title: Anomalisa

text: In 2005, middle-aged English-born lonely customer service expert and motivational speaker Michael Stone travels to Cincinnati, Ohio to promote his latest book at a convention in a hotel. He feels distant from everyone around him, whom he perceives as having an identical face and voice, including his wife and son. Michael practices his talk in his room in the fictional Fregoli Hotel, but is haunted by the memory of an angry letter from an old flame, Bella, whom he abruptly left years ago without an explanation. He arranges to meet her in the hotel bar; still upset, she is outraged by his invitation to his room and storms out. Going for a walk, Michael mistakes an adult toy store for a children's toy store. Wanting to buy his son a present, he goes in and discovers his mistake, but is fascinated by a Japanese animatronic doll behind the counter.


title: Anomalisa

text: After taking a shower, Michael hears a unique female voice. He rushes from his room to find its owner: Lisa, an insecure young woman attending the convention with her friend Emily. Enraptured by her unique appearance and voice, he invites both women for drinks at the bar. Afterward, to Lisa's surprise, Michael invites her to his room. Captivated, he encourages her to sing (she chooses Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun") and tell him about her life. After she calls herself an "anomaly", he nicknames her Anomalisa. They become intimate and have sex.


title: Anomalisa

text: Michael has a nightmare in which the lower half of his face falls off and the identical people of the world pursue him, claiming that they love him and insisting that he and Lisa cannot be together. The dream inspires Michael to propose that he and Lisa start a new life together. She agrees, but her eating habits during breakfast annoy him, and her voice and face begin to transform into those of everyone else. During his convention talk, Michael suffers a breakdown, saying that he has no one to talk to and ranting about the American government, alienating the audience.


title: Anomalisa

text: Michael returns to his home in Los Angeles, California. He gives the Japanese animatronic woman to his son, who is nonplussed. Michael's wife has arranged a surprise party, but he does not recognize any of the attendees, angering her. Michael sits alone on the stairs as the animatronic woman sings "Momotarō's Song", a Japanese children's song.


title: Anomalisa

text: Lisa writes Michael a letter, saying she hopes they will meet again. Lisa's friend Emily, sitting beside her in the car, has her own unique face.


title: Anomalisa

text: The first version of "Anomalisa" was written and performed in 2005 for the Los Angeles run of "Theater of the New Ear", described as "a concert for music and text, or a set of 'sound plays'" by Carter Burwell, who commissioned and scored them. It was a double bill with Kaufman's "Hope Leaves the Theater", and replaced "Sawbones", by the Coen Brothers, from the earlier New York run, after that play's actors were unavailable. This "Anomalisa" was credited to the pen name Francis Fregoli, a reference to the Fregoli delusion, a disorder centered around the belief that different people are in fact a single person who changes appearance or is in disguise. The 2005 performance had Thewlis and Leigh sitting on opposite sides of the stage, with Noonan in the middle; Burwell conducted the Parabola Ensemble, and there was a foley artist.


title: Anomalisa

text: Kaufman was initially opposed to turning the play into an animated film, saying that the play had "a disconnect between what's being said on stage and what the audience is seeing – there's Tom playing all these characters, there's Jennifer and David having sex while they're really just standing across the stage from each other and moaning. You'd lose that". The film was reinvented, although its script was described by "The Guardian" as "virtually the same" as that of the original play.


title: Anomalisa

text: The film's production company, Starburns Industries, sought funding on Kickstarter to "produce this unique and beautiful film outside of the typical Hollywood studio system," where the company believed the film would be inevitably changed from its initial conception. Initially pitched as a short film "approximately 40 minutes in length", the team set a funding goal of $200,000. By the end of the campaign, 5,770 backers had pledged $406,237 to the project. After the success of the Kickstarter initiative, additional funding was secured by the film's production company, Starburns Industries, and the film was expanded to feature length.


title: Anomalisa

text: The puppets were created with 3D printers, with multiple copies of each character. Eighteen Michaels and six Lisas were created. Johnson recounted that the team was told that such realistic puppets would be "disturbing and off-putting", but disagreed, saying that the nature of stop-motion film, with human hands moving puppets for each frame, brought "organic life" to the medium. One goal of the film was for viewers to "forget they were looking at something animated and just get wrapped up in the scene", he said; "the challenge we felt with so much animated stuff is that you're always conscious of the animation, and we kept asking, 'What if we could escape that? What would it be like?'".


