title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: In 2000, Maria Mesi was arrested, and because police found love letters that she had exchanged with Messina Denaro, the following year she was sentenced to three years in prison for aiding and abetting together with her brother Francesco. In July 2006, investigators found other love letters from Maria Mesi at the home of Filippo Guttadauro, who had the task of delivering them to his brother-in-law Messina Denaro.


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: On 6 May 2002, Messina Denaro was sentenced "in absentia" to life imprisonment for his role in the bombings of 1993.


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: According to Giusy Vitale, a "pentita", Messina Denaro was one of the "young Turks" within Cosa Nostra that wanted to set aside Bernardo Provenzano in 1998. Next to Messina Denaro, they were Giovanni Brusca, Domenico Raccuglia, and Vito Vitale. The younger bosses wanted to take strategic decisions without prior consent of Provenzano. They told him to "go home and take care of your family".


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: After the arrest of Provenzano on 11 April 2006, Messina Denaro is often mentioned as his successor. His main rivals are supposed to be Salvatore Lo Piccolo, boss of the mandamento of San Lorenzo, Palermo, and Domenico Raccuglia from Altofonte. Provenzano allegedly nominated Messina Denaro in one of his "pizzini", which are small slips of paper used to communicate with other mafiosi to avoid phone conversations. Messina Denaro used the pseudonym "Alessio" in his clandestine correspondence with former Mafia boss Provenzano. He suffers from severe myopia and received treatment for this condition at a clinic in Barcelona, Spain in 1994 and 1996.


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: This presupposes that Provenzano has the power to nominate a successor, which is not unanimously accepted among Mafia observers. According to anti-Mafia prosecutor Antonio Ingroia of the Direzione distrettuale antimafia (DDA) of Palermo, "The Mafia today is more of a federation and less of an authoritarian state", referring to the previous period of authoritarian rule under Salvatore Riina. Ingroia says that Provenzano "established a kind of directorate of about four to seven men who met very infrequently, only when necessary, when there were strategic decisions to make."


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: According to Ingroia, "in an organization like the Mafia, a boss has to be one step above the others otherwise it all falls apart. It all depends on if he can manage consensus and if the others agree or rebel." For Ingroia, Provenzano "guaranteed a measure of stability because he had the authority to quash internal disputes." According to Sergio Lari, deputy chief prosecutor of Palermo, "Either the directorate can choose a successor or we could again be in for a fiery time." Ingroia said that it was unlikely that there would be an all-out war over who would fill Provenzano's shoes. He said: "Right now I don't think that's probable." Of the two possible successors, Ingroia thought Lo Piccolo was the more likely heir to the Mafia throne, saying: "He's from Palermo and that's still the most powerful Mafia stronghold."


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: After the arrest of Salvatore Lo Piccolo in November 2007, Messina Denaro is generally viewed as one of the possible leading Mafia bosses. According to Antonio Ingroia, one of the prosecutors of the Direzione Distrettuale Antimafia (DDA) of Palermo, the main leading figures in Cosa Nostra at the moment, Messina Denaro, Giovanni Riina, Domenico Raccuglia, Pietro Tagliavia and Gianni Nicchi, are still too young to be recognized as leading bosses of the organisation. The police believes that Messina Denaro is hiding out close to his family home at Castelvetrano, and is moving between safe houses. On 15 November 2009, Domenico Raccuglia was arrested in a small town near Trapani having been convicted in absentia for murder and other crimes, facing three life sentences.


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: On 18 November 2008, Italian authorities seized €700 million in assets from the supermarket king of Sicily, Giuseppe Grigoli, traceable to Messina Denaro. The assets include 12 businesses, 220 real estate holdings - including villas and apartment blocks - and 133 land holdings for a total of 60 hectares. Grigoli was arrested in December 2007 after authorities found documents linking him to Messina Denaro in the hideout where Provenzano was arrested in April 2006. Grigoli has the exclusive franchise for western Sicily of the SPAR supermarket chain.


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: "This is one of the most important operations in recent years," according to Palermo prosecutor Roberto Scarpinato. Investigators believe that through his supermarkets Grigoli was able to launder illicit profits for Cosa Nostra and give a legal cover to mafiosi. "Having conquered the food distribution market, Grigoli was able to give jobs to hundreds of people close to Cosa Nostra or recommended by the Mafia," Scarpinato said. From evidence discovered on tiny paper-scrap messages found in the hut where Provenzano was arrested, Messina Denaro "knew to the last comma the accounts of Grigoli's supermarkets", he added.


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: In January 2010, police seized construction companies, villas, shops and vehicles worth some €550 million from a western Sicilian construction magnate, Rosario Cascio, believed to be one of the main bankrollers and money launderers for Messina Denaro. Together with €700 million in assets taken from supermarket magnate Giuseppe Grigoli at the end of 2008 and €200 million from construction tycoon Francesco Pecora in November 2009. In total €1.4 billion were seized, which is seen as a clear reminder of the deep-rooted economic power of Messina Denaro.


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: In September 2010, police seized a record amount of assets worth €1.5 billion from a Sicilian businessman Vito Nicastri accused of working with Messina Denaro. He had invested in wind and solar energy sources, as a way of laundering money. The Italian police are applying a new strategy to try to capture Messina Denaro, arresting scores of his underlings and seizing millions of euros in assets. "The circle is closing around the No.1 fugitive," Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said. Palermo Chief Prosecutor Francesco Messineo added that the aim of the strategy against Messina Denaro was to "dry up the water he swims in".


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: With the arrest of Gerlandino Messina, the alleged boss of Agrigento, on 23 October 2010 in Favara, Agrigento province, the circle around Messina Denaro tightens even more, as notes addressed specifically to Messina Denaro to discuss territorial division will provide clues to his whereabouts and recent activities.


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: On 15 March 2010, his brother Salvatore Messina Denaro was arrested along with 18 others in operation "Golem 2". They were part of a network surrounding the Mafia boss, and were charged with organising Messina Denaro's secret correspondence in order to help him remain on the run. Other charges include mafia association, corruption and protection rackets.


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: On 19 May 2011, an attempt to arrest Messina Denaro failed. Police surrounded a manor farm ten minutes from his hometown Castelvetrano. They were tipped by the secret service "Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Interna" which had provided useful information for the previous arrests of Mafia bosses Giuseppe Falsone and Gerlandino Messina. However, there was no trace of Messina Denaro.


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: In 2012, though still at large, Messina Denaro was one of five people sentenced to life imprisonment for their roles in the murder of Giuseppe Di Matteo.


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: On 13 December 2013, Messina Denaro's sister, Patrizia Messina Denaro, was arrested along with several other mafia associates in a serious blow to Messina Denaro by Italian police. On 17 April 2018, she was sentenced to 14 years in prison for mafia association, external competition, and attempted extortion.


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: In December 2014, there was a mention of Italian police coming close to apprehending Messina Denaro after they made an estimated €20 million seizure of his assets in the form of valuable olive groves in Trapani. Wiretaps had revealed Messina Denaro was receiving funding from the Fountain of Gold olive oil business based in the region.


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: In December 2017, over 200 Italian police officers executed search warrants at properties owned by around 30 Italian mafiosi in and near Castelvetrano, his hometown, in the search for Messina Denaro.


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: In November 2018, Italian businessman Carmelo Patti, accused of working with Messina Denaro, had €1.5 billion of his assets seized by Italian police on the basis that they related to the proceeds of crime.


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: On 20 October 2020, Messina Denaro was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment by the Corte d'Assise for having been one of the instigators of the Capaci bombing and Via D'Amelio bombing.


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: On 12 August 2021, TG1 released the first ever voice recording of Messina Denaro. The recording originated from an archived cassette tape of the Court of Marsala until it was recovered by local Anti-Mafia associations and news outlets. The recording dated from 18 March 1993, taking place in the court of Marsala regarding a murder case in Partanna. Messina Denaro testified in the case, and almost three months later was deemed a fugitive.


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: On 10 September 2021, there was a Dutch news report that Messina Denaro might have been arrested two days earlier while in a restaurant in The Hague, after receiving a tip from Italian authorities. However, Dutch prosecutors confirmed later that it was not Denaro but instead a man from Liverpool. Following this incident, severe criticism was directed toward Italian authorities.


title: Matteo Messina Denaro

text: On 30 September 2021, TG2 revealed the first known video of Messina Denaro. The sighting came from a security camera in the area of the Valle del Belice in December 2009. The footage shows a Mitsubishi Pajero driving through the valley, revealing at least two occupants. The front passenger is supposedly Messina Denaro. In October 2021, Italian authorities launched a manhunt across Sicily.


title: Nagato (Naruto)

text: , known primarily under the alias of , is a fictional character in the manga and anime series "Naruto" created by Masashi Kishimoto. Nagato is the figurehead leader of the Akatsuki who wishes to capture the tailed beasts sealed into various people around the shinobi world. After acquiring and sealing most of the beasts within a Gedo statue, Nagato's advisor advises him to capture the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox sealed inside the series' protagonist, Naruto Uzumaki (whom he turns out to be related to). Before leaving to capture Naruto, Nagato engages in a mortal battle with his former mentor, Jiraiya. His past as a war orphan, and his loss of his best friend are explored. Due to his traumatic experiences, which stemmed from human conflict, Nagato aims to create a new world, free from the chaos of war. Nagato also appears in the series' video games.


title: Nagato (Naruto)

text: Nagato was conceived by Kishimoto as a villain, a victim of war, who would show Naruto the impact of world wars, something Kishimoto aimed to explore throughout the series. While Nagato does not fight in the story, he uses a group of corpses known as . All of them were given elaborate designs with multiple piercings across their bodies to reinforce the idea that despite his calm demeanor, Nagato is a dangerous person.


title: Nagato (Naruto)

text: Critical response to Nagato's character has been generally positive, praising the chaos he brings to the story, including the murder of Jiraiya and the destruction of Konoha itself while chasing Naruto. His eventual fight against Naruto has been regarded as one of the best battles in the entire series. This is due not only to the techniques used by both fighters, but because of their interactions in relation to the chaos of wars. Because of this, Kishimoto was able to bring more depth to a series aimed at a young demographic.


