title: Vermiculite

text: The United States government estimates that vermiculite was used in more than 35 million homes, but does not recommend its removal. Nevertheless, homes or structures containing vermiculite or vermiculite insulation dating from before the mid-1990s—and especially those known to contain the "Zonolite" brand—may contain asbestos, and therefore may be a health concern.


title: Vermiculite

text: An article published in "The Salt Lake Tribune" on December 3, 2006, reported that vermiculite and Zonolite had been found to contain asbestos, which had led to cancers such as those found in asbestos-related cases. The article stated that there had been a cover-up by W. R. Grace and Company and others regarding the health risks associated with vermiculite and that several sites in the Salt Lake Valley had been remediated by the EPA when they were shown to be contaminated with asbestos. W. R. Grace and Company has vigorously denied these charges.


title: Vermiculite

text: The vermiculite deposit at the mine in Libby, Montana, was (and is) heavily contaminated with asbestos. Numerous people were knowingly exposed to the harmful dust of vermiculite that contained asbestos. Unfortunately, the mine had been operating since the 1920s, and environmental and industrial controls were virtually non-existent until the mine was purchased by the W. R. Grace and Company in 1963. Yet, knowing the human health risks, the mining company still continued to operate there until 1990. Consequently, many of the former miners and residents of Libby have been affected and continue to suffer health problems. Over 400 people in the town have died from asbestos-related disease due to contamination from vermiculite mining from nearby Zonolite Mountain, where soil samples were found to be loaded with fibrous tremolite (known to be a very hazardous form of asbestos), and countless others there who insulated their homes with Zonolite have succumbed to asbestos-related diseases, most of whom never were employed in environments where asbestos was an issue.


title: Vermiculite

text: After a 1999 "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" story claimed that asbestos-related disease was common in the town, the EPA, in response to political pressure, made cleanup of the site a priority and called Libby the worst case of community-wide exposure to a toxic substance in U.S. history. The EPA has spent $120 million in Superfund money on cleanup. In October 2006, W. R. Grace and Company tried to appeal the fines ($54.5 million) levied on them from the EPA, but the Supreme Court rejected the appeal. The United States government pursued criminal charges against several former executives and managers of the mine for allegedly disregarding and covering up health risks to employees. They were also accused of wire fraud, and of obstructing the government's cleanup efforts. As of the indictment date, about 1,200 residents of the Libby area had been identified as suffering from some kind of asbestos-related abnormality. The case ended in acquittals on May 8, 2009. On June 17, 2009, the EPA issued a public health emergency in and near Libby, thereby allowing federal agencies to provide funding for health care, and for removal of contaminated insulation from affected homes.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: Jonas Valančiūnas ( ; ; born 6 May 1992) is a Lithuanian professional basketball player for the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was selected by the Toronto Raptors with the fifth overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft. At the 2019 trade deadline, he was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies. In the 2021 offseason he was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: Valančiūnas has been a member of the Lithuania men's national basketball team since age 19. He won two EuroBasket silver medals in EuroBasket 2013 and EuroBasket 2015, earning All-Tournament honours in the latter. Valančiūnas also appeared in the documentary "The Other Dream Team".