title: Anomalisa

text: Kaufman and Johnson have described the process of stop-motion animation as "laborious" and found challenges in making the puppets look lifelike and relatable. Animator Dan Driscoll said they found people on whom to model the puppets, studied human movement and facial expressions to produce a precise result, created the puppets and built the sets, and finally placed the puppets on the sets and moved them frame by frame to create the illusion of movement. Kaufman said the medium of stop-motion underpins the narrative of "Anomalisa" by drawing attention to small details viewers would not notice in a live-action film.


title: Anomalisa

text: "Anomalisa" had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on September 4, 2015. The film went on to screen at the Venice Film Festival on September 8 and the Toronto International Film Festival on September 15. Shortly after, Paramount Pictures acquired its worldwide distribution rights. The film had a limited release on December 30, 2015 and a wider release in January.


title: Anomalisa

text: The film's DVD and Blu-ray packs were released on June 7, 2016. The Blu-ray Combo Pack with Digital HD includes an in-depth look at the filmmaking process with Kaufman and Johnson and three behind-the-scenes features, including an extended look at the production process and deeper themes of the story. Looks at the sound design and the ground-breaking techniques used to create one of the film's most intricate and intimate scenes are also shown. In the Blu-ray pack, thanks to the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 used in the film's production, ambient sound effects such as the hotel bar background can be perfectly heard and combined with the dialogue.


title: Anomalisa

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 278 reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads: ""Anomalisa" marks another brilliant and utterly distinctive highlight in Charlie Kaufman's filmography, and a thought-provoking treat for fans of introspective cinema." The film also has a weighted average score of 88 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 46 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: Anomalisa

text: In "Time Out" David Calhoun awarded the film five out of five stars and wrote, "It's what you imagine might have happened if Charlie Kaufman had got his hands on "Up in the Air" or "Lost in Translation"." Drew McWeeny of Hitfix called it "the most shattering experiment yet from Charlie Kaufman" and graded it an A+. "LA Weekly"s Amy Nicholson gave the film an A and wrote, "Kaufman is taking our brains apart and showing us the gears." "The Guardian"s Peter Bradshaw gave the film five out of five, naming it his film of the week, and wrote: "It is really funny, and incidentally boasts one of the most extraordinarily real sex scenes in film history. It also scared me the way a top-notch horror or a sci-fi dystopia might ... Is there anyone else in the movies doing such unique and extraordinary work?"


title: Anomalisa

text: "Observer" critic Mark Kermode gave "Anomalisa" three out of five, writing: "Sometimes it falls apart ... But there's something magical about the malaise which raises this above mere misanthropy—a heightened sense of fragile life that perhaps only puppets could hope to achieve." Stephanie Zacharek of "Time" wrote: "Once you start reckoning with "Anomalisa"s obsession with self-absorption, the novelty of this one-man pity party begins to wear off."


title: Flashlight

text: A flashlight (US, Canada) or torch (UK, Australia) is a portable hand-held electric lamp. Formerly, the light source typically was a miniature incandescent light bulb, but these have been displaced by light-emitting diodes (LEDs) since the mid-2000s. A typical flashlight consists of the light source mounted in a reflector, a transparent cover (sometimes combined with a lens) to protect the light source and reflector, a battery, and a switch, all enclosed in a case.


title: Flashlight

text: The invention of the dry cell and miniature incandescent electric lamps made the first battery-powered flashlights possible around 1899. Today, flashlights use mostly light-emitting diodes and run on disposable or rechargeable batteries. Some are powered by the user turning a crank, shaking the lamp, or squeezing it. Some have solar panels to recharge the battery. Flashlights are used as a light source outdoors, in places without permanently installed lighting, during power outages, or when a portable light source is needed.


title: Flashlight

text: In addition to the general-purpose, hand-held flashlight, many forms have been adapted for special uses. Head- or helmet-mounted flashlights designed for miners and campers leave the hands free. Some flashlights can be used under water or in flammable atmospheres.


title: Flashlight

text: Early flashlights ran on zinc–carbon batteries, which could not provide a steady electric current and required periodic "rest" to continue functioning. Because these early flashlights also used energy-inefficient carbon-filament bulbs, "resting" occurred at short intervals. Consequently, they could be used only in brief flashes, hence the common North American name "flashlight".


