title: Mesoamerican ballgame

text: In Maya Ballgame the Hero Twins myth links ballcourts with death and its overcoming. The ballcourt becomes a place of transition, a liminal stage between life and death. The ballcourt markers along the centerline of the Classic playing field depicted ritual and mythical scenes of the ballgame, often bordered by a quatrefoil that marked a portal into another world. The Twins themselves, however, are usually absent from Classic ballgame scenes, with the Classic forerunner of Vucub Caquix of the Copán ball court, holding the severed arm of Hunahpu, as an important exception.


title: Mesoamerican ballgame

text: No ballcourt has yet been identified at Teotihuacan, making it by far the largest Classic era site without one. In fact, the ballgame seems to have been nearly forsaken not only in Teotihuacan, but in areas such as Matacapan or Tikal that were under Teotihuacano influence.


title: Mesoamerican ballgame

text: Despite the lack of a ballcourt, ball games were not unknown there. The murals of the Tepantitla compound at Teotihuacan show a number of small scenes that seem to portray various types of ball games, including:


title: Mesoamerican ballgame

text: It has been hypothesized that, for reasons as yet unknown, the stick-game eclipsed the hip-ball game at Teotihuacan and at Teotihuacan-influenced cities, and only after the fall of Teotihuacan did the hip-ball game reassert itself.


title: Mesoamerican ballgame

text: The Aztec version of the ballgame is called "ōllamalitzli" (sometimes spelled "ullamaliztli") and are derived from the word "ōlli" "rubber" and the verb "ōllama" or "to play ball". The ball itself was called "ōllamaloni" and the ballcourt was called a "tlachtli" . In the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan the largest ballcourt was called "Teotlachco" ("in the holy ballcourt")—here several important rituals would take place on the festivals of the month Panquetzalitzli, including the sacrifice of four war captives to the honor of Huitzilopochtli and his herald Paynal.


title: Mesoamerican ballgame

text: For the Aztecs, the playing of the ballgame also had religious significance, but where the 16th-century K´iche´ Maya saw the game as a battle between the lords of the underworld and their earthly adversaries, their Aztec contemporaries may have seen it as a battle of the sun, personified by Huitzilopochtli, against the forces of night, led by the moon and the stars, and represented by the goddess Coyolxauhqui and Coatlicue's sons the 400 Huitznahuah. But apart from holding important ritual and mythical meaning, the ballgame for the Aztecs was a sport and a pastime played for fun, although in general, the Aztec game was a prerogative of the nobles.


title: Mesoamerican ballgame

text: Young Aztecs would be taught ballplaying in the calmecac school—and those who were most proficient might become so famous that they could play professionally. Games would frequently be staged in the different city wards and markets—often accompanied by large-scale betting. Diego Durán, an early Spanish chronicler, said that "these wretches... sold their children in order to bet and even staked themselves and became slaves".


title: Mesoamerican ballgame

text: Since the rubber tree "Castilla elastica" was not found in the highlands of the Aztec Empire, the Aztecs generally received balls and rubber as tribute from the lowland areas where it was grown. The "Codex Mendoza" gives a figure of 16,000 lumps of raw rubber being imported to Tenochtitlan from the southern provinces every six months, although not all of it was used for making balls.


title: Mesoamerican ballgame

text: In 1528, soon after the Spanish conquest, Cortés sent a troupe of "ōllamanime" (ballplayers) to Spain to perform for Charles V where they were drawn by the German Christoph Weiditz. Besides the fascination with their exotic visitors, the Europeans were amazed by the bouncing rubber balls.


title: Mesoamerican ballgame

text: Ballcourts, monuments with ballgame imagery and ballgame paraphernalia have been excavated at sites along the Pacific coast of Guatemala and El Salvador including the Cotzumalhuapa nuclear zone sites of Bilbao and El Baúl and sites right at the southeast periphery of the Mesoamerican region such as Quelepa.


title: Mesoamerican ballgame

text: Batey, a ball game played on many Caribbean islands including Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the West Indies, has been proposed as a descendant of the Mesoamerican ballgame, perhaps through the Maya.


title: Irma Vep

text: Irma Vep is a 1996 French comedy-drama film written and directed by Olivier Assayas. Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung plays a fictionalised version of herself, as disasters result when an unstable French film director (played by Jean-Pierre Léaud) attempts to remake Louis Feuillade's classic silent film serial "Les Vampires" (1915–16). ("Irma Vep" is an anagram for the word ""vampire"".) Taking place largely through the eyes of a foreigner (Cheung), it is also a meditation on the state of the French film industry.


title: Irma Vep

text: The plot mirrors the disorientation felt by director René Vidal during a troubled production of a film-within-a-film. Maggie Cheung has been cast to play the film's heroine, Irma Vep, a burglar and a spy, who dresses in a tight, black, latex rubber catsuit. Irma Vep, it is explained, is an anagram for "vampire", but she is not a literal vampire. Rather, she is the inspiration for a criminal gang named The Vampires, as in Feuillade's original serial.


title: Irma Vep

text: René, the cast and crew view the film's dailies and he angrily declares the footage terrible and soulless. After he storms out, everyone else quickly departs the facility, leaving Maggie stranded. She accepts an invitation from the costume designer, Zoé, to a group dinner with other crew members. There, Zoé confides to another woman that she is romantically interested in Maggie, which the woman then tells Maggie, embarrassing her.


title: Irma Vep

text: After the dinner with the other crew members, Maggie visits René at a hotel in the aftermath of a violent episode with his wife. René admits that he had mainly wanted to make the film because he desired to see her in it. Later that evening, Maggie, apparently possessed by her character, dons the catsuit and steals jewelry from a hotel suite while a nude woman argues on the phone with her boyfriend. She then throws away the jewelry.


title: Irma Vep

text: The next morning, Zoé picks an exhausted Maggie up from her hotel room. René is a no-show on the set, and the crew attempt to film without him. At the end of the day, imperious film director José Mirano meets Maggie's costar Laure at a bar and tells her René has had a breakdown and that he has been hired to complete the film. He firmly contends that a Chinese actress should not be playing Irma Vep, who he sees as an icon within French culture. José tells her he intends to replace Maggie with Laure.


title: Irma Vep

text: Zoé and Maggie take a taxi to a rave, but Maggie declines to go at the last minute and departs in the taxi. Zoé, looking disappointed, walks through the crowd at the rave.


title: Irma Vep

text: José and the cast and crew gather at the screening facility to view the rushes that René has personally edited. Maggie is not there, however, and it is said that she has left for America to work on a film with Ridley Scott. The film ends with the rushes, which have been cut into a hallucinatory montage with numerous scratches and other modifications being done to the film itself. The future of the production is not revealed.


title: Irma Vep

text: The film refers to iconic figures in French film history: Louis Feuillade, Musidora, Arletty, François Truffaut, the Groupe SLON, Alain Delon, and Catherine Deneuve. Thematically, the film questions the place of French cinema today. According to Chris Darke, it is not a "mourning for cinema with the romantic nostalgia" but "more like the Mexican Day of the Dead: remembrance as an act of celebration". Furthermore, Dale Hudson of "Screen" wrote, "It is less a film about re-presenting the past, than it is a film about addressing the present, specifically the place of France within the global economy."


title: Irma Vep

text: The idea for the film was born out of an attempted collaboration among Assayas, Claire Denis, and Atom Egoyan, who wanted to experiment with the situation of a foreigner in Paris. In the 1915 original serial, written and directed by Louis Feuillade, Irma Vep was played by French silent film actress Musidora (1889–1957). Much of the film depicts set-related incidents that echo scenes in Truffaut's 1973 film "Day for Night", to which "Irma Vep" owes a large thematic debt.


title: Irma Vep

text: However, Assayas publicly stated that although he considers "La nuit americaine" a great film, it is more about the fantasy of filmmaking than the reality. Assayas credits as a greater inspiration Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "Beware of a Holy Whore", in which Lou Castel, who plays the replacement director José Mirano in this film, plays a film director.


title: Irma Vep

text: Assayas wrote the script in ten weeks, and the film was shot in a month, with no retakes. "Its hasty production circumstances seem perilously close to the ones that cause everyone such grief in the film."


title: Irma Vep

text: Assayas married Cheung in 1998. They divorced in 2001. They again collaborated in 2004 on the film "Clean".


title: Irma Vep

text: "Irma Vep" received a positive critical response. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 93% based on 46 reviews with an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Starring a bewitching Maggie Cheung, "Irma Vep" is an evocative and reflexive satire of the filmmaking process that is bursting at the seams with an affection for cinema." On Metacritic, it has a metascore of 80 out of 100 based on 21 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Irma Vep

text: Lettrist footage from the film, along with shots from the original "Les Vampires", are used in White Ring's video for their single "IxC999".


title: Irma Vep

text: A character in the five-comic series "Anno Dracula – 1895: Seven Days in Mayhem" by Kim Newman and Paul McCaffrey is based on Irma Vep.


title: Irma Vep

text: HBO produced a limited television series adaptation of the film that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 22 May 2022, and was released on 6 June 2022 on HBO. It stars Alicia Vikander, Vincent Macaigne, Adria Arjona, Byron Bowers, Devon Ross, Carrie Brownstein, Tom Sturridge and Fala Chen and was written and directed by Assayas.


title: Saint Croix

text: Saint Croix ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States.


title: Saint Croix

text: St. Croix is the largest of the islands in the territory, while the capital Charlotte Amalie is located on St. Thomas. As of the 2020 United States Census, St. Croix’s population was 41,004. The island's highest point is Mount Eagle, at . St. Croix's nickname is "Twin City", for its two towns, Frederiksted on the western end and Christiansted on the northeast part of the island.


