title: Kola Peninsula

text: The average temperature in January is about , with lower temperatures typical in the central parts of the peninsula. The average temperature in July is about . Record lows reach in the central parts and on the coasts. Record highs exceed almost on all the territory of the peninsula. First frosts occur as early as August and may last through May and even June.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: Most areas of the Kola Peninsula are subarctic climate (Köppen climate classification: "Dfc"). The nearby islands usually belong to tundra (Köppen climate classification: "ET").


title: Kola Peninsula

text: The peninsula is covered by taiga in the south and tundra in the north. In the tundra, cold and windy conditions and permafrost limit the growth of the trees, resulting in a landscape dominated by grasses, wildflowers, and shrubs such as dwarf birch and cloudberry. In northern coastal areas, stony and shrub lichens are common. The taiga in the southern areas is composed mostly of pine trees and spruces.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: Reindeer herds visit the grasslands in summer. Other animals include red and Arctic foxes, wolverines, moose, otters, and lynx in the southern areas. American minks, which were released near the Olenitsa River in 1935–1936, are now common throughout the peninsula and are commercially hunted. Beavers, which became endangered by 1880, were re-introduced in 1934–1957. All in all, thirty-two species of mammals and up to two hundred bird species inhabit the peninsula.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: Beluga whales are the only cetacean being common around the peninsula. Other dolphins, including Atlantic white-sided dolphins, white-beaked dolphins, and harbor porpoises, as well as large whales, such as bowhead, humpback, blue, and finback, also visit the area.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: The coasts of the Kandalaksha Gulf and the Barents Sea are important breeding grounds for bearded seals and ringed seals. The Barents Sea is one of the only places the rare Gray seals can be found. Greenland seals, or harp seals, also can be seen from time to time.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: Twenty-nine species of fresh water fish are recognized on the territory of peninsula, including trout, stickleback, northern pike, and European perch. The rivers are an important habitat for the Atlantic salmon, which return from Greenland and the Faroe Islands to spawn in fresh water. As a result of this, a recreational fishery has been developed, with a number of remote lodges and camps available to host sport-fishermen. The Kandalaksha Nature Reserve, established in 1932 to protect the population of common eider, is organized in thirteen clusters located in the Kandalaksha Gulf of the Kola Peninsula and along the coasts of the Barents Sea.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: The Kola Peninsula has many small but fast-moving rivers with rapids. The most important of them are the Ponoy, the Varzuga, the Umba, the Teriberka, the Voronya, and the Yokanga. Most rivers originate from lakes and swamps and collect their waters from melting snow. The rivers become icebound during the winter, although the areas with strong rapids freeze later or not at all.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: Major lakes include Imandra, Umbozero, and Lovozero. There are no lakes with an area smaller than . Recreational fishery is developed in the region.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: The Kola Peninsula as a whole suffered major ecological damage, mostly as a result of pollution from the military (particularly naval) production, industrial mining of apatite, and military nuclear waste. About 137 active and 140 decommissioned or idle naval nuclear reactors, produced by the Soviet military, remain on the peninsula. For thirty years, nuclear waste had been dumped into the sea by the Northern Fleet and Murmansk Shipping Company. There is also evidence of contamination from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, with contaminants being found in the flesh of reindeer and other animals, and from the 1972 and 1984 controlled nuclear explosions northwest of Kirovsk. Additionally, several nuclear weapons test ranges and radioactive waste storage facilities exist on the peninsula.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: The main industrial pollution source is Norilsk Nickel in Monchegorsk—the large smelters responsible for over 80% of the sulfur dioxide emissions and for nearly all nickel and copper emissions. Since 1998, SO emissions in the area have dropped by almost 60%, from 88.3 thousand tonnes to 37.3 thousand tonnes in 2016, according to Norilsk Nickel. Based on its new ‘Sulphur programme 2.0', Norilsk Nickel has set itself staged targets in cutting down sulphur dioxide emissions, which can have negative health and environmental effects. The ultimate aim is a 95% reduction (compared to 2015) in SO2 by 2030 for its Polar Division on the Taimyr peninsula, which includes its Nadezhda smelter and Copper plant, partly through a SO2 capture solution. Other polluters of note include the thermal power stations in Apatity and Murmansk.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: The Rybachy Peninsula in the north of the Kola Peninsula was already settled in the 7th–5th millennium BCE. In the 3rd–2nd millennium BCE, the peninsula was settled by the peoples who arrived there from the south (the territory of modern Karelia). Bolshoy Oleny Island in the Kola Bay of the Barents Sea is the location of an important Bronze Age archaeological site where ancient DNA has been recovered.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: By the end of the 1st millennium CE, the peninsula was settled only by the Sami people, who did not have their own state, lived in clans ruled by elders, and were engaged mostly in reindeer herding and fishing. In the 12th century, Russian Pomors from the shores of the Onega Bay and in the lower reaches of the Northern Dvina discovered the peninsula and its game and fish riches. The Pomors organized regular hunting and fishing visits and started barter trade with the Sami. They also called the White Sea coast of the peninsula Tersky Coast () or Terskaya Land ().


title: Kola Peninsula

text: By the end of the 12th century, the Pomors explored all of the northern coast of the peninsula and reached Finnmark (an area in the north of Norway), necessitating the Norwegians to support a naval guard in that area. The name given by the Pomors to the northern coast was "Murman"—a distorted form of "Norman" meaning "Norwegian".