title: Flashlight

text: The first dry cell battery was invented in 1887. Unlike previous batteries, it used a paste electrolyte instead of a liquid. This was the first battery suitable for portable electrical devices, as it did not spill or break easily and worked in any orientation. The first mass-produced dry cell batteries came in 1896, and the invention of portable electric lights soon followed. Portable hand-held electric lights offered advantages in convenience and safety over (combustion) torches, candles and lanterns. The electric lamp was odorless, smokeless, and emitted less heat than combustion-powered lighting. It could be instantly turned on and off, and avoided fire risk.


title: Flashlight

text: On January 10, 1899, British inventor David Misell obtained U.S. Patent No. 617,592, assigned to American Electrical Novelty and Manufacturing Company. This "electric device" designed by Misell was powered by "D" batteries laid front to back in a paper tube with the light bulb and a rough brass reflector at the end. The company donated some of these devices to the New York City police, who responded favorably to them.


title: Flashlight

text: Carbon-filament bulbs and fairly crude dry cells made early flashlights an expensive novelty, with low sales and low manufacturer interest. Development of the tungsten-filament lamp in 1904, with three times the efficacy of carbon filament types, and improved batteries, made flashlights more useful and popular. The advantage of instant control, and the absence of flame, meant that hand-held electric lights began to replace combustion-based lamps such as the hurricane lantern. By 1922 several types were available; the tubular hand-held variety, a lantern style that could be set down for extended use, pocket-size lamps for close work, and large reflector searchlight-type lamps for lighting distant objects. In 1922 there were an estimated 10 million flashlight users in the United States, with annual sales of renewal batteries and flashlights at $20 million, comparable to sales of many line-operated electrical appliances. Flashlights became very popular in China; by the end of the 1930s, 60 companies made flashlights, some selling for as little as one-third the cost of equivalent imported models. Miniature lamps developed for flashlight and automotive uses became an important sector of the incandescent lamp manufacturing business.


title: Flashlight

text: Incandescent flashlights use incandescent light bulbs, which consists of a glass bulb and a tungsten filament. The bulbs are under vacuum or filled with argon, krypton, or xenon. Some high-power incandescent flashlights use a halogen lamp where the bulb contains a halogen gas such as iodine or bromine to improve the life and efficacy of the bulb. In all but disposable or novelty flashlights, the bulb is user-replaceable; the bulb life may be only a few hours.


title: Flashlight

text: The light output of an incandescent lamp in a flashlight varies widely depending on the type of lamp. A miniature keychain lamp produces one or two lumens. A two-D-cell flashlight using a common prefocus-style miniature lamp produces on the order of 15 to 20 lumens of light and a beam of about 200 candlepower. One popular make of rechargeable focusing flashlight uses a halogen lamp and produces 218 lumens. By comparison, a 60-watt household incandescent lamp will produce about 900 lumens. The luminous efficacy or lumens produced per watt of input of flashlight bulbs varies over the approximate range of 8 to 22 lumens/watt, depending on the size of the bulb and the fill gas, with halogen-filled 12-volt lamps having the highest efficiency.


title: Flashlight

text: Powerful white-light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have mostly replaced incandescent bulbs in practical flashlights. LEDs existed for decades, mainly as low-power indicator lights. In 1999, Lumileds Corporation of San Jose, California, introduced the Luxeon LED, a high-power white-light emitter. This made possible LED flashlights with power and running time better than incandescent lights. The first Luxeon LED flashlight was the Arc LS, designed in 2001. White LEDs in 5 mm diameter packages produce only a few lumens each; many units may be grouped together to provide additional light. Higher-power LEDs, drawing more than 100 milliamperes each, simplify the optical design problem of producing a powerful and tightly controlled beam.


title: Flashlight

text: LEDs can be significantly more efficient than incandescent lamps, with white LEDs producing on the order of 100 lumens for every watt, compared to 8-10 lumens per watt of small incandescent bulbs. An LED flashlight has a longer battery life than an incandescent flashlight with comparable output. LEDs are also less fragile than glass lamps. LED lamps have different spectra of light compared to incandescent sources, and are made in several ranges of color temperature and color rendering index. Since the LED has a long life compared to the usual life of a flashlight, very often it is permanently installed. Flashlights made for an incandescent lamp can often be upgraded to a more efficient LED lamp.


