title: Battle of the River Plate

text: Langsdorff realised too late that he was facing three cruisers. Calling on the immediate acceleration of his diesel engines, he closed with the enemy squadron at in the hope of engaging the steam-driven British ships before they could work up from cruising speed to full power. An alternative strategy would have been keeping the British ships at a distance to destroy them with his guns while remaining out of range of their smaller 6-inch and 8-inch guns. However, Langsdorff knew the British cruisers had a speed advantage over "Graf Spee" and could stay out of range while calling for reinforcements.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: The British executed their battle plan: "Exeter" turned north-west, while "Ajax" and "Achilles", operating together, turned north-east to spread "Graf Spee"s fire. "Graf Spee" opened fire on "Exeter" at with her six guns at 06:18. "Exeter" opened fire at 06:20, "Achilles" at 06:21, "Exeter"s aft guns at 06:22 and "Ajax" at 06:23. Lieutenant-Commander Richard Jennings, "Exeter"s gunnery officer remembers:


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: As I was crossing the compass platform [to his Action Station in the Director Control Tower], the captain hailed me, not with the usual rigmarole of "Enemy in sight, bearing, etc", but with "There's the fucking "Scheer"! Open fire at her!" Throughout the battle the crew of the "Exeter" thought they were fighting the [sister ship] "Scheer". But the name of the enemy ship was of course the "Graf Spee".


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: From her opening salvo, "Graf Spee"'s gunfire proved fairly accurate, her third salvo straddling "Exeter". At 06:23, a shell burst just short of "Exeter", abreast the ship. Splinters from this shell killed the torpedo tubes' crews, damaged the ship's communications, riddled the ship's funnels and searchlights and wrecked the ship's Walrus aircraft, just as it was about to be launched for gunnery spotting. Three minutes later, "Exeter" suffered a direct hit on her "B" turret, putting it and its two guns out of action. Shrapnel swept the bridge, killing or wounding all bridge personnel except the captain and two others. Captain Bell's communications were wrecked. Communications from the aft conning position were also destroyed; the ship had to be steered via a chain of messengers for the rest of the battle.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: Meanwhile, "Ajax" and "Achilles" closed to and started making in front of "Graf Spee", causing her to split her main armament at 06:30 and otherwise use her guns against them. Shortly after, "Exeter" fired two torpedoes from her starboard tubes but both missed. At 06:37, "Ajax" launched her Fairey Seafox spotter floatplane from her catapult. At 06:38, "Exeter" turned so that she could fire her port torpedoes and received two more direct hits from shells. One hit "A" turret and put it out of action, the other entered the hull and started fires. At this point, "Exeter" was severely damaged, having only "Y" turret still in action under "local" control, with Jennings on the roof shouting instructions to those inside. She also had a 7° list, was being flooded and being steered with the use of her small boat's compass. However, "Exeter" dealt the decisive blow; one of her 8-inch shells had penetrated two decks before exploding in "Graf Spee"s funnel area, destroying her raw fuel processing system and leaving her with just 16 hours fuel, insufficient to allow her to return home.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: At this point, nearly one hour after the battle started, "Graf Spee" was doomed; she could not make fuel system repairs of this complexity under fire. Two-thirds of her anti-aircraft guns were knocked out, as well as one of her secondary turrets. There were no friendly naval bases within reach, nor were any reinforcements available. She was not seaworthy and could make only the neutral port of Montevideo.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: "Graf Spee" hauled round from an easterly course, now behind "Ajax" and "Achilles", towards the north-west and laid smoke. This course brought Langsdorff roughly parallel to "Exeter". By 06:50, "Exeter" listed heavily to starboard, taking water forward. Nevertheless, she still steamed at full speed and fired with her one remaining turret. Forty minutes later, water splashed in by a near-miss short-circuited her electrical system for that turret. Captain Bell was forced to break off the action. This would have been the opportunity to finish off "Exeter". Instead, the combined fire of "Ajax" and "Achilles" drew Langsdorff's attention as both ships closed the German ship.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: Twenty minutes later, "Ajax" and "Achilles" turned to starboard to bring all their guns to bear, causing "Graf Spee" to turn away and lay a smoke screen. At 07:10, the two light cruisers turned to reduce the range from , even though this meant that only their forward guns could fire. At 07:16, "Graf Spee" turned to port and headed straight for the badly damaged "Exeter", but fire from "Ajax" and "Achilles" forced her at 07:20 to turn and fire her guns at them, while they turned to starboard to bring all their guns to bear. "Ajax" turned to starboard at 07:24 and fired her torpedoes at a range of , causing "Graf Spee" to turn away under a smoke screen. At 07:25, "Ajax" was hit by a shell that put "X" turret out of action and jammed "Y" turret, causing some casualties. By 07:40, "Ajax" and "Achilles" were running low on resources, and the British decided to change tactics, moving to the east under a smoke screen. Harwood decided to shadow "Graf Spee" and try to attack at night, when he could attack with torpedoes and better use his advantages of speed and manoeuvrability, while minimising his deficiencies in armour. "Ajax" was again hit by a shell that destroyed her mast and caused more casualties; "Graf Spee" continued to the south-west.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: The battle now turned into a pursuit. Captain Parry of "Achilles" wrote afterwards: "To this day I do not know why the "Admiral Graf Spee" did not dispose of us in the "Ajax" and the "Achilles" as soon as she had finished with the "Exeter"". The British and New Zealand cruisers split up, keeping about from "Admiral Graf Spee". "Ajax" kept to the German's port and "Achilles" to the starboard. At 09:15, "Ajax" recovered her aircraft. At 09:46, Harwood signalled to "Cumberland" for reinforcement and the Admiralty also ordered ships within to proceed to the River Plate. At 10:05, "Achilles" had overestimated "Admiral Graf Spee"s speed and she came into range of the German guns. "Admiral Graf Spee" turned and fired two three-gun salvoes with her fore guns. "Achilles" turned away under a smoke screen.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: According to Pope, at 11:03 a merchant ship was sighted close to "Admiral Graf Spee". After a few minutes, "Admiral Graf Spee" called "Ajax" on W/T, probably on the international watchkeeping frequency of 500 kHz, using both ships' pre-war call-signs, with the signal: "please pick up lifeboats of English steamer". The German call-sign was DTGS, confirming to Harwood that the pocket-battleship he had engaged was indeed "Admiral Graf Spee". "Ajax" did not reply but a little later the British flagship closed with SS "Shakespeare" with her lifeboats still hoisted and men still on board. "Admiral Graf Spee" had fired a gun and ordered them to stop but when they did not obey orders to leave the ship, Langsdorff decided to continue on his way and "Shakespeare" had a lucky escape. The shadowing continued for the rest of the day until 19:15, when "Admiral Graf Spee" turned and opened fire on "Ajax", which turned away under a smoke screen.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: It was now clear that "Admiral Graf Spee" was entering the River Plate estuary. Since the estuary had sandbanks, Harwood ordered "Achilles" to shadow "Admiral Graf Spee" while "Ajax" would cover any attempt to double back through a different channel. The sun set at 20:48, with "Admiral Graf Spee" silhouetted against the sun. "Achilles" had again closed the range and "Admiral Graf Spee" opened fire, forcing "Achilles" to turn away. During the battle, a total of 108 men had been killed on both sides, including 36 on "Admiral Graf Spee".


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: "Admiral Graf Spee" entered Montevideo in neutral Uruguay, dropping anchor at about 00:10 on 14 December. This was a political error, since Uruguay, while neutral, had benefited from significant British influence during its development and it favoured the Allies. The British Hospital, for example (where the wounded from the battle were taken), was the leading hospital in the city. The port of Mar del Plata on the Argentine coast and south of Montevideo would have been a better choice for "Admiral Graf Spee". Also, had "Admiral Graf Spee" left port at this time, she would have encountered no British warships in the area except for the damaged "Ajax" and "Achilles".


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: In Montevideo, the 13th Hague Convention came into play. Under Article 12, "belligerent war-ships are not permitted to remain in the ports, roadsteads or territorial waters of the said Power for more than twenty-four hours". Under Article 14, "[a] belligerent war-ship may not prolong its stay in a neutral port beyond the permissible time except on account of damage". British diplomats duly pressed for the speedy departure of the "Graf Spee". Also relevant was Article 16, of which part reads, "A belligerent war-ship may not leave a neutral port or roadstead until twenty-four hours after the departure of a merchant ship flying the flag of its adversary".