title: Kola Peninsula

text: Pomors were soon followed by tribute collectors from the Novgorod Republic, and the Kola Peninsula gradually became a part of the Novgorodian lands. A 1265 treaty of Yaroslav Yaroslavich with Novgorod mentions Tre Volost (), which is later also mentioned in other documents dated as late as 1471. In addition to Tre, Novgorodian documents of the 13th–15th centuries also mention Kolo Volost, which bordered Tre approximately along the line between Kildin Island and Turiy Headland of the Turiy Peninsula. Kolo Volost lay to the west of that line, while Tre was situated to the east of it.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: By the 13th century, a need to formalize the border between the Novgorod Republic and the Scandinavian countries became evident. The Novgorodians, along with the Karelians who came from the south, reached the coast of what now is Pechengsky District and the portion of the coast of Varangerfjord near the Jacob's River, which now is a part of Norway. The Sami population was forced to pay tribute. The Norwegians were also attempting to take control of these lands, resulting in armed conflicts. In 1251, a conflict between the Karelians, Novgorodians and the servants of the king of Norway led to the establishment of a Novgorodian mission in Norway. Also in 1251, the first treaty with Norway was signed in Novgorod regarding the Sami lands and the system of tribute collections, making the Sami people pay tribute to both Novgorod and Norway. By the terms of the treaty, Novgorodians could collect tribute from the Sami as far as Lyngen fjord in the west, while Norwegians could collect tribute on the territory of the whole Kola Peninsula except in the eastern part of Tersky Coast. No state borders were established by the 1251 treaty.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: The treaty led to a short period of peace, but the armed conflicts resumed soon thereafter. Chronicles document attacks by the Novgorodians and the Karelians on Finnmark and northern Norway as early as 1271, and continuing well into the 14th century. The official border between the Novgorod lands and the lands of Sweden and Norway was established by the Treaty of Nöteborg on August 12, 1323. The treaty primarily focused on the Karelian Isthmus border and the border north of Lake Ladoga.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: Another treaty dealing the matters of the northern borders was the Treaty of Novgorod signed with Norway in 1326, which ended the decades of the Norwegian-Novgorodian border skirmishes in Finnmark. Per the terms of this treaty, Norway relinquished all claims to the Kola Peninsula. The treaty did not address the situation with the Sami people paying tribute to both Norway and Novgorod, and the practice continued until 1602. While the 1326 treaty did not define the border in detail, it confirmed the 1323 border demarcation, which remained more or less unchanged for the next six hundred years, until 1920.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: In the 15th century, Novgorodians started to establish permanent settlements on the peninsula. Umba and Varzuga, the first documented permanent settlements of the Novgorodians, date back to 1466. Over time, all coastal areas to the west of the Pyalitsa River had been settled, creating a territory where the population was mostly Novgorodian. Administratively, this territory was divided into Varzuzhskaya and Umbskaya Volosts, which were governed by a posadnik from the area of the Northern Dvina. The Novgorod Republic lost control of both of these "volosts" to the Grand Duchy of Moscow after the Battle of Shelon in 1471, and the republic itself ceased to exist in 1478 when Ivan III took the city of Novgorod. All Novgorod territories, including those on the Kola Peninsula, became a part of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: The Novgorod Republic lost control of the peninsula to the Grand Duchy of Moscow in 1471, but the Russian migration did not stop. Several new settlements were established during the 16th century, and the Sami and Pomor people were forced into serfdom. In the second half of the 16th century, the peninsula became a subject of dispute between the Tsardom of Russia and the Kingdom of Denmark–Norway, which resulted in the strengthening of the Russian position. By the end of the 19th century, the indigenous Sami population had been mostly forced north by the Russians as well as by newly arriving Izhma Komi and Kominized Nenets (so-called Yaran people), who migrated here to escape a reindeer disease epidemic in their home lands in the southeast of the White Sea. The original administrative and economic center of the area was Kola, situated at the estuary of the Kola River into the Kola Bay. In 1916, Romanov-na-Murmane (now Murmansk) was founded and quickly became the largest city and port on the peninsula.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: Russian migration to the peninsula continued into the 16th century, when new settlements such as Kandalaksha and Porya-Guba were established. Kola was first mentioned in 1565. In the end of the 15th century, the Pomors and the Sami people were forced into serfdom, mostly by the monasteries. Monastery "votchinas" greatly expanded during the 17th century, but were abolished in 1764, when all of the Kola Peninsula peasants became state peasants.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: In the second half of the 16th century, King Frederick II of Denmark–Norway demanded that the Tsardom of Russia cede the peninsula. Russia declined, and in order to organize adequate defenses established the position of a "voyevoda". The "voyevoda" sat in Kola, which became the administrative center of the region. Prior to that, the administrative duties were performed by the tax collectors from Kandalaksha. Newly established Kolsky Uyezd covered most of the territory of the peninsula (with the exception of Varzuzhskaya and Umbskaya Volosts, which were a part of Dvinsky Uyezd), as well as the northern part of Karelia all the way to Lendery.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: Despite the economic activity, permanent settlement of the peninsula did not intensify until the 1860s and even then it remained sporadic until 1917. The population of Kola in 1880, for example, was only around 500 inhabitants living in 80 households, compared to 1,900 inhabitants in 300 households living there in 1582. Transportation facilities were virtually non-existent and the communication with the rest of Russia irregular. 1887 saw an influx of Izhma Komi and Nenets people who were migrating to the peninsula to escape a reindeer disease epidemic in their home lands and brought their large deer herds with them, resulting in increased competition for the grazing lands, a conflict between the Komi and the Sami, and in marginalization of the local Sami population. By the end of the 19th century, the Sami population had mostly been forced north, with ethnic Russians settling in the south of the peninsula.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: In 1894, the peninsula was visited by the Russian Minister of Finance, who became convinced of the region's economic potential. Consequently, in 1896 a telephone and a telegraph line were extended to Kola, improving the communication with the mainland. A possibility of building a railway was also considered, but no action was taken at the time. Also in 1896, Alexandrovsk (now Polyarny) was founded, and grew in size so rapidly that it was granted town status in 1899; Kolsky Uyezd was renamed Alexandrovsky on that occasion.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: During World War I, the still poorly developed peninsula suddenly found itself in a strategic position, as the communication between Russia and the Allies was cut and the ice-free harbors of the Murman Coast remained the only means of sending the war supplies to the Eastern Front. In March 1915, the construction of the railroad was rushed, and the railroad was quickly opened in 1916, even though it was only partially completed and poorly built. In 1916, Romanov-na-Murmane (modern Murmansk) was founded as the terminal point of the new railroad; the town quickly grew to become the largest one on the peninsula.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: Soviet power was established on the territory of the peninsula on , 1917, but the territory was occupied by the forces of Russia's pre-war allies in March 1918–March 1920. Alexandrovsky Uyezd was transformed into Murmansk Governorate by the Soviet government in June 1921. On August 1, 1927, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) issued two Resolutions: "On the Establishment of Leningrad Oblast" and "On the Borders and Composition of the Okrugs of Leningrad Oblast", according to which Murmansk Governorate was transformed into Murmansk Okrug (which was divided into six districts) and included into Leningrad Oblast. This arrangement existed until May 28, 1938, when the okrug was separated from Leningrad Oblast, merged with Kandalakshsky District of the Karelian ASSR, and transformed into modern Murmansk Oblast.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: All in all, the Soviet period saw a significant increase in population (799,000 in 1970 vs. 15,000 in 1913), although most of the population remained concentrated in the urban localities along the railroads and the sea coast. Most of the sparsely populated territories outside the urbanized areas were used for deer herding. In 1920–1940, the town of Kirovsk and several work settlements were established on the peninsula.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: The Sami peoples were subject to forced collectivization, with more than half of their reindeer herds collectivized in 1928–1930. In addition, the traditional Sami herding practices were phased out in favor of the more economically profitable Komi approach, which emphasized permanent settlements over free herding. Since the Sami culture is strongly tied to the herding practices, this resulted in the Sami people gradually losing their language and traditional herding knowledge. Most Sami were forced to settle in the village of Lovozero, which became the cultural center of the Sami people in Russia. Those Sami resisting the collectivization were subject to forced labor or death. Various forms of repression against the Sami continued until Stalin's death in 1953. In the 1990s, 40% of the Sami lived in urbanized areas, although some herd reindeer across much of the region.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: The Sami were not the only people subject to repressions. Thousands of people were sent to Kola in the 1930s–1950s, and in 2007 over two thousand people—descendants of those forcibly sent there—still live on the peninsula. A significant portion of the people deported to Kola were peasants from southern Russia subjected to dekulakization. Prisoner labor was often used when building new factories and for manning those which were operational: in 1940, for example, the whole Severonikel Metallurgy Mining Complex was turned over to the NKVD system.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: Until the 1800s, the Kola Peninsula was extremely sparsely populated, with only 5,200 inhabitants in 1858. In 1868 the Russian government created incentives for settlement and not only Russians but also Finns, Norwegians and Karelians moved to the peninsula. By the 1897 census 9,291 people were counted in the Kola uyezd; 63% Russian, 19% Sami, 11% Finnish and 3% Karelian.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: By 1913 about 13,000–15,000 people lived in the peninsula, mostly along the shores. However, the discovery of the vast natural resource deposits and industrialization efforts led to an explosive population growth during the Soviet times. By 1970, the population of the peninsula was around 799,000. The trend reverted in the 1990s, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The population of the whole Murmansk Oblast went down from 1,150,000 in 1989 to 890,000 in 2002 to 795,000 in 2010.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: As of the 2010 Census, the population consisted mostly of Russians (89.0%), Ukrainians (4.8%), and Belarusians (1.7%). Other groups of note include Komi (~1,600 inhabitants), Sami (~1,600), and Karelians (~1,400). The indigenous Sami people are mostly concentrated in Lovozersky District.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: During the 15th–16th centuries, the main occupations of the Tersky Coast population were Atlantic salmon fishing, seal hunting, and the extraction of salt from the sea water. The salt extraction in Kandalaksha and Kola was mostly carried out by the monasteries in Pechenga and Solovki, and for a long time remained the only "industry" on the peninsula.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: By the mid-16th century, Atlantic cod fishing developed on the Murman Coast in the north. The 1560s saw a rapid growth of international trade, with the Russian merchants from different regions of the country arriving to the peninsula to trade with the merchants from Western Europe. In 1585 the trade was moved to Archangel, although the settlement of Kola was still permitted to trade locally produced goods.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: During the 17th century, the salt extraction activities gradually went into decline as the locally produced salt was uncompetitive with cheap salt produced in the Kama River regions. Extensive poaching also led to the significantly reduced outputs from pearl hunting. Commercial deer herding became more popular, although its share in the economy remained negligible until the 19th century. By the end of the 17th century, the practice of seasonal fishing and hunting settlements in the north of the peninsula became very common.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: Peter the Great, recognizing the political and economical importance of the peninsula, promoted its industries and commerce. The region fell into neglect after St. Petersburg was founded in 1703 and most of the shipping trade shifted there. In 1732, large deposits of silver in native form were discovered on Medvezhy Island in the Kandalaksha Gulf and copper, silver, and gold deposits were found in the lower reaches of the Ponoy River. Despite the efforts ongoing for the next two centuries, there was no commercial success. At the end of the 18th century, the local population learned the practice of peat production from the Norwegians and started using peat for heating. Timber cutting industry developed in the region at the end of the 19th century; mostly in Kovda and Umba.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: The Soviet era saw drastic industrialization and militarization of the peninsula. In 1925–1926, significant deposits of apatite were discovered in the Khibiny Mountains, and the first apatite batch was shipped only a few years later, in 1929. In 1930, sulfide deposits were discovered in the Moncha area; in 1932–1933 iron ore deposits were found near the upper streams of the Iona River; in 1935, significant deposits of titanium ores were discovered in the area of modern Afrikanda.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: The collectivization efforts in the 1930s led to the concentration of the reindeer herds in kolkhozes (collective farms), which in turn were further consolidated into a few large-scale state farms in the late 1950s–early 1970s. By the mid-1970s, the state farms were further consolidated into just two, based in Lovozero and Krasnoshchelye. The consolidations were rationalized by the necessity to isolate the herders from the military installations, as well as by the need to flood some territories to construct hydroelectric plants.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: Fishing, being the traditional industry of the region, was always considered important although the volumes of production remained insignificant until the beginning of the 20th century. In the 1920s–1930s, the Murmansk Trawl Fleet was created and the fishing infrastructure started to develop intensively. By 1940, fishing accounted for 40% of the oblast's and for 80% of Murmansk's economy.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: During the Cold War, the peninsula served as the naval basing area for a large portion of the Soviet naval and air strategic forces, providing protection from and posing a threat to northern Norway.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: Border tensions between Norway and the Soviets were dramatized in the premiere of "The Sandbaggers". Norwegian concerns about Russian troops in the Kola peninsula persisted into the 1990s, after the fall of the Iron Curtain.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: After the economic slump of the 1990s, the economy of the oblast started to rebound during the first decade of the 2000s, although at a rate below the country's average. Today the Kola Peninsula is the most industrially developed and urbanized region in northern Russia. The major port of the peninsula is Murmansk, which serves as the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast and does not freeze in winter. Although the strategic importance of the Kola Peninsula has diminished since the Cold War, the peninsula nevertheless still has the highest concentration of nuclear weapons, reactors, and facilities in Russia, with the number of nuclear reactors alone exceeding any other region of the world.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: Mining is the basis of the oblast's economy, and mining enterprises remain the principal employers in such monotowns as Apatity, Kirovsk, Zapolyarny, Nikel, and Monchegorsk. The Kola Mining and Metallurgical Company, a division of Norilsk Nickel, conducts nickel-, copper-, and platinum-group-metals-mining operations on the peninsula. Other large mining companies include OAO Apatit, which is the largest producer of phosphates in Europe; OAO Olcon, one of the leading producers of iron ore concentrates in Russia; and OAO Kovdorsky GOK, an ore-mining and processing enterprise.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: The fishing industry, although still operating significantly below the Soviet level of production, remains profitable, supplying 20% of Russia's fish in 2006 and with the volume steadily growing in 2007–2010. Murmansk is a key base for three fishing fleets, including Russia's largest, the Murmansk Trawl Fleet. Fish breeding, especially of salmon and trout, is a growing industry.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: The energy sector is represented by the Kola Nuclear Power Plant near Polyarnye Zori, which produces about half of all energy, and a network of seventeen hydroelectric and two thermal power stations, generating the other half. The energy surplus, accounting for about 20% of the total generated energy, is transferred to the unified energy system of Russia, as well as exported to Norway and Finland via the NORDEL system.