title: Saint Croix

text: The island's indigenous Taino name is "Ay Ay" ("the river"). Its indigenous Carib name is "Cibuquiera" ("the stony land"). Its modern name, "Saint Croix", is derived from the French "Sainte-Croix", itself a translation of the Spanish name "Isla de la Santa Cruz" (meaning "island of the Holy Cross"), given by Columbus in 1493. The French name was partially retained under Danish rule as "Sankt Croix", and the island was finally given its current spelling following the US takeover in 1917. The associated demonym for the island is Crucian or Cruzan, derived from the original Spanish name.


title: Saint Croix

text: Igneri pottery indicates that people's presence on the island from 1 to 700, followed by the Taíno from 700 to 1425, before the encroachment by the Caribs in 1425. However, the island was devoid of habitation by 1590.


title: Saint Croix

text: The island was inhabited by various indigenous groups during its prehistory. Christopher Columbus landed on Santa Cruz (Holy Cross), as he called it, on 14 November 1493, and immediately was attacked by the Kalinago, who lived at Salt River on the north shore. This is the first recorded fight between the Spanish and a New World native population, and Columbus gave the battle site the name "Cabo de la Flecha" (Cape of the Arrow). The Spanish never colonized the Islands, but most or all of the native population was eventually dispersed or killed. By the end of the 16th century, the islands were said to be uninhabited.


title: Saint Croix

text: Dutch and English settlers landed at Saint Croix in 1625, joined by some French refugees from Saint Kitts. However, the English expelled the Dutch and French settlers, before they themselves were evicted by a Spanish invasion from Puerto Rico in August 1650. The Spanish occupation was short-lived, since a French force of 166 men attacked, and in the following year 1651 had established a colony of 300 on the island. From 1651 until 1664, the Knights of Malta (at the time a vassal state of the Kingdom of Sicily), ruled the island in the name of Louis XIV. The island then passed to the French West India Company. The colony was evacuated to San Domingo in 1695, when France battled the English and Dutch in the War of the Grand Alliance. The island then lay uninhabited and abandoned for another 38 years.


title: Saint Croix

text: In 1725, St. Thomas Governor Frederik Moth encouraged the Danish West Indies Company's directors to consider purchasing Santa Cruz (Saint Croix). On 15 June 1733, France and Denmark-Norway concluded a treaty by which the Danish West India Company bought Saint Croix for 750,000 livres. Louis XV ratified the treaty on 28 June, and received half the payment in French coins, with the remaining half paid in 18 months. On 16 November 1733, Moth was named the first Danish governor of Saint Croix. The 1742 census lists 120 sugar plantations, 122 cotton plantations, and 1906 slaves, compared to 360 whites on the island. By 1754, the number of slaves had grown to 7,566. That year, King Frederick took direct control of Saint Croix from the company.


title: Saint Croix

text: For nearly 200 years, Saint Croix, St. Thomas and St. John were known as the Danish West Indies. By the mid to late 18th century, "at the peak of the plantation economy, the enslaved population of Saint Croix numbered between 18,000 and 20,000, the white population ranging between 1,500 and 2,000".


title: Saint Croix

text: Future Founding Father Alexander Hamilton and his brother lived with their mother Rachel Faucette on Saint Croix, after she returned to the island in 1765. Their residence was in the upper floor of a house at 34 Company Street, while Rachel used the lower floor as a shop selling food items. Within two years, however, Hamilton lost his father, James Hamilton, by abandonment, and his mother to death. Official documents from the island, a 1768 probate court testimony from his uncle, established Alexander's age at 13. By 1769, Hamilton's cousin, aunt, uncle, and grandmother had also died. His brother James became an apprentice carpenter, and Alexander Hamilton became the ward of Thomas Stevens, a merchant on King Street. Hamilton was soon clerking in the export-import business of Beekman and Cruger, at the intersection of King and King's Cross Streets. In 1772, local businessmen funded Hamilton's further education in New York.


title: Saint Croix

text: The slave trade was abolished in the Danish colonies in 1792, although the prohibition did not go into effect until the end of 1802. Existing enslaved people were freed in 1848, after the 1848 St. Croix Slave Revolt led by General "Buddhoe" Gottlieb.


title: Saint Croix

text: The British occupation of the Danish West Indies took place at the end of March 1801, with the arrival of a British fleet at St Thomas. Denmark-Norway accepted the Articles of Capitulation and the British occupied the islands without a shot being fired. Their occupation lasted only until April 1802, when Britain returned the islands to Denmark-Norway.


title: Saint Croix

text: A second British invasion of the Danish West Indies took place in December 1807, when a British fleet captured St Thomas on 22 December, and Saint Croix on 25 December. Denmark-Norway did not resist and the invasion again was bloodless. This occupation lasted until 20 November 1815. Both invasions were due to Denmark's alliance with France during the Napoleonic Wars. On the conclusion of a peace with France, the islands were returned to Denmark.


title: Saint Croix

text: In 1916, Denmark sold Saint Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John to the United States, formalizing the transfer in the Treaty of the Danish West Indies, in exchange for a sum of US$25 million in gold. In a national referendum on the issue, 64.2% of Danish voters approved the sale. An unofficial referendum held in the islands resulted in 99.83% vote in favor of the purchase. Formal transfer of the islands to the U.S. took place on 1 April 1917.


title: Saint Croix

text: The island's inhabitants were granted United States citizenship in 1927. Industrialization of the island and its move away from an agrarian society took place in the 1960s. The 1972 Fountain Valley massacre, a mass shooting during a robbery at a golf club, led to a devastating reduction in tourism that lasted many years. The 2012 shutdown of the Hovensa refinery resulted in the loss of many jobs. Agriculture has seen a slow resurgence, due to an increase in demand for local produce and agricultural products.


title: Saint Croix

text: In 1989, Hurricane Hugo struck the island with Category 4 winds. The United States Army, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the United States Marshals Service were ordered in to restore order.


title: Saint Croix

text: Category 5 Hurricane Maria's weaker outer eyewall crossed St. Croix in September 2017; sustained winds reached over 150 mph and gusted up to 250 mph in some places on the western end of the island. Maria damaged or destroyed 70% of the buildings on St. Croix, including schools and the island's only hospital.


title: Saint Croix

text: Saint Croix lies at . The easternmost point in the United States of America in the western hemisphere is Saint Croix's Point Udall. The island has an area of . The terrain is rugged, though not extremely so. The highest point on the island, Mount Eagle, is high. Most of the east end is quite hilly and steep, as is the north side from Christiansted west. From the north-side hills, a fairly even plain slopes down to the south coast; this was cultivated as the prime sugar land on the island.


title: Saint Croix

text: The trade wind blows more or less along the length of the island. The hills of the western part of the island receive a good deal more rain than the east end; annual rainfall is on the whole extremely variable, averaging perhaps a year. The east end of the island is a dry desert range with a substantial amount of cactus, while the west end has lush vegetation and palm trees. The island has multiple ecosystems in a small geographic area. Fairly severe and extended drought has always been a problem, particularly considering the lack of fresh ground water and lack of freshwater streams or rivers on the island. The island has a desalination plant, but most residential homes and businesses have built-in cisterns used to collect rainwater.


title: Saint Croix

text: Due to Saint Croix's history of immigration, there is much debate as to what constitutes a native Crucian. The consensus in Crucian society is that if one is "bahn ya" ("born here" in Crucian dialect) on Saint Croix, they can claim to be Crucian, but not necessarily a "native Crucian". Those considered to be the "native Crucians" (or by the more politically correct term: "ancestral native Crucian") of Saint Croix are persons who can trace their ancestry to the era prior to U.S. Virgin Islands acquisition of American citizenship in 1927. Ancestral native Crucians (approximately one-fourth to one-third of Saint Croix's population) largely consist of the descendants of enslaved Africans brought to the island by Europeans during the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as the descendants of paid laborers recruited by the Danes from the British and Dutch West Indies after the Danish emancipation law in 1848. As on other Caribbean islands, many ancestral natives are also descended from European settlers and planters that migrated to the West Indies during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Due to a low number of European females in the colonial West Indies, many European males in colonial Saint Croix produced offspring with the majority African population, whose mixed-heritage descendants bear the surnames of their European ancestors. In addition, there are also a handful of ancestral families on the island (traditionally known as "bukra") of full European ancestry.


title: Saint Croix

text: Due to historical economic and political differences, as well as the remnants of a 19th-century caste system based on skin complexion, socioeconomic class differences among ancestral native Crucians can vary widely, even within the same family. Most ancestral native Crucians today are employed by the Government of the Virgin Islands, although there are others who are involved in the tourism industry, as well as the legal and medical professions.


title: Saint Croix

text: Puerto Rican migration was prevalent in the 1930s, '40s and '50s, when many Puerto Ricans relocated to Saint Croix for work after the collapse of the sugar industry. However, the total population actually declined by 50% in the century preceding 1945.


title: Saint Croix

text: The United States Navy purchase of two-thirds of the nearby Puerto Rican island of Vieques during World War II resulted in the displacement of thousands of "Viequenses", many of whom relocated to Saint Croix because of its similar size and geography. The local holiday, Puerto Rico/U.S. Virgin Islands Friendship Day, has been celebrated since the 1960s on the second Monday of October, which is also the same date as Columbus Day. Puerto Ricans in Saint Croix, most of whom have lived on the island for more than a generation, have kept their culture alive while integrating it into the native Crucian culture and society. For example, in informal situations, many Puerto Ricans in Saint Croix speak a unique Spanglish-like combination of Puerto Rican Spanish and the local Crucian Creole English.