title: Flashlight

text: LEDs generally must have some kind of control to limit current through the diode. Flashlights using one or two disposable 1.5-volt cells require a boost converter to provide the higher voltage required by a white LED, which needs around 3.4 volts to function. Flashlights using three or more dry cells may only use a resistor to limit current. Some flashlights electronically regulate the current through the LEDs to stabilize light output as the batteries discharge. LEDs maintain nearly constant color temperature regardless of input voltage or current, while the color temperature of an incandescent bulb rapidly declines as the battery discharges, becoming redder and less visible. Regulated LED flashlights may also have user-selectable levels of output appropriate to a task, for example, low light for reading a map and high output for checking a road sign. This would be difficult to do with a single incandescent bulb since efficacy of the lamp drops rapidly at low output.


title: Flashlight

text: LED flashlights may consume 1 watt or much more from the battery, producing heat as well as light. In contrast to tungsten filaments, which must be hot to produce light, both the light output and the life of an LED decrease with temperature. Heat dissipation for the LED often dictates that small, high-power LED flashlights have aluminium or other high heat-conductivity bodies, reflectors, and other parts to dissipate heat; they can become warm during use.


title: Flashlight

text: Light output from LED flashlights varies even more widely than for incandescent lights. "Keychain" type lamps operating on button batteries, or lights using a single 5 mm LED, may only produce a few lumens. Even a small LED flashlight operating on an AA cell, but equipped with an LED, can emit 100 lumens. The most powerful LED flashlights produce more than 100,000 lumens and may use multiple LEDs.


title: Flashlight

text: LEDs are highly efficient at producing colored light compared with incandescent lamps and filters. An LED flashlight may contain different LEDs for white and colored light, selectable by the user for different purposes. Colored LED flashlights are used for signalling, special inspection tasks, forensic examination, or to track the blood trail of wounded game animals. A flashlight may have a red LED intended to preserve dark adaptation of vision. Ultraviolet LEDs may be used for inspection lights, for example, detecting fluorescent dyes added to air conditioning systems to detect leakage, examining paper currency, or checking UV-fluorescing marks on laundry or event ticket holders. Infrared LEDs can be used for illuminators for night-vision systems. LED flashlights may be specified to be compatible with night vision devices.


title: Flashlight

text: A less common type of flashlight uses a high-intensity discharge lamp (HID lamp) as the light source. An HID gas discharge lamp uses a mixture of metal halide salts and argon as a filler. HID lamps produce more light than an incandescent flashlight using the same amount of electricity. The lamp lasts longer and is more shock resistant than a regular incandescent bulb, since it lacks the relatively fragile electrical filament found in incandescent bulbs. However, they are much more expensive, due to the ballast circuit required to start and operate the lamp. An HID lamp requires a short warm-up time before it reaches full output.


title: Flashlight

text: Certain accessories for a flashlight allow the color of the light to be altered or allow light to be dispersed differently. Translucent colored plastic cones slipped over the lens of a flashlight increase the visibility when looking at the side of the light. Such marshalling wands are frequently used for directing automobiles or aircraft at night. Colored lenses placed over the end of the flashlight are used for signalling, for example, in railway yards. Colored light is occasionally useful for hunters tracking wounded game after dusk, or for forensic examination of an area. A red filter helps preserve night vision after the flashlight is turned off, and can be useful to observe animals (such as nesting loggerhead sea turtles) without disturbing them.


title: Flashlight

text: Detachable light guides, consisting of rigid, bent plastic rods or semirigid or flexible tubes containing optical fibers, are available for some flashlights for inspection inside tanks, or within walls or structures; when not required, the light guide can be removed and the light used for other purposes.


title: Flashlight

text: A penlight is a small, pen-sized flashlight, often containing two AA or AAA batteries. In some types, the incandescent light bulb has an integral lens that focuses the light, so no reflector is built into the penlight. Others use incandescent bulbs mounted in reflectors. LED penlights are becoming increasingly common. Low-cost units may be disposable with no provision to replace batteries or bulbs and are sometimes imprinted with advertising for promotional purposes.