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: Valančiūnas started playing professionally for Perlas in 2008. During the 2008–09 season the team played in the Lithuanian National Basketball League (NKL), Lithuania's second strongest league, but moved up to the top-tier Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) the following season. In January 2009 Valančiūnas signed a long-term contract with Lithuanian powerhouse Lietuvos Rytas, but, as Perlas was Lietuvos Rytas' daughter club, he did not immediately move to Lietuvos Rytas, staying in Perlas for the first half of the 2009–10 season.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: On 17 January 2010, Valančiūnas finally moved to Lietuvos Rytas. A month after that Lietuvos Rytas won the 2010 edition of Lithuanian Basketball Federation LKF Cup. While playing there, Valančiūnas has played in the LKL Finals three times, in 2010, 2011 and 2012. The team won the 2010 series against Žalgiris 4–3, but lost to the same team the following year 1–4 and 0-3 in 2012.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: Valančiūnas became February's MVP in the VTB United League in 2012. Two months later he won the EuroCup Rising Star award and was named in the All-EuroCup squad. He averaged 10.8 ppg, 7.6 rpg and 1.6 bpg while shooting 63.4% from the field, leading Lietuvos Rytas to third place.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: Valančiūnas participated in three LKL All-Star Games, the 2010, 2011 and 2012 LKL All-Star Games. During the 2011 All-Star Game Valančiūnas scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, helping the "Lithuanians" win the game. He was named as the 2011 LKL All-Star Game MVP. During the 2012 game he led his team to victory, scoring 25 points including one three-pointer, grabbing 13 rebounds and dishing out 6 assists. He won the MVP award once again.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: Valančiūnas was named Lithuania Basketball Player of the Year three times – in December 2011, December 2012, and on 17 December 2014. He was also twice named the FIBA European Young Player of the Year, in February 2012 and February 2013.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: Valančiūnas was considered as a top prospect at the 2011 NBA draft, held on 23 June 2011, and was drafted fifth overall by the Toronto Raptors. He signed with the Raptors on 18 July 2012 and made his NBA debut on 31 October 2012, during a game against the Indiana Pacers. He recorded 12 points and 10 rebounds in 23 minutes of action as a starter, becoming the first Raptors rookie since Damon Stoudamire (1995) to record a double-double in his first game. On 5 April 2013, Valančiūnas was named Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month for games played in March. He ranked first among Eastern Conference rookies in averages per game in rebounds (7.3), blocks (1.07), and field goal percentage (.620). He also ranked second in free throw percentage (.822) and fourth in scoring (11.4 points per game), reaching double figures in points in 11 of his last 12 games during 6–31 March.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: On 22 July 2013, Valančiūnas was named MVP of the Las Vegas Summer League becoming the first non-American to win the award after averaging 19 points and 10 rebounds in four games.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: On 27 December 2013, Valančiūnas recorded a then career-high 18 rebounds in a 95–83 win over the New York Knicks. On 9 April 2014, he scored a then career-high 26 points in a 125–114 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. Two days later, he recorded a then career-high 21 rebounds in a 108–100 loss to the New York Knicks. The Raptors finished as the third seed in the East Conference in 2013–14, and faced the sixth-seeded Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the playoffs. In Game 1 of the series, Valančiūnas recorded 17 points and 18 rebounds, surpassing Keon Clark's franchise record for most rebounds in a single playoff game. Valančiūnas also became the second Raptor ever to record a double-double in his playoff debut; the first was Tracy McGrady. The Raptors went on to lose the series 4–3.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: On 31 January 2015, Valančiūnas scored a then career-high 31 points in a 114–111 loss to the Detroit Pistons. Valančiūnas finished the 2014–15 season with a back-to-the-basket shot percentage of 51.3%, good for second in the NBA behind fellow Lithuanian Donatas Motiejūnas of the Houston Rockets, who was attacking with 53.4% this way. Valančiūnas was ranked second in field goal percentage category during the 2014–15 season.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: On 20 August 2015, Valančiūnas signed a four-year, $64 million contract extension with the Raptors. Prior to the start of the 2015–16 season, Valančiūnas was named the 57th (out of 400) best player in the league by ESPN, jumping 34 positions from the previous season when he was ranked 91st. On 22 November 2015, he was ruled out for six weeks with a fracture in his left hand. He returned to action on 28 December against the Chicago Bulls after missing 17 games with the injury. On 10 March 2016, in a win over the Atlanta Hawks, he recorded 10 points and 10 rebounds, his career-high 16th straight game scoring in double figures and his 16th double-double of the season. His double figure record ended at 17 games after re-injuring his left hand on 14 March against the Chicago Bulls, leaving the game with 2:25 remaining in the first quarter and did not return.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: On 30 March 2016, Valančiūnas recorded 19 points and 9 rebounds in a 105–97 win over the Atlanta Hawks, helping the Raptors record a 50-win season for the first time in franchise history. On 1 April, he recorded 11 points, 14 rebounds and a career-best seven blocks in a 99–95 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. The Raptors finished the regular season as the second seed in the East with a 56–26 record.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: In Game 1 of the Raptors' first round playoff series against the seventh-seeded Indiana Pacers, Valančiūnas set a franchise playoff record with 19 rebounds, surpassing his own mark set in 2014. In Game 2 of the series, Valančiūnas recorded a playoff career-high 23 points and 15 rebounds in a 98–87 win, tying the series a 1–1. The Raptors went on to win the series 4–3. In the second round, the Raptors faced the Miami Heat, but in Game 3 of the series, Valančiūnas went down with a sprained right ankle. He subsequently missed eight straight games, returning to action in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Raptors went on to lose to the Cavaliers in Game 6, as the Raptors' deepest playoff run in franchise history came to an end with a 4–2 defeat.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: In the Raptors' season opener on 26 October 2016, Valančiūnas recorded a then career-high 32 points and 11 rebounds in a 109–91 win over the Detroit Pistons. On 10 January 2017, Valančiūnas grabbed a then career-high 23 rebounds to go with 18 points in a 114–106 win over the Boston Celtics. On 31 March 2017, Valančiūnas made team history in the third quarter of the Raptors' 111–100 win over the Indiana Pacers. He had 13 of his 17 rebounds during the quarter, setting a franchise mark for most in a single period. He also had 16 points for his team-leading 28th double-double of the season. He also established a career high during the game, surpassing the 714 rebounds he had in the 2013–14 season.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: On 11 January 2018, Valančiūnas had 15 points and a season-high 18 rebounds in a 133–99 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. On 26 January 2018, he had a season-high 28 points and 14 rebounds in a 97–93 loss to the Utah Jazz. In Game 2 of the Raptors' first-round playoff series against the Washington Wizards, Valančiūnas had 19 points and 14 rebounds, as Toronto took a 2–0 lead in a playoff series for the first time in franchise history with a 130–119 win. It was his 12th playoff double-double, matching Antonio Davis for the most in Raptors history. He set the Raptors' playoff double-double record in Game 5 with 14 points and 13 rebounds. The Raptors went on to win the series in six games to move on to the second round. In Game 1 of the Raptors' second-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Valančiūnas recorded 21 points and 21 rebounds in a 113–112 overtime loss. It marked the best double-double performance by a Raptors player in the franchise's playoff history. The Raptors went on to be swept by the Cavaliers for the second straight year.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: On 21 November 2018, Valančiūnas had season highs of 24 points and 13 rebounds in a 124–108 win over the Atlanta Hawks. On 5 December, he scored 18 of his season-high 26 in the fourth quarter of the Raptors' 113–102 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. On 13 December, he was ruled out for at least four weeks after undergoing surgery on his dislocated left thumb, an injury he sustained the previous night against the Golden State Warriors.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: On 7 February 2019, Valančiūnas was traded, along with C. J. Miles, Delon Wright and a 2024 second-round draft pick, to the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for Marc Gasol. On 12 February, after being medically cleared to return from the thumb injury, Valančiūnas made his debut for the Grizzlies, recording 23 points and 10 rebounds in a 108–107 loss to the San Antonio Spurs. On 20 March, Valančiūnas scored a then career-high 33 points and had 15 rebounds in the Grizzlies' 126–125 overtime win over the Houston Rockets. Two days later, he had 23 points and career-high 24 rebounds in a 123–119 overtime loss to the Orlando Magic. He set the franchise record for defensive rebounds in a game (23), surpassing Shareef Abdur-Rahim, who had 18 defensive boards twice. On 30 March, he set a then career high with 34 points to go with 20 rebounds (11 offensive) in a 120–115 win over the Phoenix Suns. It was a career-best sixth straight double-double for Valančiūnas, with the streak ending the next day against the Los Angeles Clippers after injuring his right ankle in the third quarter. On 1 April, he was ruled out for the rest of the season with a grade II right ankle sprain.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: On 11 July 2019, Valančiūnas signed a reported three-year, $45 million contract with the Grizzlies. On 28 February 2020, Valančiūnas improved his career record by grabbing 25 rebounds (6 offensive), however his team lost 101–104 to the Sacramento Kings. On 29 February 2020, he scored 22 points, grabbed 20 rebounds and improved the Grizzlies club record (45 rebounds) for the most rebounds in two consecutive games (previously the record belonged to Zach Randolph who had 42 rebounds in 2009), helping his team to defeat the Western Conference leaders Los Angeles Lakers 105–88. On 13 August 2020, Valančiūnas achieved his career's first triple-double: 26 points (including 2/3 three-pointers), 19 rebounds, 12 assists and led his team to a crucial victory, which secured chances to play in the 2020 NBA playoffs, versus the Eastern Conference leaders Milwaukee Bucks.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: On 10 March 2021, Valančiūnas logged a double-double with 29 points and 20 rebounds along with 4 blocks in a 127–112 win over the Washington Wizards, becoming the first player in franchise history to post at least 25 points, 20 rebounds and 4 blocks in a game. On 10 April, Valančiūnas tied a then career-high 34 points, along with 22 rebounds, in a 132–125 loss to the Indiana Pacers. On 12 April, Valančiūnas recorded his franchise-record, 15th consecutive double-double with 26 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Memphis Grizzlies past the Chicago Bulls 101–90. His record-setting streak of double-doubles surpassed a mark set by Zach Randolph in January 2011.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: On 7 August 2021, Valančiūnas was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans for Eric Bledsoe, Steven Adams, and a 2022 protected first round pick. On 20 October, Valančiūnas signed a reported two-year, $30 million contract extension with the New Orleans Pelicans. On 29 November, Valančiūnas recorded a career-high 39 points on seven three-pointers made, along with 15 rebounds, in a 123–104 win over the Los Angeles Clippers.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: Valančiūnas made his debut for the junior national team of Lithuania in the 2008 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship in Italy. He dominated throughout the tournament, averaging 14.3 points, 11.1 rebounds and 2.3 blocks in 23.5 minutes of action. His team went on to win the gold medal and he was chosen as the MVP.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: In the summer of 2009, Valančiūnas participated in the European Under-18 All-Star Game during EuroBasket 2009 in Poland. He dominated the game as he scored 18 points, grabbed 19 rebounds, blocked three shots and helped the "Blue Team" beat the "White Team" 77–75. Valančiūnas was later named the MVP of the All-Star game.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: One year later, Valančiūnas led Lithuania to another gold medal. Lithuania dominated in the 2010 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship held in Lithuania. Valančiūnas averaged 19.4 points, 13.4 rebounds and 2.7 blocks, and was voted as the MVP.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: Valančiūnas was also a member of the Lithuanian Under-19 basketball team, which competed in the 2011 FIBA Under-19 World Cup in Latvia. He led his team to capture the gold medal, averaging 23.0 points, 13.9 rebounds and 3.2 blocks in 31 minutes of game action. He was later named the tournament MVP. Valančiūnas scored 36 points in the gold medal game against Serbia, which was the highest points scored in a game by any player in the tournament. To this date he is the only player to achieve an MVP and gold medal in all of his FIBA U-tournaments.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: Valančiūnas was on the senior men's Lithuanian national basketball team roster for EuroBasket 2011, which took place in Lithuania. Valančiūnas debuted with Lithuania's senior men's national basketball team on 6 August 2011. In his debut match against Czech Republic, he scored 26 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. After a strong performance in friendly pre-EuroBasket 2011 matches, Valančiūnas was leading the Lithuanian national team with 12.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. Although Valančiūnas failed to be any kind of a leader in the first 4 games of EuroBasket 2011 (among them missing the game against Turkey), he then became one of the key players, averaging 8.4 points and 4.1 rebounds in just 15.7 minutes of game action. He also helped Lithuania to claim the fifth spot, which guaranteed qualification for the 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament. To this day, he is the all-time youngest Lithuanian to represent the primary national team at the major tournament.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: In 2013, Valančiūnas won a silver medal at the EuroBasket 2013 tournament. In the 2014 FIBA World Cup, Valančiūnas led the Lithuanian squad, which finished in fourth place. Valančiūnas was also one of the tournament's best players at EuroBasket 2015, and he was chosen to the All-Tournament Team, along with his Lithuanian teammate, Jonas Mačiulis, after averaging 16 points and 8.4 rebounds per game. The Lithuanian team won their second consecutive silver medal at the competition.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: In 2017, Valančiūnas competed for the Lithuanian national basketball team at the EuroBasket 2017 tournament, where the team finished 9th overall. Valančiūnas averaged 15.8 points and 12 rebounds. He led in double-doubles and rebounds per game in the tournament.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: In 2019, Valančiūnas represented the national team at the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup where Lithuania finished 9th overall. Valančiūnas led his team in total points and rebounds, averaging 14.0 points and 8.8 rebounds.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: Valančiūnas is the face of the "Itty Bitty Ballers" campaign, a campaign marketing miniature figurines with a basketball theme. The proceeds from the sale of the "Itty Bitty Ballers" goes to the MLSE Foundation charity. Also he has his own charity foundation, the Jonas Valančiūnas Foundation, which was established in May 2017. It is a non-profit organization with an aim to help adolescents with behavioral challenges. Adolescent's day home “Išvien” (United) was opened a year later, in August 2018.


title: Jonas Valančiūnas

text: In 2012, Valančiūnas appeared in two basketball documentaries "The Other Dream Team" and, "We are... for the Lithuania!". In 2016, Jonas Valančiūnas played a village thief in Lithuanian black comedy "Received Call 3", in which he stole a plasma TV and a tiny police car.


title: Mozart in the Jungle

text: Mozart in the Jungle is an American comedy-drama streaming television series developed by Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, Alex Timbers, and Paul Weitz for the video-on-demand service Amazon Prime Video. It received a production order in March 2014.


title: Mozart in the Jungle

text: The story was inspired by "Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music", oboist Blair Tindall's 2005 memoir of her career in New York, playing various high-profile gigs with ensembles including the New York Philharmonic and the orchestras of numerous Broadway shows. The series stars Gael García Bernal as Rodrigo, a character based on conductor Gustavo Dudamel, alongside Lola Kirke, Malcolm McDowell, Saffron Burrows, Hannah Dunne, Peter Vack, and Bernadette Peters.


title: Mozart in the Jungle

text: The first season premiered in full on December 23, 2014. A second season was announced by Amazon on February 18, 2015, and its episodes went online on December 30. A third season was announced February 9, 2016, and its episodes went online on December 9. On January 30, 2017, Amazon announced that the series had been renewed for a fourth season, which was released on February 16, 2018. On April 6, 2018, Amazon announced that the show was cancelled.


title: Mozart in the Jungle

text: The many oboe solos played by the protagonist and other characters throughout the series are performed by Lelie Resnick, principal oboist of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, while the character of Rodrigo is loosely based on Gustavo Dudamel, the Venezuelan music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Dudamel coached García Bernal before the latter conducted, in the character of Rodrigo, for a real performance of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, scenes of which were used for the second season opener. Dudamel has a cameo in that episode, acting as a stagehand trying to convince Rodrigo to move to Los Angeles. Other musicians with cameos in the series are violinist Joshua Bell, pianists Emanuel Ax and Lang Lang, composers Anton Coppola and Nico Muhly, Broadway star Brian d'Arcy James and conductors Alan Gilbert and Bernard Uzan. Blair Tindall, oboist and writer of the book on which the series is based, also appears in a cameo. Much of the original music for the show (most notably "Impromptu", and other work presented within the show's continuity as by Thomas Pembridge) is composed by contemporary composer Missy Mazzoli. For Pembridge's more experimental music in Season 4, the show turned to another female composer, Laura Karpman. Irish composer and conductor Eímear Noone served as Lola Kirke's real-life conducting coach in season four. Interior shots of the home concert hall were filmed at the Performing Arts Center at SUNY Purchase.


title: Mozart in the Jungle

text: In addition to behind-the-scenes contributions from Mazzoli, Karpman and Noone, the theme of underrepresented, and unjustly forgotten and overlooked women composers and conductors in the world of classical music became central in the show's third and fourth seasons. Historical female composers who appear in the show include Vítězslava Kaprálová, Isabella Leonarda, Nannerl Mozart and Fanny Mendelssohn. The fourth season featured Pulitzer Prize-winning contemporary composer Caroline Shaw appearing as herself (and the characters perform one of her actual compositions). Composer Paola Prestini also makes a brief cameo in season four, playing one of her own compositions.