title: Saint Croix

text: Migration from "down-island" (a local colloquial term for islands in the Lesser Antilles located to the east and southeast), occurred mainly throughout the 1960s and 70s. In that period, agriculture declined as the major industry in Saint Croix and was replaced by tourism, alumina production, and oil refining. Jobs were plentiful in these industries and down-islanders came to Saint Croix by the thousands. The demand for imported labor in Saint Croix was exacerbated by the fact that many ancestral native Crucians, having acquired American citizenship several decades earlier, migrated to the mainland United States to pursue educational and career opportunities. Many down-islanders made Saint Croix their permanent home, while others eventually relocated to the mainland United States or returned to their native countries. Most down-islanders came from St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua, St. Lucia and Dominica, although people from every Anglophone Caribbean nation can be easily found on St. Croix. Down islanders and their Saint Croix-born offspring form the majority of Saint Croix's middle class, which has dwindled in size since the 2008 global recession.


title: Saint Croix

text: Although down-island migration to Saint Croix is most commonly thought of as a mid-20th century phenomenon brought upon by American immigration policy, it is important to note that persons of both European and African descent from the nearby islands of Anguilla, St. Martin, Sint Eustatius, Saba, St. Kitts, Nevis, Antigua, and Montserrat have been migrating to Saint Croix since the 1600s. In addition, many ancestral native Crucians also share family ties with Barbados, as Bajans were heavily recruited to Saint Croix to work on sugar plantations throughout the late 19th century.


title: Saint Croix

text: Continental Americans, although small in number in comparison with Caribbean immigrants, have also been part of the Saint Croix community. Most reside on the East End of Saint Croix and tend to work in the tourism industry, real estate, and legal professions. Many are temporary residents or retirees, as well.


title: Saint Croix

text: Arab Palestinians have been an influential part of the local economy since the 1960s, when they first started to migrate to St. Croix to set up shops, supermarkets and gas stations.


title: Saint Croix

text: In the 21st century, recent waves of migration to Saint Croix have included people from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, the Philippines, and various South American nations.


title: Saint Croix

text: Saint Croix's history of migration has sometimes caused tensions between immigrants and Crucians whose ancestry on the island dates back for generations. Tensions have subsided to some extent in recent years, mainly due to intermarriage among Crucians and other Caribbean peoples. In the late 1990s, many people supported legislation to define as a "native U.S. Virgin Islander" anyone who could trace their ancestry on the island to 1927, the year in which U.S. Virgin Islanders were granted United States citizenship. This effort by a select group of nationalist senators eventually failed after much public outcry and controversy. It was learned that most native-born U.S. Virgin Islanders would not qualify as "native" under the proposed legislation, as their immigrant ancestors had arrived later than 1927, but thousands of Danish citizens would have qualified.


title: Saint Croix

text: In 2009, the proposed U.S. Virgin Islands Constitution voted by the Fifth Constitutional Convention established three definitions of U.S. Virgin Islanders: "Ancestral Native Virgin Islander" – those with ancestral ties (and their descendants); "Native Virgin Islander" – those born on the island (and their descendants); and "Virgin Islander" – any United States citizen who has resided in the territory for five years. The proposed constitution was rejected by the United States Congress in 2010 for violating the principle of equal rights for all citizens of the territory, "native" or not, and was sent back to the convention for further consideration.


title: Saint Croix

text: Saint Croix is divided into the following subdistricts (with population as per the 2010 U.S. Census):


title: Saint Croix

text: English has been the dominant language on St. Croix since the 1700s and has been the official language since 1917, when the Danish West Indies were purchased by the United States. Previously, the official language was Danish, although it was not widely spoken. Other languages spoken throughout St. Croix's colonial history have included Irish, Scots, Spanish, and French, as well as a now-extinct Dutch Creole spoken by St. Thomas and St. John-born people living in St. Croix, as well as the local creole English, which still exists today.


title: Saint Croix

text: Known on the island as "Crucian", Virgin Islands Creole English is spoken by the majority of the population in informal situations. Spanish is spoken by migrants from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and their St. Croix-born offspring, and various French creoles are spoken by St. Lucian, Dominican (Dominica), and Haitian immigrants. Arabic is common among the large Palestinian community on St. Croix. Immigrants from the Anglophone Caribbean that migrated to St. Croix after their formative years tend to speak the English creoles of their respective islands in informal situations, which are, for the most part, mutually intelligible with Virgin Islands Creole English.


title: Saint Croix

text: Christianity is the predominant religion; the island has been called the "Land of Churches" for the approximately 150 churches that serve its 50,000 residents.


title: Saint Croix

text: Protestant denominations are the most prevalent, but there is also a significant Roman Catholic presence due to Saint Croix's large Hispanic population, as well as Irish influence during the Danish colonial period. Anglican, Methodist, Moravian, Presbyterian, Pentecostal and Seventh-day Adventists are among the Protestant denominations prevalent on the island. There are also followers of the Jehovah's Witness faith, as well as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as LDS or Mormon).


title: Saint Croix

text: As in most of the Caribbean, various forms of Rastafari are practiced on the island. Islam is prevalent among the small local Arab population, and there is a small Jewish presence as well. Hinduism and Islam is also practiced by the Indian population.


title: Saint Croix

text: Saint Croix was once an agricultural powerhouse in the Caribbean, but this period ended with the rapid industrialization of the island's economy in the 1960s. Like many other Caribbean islands today, Saint Croix has tourism as one of its main sources of revenue. A number of other industries on the island contribute to the economy.


title: Saint Croix

text: Saint Croix was home to HOVENSA, one of the world's largest oil refineries. HOVENSA is a limited liability company owned and operated by Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corp. (HOVIC), a division of U.S.-based Hess Corporation, and Petroleos de Venezuela, SA (PDVSA), the national oil company of Venezuela. Gas prices on the island were slightly higher than average when compared to gas prices in the continental United States.


title: Saint Croix

text: On January 18, 2012, the company announced that the HOVENSA refinery would be permanently shut down. This had a major adverse effect on the economy of Saint Croix and the entire U.S. Virgin Islands, as the refinery employed 1,200 residents and 950 contractors. The refinery has since reopened under new ownership.


title: Saint Croix

text: Saint Croix is also home to the Cruzan Rum Distillery, makers of Cruzan Rum, a brand of Beam Suntory, Inc. The Cruzan Rum Distillery was founded in 1760 as Estate Diamond, and for many years used locally grown sugar cane to produce a single "dark"-style rum. The distillery now imports sugar cane molasses from other countries in the region, primarily from the Dominican Republic and South America. In recent years, Cruzan Rum, along with Bacardi from Puerto Rico and Gosling's from Bermuda, has contributed to the resurgence of "single barrel," super-premium rum. The quality and smoothness of the Cruzan Estate Rums has won more than 30 Spirit Awards. Cruzan Estate Diamond Rum (aged five years in American oak barrels) and Cruzan Single Barrel Estate Rum (aged 12 years in American oak barrels) are two examples.


title: Saint Croix

text: Diageo has completed construction of a new distillery on a 26-acre industrial site next to the Hovensa Refinery. The new distillery produces Captain Morgan Rum. Diageo's entrance into the U.S. Virgin Islands rum industry has been controversial. The cash-strapped U.S. Virgin Islands government secured $250 million in bonds for the plant, about which the Puerto Rican government has bitterly complained.


title: Saint Croix

text: Cars drive on the left hand side of the road, but nearly all the automobiles on the island have left side steering columns. This has proven difficult for new residents and visitors from right-hand traffic locales such as the mainland United States, the French and Dutch West Indies, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. Roads are with numerous potholes.


title: Saint Croix

text: There is a public bus service called Virgin Islands Transit, also known as VITRAN, operated by the Virgin Islands Department of Public Works.


title: Saint Croix

text: In addition to taxis and buses, St. Croix has shared taxis, locally known as "taxi buses" (also found on the other U.S. Virgin Islands). Taxi buses are full-sized vans running a route from Frederiksted to Christiansted. Taxi buses are privately owned and operated; they do not follow a regular schedule, and there are no pre-specified stops. People simply wait by the side of the road until a taxi bus approaches, then flag the driver down by waving. Passengers can get out anywhere along the taxi route. Taxi buses are not metered and are required by law to charge a flat rate of $2.50, regardless of where a rider gets on and off. Taxis to specific locations are much more expensive and are typically used by tourists.


title: Saint Croix

text: Ferry service to St. Thomas was restarted in April 2017. The QE IV Ferry makes one trip per day departing from Gallows Bay, Christiansted to Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas. The journey takes 2.5 hours and costs $50. The QE IV Ferry does not operate during hazardous weather conditions. Some Ferry companies based in St. Thomas and St. John sometimes operate St. Croix-to-St. Thomas service for special occasions, such as the St. Croix Agricultural Fair in February, Virgin Islands Carnival, Crucian Christmas Carnival, as well as horse races.


title: Saint Croix

text: The Henry E. Rohlsen International Airport serves St. Croix with regular flights from the U.S. mainland, Puerto Rico, and the Eastern Caribbean. Seaplanes, operated by Seaborne Airlines, make the trip from St. Croix to St. Thomas, departing and arriving in Christiansted Harbor.


title: Saint Croix

text: Although St. Croix is a U.S. territory, the U.S. Virgin Islands are maintained as a free port in a separate customs zone. Therefore, travelers to and from the contiguous United States and Puerto Rico must clear U.S. customs but do not need to present a passport, and only need proof of U.S. citizenship or nationality. The immigration status of non-U.S. citizens may be verified during this process.


title: Saint Croix

text: The St. Croix School District operates a number of public schools in St. Croix. There also exist multiple private schools, including St. Croix Montessori, Star Apple Montessori School, The Good Hope Country Day School, AZ Academy, St. Mary's Catholic School, Free Will Baptist, St. Croix SDA School, and The Manor School. The only colleges on the island are the University of the Virgin Islands, St. Croix campus and Barry University, which operates a physician assistant training program.


title: Saint Croix

text: The island's largest festival, termed "Crucian Christmas Carnival," is celebrated on St. Croix throughout late December and early January. Another significant festival is the Agricultural and Food Fair held in mid-February.