title: Flashlight

text: A headlamp is designed to be worn on the head, often having separate lamp and battery components. The battery pack may be attached at the back of the head or in a pocket to improve balance. Headlamps leave the users' hands' free. A headlamp can be clipped to the brim of a hat, or built to mount on a hard hat, instead of using straps; other types resemble eyeglass frames. Similar to the headlamp, an angle-head flashlight emits light perpendicular to the length of the battery tube; it can be clipped to a headband, belt, or webbing or set on a flat surface. Some types allow the user to adjust the angle of the head. The Fulton MX991/U Flashlight was an angle-head flashlight issued to US military personnel; similar style lights remain popular.


title: Flashlight

text: Tactical lights are sometimes mounted to a handgun or rifle. They allow momentary illumination of a target. They are small enough to be easily rail-mounted to a gun barrel. Tactical lights must withstand the impact of recoil and must be easily controlled while holding the weapon.


title: Flashlight

text: Although most flashlights are designed for user replacement of the batteries and the bulb as needed, fully sealed disposable flashlights, such as inexpensive keyring lights, are made. When the batteries are depleted or the bulb fails, the entire product is discarded.


title: Flashlight

text: Diving lamps must be watertight under pressure and are used for night diving and supplemental illumination where surface light cannot reach. The battery compartment of a dive lamp may have a catalyst to recombine any hydrogen gas emitted from the battery since gas cannot be vented in use.


title: Flashlight

text: People working in hazardous areas with significant concentrations of flammable gases or dusts, such as mines, engine rooms of ships, chemical plants, or grain elevators, use "nonincendive", "intrinsically safe", or "explosion-proof" flashlights constructed so that any spark in the flashlight is not likely to set off an explosion outside the light. The flashlight may require approval by an authority for the particular service and particular gases or dusts expected. The external temperature rise of the flashlight must not exceed the autoignition point of the gas, so substitution of more powerful lamps or batteries may void the approval.


title: Flashlight

text: Inspection flashlights have permanently mounted light guides containing optical fibers or plastic rods. Another style has a lamp mounted at the end of a flexible cable, or a semirigid or articulated probe. Such lamps are used for inspection inside tanks, or inside structures such as aircraft. Where used for inspecting the interior of tanks containing flammable liquids, the inspection lights may also be rated as flame-proof (explosion-proof) so that they cannot ignite liquids or vapors.


title: Flashlight

text: Otoscopes and ophthalmoscopes are medical instruments that combine a hand-held light source and magnifying lenses for examination of the ear canal and eyes, respectively.


title: Flashlight

text: Aboard naval ships, battle lanterns may be used as emergency portable lighting. Installed in major compartments of the ship, a battle lantern can be detached from its mounting and used as portable lighting in the event primary lighting is out of service. Battle lanterns may use either incandescent or LED lamps and may have either disposable primary or rechargeable batteries.


title: Flashlight

text: Many flashlights are cylindrical in design, with the lamp assembly attached to one end. However, early designs came in a variety of other shapes. Some resembled candlesticks, with a bulb mounted at the top of a battery tube fixed to a flat base, with a handle. Many resembled lanterns, consisting of a battery box with a handle and the lamp and reflector attached to the front. Electric lanterns are used for lighting the broad area immediately around the lantern, as opposed to forming a narrow beam; they can be set down on a level surface or attached to supports. Some electric lanterns use miniature fluorescent lamps for higher efficiency than incandescent bulbs. Portable hand-held electric spotlights can provide larger reflectors and lamps and more powerful batteries than tubular flashlights meant to fit in a pocket.


title: Flashlight

text: Multifunction portable devices may include a flashlight as one of their features, for example, a portable radio/flashlight combination. Many smartphones have a button or software application available to turn up their screen backlights to full intensity or to switch on the camera flash or video light, providing a "flashlight" function.


title: Flashlight

text: In addition to utilitarian flashlights, novelty, toy, and ornamental portable electric lights have been made in a myriad of shapes; in the 1890s, one of the earliest portable battery light applications was a type of novelty porcelain tie pin with a concealed bulb and battery.


title: Flashlight

text: The most common power source for flashlights is the battery. Primary battery (disposable) types used in flashlights include button cells, carbon-zinc batteries in both regular and heavy duty types, alkaline, and lithium.