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: In accordance with their obligations the Germans released 61 captive British merchant seamen who had been on board. Langsdorff then asked the Uruguayan government for two weeks to make repairs. Initially, the British diplomats in Uruguay – principally Eugen Millington-Drake – made several requests for "Admiral Graf Spee" to leave port immediately. After consultation with London, which was aware that there were no significant British naval forces in the area, Millington-Drake continued to demand that "Admiral Graf Spee" leave. At the same time, he arranged for British and French merchant ships to steam from Montevideo at intervals of 24 hours, whether they had originally intended to do so or not, thus invoking Article 16. This kept "Admiral Graf Spee" in port and allowed more time for British forces to reach the area.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: At the same time, the British attempted to feed false intelligence to the Germans that an overwhelming British force was being assembled, including Force H (the aircraft carrier and the battlecruiser ) by broadcasting a series of signals, on frequencies known to be intercepted by German intelligence. In fact the two cruisers had been joined only by "Cumberland" which had arrived at 22:00 on 14 December, after steaming from the Falkland Islands in 34 hours, at an average of over 90% of her full trials speed attained over much shorter distances. The older and larger "Cumberland" was more powerful than "Exeter", with an additional aft turret containing two more 8-inch guns, but was no match on paper for "Admiral Graf Spee" whose guns had significantly longer range and fired much heavier shells (660 lb against 256 lb). Overwhelming British forces (HMS "Renown", "Ark Royal", , , and ) were "en route", but would not assemble until 19 December, although they could intercept earlier if "Admiral Graf Spee" headed north or north east from Montevideo shadowed by "Cumberland" and her smaller consorts. For the time being, the total force comprised the undamaged "Cumberland" with a full ammunition load, and the damaged "Ajax" and "Achilles" with depleted stocks of shells. To reinforce the propaganda effect, these ships – which were waiting just outside the three-mile limit – were ordered to make smoke, which could be clearly seen from the Montevideo waterfront.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: On 15 December 1939, "Olynthus" refuelled "Ajax", which proved a difficult operation; the ship had to use hurricane hawsers to complete the replenishment. On 17 December "Achilles" was replenished from "Olynthus" off Rouen Bank.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: The Germans were entirely deceived, and expected to face a far superior force on leaving the River Plate. "Admiral Graf Spee" had also used two-thirds of her ammunition and had only enough left for approximately a further 20 minutes of firing. Such a reduced ammunition stock was hardly sufficient for the ship to fight her way out of Montevideo, let alone get back to Germany, when contrasted with the previously unengaged "Cumberland"s ability to fight at full capacity for about 90 minutes and pursue at equal or higher speed for at least another before requiring replenishment at sea.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: Meanwhile, as the "Graf Spee" remained in the bay, British diplomatic personnel based in Montevideo and Buenos Aires carefully watched her from shore 24 hours a day, and the expectation of a potential breakout and resumption of the battle caused tensions and anxiety to surge to enormous levels among British sailors and diplomats.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: On the German side, while the ship was prevented from leaving the harbour, Captain Langsdorff consulted with his command in Germany. He received orders that permitted some options, but not internment in Uruguay. The Germans feared that Uruguay could be persuaded to join the Allied cause. Ultimately, he chose to scuttle his ship in the River Plate estuary on 17 December, to avoid unnecessary loss of life for no particular military advantage, a decision which infuriated Adolf Hitler.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: The crew of "Admiral Graf Spee" were taken to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where Captain Langsdorff shot himself on 19 December. He was buried there with full military honours, and several British officers attended. Many of the crew members made their homes in Montevideo with the help of local people of German origin. The German dead were buried in the Cementerio del Norte, Montevideo.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: The German propaganda machine had reported that "Admiral Graf Spee" had sunk a heavy cruiser and heavily damaged two light cruisers while only being lightly damaged herself. "Admiral Graf Spee"s scuttling however was a severe embarrassment and difficult to explain on the basis of publicly available facts. The battle was a major victory for the British, as the damage to "Ajax" and "Achilles" was not sufficient to reduce their fighting efficiency, while "Exeter", as badly damaged as she was, was able to reach the Falkland Islands for emergency repairs, before returning to Devonport for a 13-month refit, thus enhancing the reputation of First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: Additionally, while being highly praised for his excellent performance in battle, Harwood also received criticism directed towards his lack of initiative and for not employing a more aggressive approach; these criticisms are mostly based on the fact that the "Admiral Graf Spee" was allowed to escape even though she was outgunned and outnumbered.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: Prisoners taken from merchant ships by "Admiral Graf Spee" who had been transferred to her supply ship "Altmark" were freed by a boarding party from the British destroyer , in the "Altmark" incident (16 February 1940)whilst in Jøssingfjord, at the time neutral Norwegian waters. Prisoners who had not been transferred to "Altmark" had remained aboard "Admiral Graf Spee" during the battle; they were released on arrival in Montevideo.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: On 22 December 1939 over 1,000 sailors from "Admiral Graf Spee" were taken to Buenos Aires and interned there; at least 92 were transferred during 1940 to a camp in Rosario, some were transferred to Club Hotel de la Ventana in Buenos Aires Province and another group to Villa General Belgrano, a small town founded by German immigrants in 1932. Some of these sailors later settled there. After the war many German sailors settled permanently in various parts of Uruguay, some returning after being repatriated to Germany. Rows of simple crosses in the Cementerio del Norte, in the north of the city of Montevideo, mark the burial places of the German dead. Three sailors killed aboard "Achilles" were buried in the British Cemetery in Montevideo, while those who died on "Exeter" were buried at sea.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: Immediately after her scuttling, the wreck of "Admiral Graf Spee" rested in shallow water, with much of the ship's superstructure remaining above water level, but over the years, the wreck has subsided into the muddy bottom and afterwards only the tip of the mast remains above the surface.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: A radar expert was sent to Montevideo shortly after the scuttling and reported a rotating aerial, probably for gunlaying, transmitting on either 57 or 114 centimetres. In February 1940, the wreck was boarded by US Navy sailors from the light cruiser .


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: Pieces and parts of the ship have also been displayed in museums and studied by scientists who have carried out tests like metallurgical analyses of the "Graf Spee".


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: In 1964 a memorial to the ship was erected in Montevideo's port. Part of it is "Admiral Graf Spee"s anchor.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: In 1997, one of "Admiral Graf Spee"s secondary gun mounts was raised and restored; it can now be seen outside Montevideo's National Maritime Museum.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: In February 2004, a salvage team began work raising the wreck. The operation is being funded in part by the government of Uruguay, in part by the private sector, as the wreck is now a hazard to navigation. The first major section, the heavy gunnery control station, was raised on 25 February 2004. It is expected to take several years to raise the entire wreck. James Cameron filmed the salvage operation. After she has been raised, it is planned that the ship might be restored and put on display at the National Marine Museum.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: Many German veterans did not approve of this restoration attempt, as they considered the wreck to be a war grave and an underwater historical monument that should be respected. One of them, Hans Eupel, a former specialist torpedo mechanic, 87 years old in 2005, said that "this is madness, too expensive and senseless. It is also dangerous, as one of the three explosive charges we placed did not explode".


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: On 10 February 2006, the , 400 kg eagle and swastika crest of "Admiral Graf Spee" was recovered from the stern of the ship. This spread-wing statue of a Nazi eagle with a wreath in its talons containing a swastika was attached to the stern, not the bow like traditional figureheads. It was a common feature of prewar German warships. In other cases, it was removed for a variety of practical reasons on the outbreak of the war, but because "Admiral Graf Spee" was already at sea when the war began, she went into action (and was scuttled) with it attached, thus permitting its recovery. To protect the feelings of those with painful memories of Nazi Germany, the swastika at the base of the figurehead was covered as it was pulled from the water. The figurehead was stored in a Uruguayan naval warehouse following German complaints about exhibiting "Nazi paraphernalia".


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: In 1956, the film "The Battle of the River Plate" (US title: "Pursuit of the Graf Spee") was made of the battle and "Admiral Graf Spee"s end, with Peter Finch as Langsdorff and Anthony Quayle as Harwood. Finch portrays Langsdorff sympathetically as a gentleman. The "Achilles", which had been recommissioned in 1948 as HMIS "Delhi", flagship of the Royal Indian Navy, played herself in the film. HMS "Ajax" (twin turrets) was "played" by HMS "Sheffield" (triple turrets), HMS "Exeter" (twin turrets) by HMS "Jamaica" (triple turrets) and HMS "Cumberland" by herself (although de-gunned as a trials platform). "Admiral Graf Spee" (two turrets) was portrayed by the U.S. heavy cruiser (three turrets).


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: The battle was for many years re-enacted with large-scale model boats throughout the summer season at Peasholm Park in the English seaside resort of Scarborough. The re-enactment now portrays an anonymous battle between a convoy of British ships and an unspecified enemy in possession of the nearby shore.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: After the battle, the new town of Ajax, Ontario, in Canada, constructed as a Second World War munitions production centre, was named after HMS "Ajax". Many of its streets are named after Admiral Harwood's crewmen on "Ajax", "Exeter" and "Achilles". Its main street is named after Admiral Harwood, while a small street was named (after some controversy) for Captain Langsdorff. According to an article in the German language paper "Albertaner" on 6 October 2007, Steve Parish, the mayor of Ajax, defended the decision, declaring that Langsdorff had not been a typical Nazi officer. An accompanying photograph (in the "Aftermath" section above) from the funeral of crew members shows Langsdorff paying tribute with a traditional naval salute, while people beside and behind himeven some clergymenare giving the Fascist salute.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: Also in Canada, the names of the ships, and the commander of Force G, have been used for Cadet Corps. The Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps (RCSCC) Ajax No. 89 in Guelph, Ontario; the Navy League Cadet Corps (NLCC) Achilles No. 34 in Guelph, Ontario; the Navy League Wrenette Corps (NLWC) Lady Exeter (now disbanded) and the camp shared by all three corps, called Camp Cumberland (this camp no longer exists; it was decommissioned around 1999). RCSCC Harwood No. 244 and NLCC Exeter No. 173 are situated in Ajax, Ontario.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: A number of streets in Nelson Bay, New South Wales, have been named after the battle including Montevideo Parade, Achilles Street, Ajax Avenue, Harwood Avenue, and Exeter Road (now called Shoal Bay Road). In Auckland, home port of the Royal New Zealand Navy, streets have been named for "Achilles", "Ajax" and "Exeter". Three streets in North Wollongong, New South Wales, are named Ajax Avenue, Exeter Avenue and Achilles Avenue.


title: Battle of the River Plate

text: The battle is also significant as it was the first time the current Flag of New Zealand was flown in battle, from HMS "Achilles". Also in New Zealand, four mountain peaks in the Two Thumb Range region of the South Island are named in commemoration of the battle. These are Achilles (2,544 m), Exeter (2,327 m), Ajax (2,319 m) and Graf Spee (2,267 m).