title: Saint Croix

text: Several times a year, there is a nighttime festival in Christiansted called "Jump-Up" and a monthly event called "Sunset Jazz" in Frederiksted, where local jazz musicians play on Frederiksted Beach. Every year on the Saturday before Mardi Gras, there is a local Mardi Croix parade and a dog parade through the North Shore.


title: Saint Croix

text: The St. Croix Half Ironman Triathlon is held in the first week of May. The Triathlon includes a swim, a bike ride, and a run. Because the bicycle route includes a ride up an extremely steep hill known as "The Beast", this triathlon is often nicknamed "Beauty and the Beast".


title: Saint Croix

text: Frederiksted maintains its Victorian era architecture and original seven street by seven street city design and is host to several historic structures. Among them are St. Patrick's Catholic Church built in the 1840s and its primary school, the Customs House, the 19th Century Apothecary, and many other buildings; some of which due to hurricanes past have fallen into very scenic ruins. Frederiksted operates at a more relaxed pace than most of the island, and is more lively during Carnival in January and whenever visiting cruise ships are in port.


title: Saint Croix

text: Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve contains the only known site where members of a Columbus expedition set foot on what is now United States territory. It also preserves upland watersheds, mangrove forests, and estuarine and marine environments that support threatened and endangered species. The site is marked by Fort Salé, a remaining earthworks fortification from the French period of occupation, about 1617. The park also preserves prehistoric and colonial-era archeological sites including the only existent example of a ball court in the Caribbean. This is one of two sites on the island for bioluminescent bays (the other being Altona Lagoon).


title: Saint Croix

text: Fort Christiansværn built in 1749 and other buildings are maintained by the National Park Service as the Christiansted National Historic Site.


title: Saint Croix

text: Buck Island Reef National Monument preserves a island just north of St. Croix and the surrounding reefs. This is a popular destination for snorkelers. Buck Island maintains a U.S. Coast Guard weather station and is also home to a student monitored lemon shark breeding ground. Green Cay (pronounced green key) is a small island located southwest of Buck Island; it is managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. It hosts a nearby reef popular among scuba divers and snorkelists—Tamarind Reef.


title: Saint Croix

text: The farmer's market (1 Estate, Kingshill, 00850, St. Croix) offers local fruit and vegetables, as well as plants, local food, and delicious juices. The outdoor vendors open every Saturday from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m., sometimes longer. You can visit the farmer's market all-year round to taste the fresh fruit and vegetables and enjoy a typical Cruzan breakfast.


title: Saint Croix

text: The waters surrounding St. Croix are warm year-round, with temperatures ranging from – , making it a popular destination for watersports including scuba diving, snorkeling, kayaking, paddleboarding, surfing, kite surfing, parasailing, jet skiing, fishing, and sailing. Two of the island's most popular underwater sites for scuba divers are the Frederiksted Pier and the drop-off into deep water at Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve.


title: Saint Croix

text: Frederiksted is known for reef diving and access to wreck diving. The western side of the island has calm waters that allow snorkeling with access from the beach. Paddleboarding is popular near Frederiksted for the same reason. The Frederiksted Pier attracts scuba divers and snorkelers, as well as those who simply jump off it. The shallow water and sandy bottom around the pier are ideal for recreational diving by novice scuba divers in PADI Discover Scuba Diving programs (also called resort diving), for extended shore diving, night diving, and for underwater photography, especially of its abundant seahorse population.


title: Saint Croix

text: A few hundred meters off the northern coast of the island, from Salt River to Cane Bay, the bottom drops suddenly into a deep trench, where coral reefs, abundant tropical fish, and migrant sea turtles may be observed. Kayaking is popular in the Salt River area as well.


title: Saint Croix

text: The town of Christiansted, a short distance from Buck Island and Green Cay, is a former capital of the Danish West Indies. It lies just east of the northern underwater drop-off and is protected by a reef.


title: Saint Croix

text: There are two bioluminescent bays or bio bays on St. Croix. The most widely known and visited is located at Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve. A second bio bay can be found at Altona Lagoon. Bio bays are extremely rare with "only seven-year-round lagoons known to exist in the Caribbean".


title: Saint Croix

text: A combination of factors creates the necessary conditions for bioluminescence: red mangrove trees surround the water (the organisms have been related to mangrove forest, although mangrove is not necessarily associated with this species). A study at the bio bay located at Salt River is being conducted by faculty and students from the University of South Carolina, the University of North Carolina-Wilmington and the University of the Virgin Islands. Their research is focused on analyzing quality and nutrient composition of the water, the distribution of a micro-organism, the dinoflagellate "Pyrodinium bahamense", which glows whenever the water is disturbed, and the abundance of "cysts", dormant dinoflagellates embedded in the sea floor.


title: Saint Croix

text: A concurrent complementary study is being undertaken by the St. Croix Environmental Association in conjunction with Scripps Institution of Oceanography which focuses on counting the photon density of the phenomenon over time and through various conditions of weather and other impacts. Water quality and taxonomic analysis from both studies will be shared and correlated to create one of the most thorough investigations of year-round bioluminescent bays to date.


title: Saint Croix

text: The two bio bays on St Croix have very different characteristics. The one at Altona Lagoon is large in size but is very shallow allowing one to see the various marine life swimming and agitating the water, lighting it up. The bio bay at Salt River is smaller in size but is deeper than Altona Lagoon. Because of its depth this bay is also home to a second form of bioluminescence called Ctenophora or comb-jellies, which are not found at Altona Lagoon.


title: Saint Croix

text: A third bioluminescent organism is also found in Salt River. A species of marine "Odontosyllis" fireworm performs its brilliant green mating ritual within 57 hours after the full moon, females rising to the surface and leaving a luminescent green puddle for the males to race through, fertilizing the eggs.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: A Swiss-system tournament is a non-eliminating tournament format that features a fixed number of rounds of competition, but considerably fewer than for a round-robin tournament; thus each competitor (team or individual) does not play all the other competitors. Competitors meet one-on-one in each round and are paired using a set of rules designed to ensure that each competitor plays opponents with a similar running score, but does not play the same opponent more than once. The winner is the competitor with the highest aggregate points earned in all rounds. With an even number of participants, all competitors play in each round.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: The Swiss system is used for competitions in which there are too many entrants for a full round-robin (all-play-all) to be feasible, and eliminating any competitors before the end of the tournament is undesirable. In contrast, all-play-all is suitable if there are a small number of competitors; whereas a single-elimination (knockout) tournament rapidly reduces the number of competitors, but the best competitor may not necessarily win, as good competitors might have a bad day or eliminate and exhaust each other if they meet in early rounds.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: Unlike group format or other systems in which all pairings are known from the beginning of the competition, in a Swiss system the match pairing for each round is done after the previous round has ended and depends on its results.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: The Swiss system seeks to provide a clear winner with a large number of competitors and a relatively small number of rounds of competition, without a single bad result terminating participation.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: The system was first employed at a chess tournament in Zurich in 1895 by Julius Müller, hence the name "Swiss system", and is now used in many games including chess, go, bridge and Scrabble.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: During all but the first round, competitors are paired based on approximately how they have performed so far. In the first round, competitors are paired either randomly or according to some pattern that has been found to serve a given game or sport well. If it is desired for top-ranked participants to meet in the last rounds, the pattern must start them in different brackets, just the same as is done in seeding of pre-ranked players for a single elimination tournament. In subsequent rounds, competitors are sorted according to their cumulative scores and are assigned opponents with the same or similar score up to that point. The pairing rules have to be quite complicated, as they have to ensure that no two players ever oppose each other twice, and to avoid giving a player some advantage as a result of chance.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: The detailed pairing rules are different in different variations of the Swiss system. As they are quite complicated, and it is undesirable to have a long delay between rounds to decide the pairings, the tournament organizer often uses a computer program to do the pairing.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: In chess, a specific pairing rule, called "Dutch system" by FIDE, is often implied when the term "Swiss" is used. The Monrad system for pairing is commonly used in chess in Denmark and Norway, as well as in other sports worldwide. These two systems are outlined below.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: The players are divided into groups, based on their score. Within each group with the same or similar score, players are ranked, based on rating or some other criteria. Subject to the other pairing rules, the top half is then paired with the bottom half. For instance, if there are eight players in a score group, number 1 is paired with number 5, number 2 is paired with number 6 and so on. Modifications are then made to prevent competitors from meeting each other twice, and to balance colors (in chess). For this method to work, the score groups cannot be too small, and thus for smaller overall fields score groups are not a suitable approach.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: The players are first ranked based on their score, then on their starting number (which can be random or based on seeding). Then #1 meets #2, #3 meets #4, etc., with modifications made to ensure that other rules are adhered to. Players are sorted by score (not score groups) and original rank, then each player paired to the next opponent, typically excluding repeats. This is more suitable for smaller numbers of competitors.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: The Monrad system used in chess in Denmark is quite simple, with players initially ranked at random, and pairings modified only to avoid players meeting each other twice. The Norwegian system has an optional seeding system for the first round pairings, and within a score group, the pairing algorithm endeavours to give players alternating colors.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: The Monrad pairing system is widely used in Scrabble and is known as the King Of The Hill format. It is considered to be distinct from the Swiss pairing system.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: There is a fixed number of rounds. After the last round, players are ranked by their score. If players remain tied, a tie-break score is used, such as the sum of all opponents' scores (Buchholz chess rating).