title: Kola Peninsula

text: With the economy of the oblast being mostly export-oriented, transportation plays an important role and accounts for 11% of the Gross Regional Product. On the Kola Peninsula, the transportation network includes ship transport, air transport, automotive transport, electrified public transport, and access to the railways mostly passing through the rest of Murmansk Oblast. The city of Murmansk is an important port on the Northern Sea Route. The largest airports are the Murmansk Airport, which handles international flights to Scandinavian countries, and the joint military-civilian Kirovsk-Apatity Airport located southeast of Apatity.


title: Kartvelian languages

text: The Kartvelian languages (; ; also known as South Caucasian, Kartvelic, and Iberian languages) are a language family indigenous to the South Caucasus and spoken primarily in Georgia. There are approximately 5.2 million Kartvelian speakers worldwide, with large groups in Russia, Iran, the United States, the European Union, Israel, and northeastern Turkey. The Kartvelian family has no known relation to any other language family, making it one of the world's primary language families.


title: Kartvelian languages

text: The most widely spoken of these languages is Georgian. The earliest literary source in any Kartvelian language is the Old Georgian Bir el Qutt inscriptions, written in ancient Georgian "Asomtavruli" script at the once-existing Georgian monastery near Bethlehem, dated to c. 430 AD. The Georgian script is used to write all Kartvelian languages.


title: Kartvelian languages

text: Georgian is the official language of Georgia (spoken by 90% of the population) and the main language for literary and business use in Georgia. It is written with an original and distinctive alphabet, and the oldest surviving literary text dates from the 5th century AD. The old Georgian script seems to have been derived from the Greek script, but this is not certain.


title: Kartvelian languages

text: Mingrelian has been written with the Georgian alphabet since 1864, especially in the period from 1930 to 1938, when the Mingrelians enjoyed some cultural autonomy, and after 1989.


title: Kartvelian languages

text: The Laz language was written mainly between 1927 and 1937, and now again in Turkey using the Latin alphabet. Laz, however, is disappearing as its speakers are integrating into mainstream Turkish society.


title: Kartvelian languages

text: The connection between these languages was first reported in linguistic literature by Johann Anton Güldenstädt in his 1773 classification of the languages of the Caucasus, and later proven by G. Rosen, Marie-Félicité Brosset, Franz Bopp and others during the 1840s. Zan is the branch that contains the Mingrelian and Laz languages.


title: Kartvelian languages

text: On the basis of glottochronological analysis, Georgi Klimov dates the split of the Proto-Kartvelian into Svan and Proto-Georgian-Zan (Proto-Karto-Zan) to the 19th century BC, and the further division into Georgian and Zan to the 8th century BC, although with the reservation that such dating is very preliminary and substantial further study is required.


title: Kartvelian languages

text: No relationship with other languages, including the two North Caucasian language families, has been demonstrated so far. According to the Nostratic hypothesis, advocated by Illič-Svityč and his


title: Kartvelian languages

text: Semito-Hamitic and Kartvelian go back to a common proto-language and are thus genetically related. Note however that both the concept of a Nostratic family and Kartvelian's relation to it are not considered likely by other linguists.


title: Kartvelian languages

text: Certain grammatical similarities with Basque, especially in the case system, have often been pointed out. However, the hypothesis of a relationship, which also tends to link the Caucasian languages with other non-Indo-European and non-Semitic languages of the Near East of ancient times, is generally considered to lack conclusive evidence. Any similarities to other linguistic phyla may be due to areal influences. Heavy borrowing in both directions (i.e. from North Caucasian to Kartvelian and vice versa) has been observed; therefore, it is likely that certain grammatical features have been influenced as well. If the Dené–Caucasian hypothesis, which attempts to link Basque, Burushaski, the North Caucasian families and other phyla, is correct, then the similarities to Basque may also be due to these influences, however indirect. Certain Kartvelian–Indo-European lexical links are revealed at the protolanguage level, which are ascribed to the early contacts between Proto-Kartvelian and Proto-Indo-European populations.


title: Kartvelian languages

text: The Kartvelian languages have grammatical gender based on animacy, classifying objects as "intelligent" ("who"-class) and "unintelligent" ("what"-class) beings.


title: Kartvelian languages

text: Kartvelian verbs can indicate one, two, or three grammatical persons. A performer of an action is called the subject and affected persons are objects (direct or indirect). The person may be singular or plural. According to the number of persons, the verbs are classified as unipersonal, bipersonal or tripersonal.


title: Kartvelian languages

text: By means of special markers Kartvelian verbs can indicate four kinds of action intentionality ("version"):


title: Kartvelian languages

text: Subject, direct object and indirect object are coded by the three core-cases, namely ergative, nominative and dative. Although the term "ergative" is traditional, strictly speaking no Kartvelian language features ergative alignment. Rather, they display a mixture of nominative-accusative and active alignment, depending on two factors:


title: Kartvelian languages

text: Georgian and Svan have accusative alignment in the Present series (often termed Series I) and active alignment in the Aorist series (Series II).


title: Kartvelian languages

text: Laz has extended the case marking of Series II to Series I, thus featuring active alignment regardless of tense.


title: Kartvelian languages

text: Mingrelian, on the other hand, has extended the use of the ergative to all intransitive verbs, becoming fully accusative in all series, although with different case marking.


title: DJ Pooh

text: Mark Jordan (born June 29, 1969), better known by his stage name DJ Pooh, is an American record producer, rapper, actor, voice actor, screenwriter and film director who has produced albums for many rappers such as Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, and 2Pac.


title: DJ Pooh

text: Most known for his acting role as "Red" in the first "Friday" movie with Ice Cube, DJ Pooh co-wrote "Friday" and helped with character development. As a legendary record producer and mixing engineer, DJ Pooh has produced albums for 2Pac, Ice Cube, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, LL Cool J, Yo-Yo, Tha Dogg Pound, King T and many more. In 1986–1987, DJ Pooh provided production for LL Cool J's second album, "Bigger and Deffer". The album was certified double-platinum. He also produced 2Pac's "All Eyez on Me" in 1995. The album is certified diamond. He provided the bulk of the production for Snoop Dogg's second album, "Tha Doggfather", in 1996. The album is certified double-platinum. DJ Pooh began in film by producing the drive-by shooting sequence in the 1991 film, "Boyz n the Hood". He plays all three "Mack" characters in the video for the Ice Cube song "Who's the Mack?" from "AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted". He has also written, produced and directed his own films, which include the 2000 film "3 Strikes" and 2001's "The Wash", which stars Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. DJ Pooh has been credited as co-producer and writer to the successful game "". He was a creative consultant on "Grand Theft Auto V" and is also a co-writer of the online version, making several cameo appearances, in addition to being a DJ on the radio station "West Coast Classics" within the game. DJ Pooh also appeared in 3 episodes of "The Boondocks".


title: Algonquin people

text: The Algonquin people are an Indigenous people who now live in Eastern Canada. They speak the Algonquin language, which is part of the Algonquian language family. Culturally and linguistically, they are closely related to the Odawa, Potawatomi, Ojibwe (including Oji-Cree), Mississauga and Nipissing, with whom they form the larger Anicinàpe (Anishinaabeg). Algonquins call themselves Omàmiwinini (plural: Omàmiwininiwak) or the more generalised name of Anicinàpe.


title: Algonquin people

text: Though known by several names in the past, such as "Algoumequin", the most common term "Algonquin" has been suggested to derive from the Maliseet word (): "they are our relatives/allies." The much larger heterogeneous group of Algonquian-speaking peoples, who, according to Brian Conwell, stretch from Virginia to the Rocky Mountains and north to Hudson Bay, was named after the tribe.


title: Algonquin people

text: Most Algonquins live in Quebec. The nine recognized status Algonquin bands in that province and one in Ontario have a combined population of about 17,002. In addition, there are additional non-status communities, some of which are controversial. Algonquins are original Indigenous People of southern Quebec and eastern Ontario in Canada.


title: Algonquin people

text: Many Algonquins still speak the Algonquin language, called generally or specifically . The language is considered one of several divergent dialects of the Anishinaabe languages. Among younger speakers, the Algonquin language has experienced strong word borrowings from the Cree language.


title: Algonquin people

text: Traditionally, the Algonquins lived in either birch bark or wooden "mìkiwàms". Today Algonquins live in housings like those of the general public.


title: Algonquin people

text: Traditionally, the Algonquins were practitioners of "Midewiwin" (the Path of the Heart). They believed they were surrounded by many "manitòk" or spirits in the natural world. French missionaries converted many Algonquins to Catholicism in the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, many Algonquin practice traditional "Midewiwin" or a syncretic merging of Christianity and Midewiwin.


title: Algonquin people

text: In the oral history of the Great Anishinaabeg Migration, the Algonquins say they migrated from the Atlantic coast. Together with other "Anicinàpek", they arrived at the "First Stopping Place" near Montreal. While the other "Anicinàpe" peoples continued their journey up the St. Lawrence River, the Algonquins settled along "Kitcisìpi" (the Ottawa River), a long-important highway for commerce, cultural exchange and transportation. Algonquin identity, though, was not fully realized until after the dividing of the Anicinàpek at the "Third Stopping Place". Scholars have used the oral histories, archeology, and linguistics to estimate this took place about 2000 years ago, near present-day Detroit.


title: Algonquin people

text: After contact with the Europeans, especially the French and Dutch, the Algonquin nations became active in the fur trade. This led them to fight against the powerful Iroquois, whose confederacy was based in present-day New York. In 1570, the Algonquins formed an alliance with the Innu (Montagnais) to the east, whose territory extended to the ocean. Culturally, Omàmìwininì (Algonquin) and the Michi Saagiig (Mississaugas) were not part of the Ojibwe–Odawa–Potawatomi alliance known as the Council of Three Fires, though they did maintain close ties. Omàmìwininìwak (Algonquins) maintained stronger cultural ties with the Wendat, Abenaki, Atikamekw and Cree, along with the Innu (Montagnais), as related above.


title: Algonquin people

text: Algonquin first met Europeans when Samuel de Champlain came upon a party led by the Chief Tessouat at Tadoussac, in eastern present-day Quebec, in the summer of 1603. They were celebrating a recent victory over the Iroquois, with the allied Montagnais and Etchemins (Malecite). Champlain did not understand that Algonquins were socially united by a strong totem/clan system rather than the European-styled political concept of nationhood. The several Algonquin bands each had its own chief. Within each band, the chief depended on political approval from each of the band's clan leaders. Champlain needed to cultivate relationships with numerous chiefs and clan leaders. From 1603, some of the Algonquins allied with the French under Champlain. This alliance proved useful to the Algonquin, who previously had little to no access to European firearms.