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin () is a Champagne house founded in 1772 and based in Reims. It is one of the largest Champagne houses. Madame Clicquot is credited with major breakthroughs, creating the first known vintage champagne in 1810, and inventing the riddling table process to clarify champagne in 1816. In 1818, she invented the first known blended rosé champagne by blending still red and white wines, a process still used by the majority of champagne producers.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: During the Napoleonic Wars, Madame Clicquot made strides in establishing her wine in royal courts throughout Europe, notably that of Imperial Russia. She played an important role in establishing Champagne as a favored drink of high society and nobility throughout Europe.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: The company was purchased in 1986 by Louis Vuitton (now part of the LVMH group formed in 1987) and continues to expand worldwide.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Philippe Clicquot was a textile merchant, a banker and an owner of vineyards in the Champagne country. In 1772, he established a wine business He quickly decided to bring his champagne wines to foreign palates and soon expanded his clientele. His annual shipments varied between 4,000 bottles a year to 6-7,000 bottles in a good year. However, he kept the primary business focus on textiles.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Philippe Clicquot ran a successful textile business, so did Nicolas Ponsardin. In an attempt to consolidate the power of their two businesses, Mr. Ponsardin and Mr. Clicquot arranged a wedding between their children, which was common at the time.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: After his marriage, François Clicquot was officially made his father's partner, and in July, the company name was changed to "Clicquot-Muiron et Fils". Sales increased from 8,000 bottles a year in 1796 to 60,000 in 1804. Little by little, all other activities unrelated to champagne industry were abandoned.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: François Clicquot greatly expanded the company. He put it on a successful track. He also established a new practice: employing commercial travellers. In August 1801, François Clicquot began a long trip in Europe. Passing through Basel, he met Louis Bohne. Louis Bohne remained a faithful employee of the company all his life and became a valuable adviser to Madame Clicquot, even though he was usually stationed far away.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: After various trips through Europe, Louis Bohne came back to Reims in March 1803 with a book full of orders from the largest merchants and most important individual buyers. In the summer of 1804, the Clicquot champagne business first began to grow.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: In October 1805, seven years after their wedding, Francois fell suddenly ill with a fever similar to typhoid. He died some days later, at the age of 30.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Both Barbe-Nicole and Philippe were devastated by François' death. Philippe Clicquot announced his intention of liquidating the company. The young widow ("veuve" in French) however decided to take over her husband's business, becoming one of the first business women in the early 1800s to run an international business in a world dominated by men.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin was born in 1777, a few years before the French Revolution. Her childhood was influenced by her father, Baron Nicolas Ponsardin, a successful textile maker, who was involved in both business and politics. Formerly a royalist, he switched political positions to turn against the monarchy. Thanks to this move, Barbe-Nicole's family escaped the Revolution unscathed.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: When Barbe-Nicole married François Clicquot, she was 21 years old. When her husband died in October 1805, she was 27 and mother of their six-year-old daughter and only child, Clémentine.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: In the early 19th century, the Napoleonic Code denied women civil and political rights, prohibiting them from working, voting, earning money, or entering schools and universities without the consent of their husband or father. At that time, widows were the only women in French society to be free and to be allowed to run their own business.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: When Louis Bohne came back to Reims from St.Petersburg, one month after François Clicquot's funeral, 110,000 bottles of champagne had been shipped during the course of 1805, nearly double the preceding year, thanks to his business trips. The Clicquot champagne business was promising.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Against all expectations and considerable opposition, the widow Clicquot wanted to take over her husband's business. She went to her father-in-law with a proposal and convinced him to let her manage the business Philippe agreed to her proposal under one condition: Barbe-Nicole would go through an apprenticeship, after which she would be able to run the business herself, if she could prove that she was capable. Barbe-Nicole Clicquot flouted every convention to become the first woman to take over a champagne house and the first female champagne producer. She entered into an apprenticeship with the winemaker Alexandre Fourneaux, and tried to save the wine business and make it grow.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Barbe-Nicole exported the vast majority of her champagne out of France. Unfortunately, she was facing naval blockades that kept her from sending her wine abroad. Furthermore, Czar Alexander I banned French products.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Facing bankruptcy, Barbe-Nicole took a business gamble: she decided to send her champagne to Russia, when peace returned ahead of her competitors. While the war's naval blockades paralyzed commercial shipping, Madame Clicquot and Louis Bohne secretly planned to sneak a boat through the blockade to Russia.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Russians used to love the kind of champagne she was making: a very sweet champagne that contained about double the amount of sugar in today's sweet dessert wines. She knew that European courts would celebrate the defeat of Napoleon as soon as his wars ended. After Napoleon Bonaparte had been sent into exile on Elba, both British and Russians toasted his defeat.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: With the French monarchy restored, Madame Clicquot and Louis Bohne put the plan they had been preparing for five years into execution. In 1814, as the blockades fell away, the company chartered a Dutch cargo ship, the "Zes Gebroeders", en route to Königsberg, to deliver 10,550 bottles of Veuve Clicquot champagne to the Russian market, taking advantage of the general chaos, while their competitors still believed such a move to be impossible. The boat left Le Havre on 6 June 1814. Meanwhile, Russia had lifted the ban on importing French products. The whole shipment was quickly sold. A few weeks later, another ship left Rouen laden with 12,780 bottles of champagne destined for St. Petersburg, which were sold out as soon as they arrived. When the champagne reached St.Petersburg, Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia, Czar Alexander I's brother, declared that Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin champagne would be the only kind he would drink. Word of his preference spread throughout the Russian court.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: 1814 was a turning point in the history of the Veuve Clicquot company. With her "Vin de la comète" (comet vintages), Madame Clicquot reinvigorated her business which began to take off again, thanks to the success of the Russian venture that made the name Veuve Clicquot famous overnight. She went from being a minor player to a brand name that was known to all. During the years that followed, Russia continued to buy Veuve Clicquot wines. Sales rocketed: from 43,000 bottles in 1816, they climbed to 280,000 in 1821 and increased until the 1870s. Within two years, the widow Clicquot had become famous and was at the helm of an internationally renowned commercial business.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Champagne also became a vehicle for celebrating events. Veuve Clicquot played an important role in establishing champagne as a preferred drink of high society. Champagne became an essential ingredient for festivities in European courts, and then amongst the bourgeoisie. Champagne then began turning up, in cabarets and restaurants.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Sales of Veuve Clicquot champagne in Russia continued to progress. Madame Clicquot decided to establish herself in other markets, such as United Kingdom. Edouard Werlé, who joined the company, started to make a whole series of trips through Central Europe. From 1841 on, when Edouard Werlé officially became head of the company, annual sales never dropped below 300,000 bottles. In 1850, it sold 400,000 bottles.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Edouard and his son Alfred ran the business in the following years developing it further: they acquired new vineyards and in 1877 began utilizing a yellow label for the wines, an unusual color for champagne at the time. They registered the label under the trademark "Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin" Yellow Label.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: While the company was pursuing its expansion, Madame Clicquot died at the Château de Boursault on 29 July 1866, at the age of 89.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Madame Clicquot is considered one of the world's first international businesswomen. She was the first to take over management of a company and guide it, through hazardous times. She brought her wine business back from the brink of destruction turning it into one of the most successful champagne houses. She also spread champagne across the globe.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: When she died, sales had reached 750,000 bottles a year. Veuve Clicquot was exporting champagne from France to all Europe, the United States, Asia and elsewhere. Veuve Clicquot had become both a substantial Champagne house and a respected brand. Easily recognised by its distinctive bright yellow labels, the wine holds a royal warrant from Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Because she built her champagne empire on audacious decisions, Madame Clicquot was called by her peers "la grande dame de la Champagne". Newspapers all over the world paid tribute to the old lady.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: By the terms of an agreement made earlier, Edouard Werlé was already her official successor appointed by Madame Clicquot herself, and in August 1866, a new company was formed: "Werlé & Cie, successors to Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin".


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Bertrand de Mun, who married Edouard Werlé's granddaughter, joined the company in July 1898 and became a partner in 1902. In 1911, under de Mun's direction the house of Veuve Clicquot achieved the sales figure of 2,000,000 bottles. The company was slowed down by the 1914-18 war.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: During World War I, the Veuve Clicquot cellars sheltered over one thousand company staff and civilians in the war-torn champagne region from bombardments. Cellars housed a hospital and a chapel. Even short plays were put on in these premises. Today Red Cross signs on the damp chalk walls still indicate the infirmary and shelter area.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: After World War I, reconstruction began. All the buildings had been heavily damaged. Gradually everything was rebuilt.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: In 1932, Bertrand de Mun was joined by his son-in-law Bertrand de Vogüé. Long before the law required it, they offered benefits to their employees: holidays, pensions, healthcare, sports fields and recreation areas. As a result, the company never suffered stoppage during the strikes that hit France in 1936.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: In 1963, the company became a "société anonyme" or joint stock corporation. Bertrand de Vogüé was made chairman, a post to which his son Alain succeeded in 1972.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: In 1987, the Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy group acquired Veuve Clicquot, where it remains today, headed up by Jean-Marc Gallot.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: In 1987, an expedition, licensed by the Michigan Department of State and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and headed by underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence, recovered a number of cases of Veuve Clicquot (Yellow Label, Dry) Champagne from the 9 November 1913 shipwreck of the Canadian steamer "Regina" in Lake Huron, off Port Sanilac, Michigan. Spence afterwards described the still sparkling Champagne as "quite dark in color but as having an excellent taste." The shipwreck site is located in approximately 83 feet of water at latitude 43°20.24′ North, longitude 82°26.76′ West. The water temperatures at the wreck site range from 1–18 °C (35–65 °F).