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: Assuming no drawn games, determining a clear winner (and, incidentally, a clear loser) would require the same number of rounds as that of a knockout tournament, which is the binary logarithm of the number of players rounded up. Thus three rounds can handle up to eight players, four rounds can handle up to sixteen players and so on. If fewer than this minimum number of rounds are played, two or more players could finish the tournament with a perfect score, having won all their games but never having faced each other. Due to the fact that players should meet each other at most once and pairings are chosen dependent on the results, there is a natural upper bound on the number of rounds of a Swiss-system tournament, which is equal to half of the number of players rounded up. Should more than this number of rounds be played, the tournament might run into the situation that there is either no feasible round, or some players have to play each other a second time.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: Compared to a knockout tournament, a Swiss system has the advantage of not eliminating anyone; a player who enters the tournament knows that they can play in all the rounds, regardless of results. The only exception is that one player is left over when there is an odd number of players. The player left over receives a bye: they do not play that round but are usually awarded the same number of points as for winning a game (e.g. one point for a chess tournament). The player is reintroduced in the next round and will not receive another bye.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: Another advantage compared to knockout tournaments is that the final ranking gives some indication of the relative strengths of all contestants, not just of the tournament winner. By contrast, in a knockout tournament the second-best contestant is not necessarily the losing finalist, but could be any of the contestants defeated by the eventual tournament winner in earlier rounds.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: In a Swiss-system tournament, sometimes a player has such a great lead that by the last round they are assured of winning the tournament even if they lose the last game. This has some disadvantages. First, a Swiss-system tournament does not always end with the exciting climax of a knockout final. Second, while the outcome of the final game has no bearing on first place, the first-place player can decide who wins second or third prize. In the 1995 All-Stars Tournament in Scrabble, tournament directors paired David Gibson, who had by then clinched first place, with the highest-ranked player who could not win a prize so that the second- and third-ranked players could compete between themselves for the final placements. The "Gibson Rule" is optional at Scrabble tournaments, as players at smaller tournaments may still have an incentive to win their last game to improve their overall rating. Players may also be "Gibsonized" if they have clinched a spot in the next round, and can be paired with the highest-ranked player who cannot possibly qualify for the next round.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: The system is used for the selection of the English national pool team. Sixty-four players start the tournament and after six rounds, the top player will qualify as they will be unbeaten. The remaining seven places are decided after a series of round robins and playoffs.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: Compared with a round-robin tournament, a Swiss tournament can handle many players without requiring an impractical number of rounds. An elimination tournament is better suited to a situation in which only a limited number of games may be simultaneously played in the tournament. For example, if a tennis tournament had sixty-four players, but only eight courts available, then not all matches in a round can be played at the same time. In a Swiss tournament, each round would have to be divided up into four waves of eight matches each. This would result in a total of twenty-four waves over the minimum six rounds. Conversely, for a single elimination tournament, the first round would require four waves, the next two, and all remaining rounds would consist of a single wave each. Over the same six rounds, only nine waves would occur. Note that the waves format is not strictly necessary, as instead a match could commence as soon as another in the same round ends, but the principle is largely the same.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: In a Swiss tournament, all the results of a particular round need to be recorded before the next round may begin. This means that each round will take as long as its slowest match. In a single elimination tournament, any game may commence once the two preceding games that feed into it have been completed. This may result in one branch of the bracket falling behind if it has several slow matches in a row, but it may then catch up if it then has several quick matches. Additionally, each round has fewer matches than the previous, and the average longest match in a round will more closely match the average match as the number of matches in that round decreases.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: The method of accelerated pairings also known as accelerated Swiss is used in some large tournaments with more than the optimal number of players for the number of rounds. This method pairs top players more quickly than the standard method in the opening rounds and has the effect of reducing the number of players with perfect scores more rapidly (by approximately a factor of 2 after two rounds).


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: For the first two rounds, players who started in the top half have one point added to their score for pairing purposes only. Then the first two rounds are paired normally, taking this "added score" into account. In effect, in the first round the top quarter plays the second quarter and the third quarter plays the fourth quarter. Most of the players in the first and third quarters should win the first round. Assuming this is approximately the case, in effect for the second round the top eighth plays the second eighth, the second quarter plays the third quarter and the seventh eighth plays the bottom eighth. That is, in the second round, winners in the top half play each other, losers in the bottom half play each other, and losers in the top half play winners in the bottom half (for the most part). After two rounds, about ⅛ of the players will have a perfect score, instead of ¼. After the second round, the standard pairing method is used (without the added point for the players who started in the top half).


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: As a comparison between the standard Swiss system and the accelerated pairings, consider a tournament with eight players, ranked #1 through #8. Assume that the higher-ranked player always wins.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: Accelerated pairings do not "guarantee" that fewer players will have a perfect score. In round 2, if #5 and #6 score upset wins against #3 and #4, and there is a decisive result between #1 and #2, there will be three players with a perfect 2–0 score.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: The Danish system works in principle like a Monrad system, only without the restriction that no players can meet for a second time, so it is always #1 vs. #2, #3 vs. #4 etc.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: Bridge team tournaments, if not played as "Round Robin", usually start with the Swiss system to make sure that the same teams would not play against each other frequently, but in the last one or two rounds there may be a switch to the Danish system, especially to allow the first two ranked teams to battle against each other for the victory, even if they have met before during the tournament. This would be more common if relatively few teams are involved. In a large field it is usually easy to match high-scoring teams who have not previously met.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: In a few tournaments which run over a long period of time, such as a tournament with one round every week for three months, the Grand Prix system can be used. A player's final score is based on their best results (e.g. best ten results out of the twelve rounds). Players are not required to play in every round; they may enter or drop out of the tournament at any time. Indeed, they may decide to play only one game if they wish to, although once a player wants to get a prize they need to play more rounds to accumulate points. The tournament therefore includes players who want to go for a prize and play several rounds as well as players who only want to play an off game.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: A variant known as the McMahon system tournament is the established way in which European Go tournaments are run. This differs mainly in that players have a skill ranking prior to the start of the tournament which determines their initial pairing in contrast to the basic Swiss-system approach where all players start at the same skill ranking. The McMahon system reduces the probability of a very strong team meeting a very weak team in the initial rounds. It is named for Lee E. McMahon (1931–1989) of Bell Labs.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: A tournament system in Italy. It is similar to the Swiss System, but doesn't split players based on their score. Before pairing any round, players are listed for decreasing score / decreasing rating, and the opponent of the first player in the list is the player following them by a number of positions equal to the number of remaining rounds, and so on for the other players. As consequence of this, the difference in rating between opponents at the first round is not so big (as for the accelerated systems), and ideally the "big match" between the first and the second one should occur at the last round, no matter how many players and rounds are in the tournament.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: International Student Badminton Tournaments depend on the Swiss ladder system to ensure its players get as many challenging matches as possible over the course of the badminton tournament. The tournaments are meant to promote both the sport and the social aspect of the game, hence its results are not connected to external rankings. Beforehand, players can enroll in three or four categories designed to separate national, regional and recreational players. Players of different clubs are coupled to form doubles and mixed doubles. The starting positions on each ladder (singles, doubles and mixed doubles) are random. Unlike in official matches a 1–1 draw is possible and games are usually not extended after 21 is reached in order to maximise the number of played matches.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: The Swiss system is used in some bridge tournament events, either pairs events or team matches. For teams, in each round, one team plays against another for several hands with the North/South pairs playing against their opponent's East/West pairs. The same hands are played at each table and the results compared using the International Match Point (IMP) scoring system. The difference between the total IMPs scored in the round is converted to Victory Points (VPs), with typically 20 VPs shared between the teams. In pairs, the initial scoring is by matchpoints which are then converted to VPs.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: In the first round, teams are usually paired randomly; however, pairings can be based on other criteria. In subsequent rounds, the teams are ranked in order of the number of VPs they have accumulated in previous rounds, and the top team plays the second team, the third team plays the fourth team, etc., subject to the proviso that teams do not play each other twice.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: Software may be employed to do pairings, and in the early rounds it will match teams with approximately the same score but it will not result in a precise 1 vs 2, 3 vs 4, etc. This is done so that matches can begin before all teams have finished the previous round. In later rounds, the pairings are slower but more exact. In the last one or two rounds there may be a switch to the Danish system to make sure that each team plays the final match according to its actual ranking, even if this results in some teams playing against an opponent a second time. At least in the US, this is extremely rare, usually employed only in small club games with a large number of rounds relative to the number of teams.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: In chess, each player is paired against another player with an equivalent performance score. In "Round 1" of a chess tournament paired using the Swiss System, players usually are seeded according to their known playing strength, often a rating assigned to them by their local club, their national federation, or the world chess federation (FIDE). In some events, especially when none or few of the players have an official chess rating, the players are paired randomly. Once play begins, players who win receive a point, those who draw receive one-half of a point, and those who lose receive no points. Win, lose or draw, all players proceed to the next round where winners are paired against opponents with equal performance scores (e.g. Round 1's winners play each other, Round 1's draws play each other, etc.). In later rounds (typical tournaments have anywhere from 3-9 rounds), players face opponents with the same (or almost the same) score. No player is paired up against the same opponent twice.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: The rules for Swiss System chess events also try to ensure that each player plays an equal number of games with white and black. Alternating colors in each round is the most preferable and the same color is never repeated three times in a row.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: Players with the same score are ideally ranked according to rating. Then the top half is paired with the bottom half. For instance, if there are eight players in a score group, number 1 is paired to play number 5, number 2 is paired to play number 6 and so on. When the tournament, or a section of the tournament, has an odd number of players, one player usually is assigned a "Bye"—e.g. a round where the player is not paired.  Modifications are then made to balance colors and prevent players from meeting each other twice.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: The first national event in the United States to use the Swiss system was in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1945; and the first Chess Olympiad using it was held in Haifa in 1976.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: In chess, the terms Swiss and Monrad are both used and denote systems with different pairing algorithms. The Monrad pairing system is commonly used in Denmark and Norway, while most of the rest of the world uses one of the Swiss systems defined by FIDE. In most other sports, only one format is used and is known either as Monrad or Swiss.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: Croquet tournaments are frequently run using a Swiss system, often flexibly so that the order of players is not strictly maintained, avoiding players waiting around for long games to finish. Variants include the Burridge Swiss, used as a qualifying stage for a subsequent elimination, in which there is a predetermined threshold of games. Once a player reaches that threshold, the player will no longer be included in the Swiss and will have qualified. Once a player can no longer reach the threshold, they are eliminated from the Swiss. The number of rounds is about double that of the threshold.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: Like a Swiss tournament, the Schenkel ensures that after the first round teams will play against teams with similar levels of success so far. That means that after the first round the pairs for the second round would be first-ranked team against the second, third against fourth, and so on.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: In a true Swiss tournament all teams play in one group. However, in a curling arena there are a limited number of curling sheets available at any one time. Therefore, the teams are usually divided into groups, and the groups are rearranged after a round or two.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: British Parliamentary Style debate competitions have four rather than two teams in each debate. The preliminary round for many such competitions, including the World Universities Debating Championship, ranks teams by a modified form of Swiss tournament, usually called a tab. "Tab" also denotes to the software used for scheduling of rounds and tabulation of results. Teams are ranked from first to fourth in each debate and awarded from three down to zero points. Teams with similar points totals are grouped off for each successive round. Just as chess Swiss tournaments are arranged to ensure players have a balance of playing with black pieces and white pieces, so too debate tournaments attempt to provide teams with a balance of places in the speaking order (i.e. Opening Government, Opening Opposition, Closing Government, and Closing Opposition). With four competitors rather than two, significantly greater compromise is required to balance the ideal requirements of, on the one hand, a team not meeting the same opponent twice and, on the other hand, a team having a balanced mix of places in the running order.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: Mind Sports South Africa, the national body for esports in South Africa, uses a Swiss system for all its tournaments. For its Swiss implementations, players receive three points for a win and only one for a draw and no player can play against another player more than once. There is the further provision that no player may play against another player from the same club in the first round as long as no one club has 40% of the entrants. "Overwatch" Open Division also makes use of the Swiss system, as well as the "Hearthstone" Global Games tournament.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: A variation of Swiss system common in esports tournaments sees participants play until reaching the preset number of wins or losses, instead of having everyone play the same number of games. In this system, player or team that wins the required number of games advances to the next stage of the tournament and doesn't play any more games in this stage; conversely, those who lose enough games are eliminated from the tournament. This system was used for the first time by ESL during qualifying rounds for the ESL One Cologne 2016 tournament, and has been used since then in all . The format was also used for the "Dota 2" Kiev Major tournament in 2017, "" Mythic Championship tournaments, and "Gears of War" Gears Esports Events. This format is also used in the recent format of Rocket League's RLCS X's Fall Split, as well as all international major tournaments and the world championship of RLCS 2021-2022.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: Relatively few Go tournaments use the Swiss system. Most amateur Go tournaments, at least in Europe and America, now use the McMahon system instead. Swiss-system tournaments must start with very unequal matches in the early rounds—"slaughter pairing" is the name of one initial pattern used—if the Swiss pairing rules applied subsequently are to allow the top players to meet in the latest rounds. The McMahon system is designed to give all players games against similarly skilled players all along, and to produce final standings that more accurately reflect the true current skill levels of players.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: One of the two qualifying tournaments for the Gwent Open and Gwent World Masters, the official tournaments for the card game "", partially employ the Swiss system. The Qualifier #2 consist of two days, the first of which is played with Swiss-system selection with best-of-three competition for each pair of players. The second round instead employs double elimination and best-of-five. The more exclusive Qualifier #1 only uses the double-elimintation, best-of-five format. The actual tournaments (Gwent Open and Gwent World Masters) are single-elimination best-of-five. Thus the Swiss system is only used as preselection for preselection (who gets to progress to day 2, who then gets to go to the tournament).