title: Nagato (Naruto)

text: Nagato originated from Masashi Kishimoto's desire to elaborate on the ending to the manga series "Naruto". While the series was known for its fight scenes and tragedies, the main characters never experienced a war. Once the series began its "second part", simply referred to as Part II in the manga and "Shippuden" in the anime, Kishimoto felt the need to create a story arc that would emphasize the tragedy of wars, leading to the final arc which would include a war. The principal reason for this was a significant difference between the two main characters, Naruto Uzumaki who had no knowledge of wars, and Sasuke Uchiha who was a victim of one; his entire clan had been annihilated to avoid a potential civil war. As a result, Kishimoto created Nagato as a war victim who would kill Naruto's teacher, Jiraiya, and act as Naruto's nemesis so he would understand the tragedy that Sasuke had experienced. This led to the creation of the series' final arc, the Fourth Great Shinobi War, where Naruto engages in a bigger fight with the remaining member of the terrorist organization Akatsuki.


title: Nagato (Naruto)

text: According to Kishimoto, Pain's story arc was the most difficult one to write; he felt this because the protagonist, Naruto, truly forgave his enemy. Instead of having the protagonist kill the enemy he hates as happens in other series, Kishimoto found the idea of the two characters interacting and settling their differences more challenging. This had a major impact on the writer, and he decided to have Naruto forgive Sasuke during their final fight in a similar manner as he interacted with Nagato. Retrospectively, Kishimoto believes "Naruto" took a darker tone with Nagato's introduction due to how his life indicated serious themes rarely present in "shonen manga" and thus often questioned himself what type of conclusion to this fight between the Akatsuki and the main character.


title: Nagato (Naruto)

text: Regarding the bonds in the story, Kishimoto highlighted the importance of Jiraiya's death during his fight against Pain; this remark was made since, in his last moments, Jiraiya managed to discover the origin of Pain's multiple bodies and used his remaining forces to send a message to Naruto in which he explained how Pain can be defeated. As Nagato was Akatsuki's leader, Kishimoto aimed to give him a striking design showing an appealing look while simultaneously depicting him as a dangerous person. Since his alias is "Pain", he decided to add some piercings to his body—a metaphor for how he inflicts "pain upon himself". Notable among the few unused concept designs for him is a small sketch where Pain appears to wear a partial mask with a feather or horn-like accessories fitted to his forehead protector.


title: Nagato (Naruto)

text: In the Japanese anime, Nagato's voice actor is Junpei Morita, while Yahiko/Deva(Literally meaning "God" in hindi)/Tendo Path is voiced by Kenyu Horiuchi; in the English dub, Nagato is voiced by Vic Mignogna, and Yahiko/Deva Path is voiced by Troy Baker (except for "", where he is voiced by Matthew Mercer). While the other Paths shared the Deva Path's voice actors, the second Animal Path is voiced by Shiho Hisajima in Japanese and Stephanie Sheh in English. In regard to Nagato, Mignogna said "his story arc is amazing".


title: Nagato (Naruto)

text: Nagato is the recognized leader of the Akatsuki and Konan's partner, with Obito Uchiha acting as his benefactor. The "Pain" that is most often seen and used in the series is the Deva Path. This is actually Nagato's deceased friend , one of six animated corpses collectively known as "The Six Paths of Pain" that are controlled by Nagato and use one sixth of his full power. The Pain Paths are all outfitted with a number of body piercings that serve as a means for Nagato to control them and offer them a "more dangerous" appearance in relation to their name's installation. Through Nagato's , they can share visual information and coordinate attacks.


title: Nagato (Naruto)

text: Orphaned from the war-torn country of Amegakure, the Village Hidden in Rain, Nagato meets fellow orphans Konan and Yahiko before they are trained by Jiraiya. A descendant of the Uzumaki clan like Naruto, Nagato's Rinnegan is later revealed to have belonged to Madara Uchiha, who transplanted his eyes into the child as part of his plan. Nagato desires peace for the world, helping Yahiko to create the Akatsuki to achieve that shared dream. The anime reveals Nagato is observed from afar by Madara's apprentice Tobi, who assumes Madara's identity. Following Yahiko's death, which Tobi orchestrated, by the actions of Amegakure's despot, Hanzo, and Danzo Shimura of Konohagakure in the Hidden Leaf Village, Nagato rethinks the idea that peace can only be attained by teaching the world suffering caused by war. For this, Nagato adopts the name of "Pain" and kills Hanzo, taking over as the new leader of Amegakure and becoming a "god" for its citizens. Crippled from both Hanzo's attack and his link with the Gedo Statue, Nagato finds a way to overcome his weakness by remotely controlling the corpses of deceased people as if they were their own. Besides Yahiko, Nagato creates the other Paths from the corpses of five ninja that Jiraiya encountered in the past. After this, unaware that Tobi is manipulating him, Pain begins leading the Akatsuki to force the world into peace using any means necessary.


title: Nagato (Naruto)

text: Pain is confronted by Jiraiya while infiltrating Amegakure, resulting in a fight that ends with his mentor's death and the loss of his Animal Path vessel. Nagato converts the corpse of a Rain kunoichi named into a new Animal Path before beginning his attack on Konohagakure. The rest of the Paths are destroyed in the fight against Naruto, with the Deva Path disabled, and Nagato recovers his faith in Jiraiya and world peace while talking with Naruto. He then sacrifices his life to revive the people he killed in Konohagakure. Konan takes his and Yahiko's bodies to be placed in a tomb. Tobi desecrates Nagato's resting place to acquire the Rinnegan, which Madara later reclaims once fully resurrected. Nagato is reanimated by Tobi's ally Kabuto Yakushi during the war and sent alongside former ally Itachi Uchiha to battle Naruto and Killer Bee. Though he regains some of his ability to fight again, Nagato gets seal by the combined efforts of Itachi, Killer Bee and Naruto and is sent back to the afterlife.


title: Nagato (Naruto)

text: Besides the main series, Nagato appears in multiple video games based on the series. The game "" shows the organization of the Akatsuki group. Nagato's actions are also present in the light novel "Akatsuki Hiden: Evil Flowers in Full Bloom" as a story Sasuke Uchiha learns while wandering across the world.


title: Nagato (Naruto)

text: Nagato has been a popular character from the "Naruto" series. "IGN" listed him as the fourth best character in the story. The site called him "one of the most philosophically and psychologically complex characters" due to the depth he brought to the series and the impact he had on the story, not only for his crimes but for the way he tried to redeem himself in his final moments interacting with Naruto. IGN felt Nagato's battle with Jiraiya was the franchise's second best fight, adding it might be one of the best animated fights in anime history. On the other hand, "Anime News Network" criticized the story of Nagato and Jiraiya, feeling that Sasuke Uchiha's conflict with the Akatsuki was far more entertaining; nevertheless, the fact that Nagato killed his former teacher was said to have a major impact on the series. In a manga popularity poll, Nagato was voted the 23rd most popular "Naruto" character.


title: Nagato (Naruto)

text: Critical response to Nagato's role in the series has been positive. "Anime UK News" praised his invasion of Konohagakure, mainly due to the chaos he created during the fights, offering the audience a sensation of hopelessness as multiple characters were defeated and killed, yet still providing hope that Naruto would be able to defeat Nagato due to his constant training. The reviewer also felt the appearance of Konohamaru Sarutobi, a younger ninja friend of Naruto, to defeat one of the six Pains was appealing but said the anime's production did not live up to the original manga. "Anime News Network" said the major destruction Nagato brought to the village had a great impact, most notably when the area became empty because of one of his techniques. His eventual fight against Naruto has been praised for the fact that both fighters used interesting tactics during the battle, with "Mania Entertainment" sensing a major change in Naruto as he was haunted by the idea of avenging Jiraiya. "The Fandom Post" wrote that Nagato impacted both the story and Naruto when he nearly killed Hinata Hyuga once Naruto was overwhelmed by him. The new motivation Naruto had for defeating the Akatsuki was praised despite the mixed responses to the way he defeated Nagato in the next episodes. "UK Anime Network" also praised Nagato's actions during the invasion and the fights for all the damage he caused to the village. The reviewer recommended these scenes to newcomers because of how interesting the story had become and felt this arc was the best part of the series for fans. However, the reviewer strongly criticized the animation Studio Pierrot produced for an episode where the struggle between Nagato and Naruto continued. In contrast to "UK Anime Network", another reviewer for "The Fandom Post" thought the anime adaptation managed to make the fight between Nagato and Naruto entertaining in terms of movements, audio and voice acting. They felt Nagato's words regarding his philosophy of war had a big impact on Naruto, who said he cannot fight back. "Anime News Network" felt that the entire battle managed to be one of the best in the series because of the tactics used by the two characters, and had a notable emotional impact on viewers.


title: Nagato (Naruto)

text: Following the battle that ended when Naruto defeated all six Pains after which Nagato interacted with him. Nagato's past was viewed as too tragic by "Anime News Network", citing the death of his parents among other desperate scenes that led the reviewer to feel it was too dark for a series aimed at a young demographic. "The Fandom Post" felt that Naruto's intention to follow Jiraiya's wish for world peace against Nagato's philosophy of a world of chaos had a major impact on the story. The way Naruto presented his ideals to Nagato brought further depth to the series. However, Nagato's final actions, including killing himself to revive some of the people he murdered, got a mixed responses from "Anime News Network" because it reduced the tension and drama he had built in the story.


title: Michael McDonald (comedian)

text: Michael James McDonald (born December 31, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, screenwriter, and director. He is best known for starring in the sketch comedy show "MADtv". McDonald joined the show during the fourth season (1998) and remained in the cast until the end of the thirteenth and penultimate season, having become the longest-tenured cast member.


title: Michael McDonald (comedian)

text: McDonald was born in Fullerton, California. He graduated from St. Juliana Catholic Elementary School in Fullerton, and later went to Servite High School in Anaheim, California, and graduated from the University of Southern California with a business degree.