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: In July 2010, a group of Finnish divers found 168 bottles of champagne beneath the Baltic Sea off the coast of Åland. Bottles were sent back to France for analysis. Ninety-nine of them were identified as Juglar, forty-six as Veuve Clicquot, and at least four as Heidsieck.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: When the wine was tasted in 2015, several of them were still drinkable, well-preserved thanks to the cold and dark conditions at the depth.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Chemical analysis showed levels of sugar (150 g/L) much higher than modern champagne (more than most Sauternes), compared to today's champagnes which are generally between 6 and 10g per litre. This high sugar content was characteristic of people's tastes at the time, especially the Russian market known for its preference for sweeter wines.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: It also had much higher levels of salt, iron, lead, copper, and arsenic compared with modern vintages. It is believed the arsenic and copper originated from antiquated pesticide (Bordeaux mixture) applied to the grapes. The iron probably came from nails used in the wine barrels, and the lead leached from brass valve fittings of the winemaking equipment. Modern champagne producers begin with wine from stainless steel barrels, yielding lower iron and lead levels.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: On 17 November 2010, the local government of Åland announced that most of the bottles were to be auctioned off. A bottle of nearly 200-year-old Veuve Clicquot broke the record for the most expensive champagne ever sold. In 2011, a bidder paid €30,000 for one of them found in the Baltic Sea.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: As a result, in 2014, the house submerged 300 bottles and 50 magnums of its champagne at the exact location of the wreck to study whether it matures differently than on land. It will be resurfaced in 40 years and compared with another set of champagne aged underground at the same depth.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: In July 2008, an unopened bottle of Veuve Clicquot was discovered inside a sideboard in Torosay Castle, Isle of Mull, Scotland. The 1893 bottle was in mint condition, having been kept in the dark. It is now on display at the Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin visitor centre in Reims and is regarded as priceless. It is the oldest bottle bearing a yellow label kept in the Veuve Clicquot house collection.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: In 2001, Cecile Bonnefond became the first female president of Veuve Clicquot since the widow herself was running the company.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: The oldest parts of the Veuve Clicquot cellars (the "crayères") were originally chalk-pits (chalk quarries). The Veuve Clicquot "crayères" are medieval and lie about 55–65 feet underground. Placed end-to-end, they would extend over more than 12 miles. The chalk walls ensure constant temperature (about 48 °F) and humidity for aging wine. At the beginning of the 20th century the house commissioned artist André Navlet to design reliefs on the cellar walls.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: The Veuve Clicquot chalk quarries are located beneath the colline Saint Nicaise and are granted UNESCO World Heritage Site status.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: The first vineyards were owned by Philippe Clicquot near Verzy and Vernezay. The second group of vineyards was the "Bouzy holding" inherited by François Clicquot from his grandmother Muiron in 1804. These two vineyards were enlarged by purchases made by Madame Clicquot. She thus became proprietor of of high-quality vines around Bouzy, Vernezay and Verzy.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: When establishing her own vineyards, she bought only vines on land that would subsequently be classified 100% on the "échelle des crus" (Bouzy, Verzenay and Verzy). When asked about the quality of her wines, she answered: "we have only one quality, the finest". This remains the company's motto.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: When Madame Clicquot took the reins of the company, she spent as much time as possible in the vineyards. Although she was head of the company, she was devoted to the craft of wine making.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Between 1872 and 1873, Alfred Werlé acquired at Le Mesnil and enlarged the Bouzy vineyards by . In a single year, he doubled the vineyard holdings that the company had amassed over a century. Alfred stepped up his acquisition program in 1884, buying a total of . He also bought Duchesse d'Uzès's vineyards to return the vines she had inherited from Madame Clicquot into the company's ownership.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: The policy of extending the Veuve Clicquot vineyards was pursued by Bertrand de Mum. The last acquisitions were 61 acres at Saint-Thierry, purchased between 1967 and 1975.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: The house now owns of vineyards, with an average rating of 71% on the "échelle des crus". Fifty-five percent of Veuve Clicquot's vineyards are categorized as Grand Cru and 40% are Premier Cru. The vineyard is planted with 50% Chardonnay, 45% Pinot Noir and 5% Meunier.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: The company also purchases grapes from 400 different suppliers, some of whom are descendants of the wine growers who sold their harvests to Edouard Werlé.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: The natural sparkle is created by the sugar and yeast present in the grape. The interaction between these two elements creates carbon dioxide with varying quantities of bubbles. In the 19th century, neither sugar nor yeast was added to the finished blend to trigger a second fermentation. There was only one fermentation, and not two, as is practiced in modern champagne making. The result was an unpredictable sparkle, with fermentation sometimes continuing even after the wine had been shipped.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: The yeast dies after digesting all the sugar, leaving sediments in the bottle and making the wine look cloudy. To clarify it, champagne producers traditionally poured the wine from one bottle to another. However, this process was time-consuming and wasteful as it damaged the wine through the constant agitation.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Madame Clicquot studied this issue to find a solution. She is credited with a great breakthrough in champagne handling that made mass production of the wine possible.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Assisted by her cellar master Antoine de Müller, she invented the riddling table ("remuage") in 1816. This technique makes it possible to transform the champagne from a cloudy state to crystal clarity.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Instead of transferring the wine from bottle to bottle, she kept the wine in the same bottle but agitated it gently. The bottles were turned upside down, causing the yeast to collect in the neck.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Composed much like a wooden desk with circular holes, the rack allowed a bottle of wine to be stuck "sur point" or upside down. For six to eight weeks, a cellar assistant would gently shake and twist the bottles ("remuage"), rotating them by a quarter-turn every day, to bring the sediments into the neck through gradual inversion. When this was completed, the cork was carefully removed, the lees extracted and a liqueur (a mixture of still wine and sugar) was added. This technique was perfected to produce a crystal-clear champagne. These methods are still used today, with a few minor improvements.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: The riddling rack rendered the "dégorgement" process both more efficient and economic. Not only did the quality of her champagne improve, but Veuve Clicquot was able to produce it faster, exporting it around the world in large quantities. This was a crucial advantage over her competitors.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Veuve Clicquot is also credited with producing the first known blended rosé champagne in 1818. Ruinart was the first champagne house to sell rosé, tinting champagne with elderberry juice, in 1764. Barbe-Nicole produced rosé champagne by adding still red wine to its sparkling wine. Today, rosé champagne is made by adding pinot noir. This method is still used today to produce rosé champagne.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Different varieties of grapes are picked by hand. Every precaution is taken to ensure the grapes remain intact until pressing. After pressing, the juice is put into fermentation vats. The first fermentation takes place for eight days. Then comes the art of blending. Still white wines are combined with reserve wines.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: When the finished blend is ready, selected yeasts and sugar are added to increase the final alcohol content. This is the second fermentation. The bottles are placed in a cool cellar to ferment slowly to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide, which produces the bubbles. This usually takes four to six weeks. Veuve Clicquot champagnes are aged longer than required by law. They are cellared for at least 30 months, with the brand's vintage champagnes being aged for five to ten years.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: During the riddling process, lees deposit in the neck of the bottle. They are removed during the step of disgorgement. The neck of the bottle is plunged into a refrigerating solution. The sediment is then ejected under pressure when the bottle is opened, with minimum loss of wine and pressure. A mixture of wine, brandy and sugar is added to adjust the sweetness of the wine, making it dry, sweet, etc. The bottles are finally corked, labelled, packed and shipped.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Two hundred years after its creation, the house launched its "La Grande Dame" cuvée in 1972. It is produced from the company's finest Grand Cru vineyards, using two varieties of pinot noir and chardonnay. In 2008, cellar master Dominique Demarville decided to switch from a blend of 60% pinot noir and 40% chardonnay to nearly 100% pinot noir. Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label is a blend of between 50 and 60 different crus, made of pinot noir (50%), meunier (20%) and chardonnay (30%). This champagne is aged for 36 months.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: "Rich" champagne was released in June 2015. At the end of its three years of aging, 60g of sugar are added to give it a very sweet taste. In 2017, Veuve Clicquot released its first ultra-dry champagne, the non-vintage "Extra Brut Extra Old" cuvée. This champagne has a low-sugar dosage, is double-aged and blended exclusively from the house's reserve wines of six different vintages.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: When Philippe Clicquot began producing champagne, he simply sold "champagne wine". There were no labels on the bottles.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: The earliest brand he used dates from 1798. It bears the initials "C.M. & F." as "Clicquot-Muiron et Fils". The initials were set within a design of a marine anchor, as a universal symbol of hope, engraved on the cork. His bottles were sealed with green wax, flecked with gold. This green wax was the sole means by which bottles could be recognized by customers.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: In 1814, Louis Bohne asked Madame Clicquot to "have a pretty ornamental design printed". This was probably one of the first labels used for champagne.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: The green bottle sealing wax was gradually replaced by foil or tinsel wrapped round the cork. In 1895, it was covered with an additional plain, varnished or polished metal cage, bearing the anchor logo and the initials V.C.P. In 1899, white or yellow paper band, depending on the quality of the wine, was added to the neck of the bottle. It took its current form four years later, in 1903.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: The yellow label began appearing on bottles in 1876. The house pasted a yellow label on its bottles to distinguish dry champagne from sweet on the British market. The color of the label was officially trademarked in 1877 and its use was extended to all bottles. The appearance of the yellow label coincided with growing preference for champagne containing less sugar. In 1897, the yellow label was chosen for "brut" champagne.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: The Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award was created in France in 1972 on the occasion of the bicentenary of the house's founding. This award honors successful businesswomen around the world. It is the first and the longest-running international prize dedicated to women entrepreneurs. It has recognized some of the most prolific female business leaders and rewards enterprising spirit, courage, determination and innovation. The prize has now expanded to many other countries including, Great Britain, Australia, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, the United States, Norway and Japan.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Past winners include Françoise Nyssen, Carolyn McCall, Linda Bennett, Anya Hindmarch, Anita Roddick and Zaha Hadid.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: The brand also organizes The Veuve Clicquot New Generation Award, recognizing the success of businesswomen between the ages of 25 and 39. This prize acknowledges entrepreneurship, innovation and corporate social responsibility. Mikaela Jade, founder and CEO of Indigital, was in 2018 the latest winner of the Veuve Clicquot New Generation Award.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Since 2008, Veuve Clicquot has hosted the Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic at the Liberty State Park near New York and the Will Rogers State Historic Park in Los Angeles each year. This annual event is often sold out, attracting more than 5000 spectators to watch world-renowned polo players.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: Veuve Clicquot organizes various events such as the Veuve Clicquot Widow Series and a couple other events such as Clicquot in the snow and Carnaval, taking place in Miami every year since 2012.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: In the decade between 1830 and 1840, the brand was mentioned many times in operettas, vaudeville, variety shows, and reviews.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: In the 1942 film "Casablanca", Captain Renault (played by Claude Rains) recommends Veuve Clicquot to Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt).


