beautiful" ( "bí" is the literary form), whose vernacular morpheme "suí" is represented by characters like (an obsolete character), (a vernacular reading of this character) and even (transliteration of the sound "suí"), or "tall" ( "ko" is the literary form), whose morpheme "kôan" is . Common grammatical particles are not exempt; the negation particle "m̄" (not) is variously represented by , or , among others. In other cases, characters are invented to represent a particular morpheme (a common example is the character "in", which represents the personal pronoun "they"). In addition, some characters have multiple and unrelated pronunciations, adapted to represent Hokkien words. For example, the Hokkien word "bah" ("meat") has been reduced to the character , which has etymologically unrelated colloquial and literary readings ("he̍k" and "jio̍k", respectively). Another case is the word 'to eat,' "chia̍h", which is often transcribed in Taiwanese newspapers and media as (a Mandarin transliteration, "xiā", to approximate the Hokkien term), even though its recommended character in dictionaries is .


title: Hokkien

text: Moreover, unlike Cantonese, Hokkien does not have a universally accepted standardized character set. Thus, there is some variation in the characters used to express certain words and characters can be ambiguous in meaning. In 2007, the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China formulated and released a standard character set to overcome these difficulties. These standard Chinese characters for writing Taiwanese Hokkien are now taught in schools in Taiwan.


title: Hokkien

text: Hokkien, especially Taiwanese Hokkien, is sometimes written in the Latin script using one of several alphabets. Of these the most popular is POJ, developed first by Presbyterian missionaries in China and later by the indigenous Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. Use of this script and orthography has been actively promoted since the late 19th century. The use of a mixed script of Han characters and Latin letters is also seen, though remains uncommon. Other Latin-based alphabets also exist.


title: Hokkien

text: Min Nan texts, all Hokkien, can be dated back to the 16th century. One example is the "Doctrina Christiana en letra y lengua china", presumably written around 1593 by the Spanish Dominican friars in the Philippines. Another is a Ming dynasty script of a play called "Tale of the Lychee Mirror" (1566), supposedly the earliest Southern Min colloquial text, although it is written in Teochew dialect.


title: Hokkien

text: Taiwan has developed a Latin alphabet for Taiwanese Hokkien, derived from POJ, known as Tai-lo. Since 2006, it has been officially promoted by Taiwan's Ministry of Education and taught in Taiwanese schools. Xiamen University has also developed an alphabet based on Pinyin called Bbánlám pìngyīm.


title: Hokkien

text: When writing Hokkien in Chinese characters, some writers create 'new' characters when they consider it impossible to use directly or borrow existing ones; this corresponds to similar practices in character usage in Cantonese, Vietnamese chữ nôm, Korean hanja and Japanese kanji. Some of these are not encoded in Unicode (or the corresponding ISO/IEC 10646: Universal Character Set), thus creating problems in computer processing.


title: Hokkien

text: All Latin characters required by Pe̍h-ōe-jī can be represented using Unicode (or the corresponding ISO/IEC 10646: Universal Character Set), using precomposed or combining (diacritics) characters. Prior to June 2004, the vowel akin to but more open than "o", written with a dot above right, was not encoded. The usual workaround was to use the (stand-alone; spacing) character "Interpunct" (U+00B7, "·") or less commonly the combining character "dot above" (U+0307). As these are far from ideal, since 1997 proposals have been submitted to the ISO/IEC working group in charge of ISO/IEC 10646—namely, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2—to encode a new combining character "dot above right". This is now officially assigned to U+0358 (see documents N1593, N2507, N2628,


title: Hokkien

text: Hokkien (or Min Nan) can trace its roots through the Tang dynasty and also even further to the people of the Minyue, the indigenous non-Han people of modern-day Fujian. Min Nan (Hokkien) people call themselves "Tang people," () which is synonymous to "Chinese people". Because of the widespread influence of the Tang culture during the great Tang dynasty, there are today still many Min Nan pronunciations of words shared by the Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese languages.


title: Hokkien

text: In 2002, the Taiwan Solidarity Union, a party with about 10% of the Legislative Yuan seats at the time, suggested making Taiwanese a second official language. This proposal encountered strong opposition not only from Mainlander groups but also from Hakka and Taiwanese aboriginal groups who felt that it would slight their home languages. Because of these objections, support for this measure was lukewarm among moderate Taiwan independence supporters, and the proposal did not pass.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: GoldenEye 007 is a 1997 first-person shooter video game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. Based on the 1995 "James Bond" film "GoldenEye", the player controls the secret agent James Bond through a series of levels to prevent a criminal syndicate from using a satellite weapon. In the multiplayer mode, up to four players compete in several deathmatch scenarios via split-screen.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: Development began in 1995 and was handled by an inexperienced team led by Martin Hollis, who had previously worked as a programmer on the coin-op version of "Killer Instinct". It was primarily inspired by Sega's "Virtua Cop" before being redesigned as a free-roaming shooter. After more than two and a half years of development, "GoldenEye 007" was released shortly before the release of the "GoldenEye" sequel "Tomorrow Never Dies". Although it faced low expectations from the gaming media, it sold more than eight million copies, making it the third-best-selling Nintendo 64 game. It received critical acclaim, with praise given to its visuals, gameplay depth and variety, and multiplayer mode. In 1998, it received the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Games Award and four awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: "GoldenEye 007" demonstrated the viability of home consoles as platforms for first-person shooters, and signalled a transition from "Doom"-like shooters to a more realistic style. It pioneered features such as atmospheric single-player missions, stealth elements, and multiplayer console deathmatch. The game is frequently cited as one of the greatest video games of all time, with many of its elements, such as the Klobb gun, having left an enduring impression in video game culture. A spiritual successor, "Perfect Dark", was released in 2000. A remake developed by Eurocom, also titled "GoldenEye 007", was released in 2010. In 2022, a port was announced for Xbox One. In addition, the original Nintendo 64 version is set to be simultaneously re-released on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack in 2023.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: "GoldenEye 007" is a first-person shooter where the player takes the role of Secret Intelligence Service agent James Bond through a series of levels. In each level, the player must complete a set of objectives while computer-controlled opponents try to hinder the player's progress. Objectives range from recovering items to destroying objects, defeating enemies, or rescuing hostages. Some objectives may also require the player to use high-tech gadgets. For example, in one level, the player must use Bond's electromagnetic watch to acquire a jail cell key. Although the player begins each level with a limited amount of supplies, additional weapons and ammunition can be acquired from defeated enemies. There are no health-recovery items, but body armour can be acquired to provide a secondary health bar.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: The game features more than 20 weapons, including pistols, submachine guns, assault rifles, a sniper rifle, grenades, and throwing knives. Most weapons have a finite magazine and must be reloaded after a certain number of shots. Although each weapon has its own characteristics, ammunition is interchangeable between some weapon types. For example, pistols and submachine guns share the same ammunition. Weapons inflict different levels of damage depending on which body part they hit. Head shots cause the most damage, while arm and leg shots inflict the least damage. The Klobb, a submachine gun with a folding stock, possesses a high rate of fire and a wide bullet spread compared to other weapons, but is severely underpowered with a heavy recoil. The Klobb can be dual-wielded for additional firepower. Stealth is often encouraged, as frequent gunfire can alert distant guards and alarms can spawn enemies. Certain weapons incorporate a suppressor or a telescopic sight to aid the player in killing enemies discreetly.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: Each level can be played on three difficulty settings: Agent, Secret Agent, and 00 Agent. These affect aspects such as the damage enemies can withstand and inflict, the amount of ammunition available, and the number of objectives that must be completed. Two bonus levels can be unlocked by completing the game on Special Agent and then on 00 Agent. The player may also replay previously completed levels within target times to unlock bonus cheat options such as infinite ammunition or invincibility. Upon completing the game on the three difficulty settings, an additional mode is unlocked, allowing the player to customise the difficulty of a level by manually adjusting enemies' health, reaction times, aiming accuracy, and the damage they inflict.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: "GoldenEye 007" features a multiplayer mode where up to four players can compete in several deathmatch scenarios via split-screen. These include Normal, You Only Live Twice, The Living Daylights, The Man With the Golden Gun, and Licence to Kill. Normal is a standard mode where players score points by killing opponents. Players can be grouped in teams or compete individually. You Only Live Twice gives players two lives before they are eliminated from the game, resulting in the last surviving player winning the match. In Licence to Kill, players die from a single hit with any weapon. Due to its high rate of fire and wide bullet spread, the Klobb is highly advantageous in this scenario.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: In The Man With the Golden Gun, a single Golden Gun, which is capable of killing opponents with one shot, is placed in a fixed location in the level. Once the Golden Gun is picked up, the only way to re-acquire it is by killing the player holding it. In The Living Daylights, a flag is placed in a fixed location in the level, and the player who holds it the longest wins. The flag carrier cannot use weapons but can collect them to keep opponents from stocking ammunition. Options such as the chosen level, characters to play as, weapons available, and game length can be customised for each scenario. Additional levels and characters can be unlocked as the player progresses through the single-player game.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: In 1986 Arkhangelsk, Soviet Union, MI6 has uncovered a secret chemical weapons facility at the Byelomorye Dam. James Bond and fellow 00-agent Alec Trevelyan are sent to infiltrate the facility and plant explosive charges. During the mission, Trevelyan is shot by General Arkady Ourumov, while Bond escapes by commandeering an aeroplane.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: Five years later in 1991, Bond is sent to investigate a satellite control station in Severnaya, Russia, where programmer Boris Grishenko works. In 1993, Bond investigates an unscheduled test firing of a missile in Kyrgyzstan, believed to be a cover for the launch of a satellite known as GoldenEye. This space-based weapon works by firing a concentrated electromagnetic pulse (EMP) at any Earth target to disable any electrical circuit within range. As Bond leaves the silo, he is ambushed by Ourumov and a squad of Russian troops. Ourumov manages to escape during the encounter.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: In 1995, Bond visits Monte Carlo to investigate the frigate "La Fayette", where he rescues several hostages and plants a tracker bug on the "Pirate" helicopter before it is stolen by the Janus crime syndicate. Bond is then sent a second time to Severnaya, but during the mission, he is captured and locked up in the bunker's cells along with Natalya Simonova, a captive computer programmer unwilling to work with Janus. They both escape the complex seconds before it is destroyed—on the orders of Ourumov—by the GoldenEye satellite's EMP. Bond next travels to Saint Petersburg, where he arranges with ex-KGB agent Valentin Zukovsky to meet the chief of the Janus organisation. This is revealed to be Alec Trevelyan—his execution by Ourumov in the Arkhangelsk facility was faked.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: Bond and Natalya escape from Trevelyan, but are arrested by the Russian police and taken to the military archives for interrogation. Eventually, Bond escapes the interrogation room, rescues Natalya, and communicates with Defence Minister Dimitri Mishkin, who has verified Bond's claim of Ourumov's treachery. Natalya is recaptured by General Ourumov, and Bond gives chase through the streets of St. Petersburg, eventually reaching an arms depot used by Janus. There, Bond destroys its weaponry stores and then hitches a ride on Trevelyan's ex-Soviet missile train, where he kills Ourumov and rescues Natalya. However, Alec Trevelyan and his ally Xenia Onatopp escape to their secret base in Cuba.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: Natalya accompanies Bond to the Caribbean. Surveying the Cuban jungle aerially, their light aircraft is shot down. Unscathed, Bond and Natalya perform a ground search of the area's heavily guarded jungle terrain but are ambushed by Xenia, who is quickly killed by Bond. Bond sneaks Natalya into the control centre to disrupt transmissions to the GoldenEye satellite and force it to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. He then follows the fleeing Trevelyan through a series of flooded caverns, eventually arriving at the antenna of the control centre's radio telescope. Trevelyan attempts to re-align it in a final attempt to restore contact with the GoldenEye, but Bond destroys machinery vital to controlling the antenna and defeats Trevelyan in a gunfight on a platform above the dish.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: "GoldenEye 007" was developed by the British studio Rare and directed by Martin Hollis, who had previously worked as a second programmer on the coin-op version of "Killer Instinct". In November 1994, after Nintendo and Rare discussed the possibility of developing a game based on the upcoming "James Bond" film "GoldenEye", Hollis told Tim Stamper, Rare's managing director, that he was interested in the project. Due to the success of Rare's 1994 game "Donkey Kong Country", "GoldenEye 007" was originally suggested as a 2D platformer for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. However, Hollis proposed a 3D shooting game for the upcoming Nintendo 64 console. He created a document with design ideas, including gadgets, weapons, characters, story digression from the film, and artificial intelligence (AI) that would react to the player.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: Rare named Sega's 1994 light gun shooter "Virtua Cop", id Software's seminal 1993 first-person shooter "Doom" and the Nintendo 64 launch game "Super Mario 64" as influences. Features such as gun reloading, position-dependent hit reaction animations, penalties for killing innocent characters, and the aiming system that is activated with the R button of the Nintendo 64 controller were adopted from "Virtua Cop". The developers considered having players reload weapons by unplugging and re-inserting the Rumble Pak on the controller, but Nintendo opposed the idea. The concept of several varied objectives within each mission was inspired by the multiple tasks in each stage of "Super Mario 64".