title: Algonquin people

text: Champlain made his first exploration of the Ottawa River during May 1613 and reached the fortified village at Morrison Island. Unlike the other Algonquin communities, the did not change location with the seasons. They had chosen a strategic point astride the trade route between the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. They prospered through the collection of beaver pelts from Indigenous traders passing through their territory. They also were proud of their corn fields.


title: Algonquin people

text: At first, the French used the term "Algonquin" only for a second group, the "Wàwàckeciriniwak". However, by 1615, they applied the name to all of the Algonquin bands living along the Ottawa River. Because of keen interest by tribes to gain control of the lower Ottawa River, the and the came under fierce opposition. These two large groups allied together, under the leadership of "Sachem" (Carolus) Charles Pachirini, to maintain the identity and territory.


title: Algonquin people

text: The Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee) drove Algonquins from their lands. The Haudenosaunee were aided by having been traded arms by the Dutch, and later by the English. The Haudenosaunee and the English defeated the French and Algonquins in the 1620s, and, led by Sir David Kirke, occupied New France.


title: Algonquin people

text: In 1623, having realized the occupation of New France demonstrated French colonial vulnerability, the French began to trade muskets to Algonquins and their allies. French Jesuits began to seek Algonquin conversions to Roman Catholicism.


title: Algonquin people

text: Through all of these years, the Haudenosaunee never attacked the fortress. But, in 1642, they made a surprise winter raid, attacking Algonquins while most of their warriors were absent, and causing severe casualties. On March 6, 1647 (Ash Wednesday), a large Kanienkehaka (Mohawk) war party attacked the living near Trois-Rivières and almost exterminated them. The were still at Morrison Island in 1650 and inspired respect with their 400 warriors. When the French retreated from Wendat (Huron) country that year, Tessouat was reported to have had the superior of the Jesuit mission suspended by his armpits because he refused to offer him the customary presents for being allowed to travel through Algonquin territory.


title: Algonquin people

text: Some joined the mission at Sillery, where they were mostly destroyed by an infectious disease epidemic by 1676. Encouraged by the French, others remained at Trois-Rivières. Their settlement at nearby Pointe-du-Lac continued until about 1830. That year the last 14 families, numbering about 50, moved to Kanesatake near Oka. (The families who stayed in Trois Rivieres can be found in the Algonquin census of Trois Rivieres in the mid-19th century).


title: Algonquin people

text: The Lake of Two Mountains band of Algonquins were located just west of the Island of Montreal, and were signatories to the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701. The Sulpician Mission of the Mountain was founded at Montreal in 1677.


title: Algonquin people

text: In 1717, the King of France granted the Mohawk in Quebec a tract of land 9 miles long by 9 miles wide about 40 miles to the northwest of Montreal, under the condition that they leave the island of Montreal. Sulpician Missionaries set up a trading post at the village in 1721 and attracted a large number of Haudenosaunee converts to Christianity to the area. The settlement of Kanesatake was formally founded as a Catholic mission, a seigneury under the supervision of the Sulpician Order for 300 Christian Mohawk, about 100 Algonquins, and approximately 250 Nipissing peoples "in their care". Over time the Sulpicians claimed total control of the land, gaining a deed that gave them legal title. But the Haudenosaunee (Mohawks), Algonquins, and Nipissing understood that this land was being held in trust for them.


title: Algonquin people

text: The Sulpician mission village of Lake of Two Mountains (Lac des Deux Montagnes), west of Montreal, became known both by its Algonquin language name "Oka" (meaning "pickerel"), and the Mohawk language "Kanehsatà:ke" ("sandy place"); however, Algonquin also called the village as "Ganashtaageng" after the Mohawk language name.


title: Algonquin people

text: Algonquin warriors continued to fight in alliance with France until the British conquest of Quebec in 1760, during the Seven Years' War. After the British took over colonial rule of Canada, their officials sought to make allies of the First Nations, and the Algonquin, along with many other First Nations signed the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which was then ratified in 1764 as the Treaty of Niagara. Subsequently, fighting on behalf of the British Crown, Algonquins took part in the Barry St Leger campaign during the American Revolutionary War.


title: Algonquin people

text: Following the American Revolutionary War, and later the War of 1812, the Lake of Two Mountains Algonquins found their territory increasingly encroached on by Loyalist settlers. Beginning in the 1820s and 1930s, the lumber industry began to move up the Ottawa valley. Algonquin became increasingly displaced as a result. Beginning in the 1820s, Algonquin Grand Chief Constant Pinesi sent a series of letters petitioning the British Crown for Algonquin Territorial Recognition previously agreed upon in the Treaties of 1701 and 1764, ratified by Algonquins and the British Crown. No responses were forthcoming from the British, and the Algonquins began to be relegated to a string of small reserves beginning in the 1830s.


title: Algonquin people

text: Algonquins who agreed to move to these reserves or joined other historical bands were federally "recognized". Others maintained their attachment to the traditional territory and fur trading, and chose not to re-locate. These Algonquins were later called "stragglers" in the Ottawa and Pontiac counties with some eventually settling in small towns such as Renfrew, Whitney, and Eganville as the 19th Century progressed. Many of these Algonquins were not recognized as "Status Indians".


title: Algonquin people

text: The location of the former Lake of Two Mountains Band came to be known as Kahnesatake. As a large majority of the Algonquin population had left the area, with only the Christian Haudenosaunee and a few Algonquins remaining, it became recognized as a Mohawk reserve (though many in the community have at least partial Algonquin Ancestry).


title: Algonquin people

text: Algonquins living in the northern regions of Algonquin Territory gradually moved to towns such as present day Témiscaming, and Mattawa, amongst others in Ontario and Quebec, as territorial encroachment by settlers, and lumber and resource companies increased throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries or various reserves set up in their traditional territories.


title: Algonquin people

text: Historical Algonquin society was largely hunting and fishing-based. Being primarily a hunting nation, the people emphasized mobility. They used materials that were light and easy to transport. Canoes were made of birch bark, sewed with spruce roots and rendered waterproof by the application of heated spruce resin and bear grease. During winter, toboggans were used to transport material, and people used snowshoes to get around. The women used (cradleboards) to carry their babies. It was built with wood and covered with an envelope made of leather or material. The baby was standing up with his feet resting on a small board. The mother would then put the "tikinàgan" on her back. This allowed the infant to look around and observe his surroundings. The child was kept close to the mother but also had much stimulation.


title: Algonquin people

text: Algonquian-speaking people also practiced agriculture, particularly south of the Great Lakes, where the climate allows for a longer growing season. Notable indigenous crops historically farmed by Algonquins are the sunflower and tobacco. Around 800CE, Eastern Algonquins adopted maize agriculture from their neighbors in the interior. Even among groups who mainly hunted, agricultural products were an important source of food. They obtained what was needed by trading with or raiding societies that practiced more agriculture. Eastern Algonquins created pots that could withstand not only thermal stress but the mechanical stress of rough use.


title: Algonquin people

text: Archaeological sites on Morrison Island near Pembroke, within the territory of the later , reveal a 1,000-year-old culture that manufactured copper tools and weapons. Copper ore was extracted north of Lake Superior and distributed down to present-day northern New York. Local pottery artifacts from this period show widespread similarities that indicate the continuing use of the river for cultural exchange throughout the Canadian Shield and beyond.


title: Algonquin people

text: Beginning at the latest in c. 1 CE, the Algonquin Nation inhabited the islands and shores along Kitcisìpi (Algonquin Language name translating to The Great River, known now as the Ottawa River). By the 17th century European Explorers found them well established as a hunter-gatherer society in control of the river. The showed entrepreneurial spirit. On Morrison Island, at the location where 5,000-year-old copper artifacts were discovered, the band levied a toll on canoe flotillas descending the river.


title: Algonquin people

text: Algonquins of Quebec gather the berries of "Ribes glandulosum" and "Viburnum nudum var. cassinoides" as food, and eat and sell the fruit of "Vaccinium myrtilloides".


title: Algonquin people

text: They take an infusion of "Epigaea repens" leaves for kidney disorders and apply a poultice of the gum or needles of "Abies balsamea" to open sores, insect bites, boils and infections. The needles are a sudatory for women after childbirth and are infused for a laxative tea, while the roots treat heart disease.


title: Algonquin people

text: In recent years, tensions with the lumber industry have flared up again among Algonquin communities, in response to the practice of clear-cutting.


title: Algonquin people

text: In Ontario, an Algonquin land claim has been ongoing since 1983, encompassing much of the southeastern part of the province, stretching from near North Bay to near Hawkesbury and including Ottawa, Pembroke, and most of Algonquin Provincial Park. The Algonquins never relinquished title to this area. An agreement-in-principle between the Algonquins of Ontario, the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario was reached in 2015. Many Algonquins dispute both the validity of both this settlement and the organization of the Algonquins of Ontario as a whole.


title: Algonquin people

text: In 2000, Algonquins from Timiskaming First Nation played a significant part in the local popular opposition to the plan to convert Adams Mine into a garbage dump.


title: Algonquin people

text: At the time of their first meeting with the French in 1603, the various Algonquin bands probably had a combined population somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,000. The British estimate in 1768 was 1,500. As of 2000, there are close to 8,000 Algonquins in Canada, organized into ten separate First Nations: nine in Quebec and one in Ontario.


title: Charlie McDermott

text: Charles Joseph McDermott Jr. (born April 6, 1990) is an American television and film actor, and musician, best known for his role as Axl Heck on ABC's "The Middle". He was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his performance in the acclaimed film "Frozen River".


title: Charlie McDermott

text: McDermott briefly attended high school at Salesianum in Wilmington, Delaware before enrolling in, and graduating from, 8PA Leadership Charter School (PALCS), a cyber school in Pennsylvania. He moved to Los Angeles at the age of 16.