title: Michael McDonald (comedian)

text: After college, a friend took McDonald to see an improv comedy show at The Groundlings Theater. McDonald quit his job at the bank and enrolled in The Groundlings improv program. He was a member of the troupe from 1992 to 1997. During that time, he was also involved in writing and directing films for Roger Corman.


title: Michael McDonald (comedian)

text: Later on, McDonald would guest star in such shows as "Seinfeld" (in two episodes playing two different parts), "Just Shoot Me!", "Family Matters", "Scrubs" and "NewsRadio". He also made brief cameos in all three "Austin Powers" films. McDonald had a starring role with Will Forte and Nicole Sullivan on the short-lived MTV show "Clone High" as the voice of Gandhi.


title: Michael McDonald (comedian)

text: McDonald is currently touring at stand-up comedy clubs across the country. His stand-up comedy special "Michael McDonald: Model Citizen" premiered on Showtime on October 9, 2010. Filmed in Orange County at the OC Pavilion, it has been described as "Part stand-up comedy, part one man show, this special is for anyone who – like Michael – finds humor in the strange world all around us."


title: Michael McDonald (comedian)

text: McDonald was also a writer, director, and producer of the ABC TV series "Cougar Town". He directed a number of episodes of the show, including "Letting You Go", "Everything Man", "When a Kid Goes Bad", "Stop Dragging My Heart Around", and "Don't Come Around Here No More". McDonald also wrote the episode "Wake Up Time".


title: Michael McDonald (comedian)

text: McDonald joined the cast of "MADtv" in 1998, eventually becoming the longest-standing cast member in the show's history (10 seasons). He performed several recurring characters, including Stuart Larkin, Rusty Miller, Marvin Tikvah, Sean Gidcomb, Bible Dude, the Depressed Persian Tow Truck Man, Fightin' Ron, and F. Michael McKrofsky of "Real M*********ing Talk" (replacing Andrew Daly's token white commentator on that sketch).


title: Michael McDonald (comedian)

text: Much like Darrell Hammond, Phil Hartman, Dan Aykroyd, and Bill Hader on "Saturday Night Live", McDonald was the go-to cast member for a litany of impressions, ranging from past and present movie and TV stars to world leaders and American political figures.


title: Michael McDonald (comedian)

text: After 10 years on "MADtv", McDonald left the cast, but was a contributing writer and director for the show's final season. McDonald was the last member of the cast to be hired in the 1990s, and the last cast member to have been born in the 1960s, and is the only cast member to have a "best of" clip show special dedicated to him.


title: Michael McDonald (comedian)

text: McDonald appeared as the lead Carly's assistant in the 1996 sitcom, first appearing in season one episode four, "Something About a Family Photo".


title: Braunau am Inn

text: Braunau am Inn (; German for "Braunau on the Inn") is a town in Upper Austria on the border with Germany. It is known for being the birthplace of Adolf Hitler.


title: Braunau am Inn

text: The town is on the lower river Inn below its confluence with the Salzach, where it forms the border with the German state of Bavaria, halfway on the road between the state capital Linz and the Bavarian capital Munich, about north of Salzburg. Braunau is connected by bridges over the Inn with its Bavarian counterpart Simbach am Inn. A traditional port of entry, all border controls have been abolished since the implementation of the Schengen Agreement by Austria in 1997.


title: Braunau am Inn

text: The town gave its name to the administrative district (""). The population of Braunau am Inn was 16,182 in 2011. The municipal area comprises the cadastral communities of Braunau am Inn, Osternberg, and Ranshofen.


title: Braunau am Inn

text: While the abbey of Ranshofen was already mentioned in the course of the deposition of Tassilo III, Duke of Bavaria, in 788, Braunau itself first appeared as "Prounaw" in an 1120 deed. The Innviertel region then was part of the Duchy of Bavaria.


title: Braunau am Inn

text: Braunau received town rights in 1260, one of the first in present-day Austria. It became a fortress town and important trading route junction, dealing with the salt trade and with ship traffic on the Inn. As a major Bavarian settlement, the town played an outstanding role in the Bavarian uprising against the Austrian occupation during the War of the Spanish Succession, when it hosted the Braunau Parliament, a provisional Bavarian Parliament in 1705 headed by Georg Sebastian Plinganser (born 16 April 1680 in Pfarrkirchen; died 7 May 1738 in Augsburg).


title: Braunau am Inn

text: The Late Gothic Braunau parish church dedicated to Saint Stephen was built from 1439 to 1466, replacing an older chapel. Its high spire is one of the tallest in Austria and the town's landmark. The remains of the fortress today house a museum and parts of the former town walls can still be seen. Another museum is housed in refurbished 18th-century public baths.


title: Braunau am Inn

text: Within 40 years, Braunau changed hands three times: In 1779, it became an Austrian town under the terms of the Treaty of Teschen, which settled the War of the Bavarian Succession. During War of the Third Coalition, the Nuremberg bookseller Johann Philipp Palm was arrested at the Braunau fortress by French troops and executed for high treason by personal order of Napoleon in 1806. Under the terms of the 1809 Treaty of Schönbrunn, Braunau became Bavarian again in 1809. In 1816, during reorganisation of Europe after the Napoleonic Wars at the Congress of Vienna, the Kingdom of Bavaria ceded the town to the Austrian Empire and was compensated by the gain of Aschaffenburg. Braunau has been Austrian ever since.


title: Braunau am Inn

text: Braunau remained a garrison town of the Austro-Hungarian Army and became the site of a large prisoner of war camp in World War I. After the Nazi ' to Nazi Germany in 1938, Ranshofen, which at that time had one of Austria's largest aluminium plants, was incorporated into Braunau. Since 1992, the annual Braunau Contemporary History Days initiated by Andreas Maislinger concentrate on accounting for the past; the town's administration awards the Egon Ranshofen-Wertheimer Award, named after native diplomat Egon Ranshofen-Wertheimer, to honour committed Austrians abroad. Several ' were installed in Braunau by the artist Gunter Demnig.


title: Braunau am Inn

text: Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn where his father Alois Hitler served as a customs official. He and his family left Braunau and moved to Passau in 1892. Hitler was born in an apartment building recorded at Salzburger Vorstadt 15 in an 1890 register, which housed a craft brewery and several rental flats, one of them occupied by Alois Hitler, his third wife Klara, their son Adolf, and his elder half-siblings Alois Jr. and Angela.


title: Braunau am Inn

text: In April 1934, the Passau ' published a commemorative article, marking the room where Hitler was born. In April 1938, Braunau renamed to ', and its town plaza to "", but the building itself remained a , with a sign advertising beer on tap.


title: Braunau am Inn

text: After Hitler's personal secretary Martin Bormann purchased the house where Hitler was born for the Nazi Party, it became a cult centre containing an art gallery and a public library. Occupied by US troops at the end of World War II, the building temporarily housed a documentary exhibition on Nazi concentration camps. In 1952, it was restored to its original owners and thereafter used as a city library, a technical college and a day-care centre for disabled people. Since 2011, the house remains vacant. In 2014, the Austrian Ministry decided to open in the house a "House of Responsibility"—a museum dedicated to Hitler's crimes during the existence of the Third Reich.


title: Braunau am Inn

text: In the course of the process of coming to terms with the history of Austria in the time of National Socialism, the Braunau mayor Gerhard Skiba in April 1989 — two weeks before Hitler's centenary — took the initiative and placed a memorial stone in front of the building. The stone, commemorating the victims of World War II, is made of granite from the quarry at the Mauthausen concentration camp. It states, " ("For peace, freedom and democracy; never again fascism: millions of dead remind us"). The memorial also serves as a disincentive to "Hitler tourism". In 1972 the Austrian government took over the main lease on the building to further discourage any notion of making it a pilgrimage site, and continues to pay its current owner approximately 4,800 euros in monthly rental. Austria's government has since announced that the house would be torn down and replaced with a new building that has no association with Adolf Hitler. The demolition was recommended by a government-appointed commission and the plan still required formalization via legislation and a parliamentary vote. On 18 October 2016, Austrian interior minister Wolfgang Sobotka said the building would instead be changed to the extent that it "will not be recognizable."


title: Braunau am Inn

text: In October 2016, the Austrian government approved a plan to move or demolish the building at Salzburger Vorstadt 15. In July of the same year, the Austrian Parliament passed a law to expropriate the house with its last private owner, Gerlinde Pommer, being compensated for the property. Following the emptying of the building in 2011, Pommer had received €4,700 ($5,200) per month in rent from the Austrian government as it had taken over the main lease. Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka lobbied for replacing the original building with an entirely new structure. In June 2020 it was announced that the building would be remodeled and serve as a police station.


title: Braunau am Inn

text: In 2011, the Braunau town council voted to revoke any honorary citizenship that may have been conferred on Hitler in 1933. The action was described as "precautionary" as no archival evidence could be found to confirm that he had received it in the first place.


title: Braunau am Inn

text: Braunau has a full range of industries including electronics, metal (AMAG), woodworking, and glass. The town also has the largest aluminium works in Austria.


title: Braunau am Inn

text: The HTL Braunau has been awarded "Most Innovative School in Upper Austria" 7 times, in the years 2012-2014 and 2017-2020.


title: Braunau am Inn

text: After two successful seasons, the local football team, SV Braunau, reached the Austrian 1st Division before suddenly going bankrupt in 2000. The team was re-founded as FC Braunau.


title: Braunau am Inn

text: Braunau am Inn has an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification: "Cfb") or, following the 0 °C isotherm, a humid continental climate ("Dfb") with warm summers and quite cold winters.


title: ELIZA

text: ELIZA is an early natural language processing computer program created from 1964 to 1966 at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory by Joseph Weizenbaum. Created to demonstrate the superficiality of communication between humans and machines, Eliza simulated conversation by using a "pattern matching" and substitution methodology that gave users an illusion of understanding on the part of the program, but had no built in framework for contextualizing events. Directives on how to interact were provided by "scripts", written originally in MAD-Slip, which allowed ELIZA to process user inputs and engage in discourse following the rules and directions of the script. The most famous script, DOCTOR, simulated a Rogerian psychotherapist (in particular, Carl Rogers, who was well known for simply parroting back at patients what they had just said), and used rules, dictated in the script, to respond with non-directional questions to user inputs. As such, ELIZA was one of the first chatterbots and one of the first programs capable of attempting the Turing test.