title: Mozart in the Jungle

text: The first season of the series received positive reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the series a 'fresh' 95% rating based on 20 critic reviews, with the critical consensus "Though confined to the isolated world of classical music, Mozart in the Jungle's Gael Garcia Bernal makes this charming little show sing." Metacritic gave the series a 73 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Cory Barker, writing for "TV.com", praised the series. "What works so well is that "Mozart" isn't afraid to throw you into a world you're likely unfamiliar with, but it doesn't swim so far into the deep end that you immediately drown in jargon and distanced dramatic stakes." Robert Lloyd, writing for the "Los Angeles Times", also lauded the first season. He stated that "Characters who were mouthpieces for attitudes start to seem like people, more complicated than a thumbnail description can accommodate. You grow interested in what will become of them without expecting or rooting for any particular outcome." Kory Grow of "Rolling Stone" also praised the series: "Thanks to quirky scripts and a smart ensemble cast... it comes off whimsical without ringing off-pitch."


title: Mozart in the Jungle

text: Tim Goodman of "The Hollywood Reporter" also gave the first season a positive review: "Bernal is both likable and magnetic, and makes the eclectic maestro surge on the screen. He alone is worth streaming the series, but, thankfully, there's a lot more going on here." Brian Lowry, writing for "Variety", also lauded the series: "While Mozart is surely a niche confection, the show generally shines by proving long on charm even when it's short on laughs." In a more mixed review, Jeff Jensen of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the series a B−.


title: Mozart in the Jungle

text: Some socially-minded critics have praised the show's push for gender equity, while others have critiqued the "almost all-white orchestra and main cast" as unrealistic, given the prevalence of East Asian musicians in real-life orchestras.


title: Stirling

text: Stirling (; ; ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its merchants and tradesmen, the Old Bridge and the port. Located on the River Forth, Stirling is the administrative centre for the Stirling council area, and is traditionally the county town of Stirlingshire. Proverbially it is the strategically important "Gateway to the Highlands".


title: Stirling

text: It has been said that "Stirling, like a huge brooch clasps Highlands and Lowlands together". Similarly "he who holds Stirling, holds Scotland" is often quoted.


title: Stirling

text: Stirling's key position as the lowest bridging point of the River Forth before it broadens towards the Firth of Forth made it a focal point for travel north or south.


title: Stirling

text: When Stirling was temporarily under Anglo-Saxon sway, according to a 9th-century legend, it was attacked by Danish invaders. The sound of a wolf roused a sentry, however, who alerted his garrison, which forced a Viking retreat. This led to the wolf being adopted as a symbol of the town as is shown on the 1511 Stirling Jug. The area is today known as Wolfcraig. Even today the wolf appears with a goshawk on the council's coat of arms along with the recently chosen motto: "Steadfast as the Rock".


title: Stirling

text: Once the capital of Scotland, Stirling is visually dominated by Stirling Castle. Stirling also has a medieval parish church, the Church of the Holy Rude, where, on 29 July 1567, the infant James VI was anointed King of Scots by Adam Bothwell, the Bishop of Orkney, with the service concluding after a sermon by John Knox. The poet King was educated by George Buchanan and grew up in Stirling. He was later also crowned King of England and Ireland on 25 July 1603, bringing closer the countries of the United Kingdom. Modern Stirling is a centre for local government, higher education, tourism, retail, and industry. The mid-2012 census estimate for the population of the city is 36,440; the wider Stirling council area has a population of about 93,750.


title: Stirling

text: One of the principal royal strongholds of the Kingdom of Scotland, Stirling was created a royal burgh by King David I in 1130. In 2002, as part of Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee, Stirling was granted city status.


title: Stirling

text: The origin of the name "Stirling" is uncertain, but folk etymology suggests that it originates in either a Scots or Gaelic term meaning the place of battle, struggle or strife. One proposal is that "Stirling" derives from Gaelic "srib-linn", meaning "stream-pool" or similar. Other sources suggest that it originates in a Brythonic name meaning "dwelling place of Melyn", with the first element being connected to Middle Welsh "ystre-", "a dwelling". The name may have originally been a hydronym, and connected to Brittonic "*lïnn", "lake, pool" (Welsh "llyn").


title: Stirling

text: It is often argued that Stirling is the fortress of "Iuddeu" or "Urbs Giudi" where Oswiu of Northumbria was besieged by Penda of Mercia in 655, as recorded in Bede and contemporary annals.


title: Stirling

text: A stone cist, found in Coneypark Nursery in 1879, is Stirling's oldest catalogued artefact. Bones from the cist were radiocarbon dated and found to be over four millennia old, originating within the date range 2152 to 2021 BC. Nicknamed Torbrex Tam, the man, whose bones were discovered by workmen, died while still in his twenties. Other Bronze Age finds near the city come from the area around Cambusbarron.


title: Stirling

text: It had been thought that the Randolphfield standing stones were more than 3000 years old but recent radiocarbon dating suggests they may date from the time of Bruce.


title: Stirling

text: The earliest known structures in Stirling are now destroyed but comprised two Neolithic Cursus in Bannockburn. The earliest known surviving structure is a fort on Gillies Hill were built by Iron Age people over 2000 years ago. Two structures are known: what is currently called Wallstale Dun on the southern end of Touchadam Craig, and Gillies Hill fort on the northwest end of the craig. The Wallstale structure is later than the Gillies Hill fort and is related in form to brochs, these appear to coincide with the Roman period and there are around 40 or so in the wider area. South of the city, the King's Park prehistoric carvings can still be found.


title: Stirling

text: Its other notable geographic feature is its proximity to the lowest site of subjugation of the River Forth. Control of the bridge brought military advantage in times of unrest and excise duty, or pontage dues, in peacetime. Unsurprisingly excise men were installed in a covered booth in the centre of the bridge to collect tax from any entering the royal burgh with goods. Stirling remained the river's lowest reliable crossing point (that is, without a weather-dependent ferry or seasonal ford) until the construction of the Alloa Swing Bridge between Throsk and Alloa in 1885.


title: Stirling

text: The city has two Latin mottoes, which appeared on the earliest burgh seal of which an impression of 1296 is on record. The first alludes to the story as recorded by Boece who relates that in 855 Scotland was invaded by two Northumbrian princes, Osbrecht and Ella. They united their forces with the Cumbrian Britons in order to defeat the Scots. Having secured Stirling castle, they built the first stone bridge over the Forth.


title: Stirling

text: On the top they reportedly raised a crucifix with the inscription: "Anglos, a Scotis separat, crux ista remotis; Arma hic stant Bruti; stant Scoti hac sub cruce tuti." Bellenden translated this loosely as "I am free marche, as passengers may ken, To Scottis, to Britonis, and to Inglismen." It may be the stone cross was a tripoint for the three kingdom's borders or marches; the cross functioning both as a dividing territorial marker, and as a uniting witness stone like in the Bible story in Joshua 22. "Angles and Scots here demarked, By this cross kept apart. Brits and Scots armed stand near, By this cross stand safe here." This would make the cross on the centre of the first stone bridge the Heart of Scotland.


title: Stirling

text: Apparently the Latin is not first rate having four syllables in "cruce tuti" but the meaning seems to be that the Lowland Strathclyde Britons on the southern shore and the Highland Pictish Scots on the northern shore stand protected from each other by their common Christianity.


title: Stirling

text: A more modern translation suggests that rather than Briton, bruit might be better read as brute, ie brute Scots, implying a non-Scots identity was retained in Stirling for some time after inclusion into the land controlled by the King of Scots.


title: Stirling

text: It has been claimed that the "Bridge" seal was regarded as the Burgh seal proper, the "Castle" seal being simply a reverse, used when the seal was affixed by a lace to a charter. This agrees with a description in an official publication (which spells Bruti with only one letter t). Clearer images are available with different lettering. Sibbald conflated the two mottos into a single rhyme; he gave no indication that he was aware of Boece's work.


title: Stirling

text: Stirling was first declared a royal burgh by King David in the 12th century, with later charters reaffirmed by subsequent monarchs. A ferry, and later bridge, on the River Forth at Stirling brought wealth and strategic influence, as did its tidal port at Riverside. Major battles during the Wars of Scottish Independence took place at the Stirling Bridge in 1297 and at the nearby village of Bannockburn in 1314 involving William Wallace and Robert the Bruce respectively. After the Battle of Stirling Bridge, Wallace wrote to the Hanseatic leaders of Lübeck and Hamburg to encourage trade between Scottish ports (like Stirling) and these German cities. There were also several Sieges of Stirling Castle in the conflict, notably in 1304.


title: Stirling

text: Another important historical site in the area is the ruins of Cambuskenneth Abbey, the resting place of King James III of Scotland and his queen, Margaret of Denmark. The king died at the Battle of Sauchieburn by forces nominally led by his son and successor James IV. During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, the Battle of Stirling also took place in the centre of Stirling on 12 September 1648. The fortifications continued to play a strategic military role during the 18th-century Jacobite risings. In 1715, the Earl of Mar failed to take control of the castle. In January 1746, the army of Bonnie Prince Charlie seized control of the town but failed to take the Castle. On their consequent retreat northwards, they blew up the church of St. Ninians where they had been storing munitions; only the tower survived and can be seen to this day. The castle and the church are shown on Blaeu's map of 1654 which was derived from Pont's earlier map.


title: Stirling

text: Standing near the castle, the Church of the Holy Rude is one of the town's most historically important buildings. Founded in 1129 it is the second oldest building in the city after Stirling castle. It was rebuilt in the 15th-century after Stirling suffered a catastrophic fire in 1405, and is reputed to be the only surviving church in the United Kingdom apart from Westminster Abbey to have held a coronation. On 29 July 1567 the infant son of Mary, Queen of Scots, was anointed James VI of Scotland in the church. James' bride, Anne of Denmark was crowned in the church at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh. The Holy Rude congregation still meet and some 19th century parish records survive. Musket shot marks that may come from Cromwell's troops during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms are clearly visible on the tower and apse of the church.