title: Charlie McDermott

text: Since 2004, he has worked on a wide range of television series, including "The Office" and "Private Practice". His biggest roles to date are as Axl Heck on the TV show "The Middle", Wild Bill in "Disappearances", and T.J. Eddy in "Frozen River". In 2008, he received a nomination for an Independent Spirit Award as Best Supporting Actor for his "Frozen River" performance.


title: Clipper

text: A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had a large total sail area. "Clipper" does not refer to a specific sailplan; clippers may be schooners, brigs, brigantines, etc., as well as full-rigged ships. Clippers were mostly constructed in British and American shipyards, although France, Brazil, the Netherlands and other nations also produced some. Clippers sailed all over the world, primarily on the trade routes between the United Kingdom and China, in transatlantic trade, and on the New York-to-San Francisco route around Cape Horn during the California Gold Rush. Dutch clippers were built beginning in the 1850s for the tea trade and passenger service to Java.


title: Clipper

text: The boom years of the clipper era began in 1843 in response to a growing demand for faster delivery of tea from China. This continued under the stimulating influence of the discovery of gold in California and Australia in 1848 and 1851 and ended with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.


title: Clipper

text: The term "clipper" most likely derives from the verb "clip", which in former times meant, among other things, to run or fly swiftly. Dryden, the English poet, used the word "clip" to describe the swift flight of a falcon in the 17th century when he said "And, with her eagerness the quarry missed, Straight flies at check, and clips it down the wind." The ships appeared to clip along the ocean water. The term "clip" became synonymous with "speed" and was also applied to fast horses and sailing ships. "To clip it", and "going at a good clip", are remaining expressions.


title: Clipper

text: The first application of the term "clipper", in a nautical sense, is uncertain. The Baltimore Clipper was in use over the last quarter of the 18th century through to the first half of the 19th century, but under a different name for much of that time. At first, these vessels were referred to as "Virginia-built" or "pilot-boat model"—with the name "Baltimore-built" appearing during the War of 1812. It was not until the final days of the slave trade ("c." 1835 -1850)—just as the type was dying out—that the name "Baltimore Clipper" became common. The retrospective application of the word "clipper" to this type has been a source of confusion.


title: Clipper

text: The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest quote (referring to the Baltimore Clipper) is from 1824. The Dictionary cites Royal Navy officer and novelist Frederick Marryat as using the term in 1830. British newspaper usage of the term can be found as early as 1832 and in shipping adverts from 1835. A US court case of 1834 has evidence which discusses a clipper being faster than a brig.


title: Clipper

text: A clipper is a sailing vessel designed for speed, a priority which takes precedence over cargo carrying capacity, or building or operating costs. It is not restricted to any one rig, and while many were fully rigged ships, others were barques, brigs or schooners. Nor was the term restricted to any one hull type. Howard Chapelle lists three basic hull types for clippers. The first was characterised by the sharp and ends found in the Baltimore Clipper. The second was a hull with a full mid-section and modest deadrise, but sharp endsthis was a development of the hull-form of transatlantic packets. The third was more experimental, with deadrise and sharpness being balanced against the need to carry a profitable quantity of cargo. As well as a fast hull, a clipper carried a large sail areaby the standards of any other type of sailing ship, a clipper was greatly over-canvassed. The last defining feature of a clipper, in the view of maritime historian David MacGregor, was a captain who had the courage, skill and determination to get the fastest speed possible out of her.


title: Clipper

text: In assessing the hull of a clipper, different maritime historians use different criteria to measure "sharpness". "Sharpness" or "fineness" is explained by comparing a rectangular cuboid with the underwater shape of a vessel's hull. The more material you have to carve off the cuboid to achieve the hull shape, the sharper the hull. Ideally a maritime historian would be able to look at either the block coefficient of fineness or the prismatic coefficient of various clippers, but measured drawings or accurate half-models may not exist to calculate either of these figures. An alternative measure of sharpness for hulls of a broadly similar shape is the coefficient of under-deck-tonnage, as used by David MacGregor in comparing tea clippers. This could be calculated from the measurements taken to determine the registered tonnage, and so can be applied to more vessels.


title: Clipper

text: An extreme clipper has a hull of great fineness, as judged either by the prismatic coefficient, the coefficient of under-deck-tonnage or some other technical assessment of hull shape. It is a term that has been misapplied in the past, without reference to hull shape. As commercial vessels, these are totally reliant on speed to generate a profit for their owners, as their sharpness limits their cargo carrying capacity.


title: Clipper

text: A medium clipper has a cargo-carrying hull that has some sharpness. In the right conditions and with a capable captain, some of these achieved notable quick passages. They were also able to pay their way when the high freight rates often paid to a fast sailer were not available (in a fluctuating market).


title: Clipper

text: The term "clipper" applied to vessels between these two categories. They often made passages as fast as extreme clippers, but had less difficulty in making a living when freight rates were lower.


title: Clipper

text: The first ships to which the term "clipper" seems to have been applied were the Baltimore clippers, developed in Chesapeake Bay before the American Revolution, and reaching their zenith between 1795 and 1815. They were small, rarely exceeding 200 tons OM. Their hulls were sharp ended and displayed a lot of deadrise. They were rigged as schooners, brigs or brigantines.


title: Clipper

text: In the War of 1812 some were lightly armed, sailing under Letters of Marque and Reprisal, when the type—exemplified by "Chasseur", launched at Fells Point, Baltimore in 1814—became known for her incredible speed; the deep draft enabled the Baltimore clipper to sail close to the wind. Clippers, running the British blockade of Baltimore, came to be recognized for speed rather than cargo space.


title: Clipper

text: The type existed as early as 1780. A 1789 drawing of —purchased by the Royal Navy in 1780 in the West Indies—represents the earliest draught of what became known as the Baltimore Clipper


title: Clipper

text: Speed was also required for the opium trade from India to China. The fast-sailing vessels used were called Opium Clippers. Some of these were built specifically for the purposemostly in India and Britain. Some fruit schooners were bought for this trade, as were some Baltimore clippers.


title: Clipper

text: Vessels of the Baltimore clipper type continued to be built for the slave trade, being useful for escaping enforcement of the British and American legislation prohibiting the trans-atlantic slave trade. Some of these Baltimore clippers were captured when working as slavers, condemned by the appropriate court, and sold to owners who then used them as opium clippersmoving from one illegal international trade to another.


title: Clipper

text: "Ann McKim", built in Baltimore in 1833 by the Kennard & Williamson shipyard, is considered by some to be the original clipper ship. (Maritime historians Howard I. Chapelle and David MacGregor decry the concept of the "first" clipper, preferring a more evolutionary, multi-stepped development of the type.) She measured 494 tons OM, and was built on the enlarged lines of a Baltimore clipper, with sharply raked stem, counter stern and square rig. Although "Ann McKim" was the first large clipper ship ever constructed, it cannot be said that she founded the clipper ship era, or even that she directly influenced shipbuilders, since no other ship was built like her; but she may have suggested the clipper design in vessels of ship rig. She did, however, influence the building of "Rainbow" in 1845, the first extreme clipper ship.


title: Clipper

text: In Aberdeen, Scotland, the shipbuilders Alexander Hall and Sons developed the "Aberdeen" clipper bow in the late 1830s: the first was "Scottish Maid" launched in 1839. "Scottish Maid", 150 tons OM, was the first British clipper ship. ""Scottish Maid" was intended for the Aberdeen-London trade, where speed was crucial to compete with steamships. The Hall brothers tested various hulls in a water tank and found the clipper design most effective. The design was influenced by tonnage regulations. Tonnage measured a ship's cargo capacity and was used to calculate tax and harbour dues. The new 1836 regulations measured depth and breadth with length measured at half midship depth. Extra length above this level was tax-free and became a feature of clippers. "Scottish Maid" proved swift and reliable and the design was widely copied." The earliest British clipper ships were built for trade within the British Isles ("Scottish Maid" was built for the Aberdeen to London trade). Then followed the vast clipper trade of tea, opium, spices and other goods from the Far East to Europe, and the ships became known as "tea clippers".


title: Clipper

text: From 1839, larger American clipper ships started to be built beginning with "Akbar", 650 tons OM, in 1839, and including the 1844-built Houqua, 581 tons OM. These larger vessels were built predominantly for use in the China tea trade and known as "tea clippers". Smaller clipper vessels also continued to be built predominantly for the China opium trade and known as "opium clippers" such as the 1842-built "Ariel", 100 tons OM.


title: Clipper

text: Then in 1845 "Rainbow", 757 tons OM, the first extreme clipper was launched in New York. These American clippers were larger vessels designed to sacrifice cargo capacity for speed. They had a bow lengthened above the water, a drawing out and sharpening of the forward body, and the greatest breadth further aft. Extreme clippers were built in the period 1845 to 1855.


title: Clipper

text: In 1851, shipbuilders in Medford, Massachusetts built the "Antelope", often called the "Antelope of Boston" to distinguish her from other ships of the same name. This vessel is sometimes called one of the first medium clipper ships. A ship-design journalist noted that "the design of her model was to combine large stowage capacity with good sailing qualities." The "Antelope" was relatively flat-floored and had only an 8-inch dead rise at half-floor.


title: Clipper

text: The medium clipper, though still very fast, could carry more cargo. After 1854 extreme clippers were replaced in American shipbuilding yards by medium clippers.


title: Clipper

text: The "Flying Cloud" was a clipper ship that claimed the fastest passage between New York and San Francisco, 89 days 8 hours. (The other contender for this "blue ribbon" title was the medium clipper "Andrew Jackson"—there is an unresolvable argument over timing these voyages "from pilot to pilot"). "Flying Cloud" was the most famous of the clippers built by Donald McKay. She was known for her extremely close race with the "Hornet" in 1853; for having a woman navigator, Eleanor Creesy, wife of Josiah Perkins Creesy, who skippered the "Flying Cloud" on two record-setting voyages from New York to San Francisco; and for sailing in the Australia and timber trades.


title: Clipper

text: Clipper ships largely ceased being built in American shipyards in 1859 when, unlike the earlier boom years, only four clipper ships were built; a few were built in the 1860s. The last American clipper ship was "the "Pilgrim"" launched in 1873 from the shipyards of Medford, Massachusetts, built by Joshua T. Foster. Among shipowners of the day, "Medford-built" came to mean the best.