title: Flashlight

text: Secondary, rechargeable types include lead-acid batteries, NiMH, NiCd batteries and lithium-ion batteries. The choice of batteries plays a determining role in the size, weight, run time, and shape of the flashlight. Flashlight users may prefer a common battery type to simplify replacement.


title: Flashlight

text: Primary cells are most economical for infrequent use. Some types of lithium primary cell can be stored for years with less risk of leakage compared with zinc-type batteries. Long storage life is useful where flashlights are required only in emergencies. Lithium primary batteries are also useful at lower temperatures than zinc batteries, all of which have water-based electrolytes. Lithium primary batteries have a lower internal resistance than zinc primary batteries, so are more efficient in high-drain flashlights.


title: Flashlight

text: Flashlights used for extended periods every day may be more economically operated on rechargeable (secondary) batteries. Flashlights designed for rechargeable batteries may allow charging without removing the batteries; for example, a light kept in a vehicle may be trickle-charged and always ready when needed. Some rechargeable flashlights have indicators for the state of charge of the battery. Power-failure lights are designed to keep their batteries charged from a wall plug and to automatically turn on after an AC power failure; the power-failure light can be removed from the wall socket and used as a portable flashlight. Solar powered flashlights use energy from solar cells to charge an on-board battery for later use.


title: Flashlight

text: One type of mechanically powered flashlight has a winding crank and spring connected to a small electrical generator (dynamo). Some types use the dynamo to charge a capacitor or battery, while others only light while the dynamo is moving. Others generate electricity using electromagnetic induction. They use a strong permanent magnet that can freely slide up and down a tube, passing through a coil of wire as it does. Shaking the flashlight charges a capacitor or a rechargeable battery that supplies current to a light source. Such flashlights can be useful during an emergency, when utility power and batteries may not be available. Dynamo-powered flashlights were popular during the Second World War since replacement batteries were difficult to find.


title: Flashlight

text: At least one manufacturer makes a rechargeable flashlight that uses a supercapacitor to store energy. The capacitor can be recharged more rapidly than a battery and can be recharged many times without loss of capacity; however, the running time is limited by the relative bulk of capacitors compared to electrochemical batteries.


title: Flashlight

text: A reflector with an approximately parabolic shape concentrates the light emitted by the bulb into a directed beam. Some flashlights allow the user to adjust the relative position of the lamp and reflector, giving a variable-focus effect from a wide floodlight to a narrow beam. Reflectors may be made of polished metal, glass, or plastic with an aluminized reflective finish. Some manufacturers use a pebbled or "orange peel", instead of a smooth reflector, to improve the uniformity of the light beam emitted. Where multiple LEDs are used, each one may be put in its own parabolic reflector. Flashlights using a "total internal reflection" assembly have a transparent optical element (light pipe) to guide light from the source into a beam; no reflector surface is required. For a given size of light source, a larger reflector or lens allows a tighter beam to be produced, while capturing the same fraction of the emitted light. Some flashlights use Fresnel lenses, which allow the weight of the lens to be reduced.


title: Flashlight

text: The reflector may have a flat transparent cover to keep out dirt and moisture, but some designs have a plastic or glass "bulls-eye" lens to form a concentrated beam. The lens or reflector cover must resist impacts and the heat of the lamp, and must not lose too much of the transmitted light to reflection or absorption. Very small flashlights may not have a reflector or lens separate from the lamp. Some types of penlight bulbs or small LEDs have a built-in lens.


title: Flashlight

text: A reflector forms a narrow beam called the "throw" in hobbyist parlance, while light emitted forward misses the reflector and forms a wide flood or "spill" of light. Because LEDs emit most light in a hemisphere, lens lights with the LED facing forward or reflector lights with it facing backwards radiate less spill. Variable focus "zoom" or "flood to throw" lights may move the reflector or lens or they may move the emitter; moving the emitter presents the designer with the problem of maintaining heat dissipation for the LED.


title: Flashlight

text: The original 1890s flashlights used a metal ring around the fiber body of the flashlight as one contact of a switch; the second contact was a movable metal loop that could be flipped down to touch the ring, completing the circuit. A wide variety of mechanical switch designs using slide switches, rocker switches, or side-mounted or end-mounted pushbuttons has been used in flashlights. A common combination is a slide switch that allows the light to be left on for an extended time, combined with a momentary button for intermittent use or signalling. (On earlier models, the button was a switch and the slider simply locked the button down.) Since voltages and currents are low, switch design is limited only by the available space and desired cost of production. Switches may be covered with a flexible rubber boot to exclude dirt and moisture and may be backlit for easy location. Another common type of switch relies on twisting the head of the light. Weapon-mounted lights may have remote switches for convenience in operation.