title: Stirling

text: Economically, the city's port supported foreign trade, historically doing significant trade in the Low Countries, particularly with Bruges in Belgium and Veere in the Netherlands. In the 16th century there were so many Scots in Danzig in Prussia that they had their own church congregation and trade is mentioned with that city in Stirling Council's minutes of 1560. Around John Cowane's time there is an account which states there were about 30,000 Scots families living in Poland although that was possibly an exaggeration. Trade with the Baltic also took place such as a timber trade with Norway.


title: Stirling

text: After the Jacobite threat had faded but before the railways were established, the Highland cattle drovers would use the Auld Brig on their way to market at Falkirk or Stenhousemuir. Three times a year, tens of thousands of cattle, sheep and ponies were moved together to the trysts in the south with some drovers going as far as Carlisle or even London's Smithfield. There is a record of a four-mile long tailback (of livestock) developing from St. Ninians to Bridge of Allan after a St. Ninians tollman had a dispute.


title: Stirling

text: In the early 19th century an "exceedingly low" cost steamboat service used to run between Stirling and Newhaven or Granton. The coming of the railways in 1848 started the decline of the river traffic, not least because the Alloa Swing Bridge downstream restricted access for shipping. The railways did provide opportunity too with one Riverside company selling their reaping machines as far afield as Syria and Australia. Similarly, in 1861, a company making baby carriages was set up. These prams were exported to Canada, South America, India and South Africa.


title: Stirling

text: The Princes Street drill hall was completed in 1908 and the Municipal Buildings, which formed the headquarters of Stirling Burgh Council for much of the 20th century, were completed in 1918.


title: Stirling

text: After the blockades of the World Wars there was some increase in the use of the port including a tea trade with India. However, with normal shipping lanes open, the growth of the railways including The Forth Rail Bridge, left the harbour uneconomical and by the mid 20th century the port had ceased to operate.


title: Stirling

text: In terms of local government, the city of Stirling is a part of the wider Stirling Council area, which is based at Old Viewforth and governs on matters of local administration as set out by the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994. The current members of the Council were voted in 2017 for a term of office of 5 years. The May 2017 local government election resulted in the Scottish Conservative party and Scottish National Party each winning nine councillors, while the Labour Party won four seats and the Scottish Green Party won one. However, subsequently one Conservative councillor left the party to sit as an Independent. The Provost of Stirling is Cllr Christine Simpson.


title: Stirling

text: For the purposes of the Scottish Parliament, the city of Stirling forms part of the Stirling constituency of the Scottish Parliament constituency. The Stirling Scottish Parliament (or "Holyrood") constituency created in 1999 is one of nine within the Mid Scotland and Fife electoral region. Each constituency elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post system of election, and the region elects seven additional members to produce a form of proportional representation. The constituency's Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) is Evelyn Tweed of the Scottish National Party (SNP).


title: Stirling

text: In terms of national government, the city of Stirling forms part of county constituency of Stirling constituency of the House of Commons, electing one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the parliament of the United Kingdom by first past the post system. Alyn Smith of the SNP is the MP for Stirling constituency of the House of Commons since the 2019 general election.


title: Stirling

text: Stirling is renowned as the "Gateway to the Highlands" and is generally regarded as occupying a strategic position at the point where the flatter, largely undulating Scottish Lowlands meet the rugged slopes of the Highlands along the Highland Boundary Fault. The starkness of this contrast is evidenced by the many hills and mountains of the lower Highlands such as Ben Vorlich and Ben Ledi which can be seen to the northwest of the city. On the other hand, the Carse of Stirling, stretching to the west and east of the city, is one of the flattest and most agriculturally productive expanses of land in the whole of Scotland.


title: Stirling

text: The land surrounding Stirling has been most affected by glacial erosion and deposition. The city itself has grown up around its castle which stands atop an ancient quartz-dolerite sill, known as the Stirling Sill, a major defensive position which was at the lowest crossing point on the River Forth. Stirling stands on the Forth at the point where the river widens and becomes tidal. To the east of the city the Ochil Hills dominate the skyline with the highest peak in the range being Ben Cleuch, although Dumyat is more noticeable from Stirling. The Ochils meet the flat carse (floodplain) of the River Forth to the east of the distinctive geographical feature of Abbey Craig, a crag and tail hill upon which stands the 220 ft (67 m) high National Wallace Monument.


title: Stirling

text: Top of the Town consists of Broad Street, Castle Wynd, Ballengeich Pass, Lower Castle Hill Road, Darnley Street, Baker Street ( formerly Baxters St), St John Street and St Mary's Wynd. These streets all lead up to Stirling Castle and are the favourite haunt of tourists who stop off at the Old Town Jail, Mar's Wark, Argyll's Lodging and the castle. Ballengeich Pass leads to the graveyard at Ballengeich and the Castle Wynd winds past the old graveyard. The Top of the Town from Broad Street upwards is renowned for its cobblestoned roads, and cars can be heard rattling over the cobblestones on the way down. Craft shops and tourist-focused shops are evident on the way up and once at the top, panoramic views are available across Stirling and beyond.


title: Stirling

text: Like most of the United Kingdom, Stirling has an oceanic climate (Köppen "Cfb") with mild summers and cool, wet winters. Stirling has some of the warmest summers in all of Scotland, being relatively far away from the cooling effects of the North Sea and the Firth of Clyde.


title: Stirling

text: The settlement of Stirling had a population of 48,440 in 2012. According to the 2001 census, 52.7% of the population was female compared to 47.2% male. Stirling had both a smaller proportion of under 16s, at 16.7% compared to the Scottish average of 19.2%, and a smaller proportion of those of pensionable age: 17.8% – compared to the Scottish average of 18.6%.


title: Stirling

text: Walking the Marches is a custom probably started in the 12th century. The only way the town's boundaries could be protected was to walk round inspecting them annually. The walk was followed by a dinner. This was traditionally done by the Birlaw men made up from members of the Seven Trades, the Guildry and Council. In 2014 the tradition was revived after an official abeyance of several years.


title: Stirling

text: There are about sixteen libraries and two mobile libraries in Stirling. The Smith Art Gallery and Museum is now free to tourists and residents alike. Shearer's 1895 Penny Guide to Stirling and Neighbourhood used to list it under "How to spend a few hours on a wet day".


title: Stirling

text: The Macrobert Arts Centre has a variety of exhibitions and performances. There are many events at the Stirling Tolbooth and at The Albert Halls.


title: Stirling

text: With Stirling's development as a market town and its location as the focus of transport and communications in the region, it has developed a substantial retail sector serving a wide range of surrounding communities as well as the city itself. Primarily centred on the city centre, there are a large number of chain stores, as well as the Thistles shopping centre. However this has been augmented by out-of-town developments such as the Springkerse Retail Park on the city bypass to the east of Stirling.


title: Stirling

text: A major new regeneration project on the site of the former port area and the former Ministry of Defence site, adjacent to Stirling Railway Station, is currently underway. Known as Forthside, it has the aim of developing a new waterfront district linked to the railway station via Forthside Bridge. The development comprises retail, residential and commercial elements, including a conference centre, hotel and Vue multiplex cinema, that will ultimately expand the city centre area, linking it to the River Forth, which has been cut off from the city centre area since the construction of the A9 bypass under the railway station in the 1960s.


title: Stirling

text: In the service sector, financial services as well as tourism are the biggest employers. The financial services and insurance company Prudential established a large and base at Craigforth on the outskirts of Stirling in the 1970s.


title: Stirling

text: In terms of tourism, the presence of such historical monuments as Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument and other nearby attractions like Blair Drummond Safari Park has bolstered Stirling's position as a significant tourist destination in Scotland.


title: Stirling

text: The University of Stirling and Stirling Council are two of the biggest employers in the area. Knowledge related industries, research and development as well as life sciences have clustered around the university in the Stirling University Innovation Park, close to its main campus.


title: Stirling

text: Mauchline ware started producing wooden snuff-boxes in 1790 in Mauchline, Ayrshire. They were produced of the wood from the trees from the Castle craig. Today they are highly collectible.


title: Stirling

text: Stirling is home to national construction companies Ogilvie Group, chaired by Duncan Ogilvie, who was listed in the "Sunday Times Rich List" as being worth £32 million in 2009.


title: Stirling

text: A Bank of Scotland survey in 2009 found that workers in Stirling had the highest average earnings of £716 a week.


title: Stirling

text: The City of Stirling is home to a large number of commuters but has fewer commuting to work in other areas, than travel into the city. About half of Scotland's population live within an hour's travel time of Stirling.


title: Stirling

text: Local bus services to districts within the city are almost completely provided by buses operated by McGill's Scotland East. The surrounding towns, like Bridge of Allan, Alloa, Falkirk and Glasgow via Cumbernauld have services from the bus station.


title: Stirling

text: There are also railway links from Stirling railway station, including inter-city rail services to Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh Waverley, Inverness, Glasgow Queen Street, and London King's Cross. Services to Alloa, Bridge of Allan, Falkirk and Dunblane also run. Stirling Council provides some approximate journey times. Working lines include the Highland Main Line, the Edinburgh–Dunblane line and the Croy Line. The station formerly provided direct railway services to Callander and Oban, and to Loch Lomond, over very scenic lines, and a fast service to Dunfermline.


title: Stirling

text: Cities with motorways links close to Stirling include Glasgow, via the M80 motorway past Cumbernauld, and Edinburgh, via the M9 motorway past Falkirk. To the north, the M9 provides access to Dunblane with easy links to Perth and further beyond the Central Belt.


title: Stirling

text: Stirling has no airport, but there are international airports at Glasgow and Edinburgh which can be reached within an hour. Light aircraft can be chartered at Cumbernauld Airport.


title: Stirling

text: Stirling used to have steamboats which carried hundreds of passengers a day. There is currently no working port at Stirling but there are plans to develop the river and the harbour which might include links with towns on the Firth of Forth. Since the Forth is tidal at Stirling, development of pontoon style landing stages could potentially allow river taxis and tourist boats to operate during the summer.


title: Stirling

text: The National Curling Academy is located in Stirling Sports Village. It was opened in 2017 by Eve Muirhead. They use facilities linked to The Peak. It was hoped this would increase the chances of British medals at events like the Winter Olympics and Paralympics.