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: In Ian Fleming's novel Casino Royale, the champagne is mentioned twice. The first instance is during his baccarat showdown with Le Chiffre, and the second later in the story when he is accompanying Vesper Lind.


title: Veuve Clicquot

text: The brand is also mentioned in songs. On his 2010 album "Rolling Papers", Wiz Khalifa raps, "I'm sippin' Clicquot and rockin' yellow diamonds" in his song "Black and Yellow".


title: Pitch (music)

text: or more commonly, pitch is the quality that makes it possible to judge sounds as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies.


title: Pitch (music)

text: Pitch may be quantified as a frequency, but pitch is not a purely objective physical property; it is a subjective psychoacoustical attribute of sound. Historically, the study of pitch and pitch perception has been a central problem in psychoacoustics, and has been instrumental in forming and testing theories of sound representation, processing, and perception in the auditory system.


title: Pitch (music)

text: Pitch is an auditory sensation in which a listener assigns musical tones to relative positions on a musical scale based primarily on their perception of the frequency of vibration. Pitch is closely related to frequency, but the two are not equivalent. Frequency is an objective, scientific attribute that can be measured. Pitch is each person's "subjective perception" of a sound wave, which cannot be directly measured. However, this does not necessarily mean that most people won't agree on which notes are higher and lower.


title: Pitch (music)

text: The oscillations of sound waves can often be characterized in terms of "frequency". "Pitches" are usually associated with, and thus quantified as, "frequencies" (in cycles per second, or hertz), by comparing the sounds being assessed against sounds with pure tones (ones with periodic, sinusoidal waveforms). Complex and aperiodic sound waves can often be assigned a "pitch" by this method.


title: Pitch (music)

text: According to the American National Standards Institute, pitch is the auditory attribute of sound according to which sounds can be ordered on a scale from low to high. Since pitch is such a close proxy for frequency, it is almost entirely determined by how quickly the sound wave is making the air vibrate and has almost nothing to do with the intensity, or amplitude, of the wave. That is, "high" pitch means very rapid oscillation, and "low" pitch corresponds to slower oscillation. Despite that, the idiom relating vertical height to sound pitch is shared by most languages. At least in English, it is just one of many deep conceptual metaphors that involve up/down. The exact etymological history of the musical sense of high and low pitch is still unclear. There is evidence that humans do actually perceive that the source of a sound is slightly higher or lower in vertical space when the sound frequency is increased or reduced.


title: Pitch (music)

text: In most cases, the pitch of complex sounds such as speech and musical notes corresponds very nearly to the repetition rate of periodic or nearly-periodic sounds, or to the reciprocal of the time interval between repeating similar events in the sound waveform.


title: Pitch (music)

text: The pitch of complex tones can be ambiguous, meaning that two or more different pitches can be perceived, depending upon the observer. When the actual fundamental frequency can be precisely determined through physical measurement, it may differ from the perceived pitch because of overtones, also known as upper partials, harmonic or otherwise. A complex tone composed of two sine waves of 1000 and 1200 Hz may sometimes be heard as up to three pitches: two spectral pitches at 1000 and 1200 Hz, derived from the physical frequencies of the pure tones, and the combination tone at 200 Hz, corresponding to the repetition rate of the waveform. In a situation like this, the percept at 200 Hz is commonly referred to as the missing fundamental, which is often the greatest common divisor of the frequencies present.


title: Pitch (music)

text: Pitch depends to a lesser degree on the sound pressure level (loudness, volume) of the tone, especially at frequencies below 1,000 Hz and above 2,000 Hz. The pitch of lower tones gets lower as sound pressure increases. For instance, a tone of 200 Hz that is very loud seems one semitone lower in pitch than if it is just barely audible. Above 2,000 Hz, the pitch gets higher as the sound gets louder. These results were obtained in the pioneering works by S. Stevens and W. Snow. Later investigations, i.e. by A. Cohen, had shown that in most cases the apparent pitch shifts were not significantly different from pitch‐matching errors. When averaged, the remaining shifts followed the directions of Stevens' curves but were small (2% or less by frequency, i.e. not more than a semitone).


title: Pitch (music)

text: Theories of pitch perception try to explain how the physical sound and specific physiology of the auditory system work together to yield the experience of pitch. In general, pitch perception theories can be divided into place coding and temporal coding. Place theory holds that the perception of pitch is determined by the place of maximum excitation on the basilar membrane.


title: Pitch (music)

text: A place code, taking advantage of the tonotopy in the auditory system, must be in effect for the perception of high frequencies, since neurons have an upper limit on how fast they can phase-lock their action potentials. However, a purely place-based theory cannot account for the accuracy of pitch perception in the low and middle frequency ranges. Moreover, there is some evidence that some non-human primates lack auditory cortex responses to pitch despite having clear tonotopic maps in auditory cortex, showing that tonotopic place codes are not sufficient for pitch responses.


title: Pitch (music)

text: Temporal theories offer an alternative that appeals to the temporal structure of action potentials, mostly the phase-locking and mode-locking of action potentials to frequencies in a stimulus. The precise way this temporal structure helps code for pitch at higher levels is still debated, but the processing seems to be based on an autocorrelation of action potentials in the auditory nerve. However, it has long been noted that a neural mechanism that may accomplish a delay—a necessary operation of a true autocorrelation—has not been found. At least one model shows that a temporal delay is unnecessary to produce an autocorrelation model of pitch perception, appealing to phase shifts between cochlear filters; however, earlier work has shown that certain sounds with a prominent peak in their autocorrelation function do not elicit a corresponding pitch percept, and that certain sounds without a peak in their autocorrelation function nevertheless elicit a pitch. To be a more complete model, autocorrelation must therefore apply to signals that represent the output of the cochlea, as via auditory-nerve interspike-interval histograms. Some theories of pitch perception hold that pitch has inherent octave ambiguities, and therefore is best decomposed into a pitch "chroma", a periodic value around the octave, like the note names in western music—and a pitch "height", which may be ambiguous, that indicates the octave the pitch is in.


title: Pitch (music)

text: The "just-noticeable difference (jnd)" (the threshold at which a change is perceived) depends on the tone's frequency content. Below 500 Hz, the jnd is about 3 Hz for sine waves, and 1 Hz for complex tones; above 1000 Hz, the jnd for sine waves is about 0.6% (about 10 cents).


title: Pitch (music)

text: The jnd is typically tested by playing two tones in quick succession with the listener asked if there was a difference in their pitches. The jnd becomes smaller if the two tones are played simultaneously as the listener is then able to discern beat frequencies. The total number of perceptible pitch steps in the range of human hearing is about 1,400; the total number of notes in the equal-tempered scale, from 16 to 16,000 Hz, is 120.


title: Pitch (music)

text: The relative perception of pitch can be fooled, resulting in "aural illusions". There are several of these, such as the tritone paradox, but most notably the Shepard scale, where a continuous or discrete sequence of specially formed tones can be made to sound as if the sequence continues ascending or descending forever.


title: Pitch (music)

text: Not all musical instruments make notes with a clear pitch. The unpitched percussion instrument (a class of percussion instrument) does not produce particular pitches. A sound or note of definite pitch is one where a listener can possibly (or relatively easily) discern the pitch. Sounds with definite pitch have harmonic frequency spectra or close to harmonic spectra.


title: Pitch (music)

text: A sound generated on any instrument produces many modes of vibration that occur simultaneously. A listener hears numerous frequencies at once. The vibration with the lowest frequency is called the "fundamental frequency"; the other frequencies are "overtones".


title: Pitch (music)

text: "Harmonics" are an important class of overtones with frequencies that are integer multiples of the fundamental. Whether or not the higher frequencies are integer multiples, they are collectively called the partials, referring to the different parts that make up the total spectrum.


title: Pitch (music)

text: A sound or note of indefinite pitch is one that a listener finds impossible or relatively difficult to identify as to pitch. Sounds with indefinite pitch do not have harmonic spectra or have altered harmonic spectra—a characteristic known as inharmonicity.


title: Pitch (music)

text: It is still possible for two sounds of indefinite pitch to clearly be higher or lower than one another. For instance, a snare drum sounds higher pitched than a bass drum though both have indefinite pitch, because its sound contains higher frequencies. In other words, it is possible and often easy to roughly discern the relative pitches of two sounds of indefinite pitch, but sounds of indefinite pitch do not neatly correspond to any specific pitch.


title: Pitch (music)

text: A pitch standard (also concert pitch) is the conventional pitch reference a group of musical instruments are tuned to for a performance. Concert pitch may vary from ensemble to ensemble, and has varied widely over musical history.


title: Pitch (music)

text: Standard pitch is a more widely accepted convention. The A above middle C is usually set at 440 Hz (often written as "A = 440 Hz" or sometimes "A440"), although other frequencies, such as 442 Hz, are also often used as variants. Another standard pitch, the so-called "Baroque pitch", has been set in the 20th century as A = 415 Hz—approximately an equal-tempered semitone lower than A440 to facilitate transposition. The "Classical pitch" can be set to either 427 Hz (about halfway between A415 and A440) or 430 Hz (also between A415 and A440 but slightly sharper than the quarter tone). And ensembles specializing in authentic performance set the A above middle C to 432 Hz or 435 Hz when performing repertoire from the Romantic era.