title: ELIZA

text: ELIZA's creator, Weizenbaum, regarded the program as a method to show the superficiality of communication between man and machine, but was surprised by the number of individuals who attributed human-like feelings to the computer program, including Weizenbaum's secretary. Many academics believed that the program would be able to positively influence the lives of many people, particularly those with psychological issues, and that it could aid doctors working on such patients' treatment. While ELIZA was capable of engaging in discourse, ELIZA could not converse with true understanding. However, many early users were convinced of ELIZA's intelligence and understanding, despite Weizenbaum's insistence to the contrary. Surprisingly, the original ELIZA source-code has been missing since the 1960s as it was not common to publish articles that included source code at this time. However, more recently the MAD-Slip source-code has now been discovered in the MIT archives and published on various platforms, such as archive.org. The source-code is of high historical interest as it demonstrates not only the specificity of programming languages and techniques at that time, but also the beginning of software layering and abstraction as a means of achieving sophisticated software programming.


title: ELIZA

text: Joseph Weizenbaum's ELIZA, running the DOCTOR script, was created to provide a parody of "the responses of a non-directional psychotherapist in an initial psychiatric interview" and to "demonstrate that the communication between man and machine was superficial". While ELIZA is best known for acting in the manner of a psychotherapist, the speech patterns are due to the data and instructions supplied by the DOCTOR script. ELIZA itself examined the text for keywords, applied values to said keywords, and transformed the input into an output; the script that ELIZA ran determined the keywords, set the values of keywords, and set the rules of transformation for the output. Weizenbaum chose to make the DOCTOR script in the context of psychotherapy to "sidestep the problem of giving the program a data base of real-world knowledge", as in a Rogerian therapeutic situation, the program had only to reflect back the patient's statements. The algorithms of DOCTOR allowed for a deceptively intelligent response, which deceived many individuals when first using the program.


title: ELIZA

text: Weizenbaum named his program ELIZA after Eliza Doolittle, a working-class character in George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion". According to Weizenbaum, ELIZA's ability to be "incrementally improved" by various users made it similar to Eliza Doolittle, since Eliza Doolittle was taught to speak with an upper-class accent in Shaw's play. However, unlike in Shaw's play, ELIZA is incapable of learning new patterns of speech or new words through interaction alone. Edits must be made directly to ELIZA's active script in order to change the manner by which the program operates.


title: ELIZA

text: Weizenbaum first implemented ELIZA in his own SLIP list-processing language, where, depending upon the initial entries by the user, the illusion of human intelligence could appear, or be dispelled through several interchanges. Some of ELIZA's responses were so convincing that Weizenbaum and several others have anecdotes of users becoming emotionally attached to the program, occasionally forgetting that they were conversing with a computer. Weizenbaum's own secretary reportedly asked Weizenbaum to leave the room so that she and ELIZA could have a real conversation. Weizenbaum was surprised by this, later writing: "I had not realized ... that extremely short exposures to a relatively simple computer program could induce powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people."


title: ELIZA

text: In 1966, interactive computing (via a teletype) was new. It was 15 years before the personal computer became familiar to the general public, and three decades before most people encountered attempts at natural language processing in Internet services like Ask.com or PC help systems such as Microsoft Office Clippit. Although those programs included years of research and work, ELIZA remains a milestone simply because it was the first time a programmer had attempted such a human-machine interaction with the goal of creating the illusion (however brief) of human–"human" interaction.


title: ELIZA

text: At the ICCC 1972 ELIZA was brought together with another early artificial-intelligence program named PARRY for a computer-only conversation. While ELIZA was built to speak as a doctor, PARRY was intended to simulate a patient with schizophrenia.


title: ELIZA

text: Weizenbaum originally wrote ELIZA in MAD-SLIP for CTSS on an IBM 7094, as a program to make natural-language conversation possible with a computer. To accomplish this, Weizenbaum identified five "fundamental technical problems" for ELIZA to overcome: the identification of critical words, the discovery of a minimal context, the choice of appropriate transformations, the generation of responses appropriate to the transformation or in the absence of critical words and the provision of an ending capacity for ELIZA scripts. Weizenbaum solved these problems and made ELIZA such that it had no built-in contextual framework or universe of discourse. However, this required ELIZA to have a script of instructions on how to respond to inputs from users.


title: ELIZA

text: ELIZA starts its process of responding to an input by a user by first examining the text input for a "keyword". A "keyword" is a word designated as important by the acting ELIZA script, which assigns to each keyword a precedence number, or a RANK, designed by the programmer. If such words are found, they are put into a "keystack", with the keyword of the highest RANK at the top. The input sentence is then manipulated and transformed as the rule associated with the keyword of the highest RANK directs. For example, when the DOCTOR script encounters words such as "alike" or "same", it would output a message pertaining to similarity, in this case "In what way?", as these words had high precedence number. This also demonstrates how certain words, as dictated by the script, can be manipulated regardless of contextual considerations, such as switching first-person pronouns and second-person pronouns and vice versa, as these too had high precedence numbers. Such words with high precedence numbers are deemed superior to conversational patterns and are treated independently of contextual patterns.


title: ELIZA

text: Following the first examination, the next step of the process is to apply an appropriate transformation rule, which includes two parts: the "decomposition rule" and the "reassembly rule". First, the input is reviewed for syntactical patterns in order to establish the minimal context necessary to respond. Using the keywords and other nearby words from the input, different disassembly rules are tested until an appropriate pattern is found. Using the script's rules, the sentence is then "dismantled" and arranged into sections of the component parts as the "decomposition rule for the highest-ranking keyword" dictates. The example that Weizenbaum gives is the input "You are very helpful", which is transformed to "I are very helpful". This is then broken into (1) empty (2) "I" (3) "are" (4) "very helpful". The decomposition rule has broken the phrase into four small segments that contain both the keywords and the information in the sentence.


title: ELIZA

text: The decomposition rule then designates a particular reassembly rule, or set of reassembly rules, to follow when reconstructing the sentence. The reassembly rule takes the fragments of the input that the decomposition rule had created, rearranges them, and adds in programmed words to create a response. Using Weizenbaum's example previously stated, such a reassembly rule would take the fragments and apply them to the phrase "What makes you think I am (4)", which would result in "What makes you think I am very helpful?". This example is rather simple, since depending upon the disassembly rule, the output could be significantly more complex and use more of the input from the user. However, from this reassembly, ELIZA then sends the constructed sentence to the user in the form of text on the screen.


title: ELIZA

text: These steps represent the bulk of the procedures that ELIZA follows in order to create a response from a typical input, though there are several specialized situations that ELIZA/DOCTOR can respond to. One Weizenbaum specifically wrote about was when there is no keyword. One solution was to have ELIZA respond with a remark that lacked content, such as "I see" or "Please go on". The second method was to use a "MEMORY" structure, which recorded prior recent inputs, and would use these inputs to create a response referencing a part of the earlier conversation when encountered with no keywords. This was possible due to Slip's ability to tag words for other usage, which simultaneously allowed ELIZA to examine, store and repurpose words for usage in outputs.


title: ELIZA

text: While these functions were all framed in ELIZA's programming, the exact manner by which the program dismantled, examined, and reassembled inputs is determined by the operating script. The script is not static and can be edited, or a new one created, as is necessary for the operation in the context needed. This would allow the program to be applied in multiple situations, including the well-known DOCTOR script, which simulates a Rogerian psychotherapist.


title: ELIZA

text: A Lisp version of ELIZA, based on Weizenbaum's CACM paper, was written shortly after that paper's publication, by Bernie Cosell. A BASIC version appeared in Creative Computing in 1977 (although it was written in 1973 by Jeff Shrager). This version, which was ported to many of the earliest personal computers, appears to have been subsequently translated into many other versions in many other languages. Shrager claims not to have seen either Weizenbaum's or Cosell's versions.


title: ELIZA

text: In 2021 Jeff Shrager searched MIT's Weizenbaum archives, along with MIT archivist Myles Crowley, and found files labeled Computer Conversations. These included the complete source code listing of ELIZA in MAD-SLIP, with the DOCTOR script attached. The Weizenbaum estate has given permission to open-source this code under a Creative Commons CC0 public domain license. The code and other information can be found on the ELIZAGEN site.


title: ELIZA

text: Another version of Eliza popular among software engineers is the version that comes with the default release of GNU Emacs, and which can be accessed by typing codice_1 from most modern Emacs implementations.


title: ELIZA

text: In 1969 George Lucas and Walter Murch incorporated an Eliza-like dialogue interface in their screenplay for the feature film "THX-1138". Inhabitants of the underground future world of THX, when stressed, would retreat to "confession booths" and initiate a one-sided Eliza-formula conversation with a Jesus-faced computer who claimed to be "OMM".


title: ELIZA

text: ELIZA influenced a number of early computer games by demonstrating additional kinds of interface designs. Don Daglow wrote an enhanced version of the program called "Ecala" on a DEC PDP-10 minicomputer at Pomona College in 1973 before writing the computer role-playing game "Dungeon" (1975).


title: ELIZA

text: In the 2008 anime "RD Sennou Chousashitsu", also known as "Real Drive", a character named Eliza Weizenbaum appears, an obvious tribute to ELIZA and Joseph Weizenbaum. Her behavior in the story often mimics the responses of the ELIZA program.


title: ELIZA

text: The 2011 video game "" and the 2016 sequel "" features an artificial-intelligence Picus TV Network newsreader named Eliza Cassan.


title: ELIZA

text: In Adam Curtis's 2016 documentary, "HyperNormalisation", ELIZA was referenced in relationship to post-truth.