title: Clipper

text: British clipper ships continued to be built after 1859. From 1859 a new design was developed for British clipper ships that was nothing like the American clippers; these ships continued to be called extreme clippers. The new design had a sleek graceful appearance, less sheer, less freeboard, lower bulwarks, and smaller breadth. They were built for the China tea trade, starting with "Falcon" in 1859, and continuing until 1870. The earlier ships were made from wood, though some were made from iron, just as some British clippers had been made from iron prior to 1859. In 1863 the first tea clippers of composite construction were brought out, combining the best of both worlds. Composite clippers had the strength of iron spars with wooden hulls, and copper sheathing could be added to prevent the fouling that occurred on iron hulls.


title: Clipper

text: After 1869, with the opening of the Suez Canal that greatly advantaged steam vessels (see Decline below), the tea trade collapsed for clippers. From the late 1860s until the early 1870s the clipper trade increasingly focused on the Britain to Australia and New Zealand route, carrying goods and immigrants, services that had begun earlier with the Australian Gold Rush of the 1850s. British-built clipper ships and many American-built British-owned ships were used. Even in the 1880s, sailing ships were still the main carriers of cargoes between Britain, and Australia and New Zealand. This trade eventually became unprofitable, and the ageing clipper fleet became unseaworthy.


title: Clipper

text: Among the most notable clippers were the China clippers, also called tea clippers or opium clippers, designed to ply the trade routes between Europe and the East Indies. The last example of these still in reasonable condition is "Cutty Sark", preserved in dry dock at Greenwich, United Kingdom. Damaged by fire on 21 May 2007 while undergoing conservation, the ship was permanently elevated three metres above the dry dock floor in 2010 as part of a plan for long-term preservation.


title: Clipper

text: Before the early 18th century, the East India Company paid for its tea mainly in silver. When the Chinese Emperor chose to embargo European manufactured commodities and demand payment for all Chinese goods in silver, the price rose, restricting trade. The East India Company began to produce something desired by the Chinese as much as tea was by the British: opium. This had a significant influence on both India and China. Opium was also imported into Britain and was not prohibited because it was thought to be medically beneficial. Laudanum, made from opium, was used as a pain killer, to induce sleep and to suppress anxiety. The famous literary opium addicts Thomas De Quincey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Wilkie Collins also took it for its pleasurable effects. The Limehouse area in London was notorious for its opium dens, many of which catered for Chinese sailors as well as English addicts.


title: Clipper

text: Clippers were built for seasonal trades such as tea, where an early cargo was more valuable, or for passenger routes. One passenger ship survives, the "City of Adelaide" designed by William Pile of Sunderland. The fast ships were ideally suited to low-volume, high-profit goods, such as tea, opium, spices, people, and mail. The return could be spectacular. The "Challenger" returned from Shanghai with "the most valuable cargo of tea and silk ever to be laden in one bottom". Competition among the clippers was public and fierce, with their times recorded in the newspapers.


title: Clipper

text: The last China clippers had peak speeds of over . However, their average speeds over a whole voyage were substantially less. The joint winner of the Great Tea Race of 1866 logged about 15,800 nautical miles on a 99 day trip. This gives an average speed of slightly over . The key to a fast passage for a tea clipper was getting across the China Sea against the monsoon winds that prevailed when the first tea crop of the season was ready. These difficult sailing conditions (light and/or contrary winds) dictated the design of tea clippers. The US clippers were designed for the strong winds encountered on their route around Cape Horn.


title: Clipper

text: Donald McKay's "Sovereign of the Seas" reported the highest speed ever achieved by a sailing ship – , made while running her easting down to Australia in 1854. (John Griffiths' first clipper, the "Rainbow", had a top speed of 14 knots.) There are eleven other instances of a ship's logging or over. Ten of these were recorded by American clippers.


title: Clipper

text: Besides the breath-taking day's run of the "Champion of the Seas", there are thirteen other cases of a ship's sailing over in 24 hours.


title: Clipper

text: The 24h record of the "Champion of the Seas" set in 1854, wasn't broken until 1984 (by a multihull), or 2001 (by another monohull).


title: Clipper

text: The American clippers sailing from the East Coast to the California goldfields were working in a booming market. Freight rates were high everywhere in the first years of the 1850s. This started to fade in late 1853. The ports of California and Australia reported that they were overstocked with goods that had been shipped earlier in the year. This gave an accelerating fall in freight rates that was halted, however, by the start of the Crimean War in March 1854, as many ships were now being chartered by the French and British governments. The end of the Crimean War in April 1856 released all this capacity back on the world shipping markets - the result being a severe slump. The next year saw the Panic of 1857, which had effects on both sides of the Atlantic. The United States was just starting to recover from this in 1861 when the American Civil War started, causing significant disruption to trade in both Union and Confederate states.


title: Clipper

text: As the economic situation deteriorated in 1853, American shipowners either did not order new vessels, or specified an ordinary clipper or a medium clipper instead of an extreme clipper. No extreme clipper was launched in an American shipyard after the end of 1854 and only a few medium clippers after 1860.


title: Clipper

text: By contrast, British trade recovered well at the end of the 1850s. Tea clippers had continued to be launched during the depressed years, apparently little affected by the economic downturn. The long-distance route to China was not realistically challenged by steamships in the early part of the 1860s. No true steamer (as opposed to an auxiliary steamship) had the fuel efficiency to carry sufficient cargo to make a profitable voyage. The auxiliary steamships struggled to make any profit.


title: Clipper

text: The situation changed in 1866 when the Alfred Holt-designed and owned "SS Agamemnon" made her first voyage to China. Holt had persuaded the Board of Trade to allow higher steam pressures in British merchant vessels. Running at 60 psi instead of the previously permitted 25 psi, and using an efficient compound engine, "Agamemnon" had the fuel efficiency to steam at 10 knots to China and back, with coaling stops at Mauritius on the outward and return legs - crucially carrying sufficient cargo to make a profit.


title: Clipper

text: In 1869 the Suez Canal opened, giving steamships a route about shorter than that taken by sailing ships round the Cape of Good Hope. Despite initial conservatism by tea merchants, by 1871 tea clippers found strong competition from steamers in the tea ports of China. A typical passage time back to London for a steamer was 58 days, while the very fastest clippers could occasionally make the trip in less than 100 days; the average was 123 days in the 1867–68 tea season. The freight rate for a steamer in 1871 was roughly double that paid to a sailing vessel. Some clipper owners were severely caught out by this: several extreme clippers had been launched in 1869, including "Cutty Sark", "Norman Court" and "the Caliph".


title: Clipper

text: Of the many clipper ships built during the mid-19th century, only two are known to survive. The only intact survivor is "Cutty Sark", which was preserved as a museum ship in 1954 at Greenwich for public display. The other known survivor is "City of Adelaide"; unlike "Cutty Sark" she was reduced to a hulk over the years. She eventually sank at her moorings in 1991, but was raised the following year and remained on dry land for years. "Adelaide" (a.k.a. S.V. "Carrick") is the older of the two survivors, and was transported to Australia for conservation.


title: Clipper

text: Departures of clipper ships, mostly from New York and Boston to San Francisco, were advertised by clipper ship sailing cards. These cards, slightly larger than today's postcards, were produced by letterpress and wood engraving on coated card stock. Most clipper cards were printed in the 1850s and 1860s, and represented the first pronounced use of color in American advertising art.


title: Clipper

text: Relatively few (perhaps 3,500) cards survive today. With their rarity and importance as artifacts of nautical, Western, and printing history, clipper cards are highly prized by both private collectors and institutions.


title: The Richest Man in Babylon

text: The Richest Man in Babylon is a 1926 book by George S. Clason that dispenses financial advice through a collection of parables set 4,000 years ago in ancient Babylon. The book remains in print almost a century after the parables were originally published, and is regarded as a classic of personal financial advice.


title: The Richest Man in Babylon

text: The parables are told by a fictional Babylonian character called Arkad, a poor scribe who became the "richest man in Babylon". Included in Arkad's advice are the "Seven Cures" (or how to generate money and wealth), and the "Five Laws of Gold" (or how to protect and invest wealth). A core part of Arkad's advice is around "paying yourself first", "living within your means", "investing in what you know", the importance of "long-term saving", and "home ownership".


title: The Richest Man in Babylon

text: The content is from a series of pamphlets distributed by U.S. banks and insurance companies in 1920–24; the pamphlets were bound together and published as a book in 1926. The book is often referred to as a classic of personal financial advice, and appears in modern recommended reading lists on personal financial advice and wealth management, which has kept the book in print almost 90 years after its first edition with over 2 million copies sold.


title: The Richest Man in Babylon

text: Clason himself published an illustrated hardback edition in 1930 titled "The Richest Man in Babylon and Other Stories" which now sells for USD 1,250.


title: The Richest Man in Babylon

text: The unusual structure of the book has inspired many modern derivative works providing further discussion and insights on the parables.


title: The Richest Man in Babylon

text: The original 1926 book groups the parables into general themes of advice, and particularly "The Seven Cures" and the "Five Laws of Gold".


title: The Richest Man in Babylon

text: There is then an unusual section where a contemporary archeologist reveals five clay Babylonian tablets (numbered I to V), whose inscriptions provide short parables.


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: Debut is the international debut studio album by Icelandic recording artist Björk, released in July 1993 by One Little Indian and Elektra Entertainment. It was produced by Björk and Nellee Hooper. It was Björk's first recording following the dissolution of her previous band, the Sugarcubes. The album departed from the rock style of her previous work and drew from an eclectic variety of styles, including electronic pop, house music, jazz and trip hop.


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: "Debut" received critical acclaim from British music critics, though United States reviews were mixed. It exceeded sales expectations, charting at number two in Iceland, three in the United Kingdom, and 61 in the US. It was certified gold in Canada and platinum in the US, where it remains Björk's best-selling album.


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: Five singles were released from "Debut": "Human Behaviour", "Venus as a Boy", "Play Dead", "Big Time Sensuality" and "Violently Happy". All charted in the UK, with only "Human Behaviour", "Violently Happy" and "Big Time Sensuality" charting on dance and modern rock charts in the US.