title: Pitch (music)

text: Transposing instruments have their origin in the variety of pitch standards. In modern times, they conventionally have their parts transposed into different keys from voices and other instruments (and even from each other). As a result, musicians need a way to refer to a particular pitch in an unambiguous manner when talking to each other.


title: Pitch (music)

text: For example, the most common type of clarinet or trumpet, when playing a note written in their part as C, sounds a pitch that is called B on a non-transposing instrument like a violin (which indicates that at one time these wind instruments played at a standard pitch a tone lower than violin pitch). To refer to that pitch unambiguously, a musician calls it "concert B", meaning, "...the pitch that someone playing a non-transposing instrument like a violin calls B."


title: Pitch (music)

text: For example, one might refer to the A above middle C as "a′", "A", or "440 Hz". In standard Western equal temperament, the notion of pitch is insensitive to "spelling": the description "G double sharp" refers to the same pitch as "A"; in other temperaments, these may be distinct pitches.


title: Pitch (music)

text: Human perception of musical intervals is approximately logarithmic with respect to fundamental frequency: the perceived interval between the pitches "A220" and "A440" is the same as the perceived interval between the pitches "A440" and "A880". Motivated by this logarithmic perception, music theorists sometimes represent pitches using a numerical scale based on the logarithm of fundamental frequency. For example, one can adopt the widely used MIDI standard to map fundamental frequency, "f", to a real number, "p", as follows


title: Pitch (music)

text: This creates a linear pitch space in which octaves have size 12, semitones (the distance between adjacent keys on the piano keyboard) have size 1, and A440 is assigned the number 69. (See Frequencies of notes.) Distance in this space corresponds to musical intervals as understood by musicians. An equal-tempered semitone is subdivided into 100 cents. The system is flexible enough to include "microtones" not found on standard piano keyboards. For example, the pitch halfway between C (60) and C (61) can be labeled 60.5.


title: Pitch (music)

text: The following table shows frequencies in Hertz for notes in various octaves, named according to the "German method" of octave nomenclature:


title: Pitch (music)

text: The relative pitches of individual notes in a scale may be determined by one of a number of tuning systems. In the west, the twelve-note chromatic scale is the most common method of organization, with equal temperament now the most widely used method of tuning that scale. In it, the pitch ratio between any two successive notes of the scale is exactly the twelfth root of two (or about 1.05946). In well-tempered systems (as used in the time of Johann Sebastian Bach, for example), different methods of musical tuning were used.


title: Pitch (music)

text: In almost all of these systems interval of the octave doubles the frequency of a note; for example, an octave above A440 is 880 Hz. If however the first overtone is sharp due to inharmonicity, as in the extremes of the piano, tuners resort to octave stretching.


title: Pitch (music)

text: In atonal, twelve tone, or musical set theory a "pitch" is a specific frequency while a pitch class is all the octaves of a frequency. In many analytic discussions of atonal and post-tonal music, pitches are named with integers because of octave and enharmonic equivalency (for example, in a serial system, C and D are considered the same pitch, while C and C are functionally the same, one octave apart).


title: Pitch (music)

text: Discrete pitches, rather than continuously variable pitches, are virtually universal, with exceptions including "tumbling strains" and "indeterminate-pitch chants". Gliding pitches are used in most cultures, but are related to the discrete pitches they reference or embellish.


title: Deanne Bray

text: Deanne Bray (born May 14, 1971) is an American actress. Bray was born deaf and is bilingual in American Sign Language and English. She is best known for her role as Sue Thomas in the show "". She is also known for her recurring role as Emma Coolidge on "Heroes".


title: Deanne Bray

text: Bray was born in Canoga Park, Los Angeles, California and has spent most of her life in southern California. She lived in Seattle for a few years with her mother and attended Washington State School for the Deaf for grade 8 though she was raised mostly by her father in California. Bray's father could do some basic ASL, but her mother chose not to learn any ASL at all. She is married to Troy Kotsur, who is also a deaf actor. Bray is an advocate for improving early childhood education for deaf children and is a spokesperson for Language Equality and Acquisition for Deaf Kids (LEAD-K). On September 8, 2005, she gave birth to daughter Kyra Monique Kotsur.


title: Deanne Bray

text: Bray's parents made certain their daughter was instructed from an early age to speak and write English and learn American Sign Language as well, sending her through a variety of learning programs and centers to strengthen her language skills. A California native, Bray broke into the entertainment industry after she was discovered performing with a deaf dancing group called "Prism West" at a Deaf festival at California State University, Northridge, where she earned a bachelor's degree in Biology. She is pursuing a master's degree in Sign Language Education.


title: Deanne Bray

text: Bray is a co-host with Missy Keast on the DVD "Your Pregnancy: What To Expect" a comprehensive resource for pregnant deaf or hearing challenged women.


title: Influencer marketing

text: Influencer marketing (also known as influence marketing) is a form of social media marketing involving endorsements and product placement from influencers, people and organizations who have a purported expert level of knowledge or social influence in their field. Influencers are someone (or something) with the power to affect the buying habits or quantifiable actions of others by uploading some form of original—often sponsored—content to social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat or other online channels. Influencer marketing is when a brand enrolls influencers who have an established credibility and audience on social media platforms to discuss or mention the brand in a social media post. Influencer content may be framed as testimonial advertising.


title: Influencer marketing

text: Most discussions of social influence focus on social persuasion and compliance. In the context of influencer marketing, influence is less about arguing for a point of view or product than about loose interactions between parties in a community (often with the aim of encouraging purchasing or behavior). Although influence is often equated with advocacy, it may also be negative. The two-step flow of communication model was introduced in "The People's Choice" (Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet's 1940 study of voters' decision-making processes), and developed in "Personal Influence" (Lazarsfeld, Elihu Katz 1955) and "The Effects of Mass Communication" (Joseph Klapper, 1960).


title: Influencer marketing

text: Influencer marketing is also important through social comparison theory. As psychologist Chae reports, influencers serve as a comparison tool. Consumers may compare influencer lifestyles with their imperfections. Meanwhile, followers may view influencers as people with perfect lifestyles, interests, and dressing style. As such, the promoted products may serve as a shortcut towards a complete lifestyle. Chae's study finds women with low self-esteem compare themselves to the influencers. As such, they elevate the status of influencers above themselves. When using an influencer, a brand may use consumer insecurities to its benefits. For this reason, influencer marketing may lead to faulty advertising.


title: Influencer marketing

text: There is a lack of consensus about what an influencer is. One writer defines them as "a range of third parties who exercise influence over the organization and its potential customers." Another defines an influencer as a "third party who significantly shapes the customer's purchasing decision but may never be accountable for it." According to another, influencers are "well-connected, create an impact, have active minds, and are trendsetters". And just because an individual has many followers does not necessarily mean they have much influence over those individuals, only that they have many followers.


title: Influencer marketing

text: Market-research techniques can be used to identify influencers, using predefined criteria to determine the extent and type of influence. "Activists" get involved with organizations such as their communities, political movements, and charities. "Connected influencers" have large social networks. "Authoritative influencers" are trusted by others. "Active minds" have a diverse range of interests. "Trendsetters" are the early adopters (or leavers) of markets. According to Malcolm Gladwell, "The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts". He has identified three types of influencers who are responsible for the "generation, communication and adoption" of messages:


title: Influencer marketing

text: Influencers are categorized by the number of followers they have on social media. They include celebrity endorsements from those with large followings, to niche content creators with a loyal following on social-media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Their followers range in number from hundreds of millions to 1,000. Influencers may be categorized in tiers (mega-, macro-, micro-, and nano-influencers), based on their number of followers.


title: Influencer marketing

text: Businesses pursue people who aim to lessen their consumption of advertisements, and are willing to pay their influencers more. Targeting influencers is seen as increasing marketing's reach, counteracting a growing tendency by prospective customers to ignore marketing.


title: Influencer marketing

text: Marketing researchers Kapitan and Silvera find that influencer selection extends into product personality. This product and benefit matching is key. For a shampoo, it should use an influencer with good hair. Likewise, a flashy product may use bold colors to convey its brand. If an influencer is not flashy, they will clash with the brand. Matching an influencer with the product's purpose and mood is important.


title: Influencer marketing

text: For most business-to-consumer (B2C) campaigns, influencers may include everyday consumers who have influence over their audience. In high-value business-to-business (B2B) transactions, influencers may be diverse and might include consultants, government-backed regulators, financiers, and user communities.


title: Influencer marketing

text: Forrester Research analyst Michael Speyer notes that for small and medium-sized businesses, "IT sales are influenced by several parties, including peers, consultants, bloggers, and technology resellers." According to Speyer, "Vendors need to identify and characterize influencers inside their market. This requires a comprehensive influencer identification program and the establishment of criteria for ranking influencer impact on the decision process." Influencers can play a variety of roles at different times in a decision-making process, an idea developed by Brown and Hayes.


title: Influencer marketing

text: Most influencers are paid before the start of a marketing campaign, and others are paid after it ends. Consensus exists about how much an influencer should be paid. Compensation may vary by how many people an influencer can reach, the extent to which they will endorse the product (a deliverable), and the success of their past endorsements have performed. Top-tier influencers and celebrities may receive a six- or seven-figure fee for a single social-media post. In addition to (or in lieu of) a fee, payment may include free products or services. For influencers with smaller followings, free products or services may be the only form of compensation.


title: Influencer marketing

text: Online activity can play a central role in offline decision-making, allowing consumers to research products. Social media have created new opportunities for marketers to expand their strategy beyond traditional mass-media channels. Many use influencers to increase the reach of their marketing messages. Online influencers who curate personal brands have become marketing assets because of their relationship with their followers. Social-media influencers establish themselves as opinion-leaders with their followers and may have persuasive strengths such as attractiveness, likeability, niche expertise, and perceived good taste. The interactive and personal nature of social media allows parasocial relationships to form between influencers and their followers, which impacts purchase behavior. Influencer marketing on social media reaches consumers who use ad-blockers.