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: The team visited the studios of the "GoldenEye" film several times to collect photographs and blueprints of the sets. Eon Productions and MGM, the companies that control the "James Bond" films, granted the team a broad licence, and many levels were extended or modified to allow the player to participate in sequences not seen in the film. Although the reference material was used for authenticity, the team was not afraid to add to it to help the game design. John Woo films such as "Hard Boiled" influenced the visual effects and kinetic moments. Details such as bullet marks on walls, cartridge cases being ejected from guns, and objects exploding were part of the design. Hollis wanted players to receive a lot of feedback from the environment when they shot.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: The team considered implementing both on-rails and free-roaming modes because they did not know how the Nintendo 64 controller would work, and the game's gas plant location was modelled with a predetermined path in mind. A modified Sega Saturn controller was used for some early playtesting. The designers' initial priority was purely on the creation of interesting spaces; level design and balance considerations such as the placement of start and exit points, characters and objectives did not begin until this process was complete. According to Hollis, this unplanned approach gave many levels a realistic and non-linear feel, with several rooms having no direct relevance to a level.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: Work on "GoldenEye 007" began in January 1995 with a team hired by Hollis: programmer Mark Edmonds, background artist Karl Hilton, and character artist B. Jones. Edmonds focused on creating a game engine that could render 3D graphics from art packages into Nintendo 64 data structures. Hilton modelled levels based on the film material, while Jones constructed characters based on photos and costumes they had. Since final Nintendo 64 specifications and development kits were not initially available to Rare, the team had to estimate the finalised console's capabilities using an SGI Onyx workstation and Nintendo's custom NINGEN development software. In the following months, designer Duncan Botwood joined the team to construct the levels. The first year was spent producing art assets and developing the engine, which originally only allowed the player and enemies to move around a virtual environment.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: After the first year of development, Rare added more staff to the project. The first addition was designer David Doak, who helped with the level designs and worked on the AI scripting. He explained how the stealth elements were implemented: "Whenever you fired a gun, it had a radius test and alerted the non-player characters within that radius. If you fired the same gun again within a certain amount of time, it did a larger radius test and I think there was a third even larger radius after that. It meant if you found one guy and shot him in the head and then didn't fire again, the timer would reset." Windows throughout the game were programmed so that enemies cannot see through them. Though unrealistic, this encouraged the player to use windows to spy on enemies.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: Hollis hired a second programmer, Steve Ellies, six months later. Although Ellies assisted the development team in many areas and programmed the cheat options, he was mostly responsible for implementing the multiplayer mode, which was added roughly six months before release. According to Doak, Ellies "sat in a room with all the code written for a single-player game and turned "GoldenEye" into a multiplayer game." The team spent numerous late evenings playtesting it. The multiplayer levels are based on single-player missions and some of them do not support four players because they were initially not designed to handle multiplayer action. A firing range was modelled as an environment, but was not added.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: Because the team assumed they could use anything from the "James Bond" universe, the multiplayer mode features characters that appear in previous "Bond" films. Actors who portrayed Bond in previous films were playable during development, but were removed because Rare was unable to get Sean Connery's permission to use his likeness. Despite their fictional names, most weapons were modelled after real-world firearms such as the Walther PPK, the AK-47, and the FN P90. The Klobb was inspired by the Škorpion, a Czechoslovak submachine gun with a folding stock. Its name was chosen to honor Ken Lobb, who was Rare's Nintendo-side producer and contact at the time. Another weapon, the DD44 Dostovei, was named after Doak's initials. Adrian Smith, the game's third and last artist, who had already worked on some games at Rare, was in charge of producing visual effects such as muzzle flashes and explosions. He mentioned the 1995 film "Heat" as an influence.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: The final Nintendo 64 hardware could render polygons faster than the SGI Onyx workstation the development team had been using. This helped the developers significantly, as some backgrounds rendered at 2 frames per second on the Onyx without even drawing enemies, objects, or Bond's gun. However, the textures had to be cut down by half. Hilton explained one method of improving performance: "A lot of "GoldenEye" is in black and white. RGB colour textures cost a lot more in terms of processing power. You could do double the resolution if you used greyscale, so a lot was done like that. If I needed a bit of colour, I'd add it in the vertex." When "Super Mario 64" was released in 1996, the 3D collision detection system was influential for Hollis because "GoldenEye 007" was originally using a 2D method.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: The music was primarily composed by Graeme Norgate and Grant Kirkhope. Norgate previously penned the music of "Blast Corps", while Kirkhope composed the music of "Donkey Kong Land 2". Robin Beanland, the game's third composer, only wrote the elevator music that can be heard in certain levels. All the sound effects were created by Norgate and a lot of effort was put into combining and permuting sounds in different ways to create a satisfying feel. According to Hollis, whenever the player shoots a gun, up to nine different sound effects will randomly trigger. When the game was reviewed by Nintendo shortly before it was released, the company was slightly concerned about the amount of violence and gunplay. As a result, the team toned down the killing and added an end credits sequence that introduces all the non-player characters, giving the game a filmic sense. The game received a Teen rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: "GoldenEye 007" was released on a 96-megabit cartridge on 25 August 1997. Although this was over a year and a half after the release of the "GoldenEye" film, the game benefited from publicity for the upcoming "James Bond" film "Tomorrow Never Dies". Every cartridge of the game contains a ZX Spectrum emulator with ten Rare developed games. This function was originally made as an experimental side project by Rare and was deactivated in the final version, but has since been unlocked through fan-made patches. The development of "GoldenEye 007" took more than two and a half years to complete and had a budget of US$2 million.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: Despite low expectations among the gaming media and an unsuccessful showing at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Atlanta in 1997, "GoldenEye 007" was a critical and a commercial success. In 1998, it sold approximately 2.1 million copies. By 2001, it had sold over seven million copies worldwide. Overall, "GoldenEye 007" sold more than eight million units worldwide, making it the third-best-selling Nintendo 64 game, behind "Super Mario 64" and "Mario Kart 64". According to a paper published on the website of the Entertainment Software Association, the game grossed $250 million worldwide.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: Graphically, "GoldenEye 007" was praised for its varied and detailed environments, realistic animations, and special effects such as glass transparencies and lingering smoke. "Nintendo Power" said the frame rate in multiplayer games was high, while "Electronic Gaming Monthly" described it as somewhat choppy and sluggish. The zoomable sniper rifle was praised as one of the most impressive and entertaining features, with "Edge" describing it as a "novel twist" and Jeff Gerstmann of "GameSpot" noting its ability to alleviate the distance fog. The music was praised for its inclusion of the "James Bond Theme" and for adding ambience. Some levels begin in lifts and feature transitions from elevator music to full soundtracks, which Gerstmann cited as an illustration of the attention to detail.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: The gameplay was highlighted for its depth and requiring more stealth and intelligence than earlier first-person shooters. IGN's Doug Perry called "GoldenEye 007" an immersive game which "blends smart strategy gameplay with fast-action gunmanship". Similarly, Greg Sewart of Gaming Age remarked that players have "a bit of freedom as to what they want to do in any given situation, and what order the directives are completed in". Reviewers also enjoyed the wide variety of weapons and the multi-objective-based missions, stating that they kept the game fresh. The controls were praised for being more intuitive than Acclaim's earlier well-received Nintendo 64 first-person shooter "", though some found the cursor targeting difficult to master. "GameRevolution" credited the gameplay for being realistic and different from other shooters, but also criticised the campaign for being badly paced. The publication noted that "GoldenEye 007" "takes it for granted that you have already seen the movie" and that players may get stuck due to the game's lack of orientation.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: At the time, "GoldenEye 007" was considered the best multiplayer game on the system, "edging "Mario Kart 64" by a hair" according to IGN. "Edge" called it addictive and praised the originality of some of the scenarios such as You Only Live Twice. "GamePro" said the multiplayer modes "will have you shooting your friends for the rest of the year", while "Next Generation" highlighted the number of multiplayer options, calling "GoldenEye 007" "a surprising killer app, if only for the smashing multiplayer options. The excellent single-player game backing it up makes it well worth buying indeed." The game was also hailed for its accurate and detailed adaptation of the film, with "GamePro" going so far as to call it "one of the best movie-to-game translations ever". The ability to use numerous signature Bond gadgets and weapons was considered a particularly strong element in this regard. Crispin Boyer of "Electronic Gaming Monthly" stated that Rare "has packed everything that's cool about 007 into this game."