title: ELIZA

text: In the twelfth episode of the American sitcom "Young Sheldon", aired in January 2018, starred the protagonist "conversing" with ELIZA, hoping to resolve a domestic issue.


title: ELIZA

text: On August 12, 2019, independent game developer Zachtronics published a visual novel called "Eliza", about an AI-based counseling service inspired by ELIZA.


title: ELIZA

text: Lay responses to ELIZA were disturbing to Weizenbaum and motivated him to write his book "Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation", in which he explains the limits of computers, as he wants to make clear his opinion that the anthropomorphic views of computers are just a reduction of the human being and any life form for that matter. In the independent documentary film "Plug & Pray" (2010) Weizenbaum said that only people who misunderstood ELIZA called it a sensation.


title: ELIZA

text: The Israeli poet David Avidan, who was fascinated with future technologies and their relation to art, desired to explore the use of computers for writing literature. He conducted several conversations with an APL implementation of ELIZA and published them – in English, and in his own translation to Hebrew – under the title "My Electronic Psychiatrist – Eight Authentic Talks with a Computer". In the foreword he presented it as a form of constrained writing.


title: ELIZA

text: There are many programs based on ELIZA in different programming languages. In 1980 a company called "Don't Ask Software" created a version called "Abuse" for the Apple II, Atari, and Commodore 64 computers, which verbally abused the user based on the user's input. For MS-DOS computers, some Sound Blaster cards came bundled with Dr. Sbaitso, which functions like the DOCTOR script. Other versions adapted ELIZA around a religious theme, such as ones featuring Jesus (both serious and comedic), and another Apple II variant called "I Am Buddha". The 1980 game "The Prisoner" incorporated ELIZA-style interaction within its gameplay. In 1988 the British artist and friend of Weizenbaum Brian Reffin Smith created two art-oriented ELIZA-style programs written in BASIC, one called "Critic" and the other "Artist", running on two separate Amiga 1000 computers and showed them at the exhibition "Salamandre" in the Musée du Berry, Bourges, France. The visitor was supposed to help them converse by typing in to "Artist" what "Critic" said, and vice versa. The secret was that the two programs were identical. GNU Emacs formerly had a codice_2 command that simulates a session between ELIZA and Zippy the Pinhead. The Zippyisms were removed due to copyright issues, but the DOCTOR program remains.


title: ELIZA

text: ELIZA has been referenced in popular culture and continues to be a source of inspiration for programmers and developers focused on artificial intelligence. It was also featured in a 2012 exhibit at Harvard University titled "Go Ask A.L.I.C.E.", as part of a celebration of mathematician Alan Turing's 100th birthday. The exhibit explores Turing's lifelong fascination with the interaction between humans and computers, pointing to ELIZA as one of the earliest realizations of Turing's ideas.


title: Lauren Mayberry

text: Lauren Eve Mayberry (born 7 October 1987) is a Scottish singer, musician and songwriter. She is the vocalist and percussionist of the Scottish pop band Chvrches.


title: Lauren Mayberry

text: In Chvrches, Mayberry co-writes and co-produces the songs with Iain Cook and Martin Doherty, and sings as the lead vocalist. She also plays drums and keyboards. Mayberry is a soprano.


title: Lauren Mayberry

text: Mayberry was born in 1987 in Thornhill, Stirling. She has played the piano since she was a child and drums since she was a teenager.


title: Lauren Mayberry

text: Mayberry attended Beaconhurst School (now known as Fairview International School) an independent school in Bridge of Allan. She also lived in Gladstone, Illinois as a foreign-exchange student. After completing a four-year undergraduate law degree at the University of Strathclyde, she earned a master's degree in journalism in 2010. This led her into a career in freelance journalism and production running. From 2009 to 2010 she was a contributor to the UK music website "The Line of Best Fit".


title: Lauren Mayberry

text: From age 15 until 22, she played drums in various bands. Prior to Chvrches, Mayberry was involved in two local bands, Boyfriend/Girlfriend and Blue Sky Archives. In Blue Sky Archives, she was a vocalist and played the drums and keyboards. As a member of Blue Sky Archives, Mayberry also covered the Rage Against the Machine song "Killing in the Name" which was released as a single.


title: Lauren Mayberry

text: In September 2011, Iain Cook of Aereogramme and The Unwinding Hours produced Blue Sky Archives' "Triple A-Side" EP. Cook started a new project with his friend Martin Doherty and asked Mayberry to sing on a couple of demos. They wrote together for seven or eight months in a basement studio in Glasgow. Cook, Mayberry and Doherty decided to form a new band after the sessions proved to be successful. The band chose the name Chvrches, using a Roman "v" to distinguish themselves from actual churches on internet searches.


title: Lauren Mayberry

text: In 2013, the band signed to Glassnote Records after releasing the tracks, "Lies" and "The Mother We Share" in 2012. Their debut EP, "Recover", was released in 2013. The band released their debut album, "The Bones of What You Believe", on 20 September 2013.


title: Lauren Mayberry

text: Mayberry has collaborated with artists such as Marshmello, Death Cab For Cutie, Bleachers, The National, the lead singer of Paramore, Hayley Williams, and The Cure's frontman, Robert Smith.


title: Lauren Mayberry

text: Mayberry is a vocal feminist and is the founder of TYCI, a feminist collective in Glasgow. Her ongoing work with the organisation includes written contributions to the online magazine and blog, and she can be heard regularly on TYCI podcasts. The group also holds live events, raising money for charities like Glasgow Women's Aid.


title: Lauren Mayberry

text: In September 2013, Mayberry wrote an article for "The Guardian" in response to misogynist messages she received online. She wrote:


title: Lauren Mayberry

text: She discussed the issue again in a Talks at Google session in 2014 and on "Channel 4 News", following aggressive responses to the band's video for "Leave a Trace".


title: Lauren Mayberry

text: Mayberry is a patron of Rape Crisis Glasgow and has been involved with other organisations such as Water Aid, The Yellow Bird Project, Wild Aid and Plus 1, donating a portion of Chvrches' ticket sales to Amnesty International. She has also been involved with Glasgow's Rock School For Girls and Amy Poehler's Smart Girls.


title: Lauren Mayberry

text: In 2015, Mayberry wrote about an abusive personal relationship for Jenni Konner and Lena Dunham's Lenny Letter. In December 2016, Mayberry took part in a fundraiser show with Carly Rae Jepsen, Lorde and Charli XCX for the Ally Coalition, an organisation started by Jack Antonoff to raise money for homeless LGBT youth.


title: Lauren Mayberry

text: Mayberry has been an outspoken critic of the Trump administration and has attributed his presidency with the rise of global activism for social issues, calling him "an unpunished sexual predator in office." Referring to the mixed reaction by the crowd to a Trump joke she told at a concert, Mayberry said "you can't say you don't think he's a racist. You can't say you don't think he's a sexist. You can't say you don't think he's transphobic and homophobic, 'cause he has shown us who he is."


title: Lauren Mayberry

text: Mayberry is a staunch advocate for gun control in the United States. Following the Sutherland Springs church shooting, Mayberry released a video on her Twitter account criticising President Trump's response, arguing that "it’s somewhere on the scale from ironic to disgustingly hypocritical that Donald Trump is talking about mental health with regards to this attack when his administration has done nothing but try to restrict access to help get care for people who need it the most". She further recounted her memory of the Dunblane massacre in which 16 children and one teacher were murdered with handguns, resulting in sweeping gun control legislation in the UK. Mayberry credits these efforts with substantially decreasing the number of mass shootings in the UK.


title: Lauren Mayberry

text: Mayberry and actor Justin Long have engaged in multiple philanthropic activities together, including hosting a holiday variety show charity fundraiser at The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles and travelling together to Nicaragua to visit a women's shelter. In May 2018, "The Guardian" identified Long as Mayberry's boyfriend. Mayberry subsequently suggested that these claims were false. In September 2018, "People" reported that Long had split from Mayberry, "whom he began dating in 2016". During an interview with "Rolling Stone" in October 2018, Mayberry indicated that she was single.


title: Lauren Mayberry

text: In 2019 Mayberry met her current boyfriend, Samuel Stewart when his band Lo Moon was opening for CHVRCHES. Sam is the son of Dave Stewart.


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: The Whitest Kids U' Know (WKUK) is an American sketch comedy show starring a comedy troupe of the same name. The group consisted of Trevor Moore, Zach Cregger, Sam Brown, Timmy Williams and Darren Trumeter, though other actors occasionally appeared in their sketches. They were accepted into the HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in 2006 and won the award for Best Sketch Group.


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: The Whitest Kids began in 1999 when Trevor Moore, a young comedian from Charlottesville, Virginia, transferred to New York's School of Visual Arts film program. Moore previously produced a local TV sketch-comedy show in Virginia titled "The Trevor Moore Show", which was picked up by PAX Network.


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: After making the rounds at local New York City comedy clubs, he eventually met fellow SVA film student Sam Brown from Massachusetts and SVA Graphic Design student/actor Zach Cregger, from Arlington, Virginia. By chance, all three lived in the same dormitory. According to an IFC interview, Trevor Moore said the group's name originated during a freestyle rapping session on a subway when one of their friends said, "You guys are the whitest kids I know".


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: The troupe started off as an officially sanctioned club at School of Visual Arts. During the early years, WKUK included Jon Kovel, Oliver Lyons, Jordan Cooper, Anthony Mair, and singer Tina Tiongson. Timmy Williams also joined in late 2001 and was the only member at the time who did not attend SVA.


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: "The Whitest Kids U' Know" held near-monthly free shows at SVA's amphitheater, which would frequently fill to capacity. Finally, in 2003, as Moore approached graduation, the group separated officially from the school, and all but Moore, Brown, Cregger and Williams left the troupe. Darren Trumeter, an actor and filmmaker who had worked previously with Cregger, was then added that same year.


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: Starting in 2003, the reinvented troupe started touring the various comedy venues in New York City, concluding in early 2005 with a well-attended show at Caroline's, a famous stand-up comedy club in Times Square.