title: Influencer marketing

text: Critics of an online-intensive approach say that by researching exclusively online, consumers can overlook input from other influential individuals. Early-2000s research suggested that 80 to 92 percent of influential consumer exchanges occurred face-to-face with word-of-mouth (WOM), compared to seven to 10 percent in an online environment. Scholars and marketers distinguish WOM from electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM).


title: Influencer marketing

text: YouTuber PewDiePie's antisemitic and racist comments led to cancelled deals with the Walt Disney Company and a "widespread backlash". Celebrity influencer Kendall Jenner and other media personalities failed to disclose their paid endorsements of the fraudulent Fyre Festival, as required by the Federal Trade Commission. YouTuber Logan Paul posted a video containing a dead body in Japan's Suicide Forest, sparking a backlash and accusations of insensitivity.


title: Influencer marketing

text: A wide range of global population, particularly generation Z, has been relying on social media influencers for all sorts of information. With millions of followers on their accounts, including Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and others, influencers have not just been working with brands, but also governments. Countries like Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have been using these influencers to spread a positive image of them and cover the bad press over human rights. In Dubai, many such influencers have been working to promote the city’s tourism by acquiring an expensive license or through agencies. It has become a full-time business in Dubai’s post-oil economy. The Emirati authorities follow rigid plans and strategies to hit the correct spots. A strict check is maintained over the content of the influencers to make sure that everything is being depicted in a positive light. Dubai authorities also restrict these influencers from speaking anything against the regime, religion, or politics. A report in October 2022 revealed that the influencers, who promote a glistening Dubai on their social media, sell sex to pay their lifestyle. These influencers are paid thousands of pounds a night. The amount also depends on the number of followers, where more followers means more money. Apart from cash, these influencers are paid with jewellery, flights, bags, etc. While prostitution is illegal in Dubai, it has always been there. Increase in influencers selling sex was believed to be due to the rise in number of ultra-rich expatriates in the Dubai, including the Russian oligarchs moving to the emirate to escape the US sanctions.


title: Influencer marketing

text: Marketers use influencer marketing to establish credibility in a market, to create social conversations about brands, and to focus on driving online or in-store sales. Marketers leverage credibility gained over time to promote a variety of products or services. Success in influencer marketing is measured through earned media value, impressions, and cost per action.


title: Influencer marketing

text: A social media influencer's personal brand and product relation with marketers are important concepts. As social learning theory suggests, influencers serve as informed consumers, and authenticity matters. When credible influencers match up with the product, consumers will consider the promoted recommendations. A study found that respondents see influencers as a neutral authority pitch for a product. Compared to CEO spokespeople, influencers are more approachable and trustworthy. Consumers are more likely to respond to influencers if both parties share certain characteristics and beliefs.


title: Influencer marketing

text: A 2015 article depicts that attributions drive endorsers and that globally 77% of shoppers would or may take action following what family, friends, and online reviews endorse. It shows that word of mouth marketing and digital media have changed the impact and reach of endorsements.


title: Influencer marketing

text: In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) treats influencer marketing as a form of paid endorsement. It is governed by the rules for native advertising, which include compliance with established truth-in-advertising standards and disclosure by endorsers (influencers) and is known as the Endorsement Guides. The FTC compiled an easy-to-read guide on disclosure for influencers, specifying rules and tips on how to make good disclosures on social media. The guidelines include reminders of disclosing sponsored products in easily visible places so it is hard to miss, using easy-to-understand language, and giving honest reviews about sponsored products.


title: Influencer marketing

text: In 2017, the FTC sent more than 90 educational letters to celebrity and athlete influencers with the reminder of the obligation to clearly disclose business relationships while sponsoring and promoting products. The same year, in response to YouTubers Trevor Martin and Thomas Cassell deceptively endorsing an online gambling site they owned, the FTC took three separate actions to catch the attention of influencers. By using law enforcement, warning letters, and updating the Endorsement Guidelines, the FTC provided influencers with endorsement questions or involved in misleading endorsements and disclosures with clear procedures of how to follow the laws.


title: Influencer marketing

text: Media-regulating bodies in other countries – such as Australia – followed the FTC in creating influencer-marketing guidelines. The United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority adopted similar laws and tips for influencers to follow.


title: Influencer marketing

text: Facebook and Instagram have a set of brand content policies for influencer marketing and endorsements. Branded content may only be posted through Instagram and Facebook, and require the business relationships between influencers and endorsers to be tagged when promoting branded content. The branded tool provided in the business layout of Facebook and Instagram is to be used whenever promoting products and endorsers.


title: Influencer marketing

text: As of August 2020, YouTube has updated the branded content policies. YouTube and Google's ad policies require influencers to check a box titled "paid promotion" when publishing sponsored videos and provides instructions on how to set it up. The policies require disclosure messages for the viewers to indicate that the content is promoted.


title: Influencer marketing

text: Fake influencers have been around for as long as their genuine counterparts, and all criteria used to determine the veracity of an influencer account can be fabricated. Third-party sites and apps sell services to individual accounts which include falsely increasing followers, likes, and comments. Instagram has failed to shut down all such websites. One marketing agency tested whether fake accounts could be profitable. The company created two fictitious accounts, built their online presence through paid followers and engagement (likes and comments), and applied for work in marketing campaigns on popular influencer-marketing platforms. They published their results, an explanation of how the false accounts were created, and which brands had sponsored them.


title: Influencer marketing

text: An analysis of over 7,000 influencers in the UK indicated that about half of their followers have up to 20,000 "low-quality" followers themselves, consisting of internet bots and other suspicious accounts. Over four in 10 engagements with this group of influencers are considered "non-authentic". A study of UK influencers which looked at almost 700,000 posts from the first half of 2018 found that 12 percent of UK influencers had bought fake followers. Twenty-four percent of influencers were found to have abnormal growth patterns in another study, indicating that they had manipulated their likes or followers.


title: Influencer marketing

text: Influencer fraud (including fake followers) was estimated to cost businesses up to $1.3 billion, about 15 percent of global influencermarketing spending. Research in 2019 accounted only for the calculable cost of fake followers.


title: Influencer marketing

text: Virtual influencers are also sometimes considered fake. However, virtual-influencer profiles do not correspond to real individuals and are not automated bots which generate fake likes, comments, or followers. They are virtual characters, intentionally designed by 3D artists to look like real people in real situations. Although most of the characters can be easily identified as computer graphics, some are very realistic and can fool users. The characters are usually identified as models, singers, or other celebrities. Their creators write their biographies, conduct interviews on their behalf, and act like the characters themselves. Lil Miquela was a realistic virtual influencer which prompted curiosity and speculation until it was learned that she was created by advertisers.


title: Influencer marketing

text: A study published in 2022 indicate that over half of Chileans have never purchased products recommended by influencers.


title: Myoclonus

text: Myoclonus is a brief, involuntary, irregular (lacking rhythm) of a muscle or a group of muscles, different from clonus, which is rhythmic or regular. Myoclonus (myo "muscle", clonic "jerk") describes a medical sign and, generally, is not a diagnosis of a disease. These myoclonic twitches, jerks, or seizures are usually caused by sudden muscle contractions ("positive myoclonus") or brief lapses of contraction ("negative myoclonus"). The most common circumstance under which they occur is while falling asleep (hypnic jerk). Myoclonic jerks occur in healthy people and are experienced occasionally by everyone. However, when they appear with more persistence and become more widespread they can be a sign of various neurological disorders. Hiccups are a kind of myoclonic jerk specifically affecting the diaphragm. When a spasm is caused by another person it is known as a "provoked spasm". Shuddering attacks in babies fall in this category.


title: Myoclonus

text: Myoclonic jerks may occur alone or in sequence, in a pattern or without pattern. They may occur infrequently or many times each minute. Most often, myoclonus is one of several signs in a wide variety of nervous system disorders such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, dystonia, cerebral palsy, Alzheimer's disease, Gaucher's disease, subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD), serotonin toxicity, some cases of Huntington's disease, some forms of epilepsy, and occasionally in intracranial hypotension.


title: Myoclonus

text: In almost all instances in which myoclonus is caused by central nervous system disease it is preceded by other symptoms; for instance, in CJD it is generally a late-stage clinical feature that appears after the patient has already started to exhibit gross neurological deficits.


title: Myoclonus

text: Anatomically, myoclonus may originate from lesions of the cortex, subcortex or spinal cord. The presence of myoclonus above the foramen magnum effectively excludes spinal myoclonus; further localisation relies on further investigation with electromyography (EMG) and electroencephalography (EEG).


title: Myoclonus

text: The most common types of myoclonus include action, cortical reflex, essential, palatal, those seen in the progressive myoclonus epilepsies, reticular reflex, sleep and stimulus-sensitive.


title: Myoclonus

text: A very rare form includes the diaphragmatic flutter, the Belly Dancer's Syndrome, or Van Leeuwenhoek's disease. It was first described by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in 1723, who had it. The condition characterizes spoken communication that sounds like a short-breathed hiccup. These muscle spasms can recur dozens of times per day. Rate of diaphragmatic contraction ranges between 35 and 480 contractions per minute, with the average rate found to be 150. Studies show that possible causes include disruptions within the central or peripheral nervous systems, anxiety, nutritional disorder, and certain pharmaceuticals. No single treatment has proven effective, though blocking or crushing of the phrenic nerve can provide instantaneous relief when pharmacologic treatment has proven ineffective.


title: Myoclonus

text: Myoclonic seizure can be described as "jumps" or "jolts" experienced in a single or even the entire body. The feeling experienced by the individual is described as uncontrollable jolts common to receiving a mild electric shock. The sudden jerks and twitching of the body can often be so severe that it can cause a small child to fall.