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: "GoldenEye 007" received multiple year-end awards, including the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Games Award in 1998, and four awards from the inaugural AIAS Interactive Achievement Awards: Interactive Title of the Year, Console Game of the Year, Console Action Game of the Year, and Outstanding Achievement in Software Engineering; it was also nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Art/Graphics and Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Design. "Electronic Gaming Monthly" named it both Most Addictive Game and Best Movie to Game in their 1998 Video Game Buyer's Guide, and Game of the Year in their Editor's Choice Awards. Rare won the BAFTA award for Best UK Developer.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: "GoldenEye 007" has been credited for proving that it is possible to create a "fun" first-person shooter experience on a home console in both single-player and multiplayer modes—when the game was released, the first-person shooter genre was primarily for PC games. The game opened the genre to the console market, and it has been credited for paving the way for the popularity of "Halo" and "Call of Duty". The game's introduction of a multiplayer deathmatch mode on a console is often credited for having revolutionised the genre, with "Edge" stating that it set the standard for multiplayer console combat until it was surpassed by "" in 2001. "GoldenEye 007" also introduced stealth elements that were unprecedented in first-person shooters. The game's use of realistic gameplay, which contrasted with the approaches taken by "Doom" clones, and its context-sensitive hit locations on enemies added a realism that was previously unseen in video games, although the 1996 "Team Fortress" computer mod for "Quake" had previously introduced headshots. Alongside Shiny Entertainment's 1997 third-person shooter "MDK", "GoldenEye 007" has been credited with pioneering and popularising the now-standard inclusion of scoped sniper rifles in video games.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: "GoldenEye 007" is frequently cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. Shortly after its release in 1997, "Electronic Gaming Monthly" ranked "GoldenEye 007" the 25th best console video game of all time, calling it "easily the best movie game, and, more importantly, the best first-person game ever." In 1999, "Next Generation" editors placed "GoldenEye 007" at No. 10 on their list of Top 50 Games of All Time, commenting, "Marrying "Doom"-style shooting with trademark "Bond" missions, "GoldenEye" is the perfect thinking-man's shooter." In 2000, "Computer and Video Games" readers ranked "GoldenEye 007" first place in the magazine's poll of 100 Greatest Games of All Time, and fifth in a similar poll the following year. In 2001, "Game Informer" ranked the game 16th on its list of Top 100 Games of All Time. In 2004, "Retro Gamer" readers voted "GoldenEye 007" as the 33rd greatest retro game, with editors calling it "easily the best "Bond" game to date." In 2005, "IGN" editors ranked the game 29th on their list of Top 100 Games of All Time, while readers placed it at seventh on a separate list. In 2009, "Official Nintendo Magazine" ranked the game 55th on a list of greatest Nintendo games.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: "Edge" has featured "GoldenEye 007" prominently in several "greatest game" lists. The game was ranked third in a staff-voted poll in 2000, was included as one of the publication's top ten shooters in 2003, and was placed at No. 17 in a staff, reader, and gaming industry-voted poll in 2007. Although "Edge" awarded "GoldenEye 007" a score of 9 out of 10 upon its release, the publication acknowledged in 2013 that the game should have received the highest score. With its eight million copies sold, "GoldenEye 007" was a significant contributor in helping the Nintendo 64 remain competitive against the PlayStation, although Nintendo ultimately lost much of the market share. "GamePro" called "GoldenEye 007" the console killer app of the 1990s and the greatest licensed game from a film of all time, while "Nintendo Power" considered the multiplayer mode one of the greatest multiplayer experiences in Nintendo history.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: In a retrospective analysis, "Nintendo Life" editor Mark Reece gave "GoldenEye 007" eight out of ten, stating that although the multiplayer mode stands up well, its graphics, audio and "fiddly" aiming system are dated. He noted that "GoldenEye 007"s approach to difficulty settings provides considerable replay value, but is a system rarely used in modern first-person shooters. Writing for "NME" on the game's 20th anniversary, journalist Mark Beaumont highlighted the immersive graphics, aesthetic, location-based damage on enemies, and revolutionary multiplayer mode, stating that it "helped to introduce gaming as a group event". In 2011, the game was selected as one of 80 games from the past 40 years to be placed in the Art of Video Games exhibit in the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: The Klobb has been retrospectively described by critics as a memorable aspect of the gameplay of "GoldenEye 007", albeit for its negative traits; despite its high rate of fire, it deals a low amount of damage and is extremely inaccurate. In a contemporaneous review, "Edge" remarked that the ability to dual-wield the Klobb is one of the most satisfying moments, and argued that it is likely to be remembered by players unlike the vast majority of video game weapons. In their view, imperfection adds both realism and unpredictability to a game, and that the moments created by this were something that designers were beginning to realize were just as valuable as creating a "perfect" weapon. Simon Parkin of "Eurogamer" noted the naming of the Klobb as one of the first times that issues arose over using real-life gun names for in-game weapons, as "GoldenEye 007" was one of the first console games to feature 3D firearms. Parkin noted that while the invented gun names were "acceptable in the fictional universe of "James Bond"", he emphasized that "for those games based around real armed forces, the inclusion of brand names was necessary to remain faithful to the source material." The gun was included in the video game "Too Human" as "KLOBB", due to Ken Lobb's association with the game's developers, Silicon Knights.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: An Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) remaster was in development at Rare for several months in 2008. The remaster was set to add several new features, including online multiplayer and the ability to toggle between the original and updated graphics. Though it reportedly needed only two more months of development before it was finished, the remaster was cancelled because Nintendo, MGM, and Microsoft, which acquired Rare in 2002, were unable to come to a licensing agreement. According to Rare's Ross Bury, Mark Edmonds, and Chris Tilston, Rare began developing the remaster in late 2006, shortly after the Stamper brothers had left Rare and after the company had completed "Perfect Dark Zero" and "Kameo". Microsoft had suggested that "GoldenEye 007" would be appropriate for XBLA, leading Rare to start on the remaster prior to getting Nintendo's permission, believing it would not have been a problem because "GoldenEye 007" was one of the most popular Nintendo 64 games. Rare had completed the conversion and removed most of the bugs before they learned that Nintendo had not cleared it. This halted development until negotiation on rights could be discussed, which ultimately fell through. In January 2021, a full playthrough of a prototype of the XBLA version was streamed to YouTube, showcasing improved graphics running at 60 frames per second. Later, a near-final playable ROM image of the XBLA game was leaked online from an unknown source.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: In January 2022, achievements for an Xbox One version of "GoldenEye 007" were leaked. In June 2022, the same leaked achievements were seen on Xbox servers. "VGC" and "Eurogamer" reported that the leaked achievements suggested an official release was imminent. The Xbox One version was formally announced in September 2022, alongside a rerelease of the original Nintendo 64 version for Nintendo Switch through Nintendo Switch Online. Players who digitally purchased Rare's 2015 Xbox One compilation "Rare Replay" will receive the game for free. The Xbox One release supports 4K resolution displays, but does not include any of the enhancements from the canceled XBLA remaster. The Switch release is the only one to feature online multiplayer, via the Nintendo Switch Online emulator's built-in online multiplayer functionality.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: After "GoldenEye 007" was released, Rare began development of a spiritual successor, "Perfect Dark". Using an upgraded version of the "GoldenEye 007" game engine, "Perfect Dark" was released for the Nintendo 64 in 2000. Although the game features a setting and storyline unrelated to "James Bond", it shares many gameplay features, including a similar control scheme, mission objectives that vary with difficulty settings, and cheat options unlockable through quick level completions. While "Perfect Dark" was still in development, Martin Hollis left Rare to work as a consultant on the development of the GameCube at Nintendo of America. Other members of the "GoldenEye 007" team also left the studio to form Free Radical Design. The company developed the "TimeSplitters" series of first-person shooters. These games contain several references to "GoldenEye 007", including the design of the health-HUD, the nature of the aiming system, and the Russian dam setting of the opening level of "TimeSplitters 2".