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: The DCI, the tournament sanctioning body for the card game "", uses a Swiss system for most tournaments. Unlike with other Swiss implementations, players receive three points for a win and only one for a draw. After sufficient rounds to mathematically ensure that players with a record of one loss or better will be ranked in the top eight players, typically the top eight players advance to a single-elimination stage, with several statistics used as tie-breakers. The minimum number of players to top 8 are 16 or more, and top 4 with 8 players or more, and top 2 (if necessary) if there are 4 or more players.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: Grand Prix main events are split into two days. On day 1, eight or more Swiss rounds are played, where anyone with at least 18 match points (a record of 6-2 or better) will advance to day two. On day two, seven more Swiss rounds are played, followed by a cut to the top eight single elimination stage.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: Tournaments in the Pokémon Trading Card Game and Video Game Championships use a combination of the Swiss system and single-elimination. The tournament begins as a Swiss-system tournament. At the end of the Swiss rounds, the top players advance to a single-elimination tournament (also known as the Top Cut). In previous years, the Top Cut would include between 12.5 and 25 percent of the original number of participants (e.g. if there were 64 to 127 players, there would be a Top 16).


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: As of the 2013–2014 season, Swiss rounds in City, State, Regional, National, and World Championships are played best-of-three, with a 50-minute plus three-turn time limit. Ties were introduced into the Swiss round portion of the tournaments in the 2013–2014 season for the first time since 2002–2003. A win is worth 3 match points, a tie is worth 1 match point, and a loss is worth 0 match points.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: Also, the Regional and National Championships were contested as two-day Swiss tournaments, where only the top 32 players from Day One would continue in another Swiss tournament in Day Two, prior to a Top 8 based on the two-day record. In recent seasons, a Day One total of 19 match points (i.e. a record of 6-2-1 or better) guaranteed a berth in Day 2, even if more than 32 players had 19+ match points.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: League Challenge and Pre-Release tournaments are played solely as a Swiss system. Local tournaments may or may not have a Top Cut.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: The tiebreakers are in the order of Opponents' Win Percentage, Opponents' Opponents' Win Percentage, and Head to Head. If there are more than two tied players before Head to Head is applied or the two players haven't played each other, the order is determined randomly.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: In some Scrabble tournaments, a system known variously as "modified Swiss", "Portland Swiss", "Fontes Swiss" or "speed pairing" is used, whereby first players are placed in groups of four, and play three rounds of round-robin play, and subsequently are paired as in Swiss pairing, but using the standings as of the second to last round, rather than the last round. This has the advantage of allowing the tournament directors to already know who plays whom by the time given players are finished with a round, rather than making the players wait until all players have finished playing a given round before being able to start the time-consuming pairing process.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: Commonly used in Australia, and now in many other countries, is a system known as "Australian Draw". Whereby each round is paired using a normal #1 plays #2, #3 plays #4, etc. except that repeat pairings within a selected range of previous games is forbidden. Often, for shorter tournaments the selected range will be since the very first round of the tournament, thus never having a repeat pairing for the entire tournament. For longer tournaments it is also common to have the first N rounds use the Australian Draw system, and followed by one or more "King Of the Hill" rounds. "King Of the Hill" is a strict #1 plays #2, #3 plays #4, etc. with no regard to previous pairings, thus unlimited repeat pairings are allowed.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: Although labelled as 'Australian Version of Swiss Pairing' it is more akin to the King Of The Hill pairing system, than to the Swiss - Dutch system. As in chess, when the term Swiss Pairing is used, it's usually a reference to the Swiss Dutch System.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: In professional sumo in Japan, the six bi-monthly use a proprietary system similar to the McMahon system, with "rikishi" generally fighting those near their ranking on the "banzuke"; the winner of a division is the "rikishi" with the best record at the conclusion of tournament's 15 days. However, unlike other tournament utilizing a Swiss or McMahon system, match-ups are not determined by a formula but rather the desires of a committee of elders, with restrictions against repeat match-ups, bouts between close relatives like siblings, or bouts between members of the same stable.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: Windmill Windup, a three-day yearly Ultimate Frisbee tournament held in Amsterdam, was the first event in ultimate to introduce the Swiss draw system into the sport in 2005. In later years, many other tournaments started using this format, like Belgium's G-spot, Wisconsin Swiss and many others.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: For each round, teams earn victory points based on the score difference of their win (or loss). In this way, also a team clearly losing a game is encouraged to fight for every point in order to get more victory points. After each round, teams are ranked according to their victory points. Ties are broken by considering the sum of the current victory points of their opponents. In the next round, neighboring teams in the ranking play each other. In case they have played each other in a previous round, adjustments to the rankings are made. After five rounds of Swiss draw, the top 8 teams play three playoff rounds to determine the final placement of the teams. All other teams continue with the Swiss draw in the remaining rounds.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: The International Wargames Federation, the international body for wargames, uses a Swiss system for all its tournaments. For its Swiss implementations, players receive three points for a win and only one for a draw and no player can play against another player more than once. There is the further proviso that no player may play against another player from the same country in the first round as long as no one country has 40% of the entrants. For national championships such rule is amended to read that no player can play against a player from the same club in the first round as long as no one club has 40% of the entrants.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: Konami Digital Entertainment of the United States uses proprietary software for their sanctioned and official tournaments. Konami Tournament Software (KTS) is what is supplied to the Tournament Organizers to run each tournament. The software utilized the Swiss system similarly to Magic: The Gathering—3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss.


title: Swiss-system tournament

text: Konami's official tournament policy dictates how many rounds are played based on the number of participants. After the set number of Swiss system rounds are complete, there is generally a cut to advance in the tournament. This is then played as single-elimination until a winner is declared.


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: Mirza Muhammad Siraj-ud-Daulah (; 1733 – 2 July 1757), commonly known as Siraj-ud-Daulah or Siraj ud-Daula, was the last independent Nawab of Bengal. The end of his reign marked the start of the rule of the East India Company over Bengal and later almost all of the Indian subcontinent.


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: Siraj succeeded his maternal grandfather, Alivardi Khan as the Nawab of Bengal in April 1756 at the age of 23. Betrayed by Mir Jafar, the commander of Nawab's army, Siraj lost the Battle of Plassey on 23 June 1757. The forces of the East India Company under Robert Clive invaded and the administration of Bengal fell into the hands of the company.