title: Stirling

text: The senior football team, Stirling Albion, play in the Scottish League Two at their home ground at Forthbank Stadium. In July 2010, the Stirling Albion Supporters' Trust successfully took over the running of the club buying out the long-serving chairman, Peter McKenzie, after 14 months of campaigning. This made Stirling Albion the first fully owned community club in the history of British football, after previous attempts made by Manchester United, Liverpool and Rangers.


title: Stirling

text: Stirling University L.F.C. are the premier women's football team. They play in the Scottish Women's Premier League. Their home ground is The Gannochy Sports Centre at Stirling University.


title: Stirling

text: The University Stirling Wanderers Hockey Club have also moved to a brand new (international standard) pitch at Forthbank for season 2008–09.


title: Stirling

text: Next to this pitch there is also the ground of Stirling County Cricket Club, whose pavilion captured an architectural award in June 2009, three years after its opening.


title: Stirling

text: Scotland international footballers Billy Bremner, John Colquhoun, Duncan Ferguson, female footballer Frankie Brown and brothers Gary and Steven Caldwell were born in Stirling. So were rugby internationals Kenny Logan, Allister Hogg and Alison McGrandles, jockey Willie Carson, and cricketer Dougie Brown.


title: Stirling

text: The University of Stirling is a major centre of sports training and education in Scotland. It was designated as Scotland's University for Sporting Excellence by the Scottish Government in 2008. The headquarters of the Scottish Institute of Sport is a purpose-built facility on the campus which opened in 2002. Also at the university is the Scottish National Swimming Academy, where Rio 2016, Olympic silver medalists and students at the university, Duncan Scott and Robbie Renwick trained. Commonwealth gold medalist Ross Murdoch, who also competed at Rio 2106, is a student at the university. The Gannochy National Tennis centre, which is seen as a tennis centre of excellence, was where Andy Murray and his brother Jamie Murray honed their skills as juniors. Gordon Reid, wheel chair Olympic gold medalist in 2016, was a tennis scholar at the university. The university men's and women's golf teams are consistently ranked among the best in Europe.


title: Stirling

text: The university has a dedicated sports studies department, which is within the Faculty of Health Science and Sport, and is ranked amongst the best in the United Kingdom for its provision of sports facilities, with the maximum 5-star award, shared by 16 other universities in the UK. The University of Stirling also currently hosts the Scottish men's lacrosse champions.


title: Stirling

text: Stirling and its surrounding area has a number of 9- and 18-hole golf courses, the largest of which is the Stirling Golf Course, located in the Kings Park area of the city. The Peak, a new Sports Village, was opened in April 2009 to cater for a range of sporting activities.


title: Stirling

text: In June 2014, Stirling will become the home of Scottish cricket after an agreement between Stirling County Cricket Club, Cricket Scotland and Stirling Council. It is hoped that the redevelopment of the ground will start at end 2014 with the intention being to upgrade it to international match standards. Scotland will play the majority of their home international games at the ground, starting with the World T20 qualifiers in the summer of 2015.


title: Stirling

text: The development will see a new pavilion and indoor training facility built at New Williamfield, the home of Stirling County Cricket Club, with Cricket Scotland relocating its headquarters from the National Cricket Academy at Ravelston, Edinburgh.


title: Stirling

text: The University of Stirling opened in 1967 on a greenfield site outside the town. Currently there are 11,100 students studying at the university, of which 7,995 are undergraduates and 3,105 are postgraduates. There are 120 nationalities represented on the university campus, with 19% of students coming from overseas. It has grown into a major research centre, with a large Innovation Park located immediately adjacent to the main university campus. Innovation Park has grown since its initiation in 1993, and is now home to 40 companies engaging in various forms of research and development. In January 2008 it was announced that students from Singapore would be able to gain degrees in retail from the University of Stirling in a tie-up with the country's Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP).


title: Stirling

text: Stirling is also home to part of the wider Forth Valley College which was formed on 1 August 2005 from the merger of Falkirk, Stirling and Clackmannan colleges.


title: Stirling

text: There are four main high schools in Stirling itself – Stirling High School, with a school roll of 964 pupils, Wallace High School with 958 pupils, St Modan's High School with 912 pupils, and Bannockburn High School in Broomridge with 752 pupils. All the city's secondary school premises have been redeveloped as a result of a Public-private partnership scheme. Stirling also has a Gaelic-medium unit situated in the city's Riverside Primary School which teaches pupils from across Stirling and Clackmannanshire through the medium of Scottish Gaelic.


title: Software development process

text: In software engineering, a software development process is a process of dividing software development work into smaller, parallel, or sequential steps or sub-processes to improve design, product management. It is also known as a software development life cycle (SDLC). The methodology may include the pre-definition of specific deliverables and artifacts that are created and completed by a project team to develop or maintain an application.


title: Software development process

text: Most modern development processes can be vaguely described as agile. Other methodologies include waterfall, prototyping, iterative and incremental development, spiral development, rapid application development, and extreme programming.


title: Software development process

text: A life-cycle "model" is sometimes considered a more general term for a category of methodologies and a software development "process" a more specific term to refer to a specific process chosen by a specific organization. For example, there are many specific software development processes that fit the spiral life-cycle model. The field is often considered a subset of the systems development life cycle.


title: Software development process

text: The software development methodology (also known as SDM) framework didn't emerge until the 1960s. According to Elliott (2004), the systems development life cycle (SDLC) can be considered to be the oldest formalized methodology framework for building information systems. The main idea of the SDLC has been "to pursue the development of information systems in a very deliberate, structured and methodical way, requiring each stage of the life cycle––from the inception of the idea to delivery of the final system––to be carried out rigidly and sequentially" within the context of the framework being applied. The main target of this methodology framework in the 1960s was "to develop large scale functional business systems in an age of large scale business conglomerates. Information systems activities revolved around heavy data processing and number crunching routines".


title: Software development process

text: Methodologies, processes, and frameworks range from specific prescriptive steps that can be used directly by an organization in day-to-day work, to flexible frameworks that an organization uses to generate a custom set of steps tailored to the needs of a specific project or group. In some cases, a "sponsor" or "maintenance" organization distributes an official set of documents that describe the process. Specific examples include:


title: Software development process

text: It is notable that since DSDM in 1994, all of the methodologies on the above list except RUP have been agile methodologies - yet many organizations, especially governments, still use pre-agile processes (often waterfall or similar). Software process and software quality are closely interrelated; some unexpected facets and effects have been observed in practice


title: Software development process

text: Among these, another software development process has been established in open source. The adoption of these best practices known and established processes within the confines of a company is called inner source.


title: Software development process

text: Software prototyping is about creating prototypes, i.e. incomplete versions of the software program being developed.


title: Software development process

text: A basic understanding of the fundamental business problem is necessary to avoid solving the wrong problems, but this is true for all software methodologies.


title: Software development process

text: "Agile software development" refers to a group of software development frameworks based on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve via collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams. The term was coined in the year 2001 when the Agile Manifesto was formulated.


title: Software development process

text: Agile software development uses iterative development as a basis but advocates a lighter and more people-centric viewpoint than traditional approaches. Agile processes fundamentally incorporate iteration and the continuous feedback that it provides to successively refine and deliver a software system.


title: Software development process

text: Continuous integration is the practice of merging all developer working copies to a shared mainline several times a day. Grady Booch first named and proposed CI in his 1991 method, although he did not advocate integrating several times a day. Extreme programming (XP) adopted the concept of CI and did advocate integrating more than once per day – perhaps as many as tens of times per day.


title: Software development process

text: Various methods are acceptable for combining linear and iterative systems development methodologies, with the primary objective of each being to reduce inherent project risk by breaking a project into smaller segments and providing more ease-of-change during the development process.


title: Software development process

text: Rapid application development (RAD) is a software development methodology, which favors iterative development and the rapid construction of prototypes instead of large amounts of up-front planning. The "planning" of software developed using RAD is interleaved with writing the software itself. The lack of extensive pre-planning generally allows software to be written much faster, and makes it easier to change requirements.


title: Software development process

text: The rapid development process starts with the development of preliminary data models and business process models using structured techniques. In the next stage, requirements are verified using prototyping, eventually to refine the data and process models. These stages are repeated iteratively; further development results in "a combined business requirements and technical design statement to be used for constructing new systems".


title: Software development process

text: The term was first used to describe a software development process introduced by James Martin in 1991. According to Whitten (2003), it is a merger of various structured techniques, especially data-driven information technology engineering, with prototyping techniques to accelerate software systems development.


title: Software development process

text: The waterfall model is a sequential development approach, in which development is seen as flowing steadily downwards (like a waterfall) through several phases, typically:


title: Software development process

text: The first formal description of the method is often cited as an article published by Winston W. Royce in 1970, although Royce did not use the term "waterfall" in this article. Royce presented this model as an example of a flawed, non-working model.


title: Software development process

text: The waterfall model is a traditional engineering approach applied to software engineering. A strict waterfall approach discourages revisiting and revising any prior phase once it is complete. This "inflexibility" in a pure waterfall model has been a source of criticism by supporters of other more "flexible" models. It has been widely blamed for several large-scale government projects running over budget, over time and sometimes failing to deliver on requirements due to the Big Design Up Front approach. Except when contractually required, the waterfall model has been largely superseded by more flexible and versatile methodologies developed specifically for software development. See Criticism of Waterfall model.


title: Software development process

text: In 1988, Barry Boehm published a formal software system development "spiral model," which combines some key aspects of the waterfall model and rapid prototyping methodologies, in an effort to combine advantages of top-down and bottom-up concepts. It provided emphasis in a key area many felt had been neglected by other methodologies: deliberate iterative risk analysis, particularly suited to large-scale complex systems.


title: Software development process

text: Shape Up is a software development approach introduced by Basecamp in 2018. It is a set of principles and techniques that Basecamp developed internally to overcome the problem of projects dragging on with no clear end. Its primary target audience is remote teams. Shape Up has no estimation and velocity tracking, backlogs, or sprints, unlike Waterfall, Agile, or Scrum. Instead, those concepts are replaced with appetite, betting, and cycles. As of 2022, besides Basecamp, notable organizations that have adopted Shape Up include UserVoice and Block.