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: After forming a partnership with MGM in late 1998, Electronic Arts published games based on then-recent "James Bond" films, "Tomorrow Never Dies" and "The World Is Not Enough", as well as entirely original ones, including "", "", "" and "". Although Nintendo considered the possibility of bringing "GoldenEye 007" to the Wii's Virtual Console in 2006, the game was never released for the platform due to legal issues involving the numerous licence holders with rights to the game and to the "James Bond" intellectual property. In 2006, the "James Bond" game licence was acquired by Activision. Activision published more games, including "", "" and a 2010 remake of "GoldenEye 007""." The remake features Daniel Craig as the playable character, contemporary first-person shooter conventions, new level layouts, and online multiplayer. Activision lost the "James Bond" game licence in 2014.


title: GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)

text: In 2010, an independent development team released "", a multiplayer-only total conversion mod that runs on the Source engine. "GoldenEye 007" had initially been intended for inclusion in "Rare Replay"; a behind-the-scenes featurette for the compilation was produced, but was not released until being leaked in 2019. A fan remake powered by Unreal Engine 4, "GoldenEye 25", was in development and originally scheduled for a 2022 release in honour of the game's 25th anniversary, but it was retooled into an original property called "S.P.I.E.S." after MGM sent a cease and desist letter to the developers.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: A semi-trailer truck, also known as a semitruck, (or semi, eighteen-wheeler, big rig, tractor-trailer or, by synecdoche, a semitrailer) is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer attaches to the tractor with a type of hitch called a fifth wheel.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: The noticeable difference between tractor units in Europe and North America is that almost all European models are cab over engine (called "forward control" in the UK), while the majority of North American trucks are "conventional" (called "normal control" or "bonneted" in the UK). European trucks, whether straight trucks or fully articulated, have a sheer face on the front. This allows shorter trucks with longer trailers (with larger freight capacity) within the legal maximum total length. Furthermore, it offers greater maneuverability in confined areas, a more balanced weight-distribution, and better overall view for the driver. The major disadvantage is that for repairs on COE trucks, the entire cab has to hinge forward to allow maintenance access.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: In Europe, usually only the driven tractor axle has dual wheels, while single wheels are used for every other axle on the tractor and the trailer. The most common combination used in Europe is a semi tractor with two axles and a cargo trailer with three axles, one of which is sometimes a lift axle, giving 5 axles and 12 wheels in total. This format is now common across Europe as it is able to meet the EU maximum weight limit of without overloading any axle. Individual countries have raised their own weight limit. The U.K., for example, has a limit, an increase achieved by adding an extra axle to the tractor, usually in the form of a middle unpowered lifting axle (midlift) with a total of 14 wheels. The lift axles used on both tractors and trailers allow the trucks to remain legal when fully loaded (as weight per axle remains within the legal limits); on the other hand, these axle set(s) can be raised off the roadway for increased maneuverability or for reduced fuel consumption and tire wear when carrying lighter loads. Although lift axles usually operate automatically, they can be lowered manually even while carrying light loads, in order to remain within legal (safe) limits when, for example, navigating back-road bridges with severely restricted axle loads. For greater detail, see the United Kingdom section, below.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: When using a dolly, which generally has to be equipped with lights and a license plate, rigid trucks can be used to pull semi-trailers. The dolly is equipped with a fifth wheel to which the trailer is coupled. Because the dolly attaches to a pintle hitch on the truck, maneuvering a trailer hooked to a dolly is different from maneuvering a fifth wheel trailer. Backing the vehicle requires the same technique as backing an ordinary truck/full trailer combination, though the dolly/semi setup is probably longer, thus requiring more space for maneuvering. The tractor/semi-trailer configuration is rarely used on timber trucks since they use the two major advantages of having the weight of the load on the drive wheels, and the loader crane used to lift the logs from the ground can be mounted on the rear of the truck behind the load, allowing a short (lightweight) crane to reach both ends of the vehicle without uncoupling. Also, construction trucks are more often seen in a rigid + midaxle trailer configuration instead of the tractor/semi-trailer setup.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: The maximum overall length in the EU and EEA member states was with a maximum weight of if carrying an ISO container. However, rules limiting the semi-trailers to and 18.75 m are met with trucks carrying a standardized body with one additional 7.82 m body on tow as a trailer. truck combinations were developed under the branding of "EcoCombi" which influenced the name of "EuroCombi" for an ongoing standardization effort where such truck combinations shall be legal to operate in all jurisdictions of the European Economic Area. With the 50% increase in cargo weight, the fuel efficiency increases with an average of 20% with a corresponding relative decrease in carbon emissions and with the added benefit of one third fewer trucks on the road. The 1996 EU regulation defines a Europe Module System (EMS) as it was implemented in Sweden. The wording of EMS combinations and EuroCombi are now used interchangeably to point to truck combinations as specified in the EU document; however, apart from Sweden and Finland, the EuroCombi is only allowed to operate on specific roads in other EU member states. Since 1996 Sweden and Finland formally won a final exemption from the European Economic Area rules with 60 tonne and combinations. From 2006, 25.25 m truck trailer combinations are to be allowed on restricted routes within Germany, following a similar (on-going) trial in The Netherlands. Similarly, Denmark has allowed 25.25 m combinations on select routes. These vehicles will run a weight limit. Two types are to be used: 1) a 26-tonne truck pulling a dolly and semi-trailer, or 2) an articulated tractor unit pulling a B-double, member states gained the ability to adopt the same rules. In Italy the maximum permitted weight (unless exceptional transport is authorized) is 44 tonnes for any kind of combination with five axles or more. Czech Republic has allowed 25.25 m combinations with a permission for a selected route.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Denmark and Norway allow trucks (Denmark from 2008, and Norway from 2008 on selected routes). In Sweden, the allowed length has been since 1967. Before that, the maximum length was unlimited; the only limitations were on axle load. What stopped Sweden from adopting the same rules as the rest of Europe, when securing road safety, was the national importance of a competitive forestry industry. Finland, with the same road safety issues and equally important forestry industry, followed suit. The change made trucks able to carry three stacks of cut-to-length logs instead of two, as it would be in a short combination. They have one stack together with a crane on the 6×4 truck, and two additional stacks on a four axle trailer. The allowed gross weight in both countries is up to depending on the distance between the first and last axle.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: In the negotiations starting in the late 1980s preceding Sweden and Finland's entries to the European Economic Area and later the European Union, they insisted on exemptions from the EU rules citing environmental concerns and the transportation needs of the logging industry. In 1995, after their entry to the union, the rules changed again, this time to allow trucks carrying a standard CEN unit of to draw a standard semi-trailer on a dolly, a total overall length of 25.25 m. Later, B-double combinations came into use, often with one container on the B-link and a container (or two containers) on a semi-trailer bed. In allowing the longer truck combinations, what would take two semi-trailer trucks and one truck and trailer to haul on the continent now could be handled by just two 25.25 m trucks – greatly reducing overall costs and emissions. Prepared since late 2012 and effective in January 2013, Finland has changed its regulations to allow total maximum legal weight of a combination to be . At the same time the maximum allowed height would be increased by ; from current maximum of to . The effect this major maximum weight increase would cause to the roads and bridges in Finland over time is strongly debated.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: However, longer and heavier combinations are regularly seen on public roads; special permits are issued for special cargo. The mining company Boliden AB have a standing special permit for combinations on select routes between mines in the inland and the processing plant in Boliden, taking a load of ore. Volvo has a special permit for a , steering B-trailer-trailer combination carrying two containers to and from Gothenburg harbour and the Volvo Trucks factory, all on the island of Hisingen. Another example is the ongoing project "En Trave Till" (lit. "One more pile/stack") started in December 2008. It will allow even longer vehicles to further rationalize the logging transports. As the name of the project points out, it will be able to carry four stacks of timber, instead of the usual three. The test is limited to Norrbotten county and the European route E4 between the timber terminal in Överkalix and the sawmill in Munksund (outside Piteå). The vehicle is a long truck trailer combination with a gross weight exceeding . It is estimated that this will give a 20% lower cost and 20-25% emissions reduction compared to the regular truck combinations. As the combination spreads its weight over more axles, braking distance, road wear and traffic safety is believed to be either the same or improved with the truck-trailer. In the same program two types of combinations will be tested in Dalsland and Bohuslän counties in western Sweden: an enhanced truck and trailer combination for use in the forest and a b-double for plain highway transportation to the mill in Skoghall. In 2012, the Northland Mining company received permission for combinations with normal axle load (an extra dolly) for use on the Kaunisvaara-Svappavaara route, carrying iron ore.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: , the longest and heaviest truck in everyday use in Finland is operated by transport company Ketosen Kuljetus as part of a pilot project studying transport efficiency in the timber industry. The combined vehicle is long, has 13 axles, and weighs a total of .