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: In 2005, the group began working with noted comedy producer Jim Biederman. In early 2006, Biederman and the Whitest Kids sold the show to the Fuse network after the Whitest Kids won the Best Sketch Group award at the Aspen Comedy Festival. Production of the first season took place in New York City, during the summer of 2006. The first season of "The Whitest Kids U' Know" premiered in March 2007. It was an instant hit for Fuse, and the show was immediately picked up for a second season.


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: However, due to what Fuse perceived as extreme comedy, the second season order came with limitations on content. The group considered walking away from the pick up order over the new content restrictions. Then, however, head of Fuse programming Jennifer Caserta left to become the General Manager of the IFC network and brought the Whitest Kids along with her to IFC. At the time, Fuse and IFC were both part of Rainbow Media. The Rainbow Media executives felt that the Whitest Kids program was more appropriate for IFC than Fuse, so they approved the switch.


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: On July 12, 2007, Trevor Moore posted a message on the Whitest Kids U' Know's official website stating that the second season of the Whitest Kids' TV show would move to the Independent Film Channel (IFC). According to Moore, they were excited about the channel switch because it allowed for no commercial breaks, with vulgarities and obscene content uncensored. However, IFC began airing commercials during their programming on December 8, 2010, and the show was censored at certain times of day (including removing stronger sexual language such as "fuck" and censoring any nudity), despite promises that it would remain unedited.


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: Shooting for season two of the show started on August 13, 2007, and debuted on IFC on February 10, 2008.


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: The season one DVD was released on February 5, 2008. It was stated several times on the show that the season was going to be first released uncensored on DVD. However, IFC started to air uncensored episodes of season one just two months before the DVD release.


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: The tenth episode of season two was broadcast live on IFC. The sketches performed on stage were based on their stage shows. Trevor Moore stated the live episode was a response to the season being one episode short.


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: The third season, which premiered on IFC on January 27, 2009, in the 10 pm time slot, was composed of ten 30-minute episodes as well as twenty 15-minute episodes. Both formats played on IFC.


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: The fourth season premiered on June 11, 2010, on IFC, continuing with the 10/30-minute and 20/15-minute episode formats.


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: The fifth season premiered on April 15, 2011, and was the final season of the show. The format of 10 half-hour episodes remains, with each episode ending with a segment of The Civil War on Drugs, a full-length film starring Whitest Kids troupe members reimagining the American Civil War as a war on drugs. Moore revealed that the film will be released on Amazon in feature-length with a commentary by him and the rest of the troupe.


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: On May 6, 2020, Trevor Moore started a short-lived internet series during the COVID-19 pandemic titled "Trevor Moore's Quarantine Show" uploaded to a newly created YouTube channel called OfficialWKUK. Moore, Brown, Cregger, Trumeter, and Williams later started uploading more frequently to the channel featuring HD quality video of their sketches from their show. They also would occasionally upload a Dungeons and Dragons campaign entitled "Buckerson and Meyers" where they humorously attempt to complete the campaign laid out by Williams.


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: On September 5, 2020, the group started video streaming on Twitch with weekly scheduled shows with no permanent timeslots:


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: They have stated all the money they make from the YouTube and Twitch will go to the production of their new animated film "Mars".


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: Following Moore's death on August 7, 2021, the remaining members have continued to stream occasionally.


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: In 2012, Moore wrote on his website that a true Whitest Kids U' Know movie was planned, and that the script was being written.


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: On November 17, 2020, Cregger revealed the name of the film to be "Mars" and will be animated instead of live-action. Cregger also mentioned instead of being funded by a studio they preferred to raise the money themselves.


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: On August 23, 2021, Cregger, speaking of Moore's passing and the film while livestreaming, stated "We are going to finish Mars! All of Trevor's lines are recorded, he has given notes on the animatic, everything that we need to get done is done. So, the Mars that is going to be completed is the Mars that — I want everyone to know — Trevor signed off on." In 2022, Cregger stated that the film has almost wrapped production, and that, as a result of Trevor's death, it would be the troupe's final project.


title: The Whitest Kids U' Know

text: "The Whitest Kids U' Know" is the debut album of the New York City–based sketch comedy troupe, released in 2006.


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: Millennium is an American television series created by Chris Carter (creator of "The X-Files"), which aired on Fox from October 25, 1996, to May 21, 1999. The series follows the investigations of ex-FBI agent Frank Black (Lance Henriksen), now a consultant, with the ability to see inside the minds of criminals, working for a mysterious organization known as the Millennium Group.


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: The series was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, though most episodes were ostensibly set in or around Seattle, Washington. The theme music was composed by Mark Snow, who also created the distinctive theme music for "The X-Files". Although the series premiered with impressive ratings, viewership declined throughout its three-season run, and it was canceled by Fox in early 1999. A seventh-season episode of "The X-Files", titled "Millennium", featured the Millennium Group and Frank Black, as a way of giving the show some closure.


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: In 2018, "Millennium" was ranked #87 in Rotten Tomatoes's 100 Best Sci-Fi TV Shows of All Time. That same year, "Millennium After the Millennium", a documentary based on the show, was released. It features interviews with Carter, Henriksen and other people who worked on the show.


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: "Millennium" featured Frank Black, a freelance forensic profiler and former FBI agent with a unique ability to see the world through the eyes of serial killers and murderers, though he says that he is not psychic. Black worked for the mysterious Millennium Group, whose power and sinister agenda were explored throughout the series.


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: Black lived in Seattle with his wife Catherine and daughter Jordan. Jordan was revealed to have inherited some measure of her father's "gift", suggesting that Frank's abilities might be at least partly psychic, since Jordan's are clearly natural, not learned.


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: The first season dealt primarily with Black pursuing various serial killers and other murderers, with only occasional references to the Group's true purpose. The second season introduced more supernatural occurrences into the show's mythology, with Frank often coming into conflict with forces that appeared to be apocalyptic or demonic in nature. The final season showed Frank returning to Washington, D.C., to work with the FBI following the death of his wife at the hands of the Group. He was joined by a new partner, Emma Hollis. Despite Frank's warnings and what she herself observed, Emma ultimately joined the Group. Frank was last seen escaping from Washington, having taken Jordan from school.


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: After the show's cancellation, the crossover episode "Millennium" was made for the television series "The X-Files", serving as a de facto series finale for Frank Black's story.


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: After Chris Carter's success with "The X-Files", the Fox Broadcasting Company asked him if he would produce another series for them. He already had an idea for creating a show based around the coming millennium of the year 2000, and it was this idea that he followed up. The Fox executives gave Carter a budget of nearly $1.5 million per episode, and allowed him to create his own "look" for the show. Carter has said he was influenced by the Holy Bible, Dostoyevsky and Mary Shelley in planning the series. Carter pitched "Millennium" to Fox as ""Seven" in Seattle." The setting of a dark, rain-soaked city and a world-weary detective's hunt for a religiously inspired serial killer have clear parallels with the pilot episode. One of the show's working titles was "2000", though "Millennium" was chosen.


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: For the second season, Glen Morgan and James Wong took on its management, while Carter focused on the fifth season of "The X-Files" and "The X-Files" motion picture. Morgan and Wong were consulting producers for the first season, but took over production, implementing several changes Fox wanted to try to boost ratings, which had declined during the first season. Morgan said that:


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: For season three, which aired in 1998, Carter took back control of the series; Morgan and Wong left to pursue their own careers. Carter, who had disapproved of the show's shift in tone, said he changed direction and tried to connect with the "roots" of the first season. The show's production team hoped to make "the stories a little more accessible", and moved the action from Seattle to Washington D.C.


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: Not convinced that Lance Henriksen was right for the main role, Fox execs considered William Hurt, until learning that he had no interest in acting for television. Chris Carter sent the screenplay for the "Pilot episode" to Henriksen, who thought it was "great". When his manager told him that it was a television script, he backed out for a while until he talked to Carter directly. Carter said about casting Henriksen:


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: Glen Morgan's and James Wong's changes reduced the emphasis on serial killers and explored government conspiracies and the machinations of the Millennium Group. In an interview with "Fangoria", Wong stated that, "Our problem with the first season was that the shows felt the same, because the storytelling dealt with serial killers a lot. We wanted [the second] season to have the rotation "X-Files" does, where there are monster shows, there are conspiracy shows, there are weird science shows and then there are more personal shows. Not to copy "X-Files", but for "Millennium", we want to do the kind of thing where each week when you turn it on, you're not going to be sure what you're going to be watching." They tried to provide a "narrative drive" for Frank Black by breaking up his relationship with his wife. Morgan and Wong introduced new characters, such as Lara Means and computer hacker Brian Roedecker, who was introduced for comic effect; some fans were negative about the effects.


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: "Millennium"'s pilot episode earned a total of 17.72 million viewers in the United States. The second season premiere, "The Beginning and the End", gathered a total viewership of 7.75 million in the United States. Fox decided to rebuild their primetime schedules in 1997 during the second season, airing "Millennium" at 9:00 pm EST on Fridays.


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: Fox renewed "Millennium" for a third season on May 20, 1998. During that season, the series faced problems with a declining viewership and pessimistic forecasts from industry insiders. Fox benched "Millennium" during its summer run, airing reruns of "Mad TV" in its time slot, without giving any official word on whether it would be renewed for a fourth season. The series was canceled, ending on a cliffhanger.


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: Frank Black returned in "The X-Files" season seven episode "Millennium", which featured the final appearances of both Frank Black and his daughter, Jordan.


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: The FX cable network picked up the off-network rights for "Millennium" after its cancellation for $20–$25 million dollars. NBC Universal's horror channel, Chiller, began airing "Millennium" weeknights at 7 pm Eastern (and again at 3 am Eastern the following morning) on Monday, February 4, 2008.


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: "Millennium" season one was released on DVD in the United States (Region 1) on July 20, 2004, season two on January 4, 2005, and season three on September 6, 2005. "Millennium: The Complete Series" was released on DVD on October 28, 2008. On October 4, 2006, the first, second, and third seasons were released in Region 4. "The Complete Series" was released on October 24, 2006, in Region 4.