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: Siraj was born to the family of Mirza Muhammad Hashim and Amina Begum in 1733. Soon after his birth, Alivardi Khan, Siraj's maternal grandfather, was appointed the Deputy Governor of Bihar. Amina Begum was the youngest daughter of Alivardi Khan and Princess Sharfunnisa, the paternal aunt of Mir Jafar. His father, Mirza Muhammad Hashim was the youngest son of Haji Ahmad, the elder brother of Alivardi Khan. Siraj's great-grandfather was Mirza Muhammad Madani, who was of either of Arab or Turkic ancestry, the son of a foster-brother of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb; Madani himself began his career as a cup-bearer under the latter's son Azam Shah. His great-grandmother belonged to the Turkic Afshar tribe of Khorasan. Through her, he was a grandnephew of Shuja-ud-Din Muhammad Khan, the two having shared a common ancestor in Nawab Aqil Khan.


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: Siraj was regarded as the "fortune child" of the family. He received the special affection of his grandfather and was raised at the Nawab's palace with all necessary education and training suitable for a future Nawab. Young Siraj also accompanied Alivardi on his military ventures against the Marathas in 1746. In 1750, Siraj revolted against his grandfather and seized Patna, but quickly surrendered and was forgiven. In May 1752, Alivardi declared Siraj as his successor. The former later died on 9 April 1756 at the age of eighty.


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: Siraj ud-Daulah's nomination to the "Nawab" ship aroused the jealousy and enmity of his maternal aunt, Ghaseti Begum (Mehar un-Nisa Begum), Mir Jafar, Jagat Seth (Mehtab Chand) and Shaukat Jang (Siraj's cousin). Ghaseti Begum possessed huge wealth, which was the source of her influence and strength. Apprehending serious opposition from her, Siraj ud-Daulah seized her wealth from Motijheel Palace and placed her under confinement. The Nawab also made changes in high government positions by giving them to his own favourites. Mir Madan was appointed "Bakshi" (paymaster of the army) in place of Mir Jafar. Mohanlal was elevated to the rank of "peshkar" (courtclerk) of his Dewan-khane and he exercised great influence in the administration. Eventually, Siraj suppressed Shaukat Jang, governor of Purnia, who was killed in a clash.


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: During this period, the British East India Company was increasing their influence in the Indian subcontinent, particularly in Bengal; Siraj soon grew to resent the politico-military presence of the East India Company in Bengal. In particular, he was angered at the Company's alleged involvement with and instigation of some members of his own court to a conspiracy to oust him. His charges against the company were broadly threefold. Firstly, that they strengthened the fortification around the Fort William without any intimation or approval; secondly, that they grossly abused trade privileges granted them by the Mughal rulers – which caused heavy loss of customs duties for the government; and thirdly, that they gave shelter to some of his officers, for example, Krishnadas, son of Rajballav, who fled Dhaka after misappropriating government funds. Hence, when the East India Company began further enhancement of military strength at Fort William in Calcutta, Siraj ud-Daulah ordered them to stop. The Company did not heed his directives; consequently, Siraj retaliated and captured Calcutta (for a short while renamed Alinagar) from the British in June 1756. The Nawab gathered his forces together and took Fort William. The British captives were placed in the prison cell as a temporary holding by a local commander, but there was confusion in the Indian chain of command, and the captives were left there overnight, and many of them died.


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: Sir William Meredith, during the Parliamentary inquiry into Robert Clive's actions in India, vindicated Siraj ud-Daulah of any charge surrounding the Black Hole incident:


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: "A peace was however agreed upon with Surajah Dowlah; and the persons who went as ambassadors to confirm that peace formed the conspiracy, by which he was deprived of his kingdom and his life."


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: Shi'ism was introduced to Bengal during the governorship of Shah Shuja (1641–1661 AD), son of Shah Jahan. From 1707 AD to 1880 AD, the Nawabs of Bengal were Shias. They built huge "imambaras" (Shia houses of worship), including the biggest of the Subcontinent built by Nawab Siraj-ud Daula, the Nizammat Imambara in the political capital Murshidabad. It and other imambaras built in towns such as the trading hub Hoogly attracted Shia scholars from within and outside India.


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: The Nawab was infuriated on learning of the attack on Chandernagar. His former hatred of the British returned, but he now felt the need to strengthen himself by alliances against the British. The Nawab was plagued by fear of attack from the north by the Afghans under Ahmad Shah Durrani and from the west by the Marathas. Therefore, he could not deploy his entire force against the British for fear of being attacked from the flanks. A deep distrust set in between the British and the Nawab. As a result, Siraj started secret negotiations with Jean Law, chief of the French factory at Cossimbazar, and de Bussy. The Nawab also moved a large division of his army under Rai Durlabh to Plassey, on the island of Cossimbazar south of Murshidabad.


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: Popular discontent against the Nawab flourished in his own court. The Seths, the traders of Bengal, were in perpetual fear for their wealth under the reign of Siraj, contrary to the situation under Alivardi's reign. They had engaged Yar Lutuf Khan to defend them in case they were threatened in any way. William Watts, the Company representative at the court of Siraj, informed Clive about a conspiracy at the court to overthrow the ruler. The conspirators included Mir Jafar, the paymaster of the army, Rai Durlabh, Yar Lutuf Khan and Omichund (Amir Chand), a Sikh merchant, and several officers in the army. When communicated in this regard by Mir Jafar, Clive referred it to the select committee in Calcutta on 1 May. The committee passed a resolution in support of the alliance. A treaty was drawn up between the British and Mir Jafar to raise him to the throne of the Nawab in return for support to the British in the field of battle and the bestowal of large sums of money upon them as compensation for the attack on Calcutta. On 2 May, Clive broke up his camp and sent half the troops to Calcutta and the other half to Chandernagar.


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: Mir Jafar and the Seths desired that the confederacy between the British and himself be kept secret from Omichund, but when he found out about it, he threatened to betray the conspiracy if his share was not increased to three million rupees (£300,000). Hearing of this, Clive suggested an expedient to the committee. He suggested that two treaties be drawn – the real one on white paper, containing no reference to Omichund and the other on red paper, containing Omichund's desired stipulation, to deceive him. The Members of the Committee signed on both treaties, but Admiral Watson signed only the real one and his signature had to be counterfeited on the fictitious one. Both treaties and separate articles for donations to the army, navy squadron and committee were signed by Mir Jafar on 4 June.


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: Lord Clive testified and defended himself thus before the House of Commons of Parliament on 10 May 1773, during the Parliamentary inquiry into his conduct in India:


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: "Omichund, his confidential servant, as "he" thought, told his master of an agreement made between the English and Monsieur Duprée [may be a mistranscription of Dupleix] to attack him, and received for that advice a sum of not less than four lacks of rupees. Finding this to be the man in whom the nawab entirely trusted, it soon became our object to consider him as a most material engine in the intended revolution. We, therefore, made such an agreement as was necessary for the purpose, and entered into a treaty with him to satisfy his demands. When all things were prepared, and the evening of the event was appointed, Omichund informed Mr Watts, who was at the court of the nawab, that he insisted upon thirty lacks of rupees, and five per cent. upon all the treasure that should be found; that, unless that was immediately complied with, he would disclose the whole to the nawab; and that Mr. Watts, and the two other English gentlemen then at the court, should be cut off before the morning. Mr Watts, immediately on this information, dispatched an express to me at the council. I did not hesitate to find out a stratagem to save the lives of these people, and secure success to the intended event. For this purpose, we signed another treaty. The one was called the "Red", the other the "White" treaty. This treaty was signed by everyone, except admiral Watson; and I should have considered myself sufficiently authorised to put his name to it, by the conversation I had with him. As to the person who signed Admiral Watson's name to the treaty, whether he did it in his presence or not, I cannot say; but this I know, that he thought he had sufficient authority for so doing. This treaty was immediately sent to Omichund, who did not suspect the stratagem. The event took place, and success attended it; and the House, I am fully persuaded, will agree with me, that, when the very existence of the company was at stake, and the lives of these people so precariously situated, and so certain of being destroyed, it was a matter of true policy and of justice to deceive so great a villain."


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: The Battle of Plassey (or Palashi) is widely considered the turning point in the history of the subcontinent, marking the start of British rule in India. After Siraj-ud-Daulah's conquest of Calcutta, the British sent fresh troops from Madras to recapture the fort and avenge the attack. A retreating Siraj-ud-Daulah met the British at Plassey. He had to make camp 27 miles away from Murshidabad. On 23 June 1757 Siraj-ud-Daulah called on Mir Jafar because he was saddened by the sudden fall of Mir Mardan who was a very dear companion of Siraj in battles. The Nawab asked for help from Mir Jafar. Mir Jafar advised Siraj to retreat for that day. The Nawab made the blunder in giving the order to stop the fight. Following his command, the soldiers of the Nawab were returning to their camps. At that time, Robert Clive attacked the soldiers with his army. At such a sudden attack, the army of Siraj became undisciplined and could think of no way to fight. Much of the army retreated. Betrayed by a conspiracy plotted by Jagat Seth, Mir Jafar, Krishna Chandra, Omichund, etc., Siraj lost the battle and had to escape. He rode away and went first to Murshidabad, specifically to Heerajheel or Motijheel, his palace at Mansurganj. He ordered his principal commanders to engage their troops for his safety, but as he was bereft of power due to the loss at Plassey, they were reluctant to offer unquestioning support. Some advised him to deliver himself up to the English, but Siraj equated this with treachery. Others proposed he should encourage the army with greater rewards, and this he seemed to approve of. Yet the numbers in his retinue were considerably diminished. Soon he dispatched most of the women of his harem to Purneah, under the protection of Mohanlal, with gold and elephants. Then, with his principal consort Lutf-un-Nisa and very few attendants, Siraj began his escape towards Patna by boat, but was eventually arrested by Mir Jafar's soldiers.