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Starting from Jan 21 2019 the Government of Finland changed the maximum allowed length of truck from . New types of vehicle combinations that differ from the current standards may also be used on the road. The requirements for combinations also include camera systems for side visibility, an advanced emergency braking and lane detector system, electronic driving stability system and electronically controlled brakes.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: In the United Kingdom, a semi-trailer truck is known as an 'articulated lorry' (or colloquially as an 'artic'). The maximum permitted gross weight of a semi-trailer truck without the use of a Special Type General Order (STGO) is . In order for a 44,000 kg semi-trailer truck to be permitted on UK roads the tractor and semi-trailer must have three or more axles each. Lower weight semi-trailer trucks can mean some tractors and trailer having fewer axles. In practice, as with double decker buses and coaches in the UK, there is no legal height limit for semi-trailer trucks; however, bridges over do not have the height marked on them. Semi-trailer trucks in continental Europe have a height limit of . Vehicles heavier than 44,000 kg are permitted on UK roads but are indivisible loads, which would be classed as abnormal (or oversize). Such vehicles are required to display an STGO (Special Types General Order) plate on the front of the tractor unit and, under certain circumstances, are required to travel by an authorized route and have an escort.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Most UK trailers are long and, dependent on the position of the fifth wheel and kingpin, a coupled tractor unit and trailer will have a combined length of between . Although the Construction and Use Regulations allow a maximum rigid length of , this, combined with a shallow kingpin and fifth wheel set close to the rear of the tractor unit, can give an overall length of around .


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: In January 2012, the Department for Transport began conducting a trial of longer semi-trailers. The trial involves 900 semi-trailers of in length (i.e. longer than the current maximum), and a further 900 semi-trailers of in length (i.e. longer). This will result in the total maximum length of the semi-trailer truck being for trailers in length, and for trailers long. The increase in length will not result in the weight limit being exceeded and will allow some operators to approach the weight limit which may not have been previously possible due to the previous length of trailers. The trial will run for a maximum of 10 years. Providing certain requirements are fulfilled, a Special Types General Order (STGO) allows for vehicles of any size or weight to travel on UK roads. However, in practice, any such vehicle has to travel by a route authorized by the Department of Transport and move under escort. The escort of abnormal loads in the UK is now predominantly carried out by private companies, but extremely large or heavy loads that require road closures must still be escorted by the police.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: In the UK, some semi-trailer trucks have eight tires on three axles on the tractor; these are known as six-wheelers or "six leggers," with either the center or rear axle having single wheels which normally steer as well as the front axle and can be raised when not needed (i.e. when unloaded or only a light load is being carried; an arrangement known as a TAG axle when it is the rear axle, or mid-lift when it is the center axle). Some trailers have two axles which have twin tires on each axle; other trailers have three axles, of which one axle can be a lift axle which has super-single wheels. In the UK, two wheels bolted to the same hub are classed as a single wheel, therefore a standard six-axle articulated truck is considered to have twelve wheels, even though it has twenty tires. The UK also allows semi-trailer truck which have six tires on two axles; these are known as four-wheelers.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: In 2009, the operator Denby Transport designed and built a B-Train (or B-Double) semi-trailer truck called the Denby Eco-Link to show the benefits of such a vehicle, which were a reduction in road accidents and result in fewer road deaths, a reduction in emissions due to the one tractor unit still being used and no further highway investment being required. Furthermore, Denby Transport asserted that two Eco-Links would replace three standard semi-trailer trucks while, if limited to the current UK weight limit of , it was claimed the Eco-Link would reduce carbon emissions by 16% and could still halve the number of trips needed for the same amount of cargo carried in conventional semi-trailer trucks. This is based on the fact that for light but bulky goods such as toilet paper, plastic bottles, cereals and aluminum cans, conventional semi-trailer trucks run out of cargo space before they reach the weight limit. At , as opposed to usually associated with B-Trains, the Eco-Link also exerts less weight per axle on the road compared to the standard six-axle semi-trailer truck.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: The vehicle was built after Denby Transport believed they had found a legal-loophole in the present UK law to allow the Eco-Link to be used on the public roads. The relevant legislation concerned the 1986 Road Vehicles Construction and Use Regulations. The 1986 regulations state that "certain vehicles" may be permitted to draw more than one trailer and can be up to . The point of law reportedly hinged on the definition of a "towing implement", with Denby prepared to argue that the second trailer on the Eco-Link was one. The Department for Transport were of the opinion that this refers to recovering a vehicle after an accident or breakdown, but the regulation does not explicitly state this.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: During BTAC performance testing the Eco-Link was given an "excellent" rating for its performance in maneuverability, productivity, safety and emissions tests, superseding ordinary semi-trailer trucks in many respects. Reportedly, private trials had also shown the Denby vehicle had a 20% shorter stopping distance than conventional semi-trailer trucks of the same weight, due to having extra axles. The active steer system meant that the Eco-Link had a turning circle of , the same as a conventional semi-trailer truck.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Although the Department for Transport advised that the Eco-Link was not permissible on public roads, Denby Transport gave the Police prior warning of the timing and route of the test drive on the public highway, as well as outlining their position in writing to the Eastern Traffic Area Office. On 1 December 2009 Denby Transport were preparing to drive the Eco-Link on public roads, but this was cut short because the Police pulled the semi-trailer truck over as it left the gates in order to test it for its legality "to investigate any... offenses which may be found". The Police said the vehicle was unlawful due to its length and Denby Transport was served with a notice by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) inspector to remove the vehicle from the road for inspection. Having returned to the yard, Denby Transport was formally notified by Police and VOSA that the semi-trailer truck could not be used. Neither the Eco-Link, nor any other B-Train, have since been permitted on UK roads. However, this prompted the Department for Transport to undertake a desk study into semi-trailer trucks, which has resulted in the longer semi-trailer trial which commenced in 2012.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: In North America, the combination vehicles made up of a powered semi-tractor and one or more semitrailers are known as "semis", "semitrailers", "tractor-trailers", "big rigs", "semi-trucks", "eighteen-wheelers", or "semi-tractor-trailers".


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: The tractor unit typically has two or three axles; those built for hauling heavy-duty commercial-construction machinery may have as many as five, some often being lift axles.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: The most common tractor-cab layout has a forward engine, one steering axle, and two drive axles. The fifth-wheel trailer coupling on most tractor trucks is movable fore and aft, to allow adjustment in the weight distribution over its rear axle(s).