title: Software development process

text: Through trials and errors, Basecamp found that the ideal cycle length is 6 weeks. This 6 week period is long enough to build a meaningful feature and still short enough to induce a sense of urgency.


title: Software development process

text: Shaping is the process of preparing work before being handed over to designers and engineers. Shaped work spells out the solution's main UI elements, identifies rabbit holes, and outlines clear scope boundaries. It is meant to be rough and to leave finer details for builders (designers and engineers) to solve, allowing the builders to exercise their creativity and make trade-offs. Shaped work is documented in the form of a pitch using an online document solution that supports commenting, allowing team members to contribute technical information asynchronously. Such comments are crucial for uncovering hidden surprises that may derail the project.


title: Software development process

text: Before a cycle begins, stakeholders hold a betting table, where pitches are reviewed. For each pitch, a decision is made to either bet on it or drop it.


title: Software development process

text: The way Shape Up determines how much time is allocated to a project is diametrically opposed to other methodologies. Shape Up starts with an appetite (for example, 6 weeks) and ends with a solution design that can be delivered within this constraint. The appetite becomes a hard deadline for the project's builders.


title: Software development process

text: Shape Up is a two-track system where shapers and builders work in parallel. Work that is being shaped in the current cycle may be given to designers and engineers to build in a future cycle.


title: Software development process

text: Recognizing the technical uncertainties that come with building, progress is tracked using a chart that visualizes the metaphor of the hill, aptly named the hill chart. The uphill phase is where builders are still working out their approach, while the downhill is where unknowns have been eliminated. Builders proactively and asynchronously self-report progress using an interactive online hill chart on Basecamp or Jira, shifting focus from done or not-done statuses to unknown or solved problems. The use of hill chart replaces the process of reporting linear statuses in scrum or Kanban standup.


title: Software development process

text: Some "process models" are abstract descriptions for evaluating, comparing, and improving the specific process adopted by an organization.


title: Software development process

text: A variety of such frameworks have evolved over the years, each with its own recognized strengths and weaknesses. One software development methodology framework is not necessarily suitable for use by all projects. Each of the available methodology frameworks is best suited to specific kinds of projects, based on various technical, organizational, project, and team considerations.


title: Software development process

text: Software development organizations implement process methodologies to ease the process of development. Sometimes, contractors may require methodologies employed, an example is the U.S. defense industry, which requires a rating based on process models to obtain contracts. The international standard for describing the method of selecting, implementing, and monitoring the life cycle for software is ISO/IEC 12207.


title: Software development process

text: A decades-long goal has been to find repeatable, predictable processes that improve productivity and quality. Some try to systematize or formalize the seemingly unruly task of designing software. Others apply project management techniques to designing software. Large numbers of software projects do not meet their expectations in terms of functionality, cost, or delivery schedule - see List of failed and overbudget custom software projects for some notable examples.


title: Software development process

text: Organizations may create a Software Engineering Process Group (SEPG), which is the focal point for process improvement. Composed of line practitioners who have varied skills, the group is at the center of the collaborative effort of everyone in the organization who is involved with software engineering process improvement.


title: Software development process

text: A particular development team may also agree to program environment details, such as which integrated development environment is used one or more dominant programming paradigms, programming style rules, or choice of specific software libraries or software frameworks. These details are generally not dictated by the choice of model or general methodology.


title: U-God

text: Lamont Jody Hawkins (born November 10, 1970), better known as U-God, is an American rapper and member of the hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan. He has been with the group since its inception, and is known for his deep voice and rhythmic flow that can alternate between gruff and smooth.


title: U-God

text: Hawkins was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York City. He moved to Staten Island as a youth. He was originally a beatboxer for Cappadonna, and was friends with future members Method Man, Inspectah Deck and childhood friend of Raekwon. Sometime before the members united, U-God was mentored in rap by Cappadonna. He soon became friends with RZA and Ghostface Killah, and he began rhyming under the alias Golden Arms, based on the Kung-Fu movie "Kid with the Golden Arm". Later on he changed his name to U-God (which is short for his Five-Percent Nation righteous name "Universal God Allah").


title: U-God

text: U-God was convicted on the grounds of firearm and drug possession charges on April 17, 1992, and was paroled in January 1993. His incarceration prevented him from attending the group's debut album "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)" recording sessions for the most part, his input on the seminal LP consisting of only a short bridge on the group's debut single "Protect Ya Neck" as well as the fan-favorite opening verse of "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'". Nevertheless, after his release he quickly became known to fans for his rugged flow and bass-like voice on Wu tracks such as "Winter Warz", "Knuckleheadz", "Investigative Reports", and "Black Jesus". He was featured heavily on the group's second album "Wu-Tang Forever", on which he was one of only four of the group to get a solo track – "Black Shampoo" (the others being Inspectah Deck with "The City", RZA with "Sunshower" and Ol' Dirty Bastard with "Dog Shit").


title: U-God

text: U-God was the eighth member of the group to record a solo album, releasing "Golden Arms Redemption" in 1999 on Priority Records, which displayed a wide variety of sounds from gritty blaxploitation funk to urgent string sections, and featured guest appearances from several Wu-Tang members and affiliates. It had two singles in "Dat's Gangsta" and "Bizarre". The song "Rumble" was used as the main song for the video game "". Bizarre debuted #7 on the "Billboard" Hot Rap Singles, but soon after Priority Records was on the verge of shutting down. Still, the album managed to go Gold in sales. Based on the initial success, U-God was able to open his own label, Suppa Nigga Productions. He released his second album "Mr. Xcitement" in 2005.


title: U-God

text: In 2009 U-God released the album "Dopium" and had the lead single "Wu-Tang" featuring Method Man. The album featured guest appearances by Sheek Louch, Jim Jones, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, GZA, Cappadonna, Method Man, Killah Priest and Scotty Wotty with production by Bloody Beat Roots, Felix Cartel and Large Professor. In 2013 U-God announced a new album "The Keynote Speaker" with production by RZA who also served as the albums executive producer. The album was released on July 23, 2013, by RZA's Soul Temple Records with guest appearances from Styles P, Kool Keith, Method Man, RZA, GZA and Inspectah Deck.


title: U-God

text: On December 13, 2016, U-God released through Babygrande Records' SoundCloud account a song "Venom" and announced that his new album, also called "Venom", would be released soon. On September 25, 2017, he added a tweet in which he announced that he had finished his autobiography entitled "" and it would be released along with his new album in March 2018. On February 2, 2018, he released a free mixtape "Bring Back God II" through DatPiff platform. "Venom" was released on March 30, 2018 and debuted at #34 on the U.S. Rap Albums Chart.


title: U-God

text: Around the time of "Wu Tang Forever", his two-year-old son Dontae (now a hip-hop artist as iNTeLL) was struck by a stray bullet while on his way to a birthday party, suffering permanent damage to his kidneys and hands, an ordeal U-God documented on the Wu-Tang Clan track "A Better Tomorrow".


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: Banjo-Kazooie is a series of video games developed by Rare. The games feature a male bear named Banjo and his friend, a large female red bird named Kazooie, who are both controlled by the player. Banjo originally made his debut as a playable character in 1997 as part of the cast of "Diddy Kong Racing". Throughout the various games, they are tasked with thwarting the various evil schemes of a witch named Gruntilda. The first game, "Banjo-Kazooie", was released in 1998 to critical acclaim and was followed by three sequels and a spin-off racing game.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: The franchise debuted on the Nintendo 64 and subsequent entries in the series also appeared on Game Boy Advance and Xbox 360. The three main titles then saw a release on Xbox One as part of "Rare Replay". The franchise has been largely dormant since the release of "" in 2008. However, Banjo and Kazooie have made occasional appearances in later crossover titles such as Sega's "All-Stars Racing" series and Nintendo's "Super Smash Bros." series.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: "Banjo-Kazooie" was released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64, re-released in 2008 for the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade and is available on Nintendo Switch via Nintendo Switch Online. In a region called Spiral Mountain, Banjo's sister Tooty is kidnapped by Gruntilda the witch, who wants to steal Tooty's beauty for herself, and Banjo and Kazooie must save her. The goal is to progress through Gruntilda's lair and the various worlds within it, collect items such as golden jigsaw pieces and music notes that allow Banjo and Kazooie to progress through their quest, and defeat Gruntilda. At the final battle, she is knocked off of her castle-like lair and is trapped beneath a boulder. The game has a central focus on 3D platforming challenges, in conjunction with action-adventure game elements as well as a large variety of puzzles.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: "Banjo-Tooie" was released in 2000 for the Nintendo 64 and was re-released in 2009 for the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade. Two years after Banjo and Kazooie defeat Gruntilda in the game's predecessor, two of her sisters arrive and free her from beneath the boulder. Now reduced to a skeleton, Gruntilda plans to drain the life energy from the entirety of the game's hub world, the Isle O' Hags, to restore herself to normal, leaving Banjo and Kazooie to stop her plans. Saving the day once again, the bear and bird cause the destruction of most of Gruntilda's skeletal body, leaving only her skull. "Tooie" is controversial for being significantly harder than the first game in that, besides tougher obstacles and platforming challenges, it places a higher emphasis on puzzle-solving and backtracking, often requiring the player to revisit previous worlds to complete them. Many features not included in the previous game appear, including improved graphics and controls, and a four-player multiplayer mode.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: "Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts" was released in 2008 for the Xbox 360. The ending sequence in "Banjo-Tooie" suggested the title of a third game would be "Banjo-Threeie", with early press releases tentatively calling it "Banjo-Kazooie 3". Eight years after the events of "Tooie", Banjo and Kazooie, under the direction of the Lord of Games (L.O.G.), the grand creator of all video games, compete with Gruntilda in a series of challenges to claim control of Spiral Mountain. The first original "Banjo-Kazooie" game released on a non-Nintendo system, "Nuts & Bolts" features several departures from the concepts used by the first two games, the most notable being that Banjo and Kazooie must construct vehicles to control and complete challenges with, as opposed to nonlinear platforming and basic puzzle-solving. These changes to gameplay mechanics, along with a heavily updated visual style for the world and characters, have been controversial among fans and critics.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: "Banjo-Kazooie" and "Banjo-Tooie" were re-released on Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade in 2008 and 2009 respectively. These versions featured fully HD graphics for both the polygonal models and 2D images. They also included revised controls and the reinstatement of the Stop 'N' Swop feature. Both re-releases were included alongside "Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts" as part of the 30 game compilation "Rare Replay", released for Xbox One on 4 August 2015. "Banjo-Kazooie" was added to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack on 20 January 2022. Marking the series' first re-release on a Nintendo console in over 20 years.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: "Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge" was released in 2003 for the Game Boy Advance. Taking place two months after "Banjo-Kazooie", Klungo, Gruntilda's most loyal henchman, makes a robot for Gruntilda's spirit to dwell inside. The newly created "Mecha-Grunty," infused with a transferred Gruntilda's spirit, travels back in time to prevent the first meeting of Banjo and Kazooie. Banjo and Kazooie, with assistance from their shaman friend Mumbo Jumbo, stop her plans and send her back to beneath the boulder in Spiral Mountain. Gruntilda commands Klungo to contact her sisters, setting the events of "Banjo-Tooie" in motion. The game features mechanics very similar to those of "Banjo-Kazooie" and "Banjo-Tooie", but is played from an isometric perspective and has simplified controls. A port for mobile phones was released in 2004, and a mobile compilation of the game's minigames, titled "Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge Missions", was released in 2005.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: "Banjo-Pilot" was released in 2005 for the Game Boy Advance. This game is not part of the plot of the series, but is a racing game similar to "Mario Kart" in which the characters race planes. The game was originally planned as a sequel to "Diddy Kong Racing", titled "Diddy Kong Pilot", but was retooled to feature "Banjo-Kazooie" characters following the purchase of Rare by Microsoft.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: Prior to "Banjo-Kazooie", Banjo's first appearance was as a playable racer in "Diddy Kong Racing", released for Nintendo 64 in 1997. Following Microsoft's purchase of Rare, Banjo was absent from the game's Nintendo DS remake, "Diddy Kong Racing DS". In "Conker's Bad Fur Day" & "", Banjo's head can be seen, disembodied, above the fireplace in the main menu. Additionally, Kazooie's head can be found on the end of an umbrella in the chapter select screen for both games. In "Grabbed by the Ghoulies", pictures of the characters and levels are seen throughout the game, along with monster versions of Banjo and Kazooie's heads mounted on the walls. Banjo and Kazooie also appear as a playable racer in the Xbox 360 version of "Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing". Developer Sumo Digital collaborated with Rare for the character's inclusion, with Rare giving Sumo access to their asset library as well as designing and modeling Banjo and Kazooie's in-game vehicle. Several character skins based on the series are available as downloadable content in various versions of "Minecraft".