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: The release of "Millennium" on DVD prompted Lance Henriksen to propose a continuation of the series. Henriksen speculated that the sales numbers behind the boxed set might be the key to reviving Frank Black. "I wonder if the sales of these will tell us how many people loved the show and whether or not the movie ought to be made," Henriksen told the Sci-Fi Wire. "I mean, [Frank Black] still is alive. Maybe it's a good thing there was no closure for "Millennium" because now, if we did a movie, it would be good closure for me." Henriksen has gone on to support the Back to Frank Black campaign, a movement dedicated to the return of the character, explaining, "I really think it is a possibility."


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: Creator Chris Carter has joined Henriksen in expressing an interest in a film based on "Millennium". While promoting "", Carter commented that he and Henriksen have "talked about that over the years" and that the cast and crew who would need to be involved are interested, adding, "I have ideas about how to do it." To date, 20th Century Fox has expressed no interest in such a project, even to the extent of publicly commenting on it.


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: Publishing house Fourth Horseman Press has released "Back to Frank Black" (2012), a book offering in-depth insight into the production of the series. The book features Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz, Lance Henriksen, Brittany Tiplady and John Kenneth Muir among its writers.


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: Keith Uhlich from "Slant Magazine" was positive to both season one and three of "Millennium", giving them both four out of five stars and calling season one: "We are racing toward an apocalypse of our own creation. This is who we are." Mike Drucker from "IGN" called the second season a combination of the ""X-Files" and the violent paranoia of "Se7en"." "Variety" reviewer Jeremy Gerard compared the show to "Twin Peaks" and was overall positive to the series, but said "I just wish it were a little more fun, that I didn't have this nagging feeling that it wants to hurt me the next time I come around." Ken Tucker from "Entertainment Weekly" gave the show a B and said it had "great visuals and a commanding performance by Henriksen." Justine Elias from "The New York Times" was mostly positive to the series and said "If "The X-Files", with its offbeat humor and conspiracy theories, wonders about those things that go bump in the night, "Millennium" explores the darkness – and embraces it." "Daily Nebraskan" said in their review that the show had "a lot of potential: a good lead actor, a solid premise and a feel that will keep audiences glued to their televisions."


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: "Millennium" was nominated for a variety of different awards including two Primetime Emmy Awards, four American Society of Cinematographers Awards, 1 Bram Stoker Awards, three Canadian Society of Cinematographers Awards (three wins), three Golden Globe Awards, one People's Choice Awards and five Young Artist Awards (one win). The most nominated episode is "Matryoshka", Robert McLachlan became the most nominated crew member and Brittany Tiplady became the most nominated actor in the show's history. While Lance Henriksen became the only actor from the show to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award.


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: Novelizations of five episodes from the first season of Millennium were published by HarperCollins between 1997 and 1998.


title: Millennium (TV series)

text: In October 2014 it was announced that official series of comic books would be released by IDW Publishing.


title: 2022 Delhi Municipal Corporation election

text: Municipal election were held in Delhi on 4 December 2022 to elect 250 councillors of Municipal Corporation of Delhi. The votes were counted and the results were declared on 7 December 2022.


text: The Aam Aadmi Party won a simple majority in the corporation. This was the first election to the municipal corporation since its reunification in May 2022.


text: The tenure of NDMC, SDMC and EDMC came to an end on 18 May 2022. The previous municipal elections were held in April 2017 to elect the councillors of the 3 municipal corporations.


text: In March 2022, the state Election Commission indefinitely deferred the municipal elections that were scheduled to be held in April 2022. On 22 March, the Union Government approved the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill to merge the 3 municipal corporations back to a single body. The unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi formally came into existence from 22 May 2022.


text: The State Election Commission in Delhi had been preparing for the Delhi Municipal Elections had issued multiple notices, notifications and orders that had indicated that the election was planned to be conducted in April 2022.


text: On March 9, 2022, the State Election Commission announced a press conference at 5 pm to declare the schedule of the Municipal elections to be conducted in April. After the announcement, the commission received an unofficial communication from the Lt. Governor of Delhi Anil Baijal that talked about plans of the union government to merge the three municipal bodies. No formal communication had been issued regarding the plans for merger nor any such agenda had been declared in the ongoing budget session of the parliament of India. After the communication by Baijal, the press conference to announce the election schedule was postponed indefinitely and the elections were deferred.


text: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal accused the BJP of using the unification as an excuse to postpone the elections. He stated, "Can they cancel civic polls citing this reason? If today they are giving such reasons to stop a small election, tomorrow they will delay state and national elections too."


text: Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 proposed a reduction in the number of councillor seats to “not more than 250 seats” from the existing 272. A three-member delimitation committee was constituted on July 8, 2022. It was required to complete the exercise and submit its report within four months from the date of its constitution. State Election Commissioner Vijay Dev leads the committee. The average size of the ward would be around 65,000. Each assembly constituency shall be divided into a minimum of three wards and the principal of average population may not be maintained throughout, therefore a deviation to the extent of plus or minus ten per cent may be acceptable to the Union Government of India. The total population of the corporation (2011 census) shall be divided by the total number of wards and the average population of each ward shall be obtained. The number of seats reserved for members of Scheduled Castes shall bear the same ratio to the total number of seats as the population of Scheduled Castes bears to the total population of Delhi. The Delimitation commission uses digitised maps of Geospatial Delhi Limited (GSDL).


text: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) moved to the Supreme Court. It sought that directions be given to the State election Commission to conduct a fair and speedy election without interference from the Union government. The plea was filed by AAP leaders Ankush Narang and Manoj Kumar Tyagi. The plea asked that the election be conducted according to the planned schedule of the Election commission before the term of the Municipal corporations expires in May.


text: The plea stated, "The elections have been pushed in the eleventh hour solely on an informal intimation to the State Election Commission. The State Election Commission has been set up as an independent constitutional authority to insulate it from political caprices and whims so that it can conduct free, fair and timely elections. Such arbitrary and sudden change in an election schedule solely on the say of the government is a clear violation of the fundamental democratic tenet of impartial conduct of elections". The plea called the incident, "brazen influence of the Government of India over the State Election Commission and its flagrant meddling with the conduct of Municipal Elections". The plea accused the Union government of infringing upon the independence of the election commission by being the only reason to delay the election.


text: AAP called the indefinite deferral completely arbitrary and asked the court if elections with a prepared schedule could be deferred with such unofficial communications "at the whim of the Central government".


text: On 23 March, "Indian Express" cited unnamed sources and reported that the election commission had approached lawyers to advise it if the elections could take place amid the Union government's intention to unify the corporations. According to the report, the lawyers had advised the commission to wait until the ongoing parliament session ended. Accordingly, the commission was reported to make a decision on the election in the second week of April. The report also mentioned that the reorganization of wards in Delhi may be possible and this may lead to a delay in the elections.


text: In March 2022, Aam Aadmi Party asked the authorities conducting elections to use Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) that were compatible with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). The State Election Commission Delhi responded saying it had decided to hold the 2022 MCD Elections with second-generation M-2 EVMs without VVPAT.


text: A petition was filed in the Delhi High Court by the Aam Aadmi Party MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj, in which he asked the HC to direct the State Election Commission of Delhi to conduct MCD elections with Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) that were compatible with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) and not without them. His lawyers said that it was almost impossible to check the accuracy of the EVM and tampering could not be ruled out when the EVMs without VVPAT machines were used.


text: In the case "Subramanian Swamy vs Election Commission of India, (2013)", the Supreme Court of India had issued directions that recognized the use of a system of paper trail in the EVMs was an important requirement for free and fair elections. The petition called the use of older second generation, M-2 EVMs by the state election commission as a contravention of the Supreme court direction, "manifestly wrong" and a "colourable exercise of power". AAP petitioned that the decision raised "genuine apprehension about the sanctity of the entire electoral process".


text: The petition noted, "There is no Assembly Election slated after 7th March 2022 anywhere in the country. As such there is no hassle for them to loan out this new generation EVMs, compatible to VVPAT, to the SEC Delhi for conducting the MCD Elections 2022"


text: State Election Commission (SEC) stated that it was dependent on the Election Commission of India (ECI) for the supply of EVMs. ECI had given M2 EVMs without VVPAT to SEC. SEC said in the court that it had no objections in using EVM with VVPAT if the ECI provided it.


text: The Election Commission of India opposed the plea in the court and stated that it could not provide the EVM with VVPAT to the State Election commission as it used them for conducting elections and could not allow use by agencies that it did not supervise.


text: AAP said in court that EVMs procured by the SEC are not compatible with VVPAT and it asked for the disclosure of the number of VVPAT-compatible machines available in India. HC asked the SEC to inform the court which of the procured EVMs were compatible with VVPAT. Ten day time was given to respond and the next hearing was scheduled for 29 April.


text: AAP released the first list of 134 candidates on 11 November 2022. The second list of 117 candidates was released on 12 November 2022 in which one candidate from the first list was replaced.


text: BJP released the first list of 232 candidates on 12 November 2022. The second list of 18 candidates was released on 14 November 2022. BJP replaced 7 candidates on 14 November 2022.


text: Congress released the first list of 249 candidates on 13 November 2022. Candidate for 1 remaining seat and replacements for 3 candidates from the first list was released on 14 November 2022. Nominations of 3 Congress candidates was rejected during scrutiny.


title: Theodolite

text: A theodolite () is a precision optical instrument for measuring angles between designated visible points in the horizontal and vertical planes. The traditional use has been for land surveying, but it is also used extensively for building and infrastructure construction, and some specialized applications such as meteorology and rocket launching.


title: Theodolite

text: It consists of a moveable telescope mounted so it can rotate around horizontal and vertical axes and provide angular readouts. These indicate the orientation of the telescope, and are used to relate the first point sighted through the telescope to subsequent sightings of other points from the same theodolite position. These angles can be measured with accuracies down to microradians or seconds of arc. From these readings a plan can be drawn, or objects can be positioned in accordance with an existing plan. The modern theodolite has evolved into what is known as a total station where angles and distances are measured electronically, and are read directly to computer memory.