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Ubiquitous in Europe but less common in North America since the 1990s, is the cabover engine configuration, where the driver sits next to or over the engine. With changes in the US to the maximum length of the combined vehicle, the cabover was largely phased out of North American over-the-road (long-haul) service by 2007. Cabovers were difficult to service; for a long time, the cab could not be lifted on its hinges to a full 90-degree forward tilt, severely limiting access to the front of the engine.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: , a truck could cost , while the diesel fuel cost could be $70,000 per year. Trucks average from , with fuel economy standards requiring better than efficiency by 2014. Power requirements in standard conditions are 170 hp at or 280 hp at , and somewhat different power usage in other conditions.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: The cargo trailer usually has tandem axles at the rear, each of which has dual wheels, or eight tires on the trailer, four per axle. In the US it is common to refer to the number of wheel hubs, rather than the number of tires; an axle can have either single or dual tires with no legal difference. The combination of eight tires on the trailer and ten tires on the tractor is what led to the moniker "eighteen wheeler", although this term is considered by some truckers to be a misnomer (the term "eighteen-wheeler" is a nickname for a five-axle over-the-road combination). Many trailers are equipped with movable tandem axles to allow adjusting the weight distribution.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: To connect the second of a set of doubles to the first trailer, and to support the front half of the second trailer, a converter gear known as a "dolly" is used. This has one or two axles, a fifth-wheel coupling for the rear trailer, and a tongue with a ring-hitch coupling for the forward trailer. Individual states may further allow longer vehicles, known as "longer combination vehicles" (or LCVs), and may allow them to operate on roads other than Interstates.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Future long combination vehicles under consideration and study for the US MAP-21 transportation bill are container doubles. These combinations are under study for potential recommendation in November 2014:


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: The US federal government, which only regulates the Interstate Highway System, does not set maximum length requirements (except on auto and boat transporters), only minimums. Tractors can pull two or three trailers if the combination is legal in that state. Weight maximums are on a single axle, on a tandem, and total for any vehicle or combination. There is a maximum width of and no maximum height.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Roads other than Interstates are regulated by individual states, and laws vary widely. Maximum weight varies between to , depending on the combination. Most states restrict operation of larger tandem trailer setups such as triple units, turnpike doubles, and Rocky Mountain doubles. Reasons for limiting the legal trailer configurations include safety concerns and the impracticality of designing and constructing roads that can accommodate the larger wheelbase of these vehicles and the larger minimum turning radii associated with them. In general, these configurations are restricted to the Interstates. Except for these units, double setups are not restricted to certain roads any more than a single setup. They are also not restricted by weather conditions or "difficulty of operation". The Canadian province of Ontario, however, does have weather-related operating restrictions for larger tandem trailer setups.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Australian road transport has a reputation for using very large trucks and road trains. This is reflected in the most popular configurations of trucks generally having dual drive axles and three axles on the trailers, with four tires on each axle. This means that Australian single semi-trailer trucks will usually have 22 tires, which is generally more than their counterparts in other countries. Super single tires are sometimes used on tri-axle trailers. The suspension is designed with travel limiting, which will hold the rim off the road for one blown or deflated tyre for each side of the trailer, so a trailer can be driven at reduced speed to a safe place for repair. Super singles are also often used on the steer axle in Australia to allow greater loading over the steer axle. The increase in loading of steer tires requires a permit.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Long haul transport usually operates as B-doubles with two trailers (each with three axles), for a total of nine axles (including steering). In some lighter duty applications only one of the rear axles of the truck is driven, and the trailer may have only two axles. From July 2007, the Australian Federal and State Governments allowed the introduction of B-triple trucks on a specified network of roads. B-Triples are set up differently from conventional road trains. The front of their first trailer is supported by the turntable on the prime mover. The second and third trailers are supported by turntables on the trailers in front of them. As a result, B-Triples are much more stable than road trains and handle exceptionally well. True road trains only operate in remote areas, regulated by each state or territory government.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: In total, the maximum length that any articulated vehicle may be (without a special permit and escort) is , its maximum load may be up to 164 tonnes gross, and may have up to four trailers. However, heavy restrictions apply to the areas where such a vehicle may travel in most states. In remote areas such as the Northern Territory great care must be taken when sharing the road with longer articulated vehicles that often travel during the daytime, especially four-trailer road trains.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Articulated trucks towing a single trailer or two trailers (commonly known as "short doubles") with a maximum overall length of are referred to as "General access heavy vehicles" and are permitted in all areas, including metropolitan. B-doubles are limited to a maximum total weight of 62.5 tonnes and overall length of , or if they are fitted with approved FUPS (Front Underrun Protection System) devices. B-doubles may only operate on designated roads, which includes most highways and some major metropolitan roads. B-doubles are very common in all parts of Australia including state capitals and on major routes they outnumber single trailer configurations.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Maximum width of any vehicle is and a height of . In the past few years, allowance has been made by several states to allow certain designs of heavy vehicles up to high but they are also restricted to designated routes. In effect, a 4.6 meter high B-double will have to follow two sets of rules: they may access only those roads that are permitted for B-doubles "and" for 4.6 meter high vehicles.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: In Australia, both conventional prime movers and cabovers are common, however, cabovers are most often seen on B-doubles on the eastern seaboard where the reduction in total length allows the vehicle to pull longer trailers and thus more cargo than it would otherwise.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: New Zealand legislation governing truck dimensions falls under the Vehicle Dimensions and Mass Rules, published by NZ Transport Agency. New rules were introduced effective 1 February 2017, which increased the maximum height, width and weight of loads and vehicles, to simplify regulations, increase the amount of freight carried by road, and to improve the range of vehicles and trailers available to transport operators.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Common combinations in New Zealand are a standard semi-trailer, a B-double, or a rigid towing vehicle pulling a trailer with a drawbar, with a maximum of nine axles. Standard maximum vehicle lengths for trailers with one axle set are:


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: High-productivity motor vehicle (HPMV) permits are issued for vehicles exceeding 44 tonnes, or the above dimensions. Trucks up to 62 tonnes were allowed, with an initial bridge strengthening program costing $12.5m.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: The cargo trailer is, by means of a king pin, hooked to a horseshoe-shaped quick-release coupling device called a fifth wheel or a turntable hitch at the rear of the towing engine that allows easy hook up and release. The truck trailer cannot move by itself because it only has wheels at the rear end: it requires a forward axle, provided by the towing engine, to carry half the load weight. When braking hard at high speeds, the vehicle has a tendency to fold at the pivot point between the towing vehicle and the trailer. Such a truck accident is called a "trailer swing", although it is also commonly described as a "jackknife." Jackknifing is a condition where the tractive unit swings round against the trailer, and not vice versa.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Semi trucks use air pressure, rather than hydraulic fluid, to actuate the brake. The use of air hoses allows for ease of coupling and uncoupling of trailers from the tractor unit. The most common failure is "brake fade", usually caused when the drums or discs and the linings of the brakes overheat from excessive use.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: The parking brake of the tractor unit and the emergency brake of the trailer are spring brakes that require air pressure in order to be released. They are applied when air pressure is released from the system, and disengaged when air pressure is supplied. This is a fail-safe design feature which ensures that if air pressure to either unit is lost, the vehicle will stop to a grinding halt, instead of continuing without brakes and becoming uncontrollable. The trailer controls are coupled to the tractor through two "gladhand connectors", which provide air pressure, and an electrical cable, which provides power to the lights and any specialized features of the trailer.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: "Glad-hand connectors" (also known as "palm couplings") are air hose connectors, each of which has a flat engaging face and retaining tabs. The faces are placed together, and the units are rotated so that the tabs engage each other to hold the connectors together. This arrangement provides a secure connection but allows the couplers to break away without damaging the equipment if they are pulled, as may happen when the tractor and trailer are separated without first uncoupling the air lines. These connectors are similar in design to the ones used for a similar purpose between railroad cars. Two air lines typically connect to the trailer unit. An "emergency" or "main" air supply line pressurizes the trailer's air tank and disengages the emergency brake, and a second "service" line controls the brake application during normal operation.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: In the UK, male/female quick release connectors ("red line" or emergency), have a female on the truck and male on the trailer, but a "yellow line" or service has a male on the truck and female on the trailer. This avoids coupling errors (causing no brakes) plus the connections will not come apart if pulled by accident. The three electrical lines will fit one way around a primary black, a secondary green, and an ABS lead, all of which are collectively known as "suzies" or "suzie coils".


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Another braking feature of semi-trucks is engine braking, which could be either a compression brake (usually shortened to "Jake brake") or exhaust brake or combination of both. However, the use of compression brake alone produces a loud and distinctive noise, and to control noise pollution, some local municipalities have prohibited or restricted the use of engine brake systems inside their jurisdictions, particularly in residential areas. The advantage to using engine braking instead of conventional brakes is that a truck can descend a long grade without overheating its wheel brakes. Some vehicles can also be equipped with hydraulic or electric retarders which have an advantage of near silent operation.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Because of the wide variety of loads the semi may carry, they usually have a manual transmission to allow the driver to have as much control as possible. However, all truck manufacturers now offer automated manual transmissions (manual gearboxes with automated gear change), as well as conventional hydraulic automatic transmissions.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Semi-truck transmissions can have as few as three forward speeds or as many as 18 forward speeds (plus 2 reverse speeds). A large number of transmission ratios means the driver can operate the engine more efficiently. Modern on-highway diesel engines are designed to provide maximum torque in a narrow RPM range (usually 1200-1500 RPM); having more gear ratios means the driver can hold the engine in its optimum range regardless of road speed (drive axle ratio must also be considered).