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: Siraj-ud-Daulah was executed on 2 July 1757 by Mohammad Ali Beg under orders from Mir Miran, son of Mir Jafar in Namak Haram Deorhi as part of the agreement between Mir Jafar and the British East India Company.


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: Siraj-ud-Daulah's tomb is located at Khushbagh, Murshidabad. It is marked with a simple but elegant one-storied mausoleum, surrounded by gardens.


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: Siraj ud-Daulah has gained a positive reputation in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan for his opposition to the beginning of British rule over India.


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: After the death of Alivardii Khan, his immature grandson became the nawab of Bengal, taking the name Miirza Mohammed Siraj-Ud-Daola. In addition to his young age, he had many kinds of defects in his character and conduct.


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: The end of Siraj ud-Daulah's reign also ended Bengali autonomy and marked the beginning of British power in India. In the Bengali version of the end of his rule, Mir Jafar and Robert Clive are the villains and Siraj is the victim. Even though he is rarely if ever depicted as an attractive person, he is regarded as having been sinned against, rather than as a sinner. As the movement for Indian independence gathered strength, Siraj along with Tipu Sultan and the heroes of the First War of Indian Independence including the last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah II, gained iconic status as people who resisted the imperial aggression. In Bangladesh, he is regarded as the last legitimate ruler until Sheikh Mujibur Rahman emerged as leader following independence from Pakistan in 1971, a gap of some two hundred and fourteen years or so.


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: Siraj's legacy has become the subject of cultural war between those who want to offer some moral defense for Western imperialism as a civilizing mission and those who see the colonial period as one in which the strong exploited the weak, and reject the contention that Europe had much to offer India in terms of culture or that Europeans conducted themselves in a morally superior way.


title: Siraj ud-Daulah

text: The family descendants from the linage of Siraj ud Daulah live in Calcutta , West Bengal . They include Late Rabia Sultana , and her daughters Zayika Iman , Rashda Iman , Atiya Iman and Noor Iman , and their respective children Abrar Iman , Jabeen Mumtaz , Farheen Ahmed and Asna Ahmed.


title: Neuilly-sur-Seine

text: Neuilly-sur-Seine (; literally 'Neuilly on Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is a commune in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in France, just west of Paris. Immediately adjacent to the city, the area is composed of mostly select residential neighbourhoods, as well as many corporate headquarters and a handful of foreign embassies. It is the wealthiest and most expensive suburb of Paris.


title: Neuilly-sur-Seine

text: Together with the 16th and 7th arrondissement of Paris, the town of Neuilly-sur-Seine forms the most affluent and prestigious residential area in the whole of France. It has the 2nd highest average household income in France, at €112,504 per year (in 2020).


title: Neuilly-sur-Seine

text: Originally Pont de Neuilly was a small hamlet under the jurisdiction of Villiers, a larger settlement mentioned in medieval sources as early as 832 and now absorbed by the commune of Levallois-Perret. It was not until 1222 that the little settlement of Neuilly, established on the banks of the Seine, was mentioned for the first time in a charter of the Abbey of Saint-Denis: the name was recorded in Medieval Latin as "Portus de Lulliaco", meaning "Port of Lulliacum". In 1224 another charter of Saint-Denis recorded the name as "Lugniacum." In a sales contract dated 1266, the name was also recorded as "Luingni."


title: Neuilly-sur-Seine

text: In 1316, however, in a ruling of the "parlement" of Paris, the name was recorded as "Nully", a different name from those recorded before. In a document dated 1376 the name was again recorded as "Nulliacum" (the Medieval Latin version of "Nully"). Then in the following centuries the name recorded alternated between "Luny" and "Nully", and it is only after 1648 that the name was definitely set as "Nully". The name spelt "Neuilly" after the French Academy standard of pronunciation of the "ill" as a "y" (see IPA at the top).


title: Neuilly-sur-Seine

text: Various explanations and etymologies have been proposed to explain these discrepancies in the names of Neuilly recorded over the centuries. The original name of Neuilly may have been "Lulliacum" or "Lugniacum", and that it was only later corrupted into "Nulliacum" / "Nully". Some interpret "Lulliacum" or "Lugniacum" as meaning "estate of Lullius (or Lunius)", probably a Gallo-Roman landowner. This interpretation is based on the many placenames of France made up of the names of Gallo-Roman landowners and suffixed with the traditional placename suffix "-acum". Other researchers, however, object that it is unlikely that Neuilly owes its name to a Gallo-Roman patronym, because during the Roman occupation of Gaul the area of Neuilly was inside the large Forest of Rouvray, of which the Bois de Boulogne is all that remains today, and was probably not a settlement.


title: Neuilly-sur-Seine

text: These researchers contend that it is only after the fall of the Roman Empire and the Germanic invasions that the area of Neuilly was deforested and settled. Thus, they think that the name "Lulliacum" or "Lugniacum" comes from the ancient Germanic word "lund" meaning "forest", akin to Old Norse "lundr" meaning "grove", to which the placename suffix "-acum" was added. The Old Norse word "lundr" has indeed left many placenames across Europe, such as the city of Lund in Sweden, the Forest of the Londe in Normandy, or the many English placenames containing "lound", "lownde", or "lund" in their name, or ending in "-land". This interesting theory, however, fails to explain why the "d" of "lund" is missing in "Lulliacum" or "Lugniacum".


title: Neuilly-sur-Seine

text: Concerning the discrepancy in names over the centuries, the most probable explanation is that the original name "Lulliacum" or "Lugniacum" was later corrupted into "Nulliacum" / "Nully" by inversion of the consonants, perhaps under the influence of an old Celtic word meaning "swampy land, boggy land" (as was the land around Neuilly-sur-Seine in ancient times) which is found in the name of many French places anciently covered with water, such as Noue, Noë, Nouan, Nohant, etc. Or perhaps the consonants were simply inverted under the influence of the many settlements of France called Neuilly (a frequent place name whose etymology is completely different from the special case of Neuilly-sur-Seine).


title: Neuilly-sur-Seine

text: Until the French Revolution, the settlement was often referred to as "Port-Neuilly", but at the creation of French communes in 1790 the "Port" was dropped and the newly born commune was named simply Neuilly.


title: Neuilly-sur-Seine

text: On 1 January 1860, the city of Paris was enlarged by annexing neighbouring communes. On that occasion, a part of the territory of Neuilly-sur-Seine was annexed by the city of Paris, and forms now the neighbourhood of Ternes, in the 17th arrondissement of Paris.


title: Neuilly-sur-Seine

text: On 11 January 1867, part of the territory of Neuilly-sur-Seine was detached and merged with a part of the territory of Clichy to create the commune of Levallois-Perret.


title: Neuilly-sur-Seine

text: On 2 May 1897, the commune name officially became Neuilly-sur-Seine (meaning "Neuilly upon Seine"), in order to distinguish it from the many communes of France also called Neuilly. Most people, however, continue to refer to Neuilly-sur-Seine as simply "Neuilly". During the 1900 Summer Olympics, it hosted the basque pelota events.


title: Neuilly-sur-Seine

text: In 1919, the Treaty of Neuilly was signed with Bulgaria in Neuilly-sur-Seine to conclude its role in World War I.


title: Neuilly-sur-Seine

text: In 1929, the Bois de Boulogne, which was hitherto divided between the communes of Neuilly-sur-Seine and Boulogne-Billancourt, was annexed in its entirety by the city of Paris.


title: Neuilly-sur-Seine

text: Neuilly is one of most right-wing towns in France; regularly voting for the candidate of the traditional right in landslide margins. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy was once mayor of Neuilly. Amidst a poor national showing of 20%, Neuilly gave right-wing candidate François Fillon 65% of its vote in the first round of the 2017 presidential election.


title: Neuilly-sur-Seine

text: The population data in the table and graph below refer to the commune of Neuilly-sur-Seine proper, in its geography at the given years. The commune of Neuilly-sur-Seine ceded part of its territory to the new commune of Levallois-Perret in 1866.


title: Neuilly-sur-Seine

text: Neuilly-sur-Seine is served by three stations on Paris Métro Line 1: Porte Maillot (with a direct access to RER line C), Les Sablons and Pont de Neuilly.


title: Neuilly-sur-Seine

text: Located near France's main business district La Défense, Neuilly-sur-Seine also hosts several corporate headquarters:


title: Neuilly-sur-Seine

text: Bureau Veritas, Chanel, Marathon Media, JCDecaux, Thales Group, M6 Group, Sephora, PricewaterhouseCoopers France, Parfums Christian Dior (in 2019), Orangina France, Grant Thornton International France.


title: Don Imus

text: John Donald Imus Jr. (July 23, 1940 – December 27, 2019), also known mononymously as Imus, was an American radio personality, television show host, recording artist, and author. His radio show, "Imus in the Morning", was aired on various stations and digital platforms nationwide until 2018.


title: Don Imus

text: In 1968, he began his first radio job, at KUTY in Palmdale, California. Three years later, he landed the morning broadcast position at WNBC in New York City. Imus was fired from WNBC in 1977, and following a one-year stint at WHK in Cleveland was rehired by WNBC in 1979. Imus remained at the station until it left the air in 1988, at which time his show moved to WFAN, which took over WNBC's former frequency of 660 kHz. Following Howard Stern's success with national syndication, "Imus in the Morning" adopted the same model in 1993.


title: Don Imus

text: Throughout his later career, Imus was labeled a "shock jock". He was fired by CBS Radio in April 2007 after describing the Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos".


title: Don Imus

text: In January 2018, Cumulus Media, in bankruptcy reorganization, told Imus the company was going to stop paying him. His final show aired on March 29, 2018. He died the following year of complications from lung disease.