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: While performing as the vocalist of Icelandic alternative rock group the Sugarcubes, Björk approached Ásmundur Jónsson of Bad Taste and producer Derek Birkett of One Little Indian Records with a demo cassette of her own songs. The demo included versions of songs that appeared on "Debut", including "The Anchor Song" and "Aeroplane". After the Sugarcubes went on hiatus, Björk moved to London, England, where she and Birkett worked on the details of what would become "Debut". The Sugarcubes' music did not fit Björk's taste, and her contact with London's underground club culture of the late 1980s and early 1990s helped her find her own musical identity. She said: "As a music nerd, I just had to follow my heart, and my heart was those beats that were happening in England. And maybe what I'm understanding more and more as I get older, is that music like Kate Bush has really influenced me. Brian Eno. Acid. Electronic beats. Labels like Warp."


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: Björk had already written half the songs for "Debut" in some form, but had nothing recorded. She had written many of them years before moving to London, including "Human Behaviour", which she wrote as a teenager. In 2021, the singer explained: "The melody of ['Human Behaviour'] I wrote while I was in the Sugarcubes. It was called 'Marssin Minn' and never kinda got completed. I saved that melody though, and when I wrote the lyrics few years later, I felt the melody had found a match." She had put aside the songs as "I was in punk bands and [the songs] weren't punk." With no producer, she composed songs with 808 State member Graham Massey in a friend's home in Manchester, where she also wrote songs included on later albums, including "Army of Me" and "The Modern Things".


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: While creating electronic tracks with Massey, Björk developed a desire to work with a jazz producer. Paul Fox, who had worked with the Sugarcubes, introduced her to jazz harpist Corky Hale. Hale had planned to decline to work with Björk until her stepson, a Sugarcubes fan, insisted that she take the job. Björk recorded a handful of jazz standards with Hale, including "I Remember You" and an early version of "Like Someone in Love". Fox also introduced Björk to Oliver Lake, with whom Björk recorded another jazz standard, "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries", with Lake's jazz group for the John Hughes film "Curly Sue". Hughes turned down the recording, but it led to "Debut" being produced by Fox and arranged by Oliver Lake. Björk contracted Lake to work with session saxophonists in London for "Debut;" Lake's contributions are heard on tracks including "Aeroplane" and "The Anchor Song".


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: Björk intended to have several producers work on the album. She planned to have the album produced with Fox until she was introduced to producer Nellee Hooper by her boyfriend Dominic Thrupp. Hooper had produced albums by Soul II Soul and Sinéad O'Connor which made Björk skeptical about working with him, stating: "I thought Nellee was too 'good taste' for my liking. But then I met him, got to know him, [and] got to hear about his fabulous ideas." Björk and Hooper's recording ideas were similar, which led to her decision to end production with Massey and Fox. Hooper introduced Björk to studio technology and studio programmer Marius de Vries, who gave "Debut" a modern style with keyboards and synthesizers. He produced the first ten tracks on the album, while Björk co-produced "Like Someone in Love" with Hooper and produced "The Anchor Song" alone. Björk and Hooper spent many sessions in the studio working on "Debut" until the album was finished in early 1993.


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: "Debut" draws on an eclectic variety of sources. "Treblezine" described the album as "[melding] alternative dance and electronic with a graceful flow." It is said that the album "[shook] the status quo" of the contemporary musical climate, in the sense that its eclectic experimental pop leanings distanced it from the music "primarily being made by men with guitars" that was popular at the time, such as grunge and the burgeoning Britpop. Michael Cragg of "The Guardian" described it as an "indefinable conflation of electronic pop, trip-hop, world music and otherworldly lyrics". AllMusic described the album as "creative, tantalizing electronic pop." "The New York Times" wrote that ""Debut" often recalls the early '70s jazz-fusion of bands like Weather Report. But where these fusionists combined jazz harmony with funk and acid rock, Björk marries her scat-vocalese and off-kilter melodies with the futuristic textures and programmed percussion of today's techno and acid house. "The Face"s Mandi James felt "Debut" was "a delightful fusion of thrash metal, jazz, funk and opera, with the odd dash of exotica thrown in for good measure." "Billboard" described the album as "an art pop masterpiece". Björk also took influence from the music of Bollywood and "the buzz of London nightlife."


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: "Debut" incorporates dance music, reflecting the contemporary styles of London's club culture, with which Björk had established close ties. While elements of subgenres such as Euro-house, acid jazz, worldbeat and IDM are present, "they hadn't yet broken free from the primal thump of four-on-the-floor house music." Tom Breihan of "Stereogum" wrote that "even as dance music took on all these new sounds, that basic pulse was still the most important thing about it, and that pulse reverberates all through "Debut"." Björk said: "A lot of the songs on my record have dance beats, but I think they're beats that are more reflective of daily life—like life in the middle of the day in a city, as opposed to the night life of the clubs." The four on the floor style, typical of house music, is evident in songs such as "Human Behaviour", "Crying", "Big Time Sensuality", "There's More to Life Than This" and "Violently Happy".


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: Björk felt house music was "the only pop music that [was] truly modern," stating in 1993 that it was "the only music where anything creative is happening today." Her departure from the guitar-driven rock of her previous work stemmed from the feeling that it was outdated, arguing that "as soon as any form becomes traditional, like the guitar, bass and drums, then people start to behave traditionally," and that "it's really difficult to get a band to stay on the edge using typical bass, guitar and drums setup because it tends to lapse into a predictable form." Being a fan of dance music since the early days of acid house, she used it as the framework for her songs. She told "Rolling Stone" that she "was more influenced by ambient music than what you'd call dance music, and by things that were happening way back in Chicago and Detroit that were sensual and daring and groundbreaking in their time [...] Ninety-five percent of the dance music you hear today is crap. It's only that experimental five percent that I'm into—the records that get played in clubs after 7 o'clock in the morning, when the DJs are playing stuff for themselves, rather than trying to please people." Björk's embrace of England's dance culture also extended to her image, considered representative of 1990s acid house fashion.


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: Hooper had been a member of Bristol's "Wild Bunch", a group that took from acid jazz, funk and hip hop and helped create trip-hop. The less dance-oriented electronic "Debut" tracks have a more trip-hop style sound and a "more delicate atmosphere". "i-D" noted that "Debut"—and Björk's subsequent album "Post"—integrate ambient techno and jungle, stating that they "couldn't have existed without Aphex Twin, Black Dog, A Guy Called Gerald, LFO and all the other producers who reshaped the language of music since 1988." Also present are elements of jazz, with WUOG stating that "while many see "Debut" as Björk's clubbiest album, it may also be her jazziest." Brad Shoup of "Stereogum" wrote that "though her electronic bent gets the most attention, it's her interest in jazz that courses through the set." Tim Perlich of "Now" felt "Debut" "bridges jazz and pop", and Simon Reynolds characterized it as "jazzy love songs tinged with an oceanic feeling."


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: The lyrics of "Debut" contain themes of love. They range from "flesh-and-blood passion" for another person to the love of life itself. According to "i-D", with a couple of exceptions, the songs of "Debut" fell into two types: "those where Björk addressed the listener as someone in pain and told them fireworks would light their nights and all would be well;" and "songs where she sang about her own pain." "The Face" stated that the album's lyrics "[consolidated] her love affair with language," while "The Sunday Times" felt that Björk "rigorously [avoided] the obvious" by using lyrics that do not rhyme.


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: The first track "Human Behaviour" features a "bouncing riff" sampled from Antônio Carlos Jobim, with "its syncopated beat consigned to a venerable orchestral instrument, the timpani." Its lyrics refer to Björk's experience as a child, finding the behaviour of adults "rather chaotic and nonsensical," instead finding harmony with other children, nature and animals. Inspired by naturalist David Attenborough, she sings from the point of view of an animal, with its opening line being "If you ever get close to a human/And human behaviour/Be ready, be ready to get confused". Following track "Crying" shows a contradiction between its "bubbly, shiny-surfaced acid disco-pop" sound and lyrics that describe the turmoil of feeling alienated in a big city. "Venus as a Boy" —considered an ambient track by "Rolling Stone"— reflected Björk's newly found interest in Bollywood, having befriended people of Indian origin in London, most notably tabla player Talvin Singh. In a spontaneous fashion, the song's strings —and also those of "Come to Me"— were recorded by a film studio orchestra in India, thanks to Singh. The lyrics of the track are about the sensitivity of her then boyfriend Dominic Thrupp, with lyrics that have been described as "sweet and just the slightest bit naughty." In the dancefloor-oriented "There's More to Life Than This", Björk leaves romance behind, with "her mischievous side [coming] to the fore". Its lyrics were inspired by a party she attended and promptly left. "Like Someone in Love" is one of the several jazz standards she recorded with Corky Hale, with her voice "cradled in harp and swoony strings."


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: "Like Someone in Love" is followed by the techno-tinged "Big Time Sensuality" in an "intentionally startling" leap. An "anthem to emotional bravery," it contains lyrics described as "simple but passionate", concerning Björk's relationship with her co-producer Nellee Hooper. The songs "The Anchor Song", "One Day", and "Aeroplane" draw on what Björk refers to as her more "academic, clever side". "One Day" also presents a sudden shift of mood, featuring a "gently pulsing bass" that builds into an "itchily impassioned, housey pop euphoria." "Aeroplane" is one of "Debut"s most musically complicated pieces with off-kilter arrangement from Oliver Lake; its backdrop is inspired by exotica music. This song is also about Thrupp, written when he was living in the United Kingdom and Björk still lived in Iceland. "Come to Me" features a "hazy musical backdrop of raindrop synths, padded drums and sweeping strings"; lyrically, it explores a "sensually intense need to nurture." "Violently Happy" is the most hardcore techno track on the album. In the song, over "brisk house beats" Björk sings in a stammering fashion, as she "struggles to express feelings of excitement so intense she seems on the brink of leaping out of her skin." As a gesture to inexpressible feelings, the song samples one syllable and "[turns] it into a stuttering vocal tic." The closing track "The Anchor Song" is the only one in the album solely produced by Björk. One of the three songs to appear on her first demo cassette of 1990, it features Oliver Lake playing the saxophone, in an arrangement that replicated the "ebb and tide of an ocean's peaking tops, an image reinforced by Björk's fiercely patriotic lyrics."