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: A ten-speed manual transmission, for example, is controlled via a six-slot H-box pattern, similar to that in five-speed cars — five forward and one reverse gear. Gears six to ten (and high-speed reverse) are accessed by a Lo/High range splitter; gears one to five are Lo range; gears six to ten are High range using the same shift pattern. A Super-10 transmission, by contrast, has no range splitter; it uses alternating "stick and button" shifting (stick shifts 1-3-5-7-9, button shifts 2-4-6-8-10). The 13-, 15-, and 18-speed transmissions have the same basic shift pattern but include a splitter button to enable additional ratios found in each range. Some transmissions may have 12 speeds.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Another difference between semi-trucks and cars is the way the clutch is set up. On an automobile, the clutch pedal is depressed full stroke to the floor for every gear shift, to ensure the gearbox is disengaged from the engine. On a semi-truck with constant-mesh transmission (non-synchronized), such as by the Eaton Roadranger series, not only is double-clutching required, but a clutch brake is required as well. The clutch brake stops the rotation of the gears and allows the truck to be put into gear without grinding when stationary. The clutch is pressed to the floor only to allow a smooth engagement of low gears when starting from a full stop; when the truck is moving, the clutch pedal is pressed only far enough to break torque for gear changes.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Theoretically, semi-trucks could have diesel-electric transmission, as electric motors have better torque at 0 RPM than diesel engines, but this would increase the weight of the cabin itself, at the expense of the cargo weight.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: An electrical connection is made between the tractor and the trailer through a cable often referred to as a "pigtail". This cable is a bundle of wires in a single casing. Each wire controls one of the electrical circuits on the trailer, such as running lights, brake lights, turn signals, etc. A straight cable would break when the rig went around corners, so a coiled cable is used which retracts these coils when not under tension. It is these coils that cause the cable to look like a pigtail.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Although dual wheels are the most common, use of two single, wider tires, known as "super singles", on each axle is becoming popular among bulk cargo carriers and other weight-sensitive operators. With increased efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the use of the super-single tire is gaining popularity. There are several advantages to this configuration. The first of these is that super singles reduce fuel consumption. In 1999, tests on an oval track showed a 10% fuel savings when super singles were used. These savings are realized because less energy is wasted flexing fewer tire sidewalls. Second, the lighter overall tire weight allows a truck to be loaded with more freight. The third advantage is that the single wheel encloses less of the brake unit, which allows faster cooling and reduces brake fade.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: One of the major disadvantages of the super singles is that they are currently not as widely available as a standard tire. In addition, if a tire should become deflated or be destroyed, there is not another tire attached to the same hub to maintain the dynamic stability of the vehicle, as would be the case with dual wheels. With dual wheels, the remaining tire may be overloaded, but it will typically allow the vehicle to be safely stopped or driven to a repair facility.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: In Europe, super singles became popular when the allowed weight of semitrailer rigs was increased from 38 to 40 tonnes. In this reform the trailer industry replaced two axles with dual wheels, with three axles on wide-base single wheels. The significantly lower axle weight on super singles must be considered when comparing road wear from single versus dual wheels. The majority of super singles sold in Europe have a width of . The standard 385 tires have a legal load limit of . (Note that expensive, specially reinforced 385 tires approved for do exist. Their market share is tiny, except for mounting on the steer axle.)


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: An innovation rapidly growing in popularity is the skirted trailer. The space between the road and the bottom of the trailer frame was traditionally left open until it was realized that the turbulent air swirling under the trailer is a major source of aerodynamic drag. Three split skirt concepts were verified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide fuel savings greater than 5%, and four split skirt concepts had EPA-verified fuel savings between 4% and 5%.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Skirted trailers are often combined with Underrun Protection Systems ("underride guards"), greatly improving safety for passenger vehicles sharing the road.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Underride protection systems can be installed at the rear, front and sides of a truck and the rear and sides of a trailer. A Rear Underrun Protection System (RUPS) is a rigid assembly hanging down from trailer's chassis, which is intended to provide some protection for passenger cars which collide with the rear of the trailer. Public awareness of this safeguard was increased in the aftermath of the accident that killed actress Jayne Mansfield on 29 June 1967, when the car she was in hit the rear of a tractor-trailer, causing fatal head trauma. After her death, the NHTSA recommended requiring a rear underride guard, also known as a "Mansfield bar", an "ICC bar", or a "DOT bumper".


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: The bottom rear of the trailer is near head level for an adult seated in a car, and without the underride guard, the only protection for such an adult's head in a rear-end collision would be the car's windshield and A pillars. The front of the car goes under the platform of the trailer rather than making contact via the passenger car bumper, so the car's protective crush zone becomes irrelevant and air bags are ineffective in protecting the passengers. The underride guard provides a rigid area for the car to contact that is lower than the lip of the bonnet/hood, preventing the vehicle from squatting and running under the truck and ensuring that the vehicle's crush zones and engine block absorb the force of the collision.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: In addition to rear underride guards, truck tractor cabs may be equipped with a Front Underrun Protection System (FUPS) at the front bumper of the truck, if the front end is not low enough for the bumper to provide the adequate protection on its own. The safest tractor-trailers are also equipped with side underride guards, also called Side Underrun Protection System (SUPS). These additional barriers prevent passenger cars from skidding underneath the trailer from the side, such as in an oblique or side collision, or if the trailer jackknifes across the road, and helps protect cyclists, pedestrians and other vulnerable road users.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: In Europe, side and rear underrun protection are mandated on all lorries and trailers with a gross weight of or more. Several US states and cities have adopted or are in the process of adopting truck side guards, including New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington DC. The NTSB has recommended that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) develop standards for side underride protection systems for trucks, and for newly manufactured trucks to be equipped with technology meeting the standards.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: In addition to safety benefits, these underride guards may improve fuel mileage by reducing air turbulence under the trailer at highway speeds. Another benefit of having a sturdy rear underride guard is that it may be secured to a loading dock with a hook to prevent "trailer creep", a movement of the trailer away from the dock, which opens up a dangerous gap during loading or unloading operations.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Truck drivers in Australia require an endorsed license. These endorsements are gained through training and experience. The minimum age to hold an endorsed license is 18 years, and/or must have held open (full) driver's license for minimum 12 months.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: In order to obtain an HC License the driver must have held an MR or HR license for at least 12 months. To upgrade to an MC License the driver must have held a HR or HC license for at least 12 months. From licenses MR and upward there is also a B Condition which may apply to the license if testing in a synchromesh or automatic transmission vehicle. The B Condition may be removed upon the driver proving the ability to drive a constant mesh transmission using the clutch. "Constant mesh transmission refers to "crash box" transmissions, predominantly Road Ranger eighteen-speed transmissions in Australia."


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Regulations vary by province. A license to operate a vehicle with air brakes is required (i.e., normally a Class I, II, or III commercial license with an "A" or "S" endorsement in provinces other than Ontario). In Ontario, a "Z" endorsement is required to drive any vehicle using air brakes; in provinces other than Ontario, the "A" endorsement is for air brake operation only, and an "S" endorsement is for both operation and adjustment of air brakes. Anyone holding a valid Ontario driver's license (i.e., excluding a motorcycle license) with a "Z" endorsement can legally drive any air-brake-equipped truck-trailer combination with a registered- or actual-gross-vehicle-weight (i.e., including towing- and towed-vehicle) up to 11 tonnes, that includes one trailer weighing no more than 4.6 tonnes if the license falls under the following three classes: Class E (school bus—maximum 24-passenger capacity or ambulance), F (regular bus—maximum 24-passenger capacity or ambulance) or G (car, van, or small-truck).


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: A Class B (any school bus), C (any urban-transit-vehicle or highway-coach), or D (heavy trucks other than tractor-trailers) license enables its holder to drive any truck-trailer combination with a registered- or actual-gross-vehicle-weight (i.e., including towing- and towed-vehicle) greater than 11 tonnes, that includes one trailer weighing no more than 4.6 tonnes. Anyone holding an Ontario Class A license (or its equivalent) can drive any truck-trailer combination with a registered- or actual-gross-vehicle-weight (i.e., including towing- and towed-vehicles) greater than 11 tonnes, that includes one or more trailers weighing more than 4.6 tonnes.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: A category CE driving licence is required to drive a tractor-trailer in Europe. Category C (Γ in Greece) is required for vehicles over , while category E is for heavy trailers, which in the case of trucks and buses means any trailer over . Vehicles over —which is the maximum limit of B license—but under can be driven with a C1 license. Buses require a D (Δ in Greece) license. A bus that is registered for no more than 16 passengers, excluding the driver, can be driven with a D1 license.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: In New Zealand, drivers of heavy vehicles require specific licenses, termed as classes. A Class 1 license ("car license") will allow the driving of any vehicle with Gross Laden Weight (GLW) or Gross Combination Weight (GCW) of or less. For other types of vehicles the classes are separately licensed as follows:


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Further information on the New Zealand licensing system for heavy vehicles can be found at the New Zealand Transport Agency.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: The Road Traffic Security Rules () require a combination vehicle driver license () to drive a combination vehicle (). These rules define a combination vehicle as a motor vehicle towing a heavy trailer, i.e., a trailer with a gross weight of more than .