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: Banjo and Kazooie also appear as a single playable fighter via downloadable content in the 2018 crossover fighting game, "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate". Phil Spencer, head of the Xbox brand, stated that negotiating the characters' inclusion was an "easy deal to make" thanks to their strong third-party relationship with Nintendo. The characters were released on 4 September 2019, along with a stage based on Spiral Mountain and "Banjo-Kazooie" musical arrangements, including one by original composer Grant Kirkhope.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: Stop 'N' Swop is a feature from "Banjo-Kazooie" that was supposed to be a means of unlocking special content in "Banjo-Tooie". Though it was shown in an ending sequence in "Banjo-Kazooie", evidence suggests that it was never fully implemented due to the Nintendo 64 revisions completed in 1999 that kept the feature from being practical. The feature was widely publicised through a column published by "Nintendo Power". Rare announced that special areas and items in the game could only be reached by completing certain tasks in its sequel, "Banjo-Tooie". It was later discovered that "Banjo-Kazooie" contains seven special items which can be accessed using lengthy in-game cheat codes or by using a cheat cartridge. Once collected, these items would be viewable in a menu titled "Stop 'N' Swop". Even if the game is reset, all of the items will remain permanently.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: An ending sequence in "Banjo-Kazooie", should the player collect all 100 Jiggies in the game, indicated that two coloured eggs in the game would be put to use in the sequel "Banjo-Tooie". There was also an inaccessible ice key shown in the sequence, which induced gamers to search for a way to get it. While only two eggs were shown in the sequence, hackers Alan "Ice Mario" Pierce and Mitchell "SubDrag" Kleiman of the Rare Witch Project fansite discovered in-game cheat codes to unlock a total of six different eggs and the ice key. Other ways of getting the six eggs and key were previously discovered via the use of a cheat cartridge. Once acquired, these items would be viewable by all three game files, and would remain even after erasing the files.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: In the years between the two "Banjo-Kazooie" games, Rare representatives were questioned on "Stop 'N' Swop" and how it would be implemented. Ken Lobb was reportedly unwilling to discuss how the connection would be made between the games.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: "Banjo-Tooie" was released in 2000 and offered a way to retrieve the items without the need to acquire "Banjo-Kazooie". The player would attain them by destroying in-game "Banjo-Kazooie" Game Paks. These eggs could then be brought to Heggy the hen to hatch. There were three eggs in total (i.e. the pink, yellow, and blue eggs), one of which was already with the hen, but which Kazooie had to hatch herself. The ice key, however, was to be used to obtain an item locked in an ice vault, containing a Mega Glowbo, which could turn Kazooie into a dragon. No explanation for "Stop 'N' Swop" was revealed in the game. Nintendo released a statement on the matter expressing that the feature "was not implemented in the game, and although we know there is a code that opens this menu, it does not do anything at all. And as much as I would like to be able to answer your question about why it was not implemented in the game, this is not information that our Consumer Service Department has access to."


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: In 2004, a patent filed by Rare was published which suggests that Stop 'N' Swop involved swapping cartridges with the power off to transfer data. The information would be momentarily retained by utilising the Rambus memory in the Nintendo 64. As a result of changes done to the Nintendo 64 systems produced in 1999, the system could no longer do this effectively.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: In February 2004, fansite Rare-Extreme was invited to tour Rare HQ which was the first outsider tour of the studio since Rarenet's visit in 1999. When Rare's management was asked about the Stop 'N' Swop feature in a 2004 HG Tour, they pointed out that "It was never officially announced as being part of the game," and immediately requested that the tour "move on."


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: Another Stop 'N' Swop reference appeared in 2005's "Banjo-Pilot". After completing most of the game, Cheato sells an item called "STOP 'N' SWOP" for 999 Cheato Pages. The only result of buying is Cheato saying: ""So you want to know about Stop 'N' Swop, eh? I hope you're ready. Here goes...Why don't you "stop" annoying me and "swop" this game for a nice book or something?""


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: In a 2007 interview with "Retro Gamer", Rare employees told the magazine reporters that they may have to wait until the release of "" for the details of Stop 'N' Swop to be revealed. In March 2008, a new website appeared with an animation of the ice key rotating, the eggs, and the words ""the answers are coming."" On 1 April, however this was revealed to be an April Fool's joke created by The Rare Witch Project.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: In 2018, Paul Machacek, a Rare software engineer, clarified that Stop 'N' Swop was not only going to involve the two "Banjo-Kazooie" titles, but also other Rare titles planned for release on the Nintendo 64, including "Donkey Kong 64", "Conker's Bad Fur Day" and "Blast Corps" (the latter was initially planned to release after "Banjo-Kazooie" as it was slated for Christmas 1997 before being delayed). In a 2020 interview conducted by Rare Gamer, Machacek stated that the six eggs included in the final release of "Kazooie" were each meant to correspond to a different Rare title, and that if a player could transfer the Ice Key through all of the games and back to "Kazooie", some sort of "super-code" would be unlocked for a final, grand bonus.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: In 2008, MTV conducted an interview with Salvatore Fileccia, lead software engineer at Rare. Fileccia cited that the abandonment of Stop 'N' Swop was due to revisions made to the Nintendo 64 circuitry. He stated that older versions of the system would have given the player 10 seconds to successfully swap data between cartridges, while newer iterations of the console reduced this time to one second. Paul Machacek clarified that Nintendo shut down Stop 'N' Swop before "Donkey Kong 64"'s release, anticipating the aforementioned circuitry changes as well as fearing hardware damage (a fear which Machacek claimed was unfounded), although the "Swopping" system was never fully removed from "Kazooie". Rare did not initially plan to implement cheat codes for accessing the items, fearing that they could be shared with players that did not own "Tooie".


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: At Microsoft's E3 press conference on 14 July 2008, it was announced that the original "Banjo-Kazooie" would be made available through the Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) and feature Stop 'N' Swop connectivity with "Nuts & Bolts" to unlock new features. In "Nuts & Bolts", Bottles' shop also offers a "Stop 'N' Swop Truth" item for 6000 music notes, more than is possible to obtain in the game. Extracting the game's text strings reveals that when Bottles is paid 6000 notes, he replies ""I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you, and we couldn't show that in a game with this rating. Put it out of your mind and think happy thoughts! Thanks for the notes!""