title: Myoclonus

text: A myoclonic seizure ("myo" "muscle", "clonic" "jerk") is a sudden involuntary contraction of muscle groups. The muscle jerks consist of symmetric, mostly generalized jerks, localized in the arms and in the shoulders and also simultaneously with a head nod; both the arms may fling out together and simultaneously a head nod may occur. Symptoms have some variability amongst subjects. Sometimes the entire body may jerk, just like a startle response. As is the case with all generalised seizures, the patient is not conscious during the event but the seizure is so brief that the person appears to remain fully conscious.


title: Myoclonus

text: In reflex epilepsies, myoclonic seizures can be brought on by flashing lights or other environmental triggers (see photosensitive epilepsy).


title: Myoclonus

text: Familiar examples of normal myoclonus include hiccups and hypnic jerks that some people experience while drifting off to sleep. Severe cases of pathologic myoclonus can distort movement and severely limit a person's ability to sleep, eat, talk, and walk. Myoclonic jerks commonly occur in individuals with epilepsy.


title: Myoclonus

text: Myoclonus in healthy individuals may indicate nothing other than arbitrary muscle contraction. Myoclonus may also develop in response to infection, hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state, head or spinal cord injury, stroke, stress, brain tumors, kidney or liver failure, lipid storage disease, chemical or drug poisoning, as a side effect of certain drugs (such as tramadol, quinolones, benzodiazepine, gabapentin, sertraline, lamotrigine, opioids), or other disorders.


title: Myoclonus

text: Benign myoclonic movements are commonly seen during the induction of general anesthesia with intravenous medications such as etomidate and propofol. These are postulated to result from decreased inhibitory signaling from cranial neurons. Prolonged oxygen deprivation to the brain, hypoxia, may result in posthypoxic myoclonus. People with benign fasciculation syndrome can often experience myoclonic jerking of limbs, fingers and thumbs.


title: Myoclonus

text: Myoclonus can occur by itself, but most often as one of several symptoms associated with a variety of nervous system disorders, including multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, opsoclonus myoclonus, Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, Lyme disease and lupus. Myoclonic jerks commonly occur in persons with epilepsy, a disorder in which the electrical activity in the brain becomes disordered leading to seizures. It is also found in MERRF (Myoclonic Epilepsy with Ragged Red Fibers), a rare mitochondrial encephalomyopathy.


title: Myoclonus

text: Jerks of muscle groups, much of the body, or a series in rapid succession, which results in the person jerking bolt upright from a more relaxed sitting position is sometimes seen in ambulatory patients being treated with high doses of morphine, hydromorphone, and similar drugs, and is possibly a sign of high and/or rapidly increasing serum levels of these drugs. Myoclonic jerks caused by other opioids, such as tramadol and pethidine, may be less benign. Medications unrelated to opioids, such as anticholinergics, are known to cause myoclonic jerks.


title: Myoclonus

text: Most myoclonus is caused by a disturbance of the central nervous system. Some are from peripheral nervous system injury. Studies suggest several locations in the brain are involved in myoclonus. One is in the brainstem, close to structures that are responsible for the startle response, an automatic reaction to an unexpected stimulus involving rapid muscle contraction.


title: Myoclonus

text: The specific mechanisms underlying myoclonus are not yet fully understood. Scientists believe that some types of stimulus-sensitive myoclonus may involve overexcitability of the parts of the brain that control movement. These parts are interconnected in a series of feedback loops called motor pathways. These pathways facilitate and modulate communication between the brain and muscles. Key elements of this communication are chemicals known as neurotransmitters, which carry messages from one nerve cell, or neuron, to another. Neurotransmitters are released by neurons and attach themselves to receptors on parts of neighboring cells. Some neurotransmitters may make the receiving cell more sensitive, while others tend to make the receiving cell less sensitive. Laboratory studies suggest that an imbalance between these chemicals may underlie myoclonus.


title: Myoclonus

text: Some researchers speculate that abnormalities or deficiencies in the receptors for certain neurotransmitters may contribute to some forms of myoclonus. Receptors that appear to be related to myoclonus include those for two important inhibitory neurotransmitters: serotonin, which constricts blood vessels and brings on sleep, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which helps the brain maintain muscle control. Other receptors with links to myoclonus include those for benzodiazepines, drugs that induce sleep, and for glycine, an inhibitory neurotransmitter that is important for the control of motor and sensory functions in the spinal cord. More research is needed to determine how these receptor abnormalities cause or contribute to myoclonus.


title: Myoclonus

text: Concerning more serious conditions, the complex origins of myoclonus may be treated with multiple drugs, which have a limited effect individually, but greater when combined with others that act on different brain pathways or mechanisms. Treatment is most effective when the underlying cause is known, and can be treated as such. Some drugs being studied in different combinations include clonazepam, sodium valproate, piracetam, and primidone. Hormonal therapy may improve responses to antimyoclonic drugs in some people.


title: Myoclonus

text: Some studies have shown that doses of 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) leads to improvement in patients with some types of action myoclonus and PME. These differences in the effect of 5-HTP on patients with myoclonus have not yet been explained.


title: Myoclonus

text: Many of the drugs used for myoclonus, such as barbiturates, phenytoin and primidone, are also used to treat epilepsy. Barbiturates slow down the central nervous system and cause tranquilizing or antiseizure effects. Phenytoin and primidone are effective antiepileptics drugs, although phenytoin can cause liver failure or have other harmful long-term effects in patients with PME. Sodium valproate is an alternative therapy for myoclonus and can be used either alone or in combination with clonazepam. Some people have adverse reactions to clonazepam and/or sodium valproate.


title: Myoclonus

text: When patients are taking multiple medications, the discontinuation of drugs suspected of causing myoclonus and treatment of metabolic derangements may resolve some cases of myoclonus. When pharmacological treatment is indicated anticonvulsants are the main line of treatment. Paradoxical reactions to treatment are notable. Drugs which most people respond to may in other individuals worsen their symptoms. Sometimes this leads to the mistake of increasing the dose, rather than decreasing or stopping the drug. Treatment of myoclonus focuses on medications that may help reduce symptoms. Drugs used include sodium valproate, clonazepam, the anticonvulsant levetiracetam, and piracetam. Dosages of clonazepam usually are increased gradually until the patient improves or side effects become harmful. Drowsiness and loss of coordination are common side effects. The beneficial effects of clonazepam may diminish over time if the patient develops a tolerance to the drug.


title: Myoclonus

text: In forms of myoclonus where only a single area is affected, and even in a few other various forms, Botox injections (OnabotulinumtoxinA) may be helpful. The chemical messenger responsible for triggering the involuntary muscle contractions is blocked by the Botulinum toxins of the Botox.


title: Myoclonus

text: Surgery is also a viable option for treatment if the symptoms are caused by a tumor or lesion in the brain or spinal cord. Surgery may also correct symptoms in those where myoclonus affects parts of the face or ear. While DBS is still being studied for use with myoclonus, Deep Brain Stimulation has also been tried in those with this and other movement disorders.


title: Myoclonus

text: The effects of myoclonus in an individual can vary depending on the form and the overall health of the individual. In severe cases, particularly those indicating an underlying disorder in the brain or nerves, movement can be extremely distorted and limit ability to normally function, such as in eating, talking, and walking. In these cases, treatment that is usually effective, such as clonazepam and sodium valproate, may instead cause adverse reaction to the drug, including increased tolerance and a greater need for increase in dosage. However, the prognosis for more simple forms of myoclonus in otherwise healthy individuals may be neutral, as the disease may cause few to no difficulties. Other times the disease starts simply, in one region of the body, and then spreads.


title: Myoclonus

text: Research on myoclonus is supported through the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). The primary focus of research is on the role of neurotransmitters and receptors involved in the disease. Identifying whether or not abnormalities in these pathways cause myoclonus may help in efforts to develop drug treatments and diagnostic tests. Determining the extent that genetics play in these abnormalities may lead to potential treatments for their reversal, potentially correcting the loss of inhibition while enhancing mechanisms in the body that would compensate for their effects.


title: Myoclonus

text: The word "myoclonus" uses combining forms of "myo-" and "clonus", indicating muscle contraction dysfunction. It is pronounced or . The prevalence of the variants shows division between American English and British English. The variant stressing the "-oc-" syllable is the only pronunciation given in a half dozen major American dictionaries (medical and general). The variant stressing the "-clo-" syllable is given in the British English module of Oxford Dictionaries online but not in the American English module.


title: The Perfection

text: The Perfection is a 2018 American psychological horror thriller film directed by Richard Shepard, from a screenplay by Shepard, Nicole Snyder and Eric C. Charmelo. It stars Allison Williams, Logan Browning, and Steven Weber.


title: The Perfection

text: It had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest on September 20, 2018. It was released on May 24, 2019, by Netflix.


title: The Perfection

text: Charlotte Willmore is a talented young cellist who was forced to leave Bachoff, a prestigious music school in Boston, to care for her terminally ill mother. After her mother's death years later, Charlotte reaches out to Anton, the head of the academy, and travels to Shanghai to join him, his wife Paloma, and teachers Geoffrey and Theis in selecting a new student. Charlotte befriends Lizzie, Anton's star pupil who replaced Charlotte at Bachoff. After a night of clubbing, they return to Lizzie's hotel room and have sex.


title: The Perfection

text: When Lizzie awakens with a hangover, Charlotte offers her some ibuprofen, which she takes with a shot of alcohol, and joins her on a trip through rural China. Boarding a bus after eating at a street food stall, Lizzie begins to feel progressively ill and takes more of Charlotte's ibuprofen. As her condition worsens, she throws up maggots and spirals into a panic, frightening the other passengers until the driver ejects her and Charlotte from the bus, stranding them in the countryside. Increasingly ill and paranoid, Lizzie sees bugs crawling inside her arm and eventually bursting out of her skin before Charlotte offers her a meat cleaver, and Lizzie hacks off her infected right hand.