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Drivers of semi-trailer trucks generally require a Class A commercial driver's license (CDL) to operate any combination vehicles with a gross combination weight rating (or GCWR) in excess of if the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the towed vehicle(s) is in excess of . Some states (such as North Dakota) provide exemptions for farmers, allowing non-commercial license holders to operate semis within a certain air-mile radius of their reporting location. State exemptions, however, are only applicable in intrastate commerce; stipulations of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) may be applied in interstate commerce. Also a person under the age of 21 cannot operate a commercial vehicle outside the state where the commercial license was issued. This restriction may also be mirrored by certain states in their intrastate regulations. A person must be at least 18 in order to be issued a commercial license.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Modern day semi-trailer trucks often operate as a part of a domestic or international transport infrastructure to support containerized cargo shipment.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: Various types of rail flat bed train cars are modified to hold the cargo trailer or container with wheels or without. This is called "Intermodal" or "piggyback". The system allows the cargo to switch from highway to railway or vice versa with relative ease by using gantry cranes.


title: Semi-trailer truck

text: The large trailers pulled by a tractor unit come in many styles, lengths, and shapes. Some common types are: vans, reefers, flatbeds, sidelifts and tankers. These trailers may be refrigerated, heated, ventilated, or pressurized, depending on climate and cargo. Some trailers have movable wheel axles that can be adjusted by moving them on a track underneath the trailer body and securing them in place with large pins. The purpose of this is to help adjust weight distribution over the various axles, to comply with local laws.


title: Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin

text: Joseph Stalin, second leader of the Soviet Union, died on 5 March 1953 at his Kuntsevo Dacha at the age of 74, after suffering a stroke. He was given a state funeral in Moscow on 9 March, with four days of national mourning declared. The day of the funeral, hundreds or thousands of citizens present in the area to pay their respects died in a human crush.


text: Stalin's body was embalmed and interred in Lenin's and Stalin's Mausoleum until 1961, when it was moved to the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. The members of Stalin's inner circle in charge of organizing his funeral were Nikita Khrushchev, Lavrentiy Beria, Georgy Malenkov and Vyacheslav Molotov.


text: Stalin's health deteriorated towards the end of World War II. He had atherosclerosis as a result of heavy smoking, a mild stroke around the time of the Victory Parade in May 1945, and a severe heart attack in October 1945.


text: The last three days of Stalin's life have been described in detail, first in the official Soviet announcements in Pravda, and then in a complete English translation which followed shortly thereafter in the Current Digest of the Soviet Press. Decades later, former senior officer and historian Dmitry Volkogonov described how, on 28 February 1953, Stalin and a small number of his inner circle, consisting of Beria, Khrushchev, Malenkov, Molotov and a few others, gathered together for an evening of entertainment and drinking. The guests dispersed at approximately 4:00 a.m. on 1 March and Stalin retired to his private quarters with strict instructions that he was not to be disturbed until sounds were heard indicating that he had awakened. Time passed and no sounds were heard throughout the day. At approximately 11:00 p.m. on 1 March, his housekeeper cautiously entered his room and found him lying on the floor, wearing his pajama trousers and a shirt. He was unconscious, breathing heavily, incontinent, and unresponsive to attempts to rouse him.


text: At 7:00 a.m. on 2 March, Beria and a group of medical experts were summoned to examine him. Based on their examination, which revealed blood pressure of 190/110 and right-sided hemiplegia, they concluded that Stalin, who had a known history of uncontrolled hypertension, had sustained a hemorrhagic stroke involving the left middle cerebral artery. Over the next two days, he received a variety of treatments. In an attempt to decrease his blood pressure, which had risen to 210/120, two separate applications of eight leeches each were applied to his neck and face over the next two days. However, his condition continued to deteriorate and he died at 9:50 p.m. on 5 March 1953.


text: Stalin's body was then taken to an unspecified location and an autopsy performed, after which it was embalmed for public viewing. Attempts to locate and access the original autopsy report had been unsuccessful until the 2010s, but the most important findings were reported in a special bulletin in Pravda on 7 March 1953, as follows:


text: As summarized above, rather than suggesting a plot by Beria, on whom suspicion fell for his purportedly telling Molotov "I took him out" at one point, and his seemingly willful delay in obtaining medical treatment for Stalin, the physical changes seen during autopsy were consistent with extracranial changes that often occur in stroke victims.


text: Lavrenti Beria's son, Sergio Beria, later recounted that after Stalin's death, his mother Nina informed her husband that "Your position now is even more precarious than when Stalin was alive." This turned out to be correct; several months later, in June 1953, Beria was arrested and charged with a variety of crimes but, significantly, none relating to Stalin's death. He was subsequently found guilty of treason, terrorism and counter-revolutionary activity by the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union on 23 December 1953, and executed the same day, shot by General Pavel Batitsky (later Marshal of the Soviet Union).


text: On 6 March, the coffin with Stalin's body was put on display at the Hall of Columns in the House of the Unions, remaining there for three days. On 9 March, the body was delivered to Red Square prior to interment in Lenin's Mausoleum (where it would lie in state until 1961). Speeches were delivered by Khrushchev, Malenkov, Molotov, and Beria, after which pallbearers carried the coffin to the mausoleum. As Stalin's body was being interred, a moment of silence was observed nationwide at noon Moscow time. As the bells of the Kremlin tower chimed the hour, sirens and horns wailed nationwide, along with a 21-gun salute fired from within the precincts of the Kremlin. Similar observances were also held in other Eastern Bloc countries including China, Mongolia and North Korea. Immediately after the silence ended, a military band played the Soviet State Anthem, and then a military parade of the Moscow Garrison was held in Stalin's honor. In the public's efforts to pay their respects to Stalin, a number of people were crushed and trampled to death. Khrushchev later provided an estimate that 109 people died in the crowd, although the real number of deaths may have been in the thousands.


text: According to "Ogoniok", the mourners included the following foreign dignitaries (listed alphabetically by last name):


text: Czechoslovak leader Gottwald died shortly after attending Stalin's funeral, on 14 March 1953, after one of his arteries burst.


text: Fearing their departure might encourage rivals within the ranks of the Party of Labour of Albania, neither Prime Minister Enver Hoxha nor Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu risked traveling to Moscow to attend the funeral, with Hoxha instead pledging eternal allegiance to the late Soviet leader.


text: Guatemalan officials in the government of Jacobo Árbenz eulogized Stalin as a "great statesman and leader ... whose passing is mourned by all progressive men". The Guatemalan Congress paid tribute to Stalin with a "minute of silence".


text: After the death of Stalin on March 5, 1953, Patriarch Alexy I composed a personal statement of condolence to the USSR's Council of Ministers. It read, "His death is a heavy grief for our Fatherland and for all the people who inhabit it. The whole Russian Orthodox Church, which will never forget his benevolent attitude to Church needs, feels great sorrow at his death. The bright memory of him will live ineradicably in our hearts. Our Church proclaims eternal memory to him with a special feeling of abiding love."


title: Archetype

text: The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis.


title: Archetype

text: Archetypes are also very close analogies to instincts, in that, long before any consciousness develops, it is the impersonal and inherited traits of human beings that present and motivate human behavior. They also continue to influence feelings and behavior even after some degree of consciousness developed later on.


title: Archetype

text: The word "archetype", "original pattern from which copies are made," first entered into English usage in the 1540s. It derives from the Latin noun "archetypum", latinisation of the Greek noun ("archétypon")"," whose adjective form is ("archétypos"), which means "first-molded", which is a compound of "archḗ", "beginning, origin", and "týpos", which can mean, amongst other things, "pattern", "model", or "type". It, thus, referred to the beginning or origin of the pattern, model or type.


title: Archetype

text: Usage of archetypes in specific pieces of writing is a holistic approach, which can help the writing win universal acceptance. This is because readers can relate to and identify with the characters and the situation, both socially and culturally. By deploying common archetypes contextually, a writer aims to impart realism to their work. According to many literary critics, archetypes have a standard and recurring depiction in a particular human culture or the whole human race that ultimately lays concrete pillars and can shape the whole structure in a literary work.


title: Archetype

text: Christopher Booker, author of "The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories", argues that the following basic archetypes underlie all stories:


title: Archetype

text: Archetypal literary criticism argues that archetypes determine the form and function of literary works and that a text's meaning is shaped by cultural and psychological myths. Cultural archetypes are the unknowable basic forms personified or made concrete by recurring images, symbols, or patterns (which may include motifs such as the "quest" or the "heavenly ascent"; recognizable character types such as the "trickster", "saint", "martyr" or the "hero"; symbols such as the apple or the snake; and imagery) and that have all been laden with meaning prior to their inclusion in any particular work.


title: Archetype

text: The archetypes reveal shared roles universal among societies, such as the role of the mother in her natural relations with all members of the family. These archetypes create a shared imagery which is defined by many stereotypes that have not separated themselves from the traditional, biological, religious, and mythical framework.


title: Archetype

text: The origins of the archetypal hypothesis date as far back as Plato. Plato's "eidos", or "ideas", were pure mental forms that were imprinted in the soul before it was born into the world. Some philosophers also translate the archetype as "essence" in order to avoid confusion with respect to Plato's conceptualization of Forms. While it is tempting to think of Forms as mental entities (ideas) that exist only in our mind, the philosopher insisted that they are independent of any minds (real). Eidos were collective in the sense that they embodied the fundamental characteristics of a thing rather than its specific peculiarities. In the seventeenth century, Sir Thomas Browne and Francis Bacon both employ the word "archetype" in their writings; Browne in "The Garden of Cyrus" (1658) attempted to depict archetypes in his usage of symbolic proper-names.