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: On 27 January 2009, Rare announced that "Banjo-Tooie" would be released in April on XBLA and that the "original plan" for Stop 'N' Swop would be implemented. It was revealed that the eggs and key in the XBLA version of "Banjo-Kazooie" would unlock bonus vehicle parts in "Nuts & Bolts" such as fuzzy dice. In "Nuts & Bolts" there is an imprint of the ice key on top of Boggy's gym and drawings of the eggs throughout Showdown Town. When a Stop 'N' Swop item is collected in "Banjo-Kazooie", a corresponding crate appears at each drawing. Banjo and Kazooie can take them to Mumbo to get the special vehicle parts. The level Banjoland (a museum-like level that contains various artefacts from the first two games) also features large fake Stop 'N' Swop eggs that contain enemies.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: In the XBLA port of "Banjo-Tooie", the six eggs and key from "Banjo-Kazooie" unlock the bonuses included in the original N64 version, as well as new content related to the Xbox 360. Using the Stop 'N' Swop items in "Banjo-Tooie" will also unlock seven additional vehicle blueprints in the "L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges" downloadable content for "Nuts & Bolts". In place of the three preexisting eggs are gold, silver and bronze eggs. The three unlock achievements listed under a "Stop 'N' Swop II" submenu. Additional Stop 'N' Swop II achievements can be unlocked by completing specific objectives in the game. These achievements, however, currently serve no in-game or cross-game functionality.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: "Following Banjo-Kazooie" release in 1998, the series has been met with critical and commercial success. Websites such as Metacritic have marked the original two games as Universal Acclaims. The original Nintendo 64 version sold three million six hundred fifty thousand copies worldwide.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: The fact that Banjo-Kazooie received high reviews from critics along with the fact that several planned features and worlds were ultimately scrapped from the game, led Rare to begin development of a sequel titled "Banjo-Tooie", also for the Nintendo 64. "Banjo-Tooie" was released on 20 November 2000 to very positive reviews, and largely adopts the gameplay mechanics of its predecessor. Upon release, "Banjo-Tooie" was critically acclaimed and sold more than three million copies worldwide.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: Later titles were not met with reviews that topped critics as such. Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge was met with mixed reviews. and so was the follow-up spinoff title Banjo-Pilot. Banjo-Kazooie would not receive a well-received title until the release of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts for the Xbox 360 in 2008, eight years after the last console game. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts received positive reviews from release according to Metacritic, but many die-hard Banjo-Kazooie fans felt they were let down by the game featuring a very separate gameplay style to the previous console games. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts sold 1.2 million sales at last count.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: The re-releases of Banjo-Kazooie from 2008 and Banjo-Tooie from 2009 were met with more criticism than the original releases, with Banjo-Kazooie meeting mostly positive reviews, but with three exceptions, and Banjo-Tooie being met with mixed reviews, both according to Metacritic.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: Banjo-Kazooie's appearance in Super Smash Bros Ultimate was also met with a large amount of praise from many internet Youtubers and gaming sites, claiming it as a long-awaited come back.


title: Banjo-Kazooie

text: In early 2015, a group of former Rare employees who worked on "Banjo-Kazooie" announced their formation of a new studio named Playtonic Games, planning a spiritual successor called "Yooka-Laylee". The developer initially sought funding for the game via the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform; its initial funding goal of £175,000 was reached within thirty-eight minutes, eventually raising over £2 million by the time the campaign concluded. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in 2017 to mixed reviews.


title: Messerschmitt Bf 109 variants

text: Due to the Messerschmitt Bf 109's versatility and time in service with the German and foreign air forces, numerous variants were produced in Germany to serve for over eight years with the Luftwaffe. Additional variants were produced abroad totalling in 34,852 Bf 109s built.


title: Messerschmitt Bf 109 variants

text: The Bf 109A was the first version of the Bf 109. Armament was initially planned to be just two cowl-mounted 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 17 machine guns. However, possibly due to the introduction of the Hurricane and Spitfire, each with eight 7.7 mm (.303 in) machine guns, experiments were carried out with a third machine gun firing through the propeller shaft. V4 and some A-0 were powered by a 640 PS (631 hp, 471 kW) Junkers Jumo 210B engine driving a two-blade fixed-pitch propeller, but production was changed to the 670 PS (661 hp, 493 kW) Jumo 210D as soon as it became available. The A-0 was not of a uniform type; there were several changes in their appearance. Visible changes included engine, cockpit and machine gun ventilation holes/slats, and the location of the oil cooler was changed several times to prevent overheating. Many of these Bf 109 A-0 served with the "Legion Condor" and were often misidentified as B-series aircraft, and probably served in Spain with the tactical markings 6-1 to 6–16. One A-0, marked as 6–15, ran out of fuel and was forced to land behind enemy lines. It was captured by Republican troops on 11 November 1937 and later transferred to the Soviet Union for a closer inspection. 6–15 incorporated several improvements from the Bf 109B production program and had been prepared to use a variable-pitch propeller although it had not been installed.


title: Messerschmitt Bf 109 variants

text: According to RLM documentation 22 aircraft were ordered and delivered with V4 as the A-series prototype.


title: Messerschmitt Bf 109 variants

text: The first Bf 109 in serial production, the Bf 109 B-1, was fitted with the 670 PS (661 hp, 493 kW) Jumo 210D engine driving a two-bladed fixed-pitch propeller. During the production run a variable-pitch propeller was introduced and often retrofitted to older aircraft; these were then unofficially known as B-2s. The Bf 109B saw combat with the "Legion Condor" during the Spanish Civil War, although it was apparent that the armament was still inadequate. Several aircraft were produced with an engine-mounted machine gun but it was very unreliable, most likely because of engine vibrations and overheating. Thus the Bf 109 V8 was constructed to test the fitting of two more machine guns in the wings; however, results showed that the wing needed strengthening. In the following V9 prototype, both wing guns were replaced by 20 mm MG FF cannons.


title: Messerschmitt Bf 109 variants

text: Production of the short-lived Bf 109C began in the spring of 1938. The 109C was powered by a 700 PS (690 hp, 515 kW) Jumo 210G engine with direct fuel injection. Another important change was a strengthened wing, now carrying two more machine guns, giving four 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 17s in total. The C-0s were pre-production aircraft, the C-1 was the production version, and the C-2 was an experimental version with an engine-mounted machine gun. The C-3 was planned with 20 mm MG FF cannons replacing the two MG 17s in the wings, but it is not known how many C-3s (if any) were built or converted. The C-4 was planned to have an engine-mounted "Motorkanone" MG FF, but this variant was not produced.


title: Messerschmitt Bf 109 variants

text: The next model, the V10 prototype, was identical to the V8, except for its Jumo 210G engine. The V10, V11, V12 and V13 prototypes were built using Bf 109B airframes, and tested the DB 600A engine with the hope of increasing the performance of the aircraft. The DB 600A was dropped as the improved DB601A with direct fuel injection was soon to become available.


title: Messerschmitt Bf 109 variants

text: Developed from the V10 and V13 prototypes, the Bf 109D was the standard version of the Bf 109 in service with the "Luftwaffe" just before the start of World War II. Despite this, the type saw only limited service during the war, as all of the 235 Bf 109Ds still in Luftwaffe service at the beginning of the Poland Campaign were rapidly taken out of service and replaced by the Bf 109E, except in some night fighter units where some examples were used into early 1940. Variants included the D-0 and D-1 models, both having a Junkers Jumo 210D engine and armed with two wing-mounted and two nose-mounted 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 17s. The D-2 was an experimental version with an engine-mounted machine gun, but as previously tried, this installation failed. The D-3 was similar to the C-3 but with two 20 mm MG FFs in the wings.


title: Messerschmitt Bf 109 variants

text: A total of 647 Bf 109Ds of all versions were built by Focke-Wulf, Erla, Fieseler, Arado and AGO. Messerschmitt is listed as having produced only four Bf 109Ds, probably the D-0 preproduction series with the serial production transferred to the licensed manufacturers. Several Bf 109Ds were sold to Hungary. Switzerland bought 10 109D-1s (Serial Numbers from 2301 until 2310) which had been built by the Arado-Flugzeugwerke GmbH factory located in Warnemünde.


title: Messerschmitt Bf 109 variants

text: In late 1938, the Bf 109E entered production. To improve on the performance afforded by the 441–515 kW (600–700 PS) Jumo 210, the larger, longer Daimler-Benz DB 601A engine was used, yielding an extra 223 kW (300 PS) at the cost of an additional 181 kg (400 lb). A much bigger cooling area was needed to disperse the extra heat generated by the DB 601, and this led to the first major redesign of the basic airframe. Enlarging the existing nose-mounted radiator sufficiently to cool the engine would have created extra weight and drag, negating some of the performance gains afforded by the increased power, so it was decided to move the main radiators to the undersurfaces of the wings immediately outboard of the junction of the wing root and wing panel, just forward of the trailing edges' inner ends, leaving the oil cooler under the nose in a small, streamlined duct. The new radiator position also had the effect of counterbalancing the extra weight and length of the DB 601, which drove a heavier three-bladed "Vereinigte Deutsche Metallwerke" (VDM)-made propeller.


title: Messerschmitt Bf 109 variants

text: To incorporate the new radiators, the wings were almost completely redesigned and reinforced, with several inboard ribs behind the spar being cut down to make room for the radiator ducting. Because the radiators were mounted near the trailing edge of the wing, coinciding with the increased speed of the airflow accelerating around the wing camber, cooling was more effective than that of the Jumo engined 109s, albeit at the cost of extra ducting and piping, which was vulnerable to damage. The lowered undercarriage could throw up mud and debris on wet airfields, potentially clogging the radiators. To test the new 1,100 PS (1,085 hp, 809 kW) DB 601A engine, two more prototypes (V14 and V15) were built, each differing in their armament. While the V14 was armed with two 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 17s above the engine and one 20 mm MG FF in each wing, the V15 was just fitted with the two MG 17s mounted above the engine. After test fights, the V14 was considered more promising and a pre-production batch of 10 E-0 was ordered. Batches of both E-1 and E-3 variants were shipped to Spain for evaluation, and first saw combat during the final phases of the Spanish Civil War.


title: Messerschmitt Bf 109 variants

text: The E-1 production version kept two 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 17s above the engine and two more in the wings. Later, many were modified to the E-3 armament standard. The E-1B was a small batch of E-1s that became the first operational Bf 109 fighter bomber, or "Jagdbomber" (usually abbreviated to Jabo). These were fitted with either an ETC 500 bomb rack, carrying one 250 kg (550 lb) bomb, or four 50 kg (110 lb) bombs. The E-1 was also fitted with the Reflexvisier "Revi" gunsight. Communications equipment was the FuG 7 "Funkgerät 7" (radio set) short-range radio apparatus, effective to ranges of 48–56 km (30–35 mi). A total of 1,183 E-1 were built, 110 of them were E-1/B.


title: Messerschmitt Bf 109 variants

text: Only very limited numbers of the E-2 variant were built, for which the V20 prototype served as basis. It was armed with two wing-mounted, and one engine-mounted "Motorkanone" MG FF cannon, which gave considerable trouble in service, as well as two synchronized MG 17s cowl machine guns. In August 1940, II./JG 27 was operating this type.