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: "Debut" was released on 5 July 1993 on compact disc and cassette on One Little Indian Records in the United Kingdom and 13 July 1993 on Elektra Records in the United States. One Little Indian estimated that "Debut" would sell a total of 40,000 copies worldwide based on a guess of the Sugarcubes fan base at the time. However, within three months of "Debut's" release, over 600,000 copies had been sold worldwide. On the album's initial release, it charted in the United States, peaking at number one on the Top Heatseekers chart and at number 61 on the "Billboard" 200. In the United Kingdom, "Debut" entered the charts on 17 July 1993, peaking at number three and spending 79 weeks on the chart. Overseas in Japan, "Debut" was released on 26 September 1993. "Debut" has been re-issued several times in different formats. In November 1993, the album was re-issued in the United Kingdom with the bonus track "Play Dead", a song written for the film "The Young Americans", shortly after "Debut"'s completion. The album was later issued on vinyl and DualDisc formats. The Japanese version of "Debut" included two bonus tracks: "Play Dead" and "Atlantic". The DualDisc release featured the full album on the CD side while the DVD side included the album with superior sound quality and the music videos for the singles. On 5 May 1994, The Canadian Recording Industry Association certified that "Debut" had sold over 50,000 units making it a Gold record in Canada. On 31 August 2001, the RIAA certified that "Debut" had sold over one million units making it a Platinum record in the United States. As of January 2015, "Debut" had sold 930,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Worldwide sales of the album stand at 4.7 million copies.


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: In 1994, Björk was sued by Simon Fisher, a musician she collaborated with in 1990. Fisher's claim stated that he had co-written "Human Behaviour", "Venus as a Boy", "Crying", and "Aeroplane" and sought damages of over £200,000. Hooper and Björk went to court with Fisher shortly after the release of Björk's album "Post". Judge Robin Jacob found Fisher only seeking credit for one song instead of four and cleared Hooper and Björk of all charges stating that Fisher's charges rendered him "unreliable, diffuse, and vague".


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: In 1993 Björk contacted French director Michel Gondry to create a music video for "Human Behaviour" after seeing a video he made for his own band Oui Oui. "Human Behaviour" was the first single taken from "Debut", and was issued a month before the album's release in June 1993. Three more singles were released from "Debut" in 1993. "Venus as a Boy" was the second single, released in August with a music video directed by Sophie Muller. "Play Dead" was released in August 1993 as a non-album single, that would be included on later releases of the album. "Play Dead" had an accompanying music video directed by Danny Cannon. The final single released in 1993 was "Big Time Sensuality" remixed by Fluke with a music video by Stéphane Sednaoui. A further single, "Violently Happy", was released in March 1994 with an accompanying video by Jean-Baptiste Mondino. All five singles from "Debut" charted within the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart while only "Human Behaviour", "Violently Happy" and "Big Time Sensuality" charted on the US "Billboard" charts.


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: At the 1994 Grammy Awards, Michel Gondry's music video for "Human Behavior" was nominated for Best Short Form Music Video, but lost to Stephen Johnson's video for the Peter Gabriel song "Steam". At the 1994 Brit Awards, Björk won awards for "Best Newcomer" and "Best International Female".


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: Critical reaction to "Debut" was generally positive. The British music press spoke positively about the album, with "Q" giving it four out of five stars calling it "a surprising, playful collection" while the "NME" wrote that "Debut" was "an album that believes music can be magical and special." "The Independent" gave "Debut" a favorable review noting that Björk had "fashioned an amazing array of contrasting arrangements, whose musical diversity never interferes with their clarity of vision." American reception was more mixed. "Musician" magazine praised the vocals of the album, stating "what makes [Björk's] singing memorable isn't the odd assortment of growls, moans and chirps she relies upon, but the emotions those sounds convey." "The New York Times" described "Debut" as "an enchanting album".


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: A negative review came from "Rolling Stone", who gave the album two stars out of five, labelling the album "utterly disappointing" and blaming producer Nellee Hooper, suggesting he "sabotaged a ferociously iconoclastic talent with a phalanx of cheap electronic gimmickry." Michele Romero of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the album a C, saying, "On a few songs, [Björk's] breathy mewl is a pleasant contrast to the mechanical drone of Sugarcube-like techno-tunes. But most of "Debut" sounds annoyingly like the monotonous plinking of a deranged music box. Wind it up if you like – eventually it will stop." "Debut" rated highly in British end of year polls. The "NME" ranked "Debut" at number one on their list of "Top 50 LPs of 1993". "Melody Maker" placed the album at number six on their list of "Albums of the Year for 1993" calling it "a fantastic debut". In 1994, "Q" included the album on their list for top fifty albums of 1993. In 2000 it was voted number 77 in Colin Larkin's "All Time Top 1000 Albums". Björk reacted to the positive reviews hesitantly, stating that if she'd "delivered exactly the same album and I came from Nottingham, I'd have got completely different reviews, normal down-to-earth ones" and that "Debut" "was a bit of a rehearsal and it's really not that good. I can do much better."


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: Later reception was also positive. In "Spin" magazine's alternative record guide, the album received a rating of nine out of ten stating that the choice of Nellee Hooper as producer was a "stroke of genius" and Björk's vocals were "awe-inspiring". Heather Phares of AllMusic gave the album a five-star rating, stating that "Debut" is "Possibly her prettiest work, Björk's horizons expanded on her other releases, but the album still sounds fresh, which is even more impressive considering electronic music's whiplash-speed innovations."


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: "Debut" is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of 1993 and the 1990s in general. According to "NME", it turned "an idiosyncratic vocalist from a feted cult band into a significant global pop star". In 2013, John Hamilton of "Idolator" called the album "highly influential", and wrote "in spite of its advancing age, "Debut"s futurism has aged exquisitely." The album has also been credited as one of the first albums to introduce electronic music into mainstream pop. "Stereogum" Tom Breihan wrote: "House music didn't quite have critical respect before Björk came along, and plenty of American writers didn't know what to make of the sound of "Debut" when it came out. [...] "Debut" didn't just establish Björk; it helped make sounds like that cool to a segment of the music-dork universe that might've remained deaf to its charms otherwise. At this point, it's virtually impossible to imagine a big publication slamming an adventurous dance-pop album for "cheap electronic gimmickry," and "Debut" is a big part of that change." Björk's embrace of England's dance culture also extended to her looks, her style at the time considered representative of 1990s acid house fashion. Celebrating the album's twenty-year anniversary, Emily Mackay of "NME" wrote the album "put the lie to the post-grunge assumption that heartfelt, passionate solo artistry came in the form of acoustic guitar and heartbreak, creating a new breed of singer-songwriter." Dubbing it an "influential masterpiece", she found influences of the album in the work of musicians such as M.I.A., Grimes, These New Puritans and Tune-Yards, writing: "It's in fascinatingly individual artists like those that you'll find [Björk's] influence – not, as many would have you believe, in every pretty-faced girl with a big voice." Mackay also noted that the album's legacy echoes through dance-pop artists like Lady Gaga and Robyn.


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: In 2013, Michael Cragg of "The Guardian" wrote that "two decades after its release, the Icelandic artist's first album has never sounded more relevant." He argued that "Debut" "reconstructed pop music", also writing that "while pop in 2013 looks back to the early 90s for inspiration, Björk's ability on "Debut" to innovate by using disparate genres without losing a sense of her own identity should be the blueprint for any new artist with desires to break the mould." In the album's entry in their list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" —where the album was included at number 46—, "NME" claimed that ""Debut" achieved the remarkable feat of turning an idiosyncratic vocalist from a feted cult band into a significant global pop star, without losing one iota of the experimental mindset and creative cool that made her so special." In 2005, Björk stated that she thought the album was not as strong as her later works: "It's hard to judge yourself but I don't think ["Debut" and "Post" are] my best. "Debut" was the album that went the highest up there in terms of what is 'Bjork music'. But I think that the persona I created, which was entirely accidental, is better captured on the later albums."


title: Debut (Björk album)

text: The information regarding accolades attributed to "Debut" is adapted from Acclaimed Music, except where otherwise noted.


title: One Foot in the Grave

text: One Foot in the Grave is a British television sitcom written by David Renwick. There were six series (each consisting of six half-hour shows) and seven Christmas specials over a period of ten years from early 1990 to late 2000. The first five series were broadcast between January 1990 and January 1995. For the next five years, the show appeared only as Christmas specials, followed by one final series in 2000.


title: One Foot in the Grave

text: The series features the exploits of Victor Meldrew, played by Richard Wilson, and his long-suffering wife, Margaret, played by Annette Crosbie. Wilson initially turned down the part of Meldrew and David Renwick considered Les Dawson for the role, until Wilson changed his mind. The programmes invariably deal with Meldrew's battle against a long series of problems, some of which he creates for himself. Set in an unnamed town in Southern England, Victor takes involuntary early retirement. His various efforts to keep himself busy while encountering various misfortunes and misunderstandings are the themes of the sitcom. Indoor scenes were filmed at BBC Television Centre with most exterior scenes filmed on Tresillian Way in Walkford in Christchurch, Dorset. Despite its traditional production, the series subverts its domestic sitcom setting with elements of black humour and surrealism.


title: One Foot in the Grave

text: The series was occasionally the subject of controversy for some of its darker story elements, but nevertheless received a number of awards, including the 1992 BAFTA for Best Comedy. The programme came 80th in the British Film Institute's 100 Greatest British Television Programmes. Four episodes were remade for BBC Radio 2. The series inspired a novel, published in 1992, featuring the most memorable moments from the first two series and the first Christmas special.


title: One Foot in the Grave

text: The series features the exploits, mishaps and misadventures of irascible early retiree Victor Meldrew, who, after being made redundant from his job as a security guard at the age of 60, finds himself at war with the world and everything in it. Meldrew, cursed with misfortune and always complaining, is married to long-suffering wife Margaret, who is often left exasperated by his many misfortunes.