title: Theodolite

text: In a "transit theodolite", the telescope is short enough to rotate about the trunnion axis, turning the telescope through the vertical plane through the zenith; for non-transit instruments vertical rotation is restricted to a limited arc.


title: Theodolite

text: The optical level is sometimes mistaken for a theodolite, but it does not measure vertical angles, and is used only for leveling on a horizontal plane (though often combined with medium accuracy horizontal range and direction measurements).


title: Theodolite

text: Temporary adjustments are a set of operations necessary in order to make a theodolite ready for taking observations at a station. These include its setting up, centering, leveling up and elimination of parallax, and are achieved in four steps:


title: Theodolite

text: Sightings are taken by the surveyor, who adjusts the telescope's vertical and horizontal angular orientation so the cross-hairs align with the desired sighting point. Both angles are read either from exposed or internal scales and recorded. The next object is then sighted and recorded without moving the position of the instrument and tripod.


title: Theodolite

text: The earliest angular readouts were from open vernier scales directly visible to the eye. Gradually these scales were enclosed for physical protection, and finally became an indirect optical readout, with convoluted light paths to bring them to a convenient place on the instrument for viewing. The modern digital theodolites have electronic displays.


title: Theodolite

text: Index error, horizontal-axis error ("trunnion-axis error") and collimation error are regularly determined by calibration and are removed by mechanical adjustment. Their existence is taken into account in the choice of measurement procedure in order to eliminate their effect on the measurement results of the theodolite.


title: Theodolite

text: Prior to the theodolite, instruments such as the groma, geometric square and the dioptra, and various other graduated circles (see circumferentor) and semicircles (see graphometer) were used to obtain either vertical or horizontal angle measurements. Over time their functions were combined into a single instrument that could measure both angles simultaneously.


title: Theodolite

text: The first occurrence of the word "theodolite" is found in the surveying textbook "A geometric practice named Pantometria" (1571) by Leonard Digges. The origin of the word is unknown. The first part of the New Latin "theo-delitus" might stem from the Greek , "to behold or look attentively upon" The second part is often attributed to an unscholarly variation of the Greek word: , meaning "evident" or "clear", Other New-latin or Greek derivations have been suggested as well as an English origin from "the alidade"


title: Theodolite

text: The early forerunners of the theodolite were sometimes azimuth instruments for measuring horizontal angles, while others had an altazimuth mount for measuring horizontal and vertical angles. Gregorius Reisch illustrated an altazimuth instrument in the appendix of his 1512 book "Margarita Philosophica". Martin Waldseemüller, a topographer and cartographer made the device in that year calling it the "polimetrum". In Digges's book of 1571, the term "theodolite" was applied to an instrument for measuring horizontal angles only, but he also described an instrument that measured both altitude and azimuth which he called a " instrument" . Possibly the first instrument approximating to a true theodolite was the built by Josua Habemel in 1576, complete with compass and tripod. The 1728 "Cyclopaedia" compares "graphometer" to "half-theodolite". As late as the 19th century, the instrument for measuring horizontal angles only was called a "simple theodolite" and the altazimuth instrument, the "plain theodolite".


title: Theodolite

text: The first instrument to combine the essential features of the modern theodolite was built in 1725 by Jonathan Sisson. This instrument had an altazimuth mount with a sighting telescope. The base plate had spirit levels, compass and adjusting screws. The circles were read with a vernier scale.


title: Theodolite

text: The theodolite became a modern, accurate instrument in 1787, with the introduction of Jesse Ramsden's famous great theodolite, which he created using a very accurate dividing engine of his own design. Ramsden's instruments were used for the Principal Triangulation of Great Britain. At this time the highest precision instruments were made in England by such makers as Edward Troughton. Later the first practical German theodolites were made by Breithaupt together with Utzschneider, Reichenbach and Fraunhofer.


title: Theodolite

text: As technology progressed the vertical partial circle was replaced with a full circle, and both vertical and horizontal circles were finely graduated. This was the "transit theodolite". This type of theodolite was developed from 18th century astronomical Transit instruments used to measure accurate star positions. The technology was transferred to theodolites in the early 19th century by instrument makers such as Edward Troughton and William Simms and became the standard theodolite design. Development of the theodolite was spurred on by specific needs. In the 1820s progress on national surveying projects such as the Ordnance Survey in Britain produced a requirement for theodolites capable of providing sufficient accuracy for large scale triangulation and mapping. The Survey of India at this time produced a requirement for more rugged and stable instruments such as the Everest pattern theodolite with its lower center of gravity.


title: Theodolite

text: Railway engineers working in the 1830s in Britain commonly referred to a theodolite as a "Transit". The 1840s was the start of a period of rapid railway building in many parts of the world which resulted in a high demand for theodolites wherever railways were being constructed. It was also popular with American railroad engineers pushing west, and it replaced the railroad compass, sextant and octant. Theodolites were later adapted to a wider variety of mountings and uses. In the 1870s, an interesting waterborne version of the theodolite (using a pendulum device to counteract wave movement) was invented by Edward Samuel Ritchie. It was used by the U.S. Navy to take the first precision surveys of American harbors on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.


title: Theodolite

text: In the early 1920s a step change in theodolite design occurred with the introduction of the Wild T2 made by Wild Heerbrugg. Heinrich Wild designed a theodolite with divided glass circles with readings from both sides presented at a single eyepiece close to the telescope so the observer did not have to move to read them. The Wild instruments were not only smaller, easier to use and more accurate than contemporary rivals but also sealed from rain and dust. Canadian surveyors reported that while the Wild T2 with 3.75 inch circles was not able to provide the accuracy for primary triangulation it was the equal in accuracy to a 12 inch traditional design. The Wild T2, T3, and A1 instruments were made for many years.


title: Theodolite

text: In 1926 a conference was held at Tavistock in Devon, UK where Wild theodolites were compared with British ones. The Wild product outclassed the British theodolites so manufacturers such as Cooke, Troughton & Simms and Hilger & Watts set about improving the accuracy of their products to match their competition. Cooke, Troughton and Simms developed the Tavistock pattern theodolite and later the Vickers V. 22.


title: Theodolite

text: Wild went on to develop the DK1, DKM1, DM2, DKM2, and DKM3 for Aarau company. With continuing refinements, instruments steadily evolved into the modern theodolite used by surveyors today. By 1977 Wild, Kern and Hewlett-Packard were all offering "Total stations" which combined angular measurements, electronic distance measurement and microchip functions in a single unit.


title: Theodolite

text: Triangulation, as invented by Gemma Frisius around 1533, consists of making such direction plots of the surrounding landscape from two separate standpoints. The two graphing papers are superimposed, providing a scale model of the landscape, or rather the targets in it. The true scale can be obtained by measuring one distance both in the real terrain and in the graphical representation.


title: Theodolite

text: Modern triangulation as, e.g., practiced by Snellius, is the same procedure executed by numerical means. Photogrammetric block adjustment of stereo pairs of aerial photographs is a modern, three-dimensional variant.


title: Theodolite

text: In the late 1780s, Jesse Ramsden, a Yorkshireman from Halifax, England who had developed the dividing engine for dividing angular scales accurately to within a second of arc (≈ 0.0048 mrad or 4.8 µrad), was commissioned to build a new instrument for the British Ordnance Survey. The Ramsden theodolite was used over the next few years to map the whole of southern Britain by triangulation.


title: Theodolite

text: In network measurement, the use of forced centering speeds up operations while maintaining the highest precision. The theodolite or the target can be rapidly removed from, or socketed into, the forced centering plate with sub-millimeter precision. Nowadays GPS antennas used for geodetic positioning use a similar mounting system. The height of the reference point of the theodolite—or the target—above the ground benchmark must be measured precisely.


title: Theodolite

text: The term transit theodolite, or transit for short, refers to a type of theodolite where the telescope is short enough to rotate in a full circle on its horizontal axis as well as around its vertical axis. It features a vertical circle which is graduated through the full 360 degrees and a telescope that could "flip over" ("transit the scope"). By reversing the telescope and at the same time rotating the instrument through 180 degrees about the vertical axis, the instrument can be used in 'plate-left' or 'plate-right' modes ('plate' refers to the vertical protractor circle). By measuring the same horizontal and vertical angles in these two modes and then averaging the results, centering and collimating errors in the instrument can be eliminated. Some transit instruments are capable of reading angles directly to thirty arc-seconds (≈ 0.15 mrad). Modern theodolites are usually of the transit-theodolite design, but engraved plates have been replaced with glass plates designed to be read with light-emitting diodes and computer circuitry, greatly improving accuracy up to arc-second (≈ 0.005 mrad) levels.


title: Theodolite

text: There is a long history of theodolite use in measuring winds aloft, by using specially-manufactured theodolites to track the horizontal and vertical angles of special weather balloons called "ceiling balloons" or "pilot balloons" ("pibal"). Early attempts at this were made in the opening years of the nineteenth century, but the instruments and procedures weren't fully developed until a hundred years later. This method was extensively used in World War II and thereafter, and was gradually replaced by radio and GPS measuring systems from the 1980s onward.


title: Theodolite

text: The pibal theodolite uses a prism to bend the optical path by 90 degrees so the operator's eye position does not change as the elevation is changed through a complete 180 degrees. The theodolite is typically mounted on a rugged steel stand, set up so it is level and pointed north, with the altitude and azimuth scales reading zero degrees. A balloon is released in front of the theodolite, and its position is precisely tracked, usually once a minute. The balloons are carefully constructed and filled, so their rate of ascent can be known fairly accurately in advance. Mathematical calculations on time, rate of ascent, azimuth and angular altitude can produce good estimates of wind speed and direction at various altitudes.


title: Theodolite

text: In modern electronic theodolites, the readout of the horizontal and vertical circles is usually done with a rotary encoder. These produce signals indicating the altitude and azimuth of the telescope which are fed to a microprocessor. CCD sensors have been added to the focal plane of the telescope allowing both auto-targeting and the automated measurement of residual target offset. All this is implemented in embedded software of the processor.