title: Flashlight

text: Electronic controls allow the user to select variable output levels or different operating modes such as pre-programmed flashing beacon or strobe modes. Electronic controls may be operated by buttons, sliders, magnets, rotating heads, or rotating control rings. Some models of flashlight include an acceleration sensor to allow them to respond to shaking, or to select modes based on what direction the light is held when switched on. At least one manufacturer allows user programming of the features of the flashlight through a USB port. An electronic control may also provide an indication of remaining battery capacity, voltage, or provide information regarding recharging or automatic step-down of brightness as the battery nears full discharge.


title: Flashlight

text: Early flashlights used vulcanized fiber or hard rubber tubes with metal end caps. Many other materials including drawn steel, plated brass, copper, or silver, and even wood and leather have been used. Modern flashlights are generally made of plastic or aluminum. Plastics range from low-cost polystyrene and polyethylene to more complex mixtures of ABS or glass-reinforced epoxies. Some manufacturers have proprietary plastic formulations for their products. A desirable plastic for manufacturing flashlights allows for ease of molding and adequate mechanical properties of the finished flashlight case. Aluminum, either plain, painted or anodized, is a popular choice. It is electrically conductive, can be easily machined, and dissipates heat well. Several standard alloys of aluminum are used. Other metals include copper, stainless steel, and titanium, which can be polished to provide a decorative finish. Zinc can be die-cast into intricate shapes. Magnesium and its alloys provide strength and heat dissipation similar to aluminum with less weight, but they corrode easily.


title: Flashlight

text: Metals may be drawn into a tubular shape, or tubular extruded stock can be machined to add threads for the head and tail cap, knurling for grip, and decorative and functional flats or holes in the body. LED flashlights may have cooling fins machined into their metal cases. Plastics are often injection molded into nearly final shape, requiring only a few more process steps to complete assembly.


title: Flashlight

text: Metal cases provide better heat dissipation for the LED, but plastics are not electrically conductive and may resist corrosion and wear.


title: Flashlight

text: Industrial, marine, public safety, and military organizations develop specifications for flashlights in specialized roles. Typically, light output, overall dimensions, and battery compatibility and durability are required to meet minimum limits. Flashlights may be tested for impact resistance, water and chemical resistance, and the lifespan of the control switch.


title: Flashlight

text: Flashlights intended for use in hazardous areas with flammable gas or dust are tested to ensure they cannot set off an explosion. Flashlights approved for flammable gas areas have markings indicating the approving agency (MSHA, ATEX, UL, etc.) and symbols for the conditions that were tested. Flashlights for hazardous areas may be designed to automatically disconnect the lamp if the bulb is broken, to prevent ignition of flammable gas.


title: Flashlight

text: Regulations for ships and aircraft specify the number and general properties of flashlights included as part of the standard safety equipment of the vessel. Flashlights for small boats may be required to be waterproof and to float. Uniformed services may issue particular models of flashlights, or may only provide minimum performance standards for the member to purchase his or her own flashlights.


title: Flashlight

text: The United States Army former standard MIL-F-3747E described the performance standard for plastic flashlights using two or three D-cell dry batteries, in either straight or angle form, and in standard, explosion-proof, heat-resistant, traffic direction, and inspection types. The standard described only incandescent lamp flashlights and was withdrawn in 1996.


title: Flashlight

text: In the United States, ANSI in 2009 published "FL1 Flashlight basic performance standard". This voluntary standard defines test procedures and conditions for total light output, beam intensity, working distance, impact and water resistance, and battery running time to 10% of initial light output. The FL1 standard gives definitions for terms used in marketing flashlights, with the intention of allowing the consumer to compare products tested to the standard. The standard recommends particular graphic symbols and wording for the product package, so that the consumer can identify products tested to the standard. Testing may be carried out by the manufacturer itself or by a third-party test laboratory.


title: Flashlight

text: The FL1 standard requires measurements reported on the packaging to be made with the type of batteries packaged with the flashlight, or with an identified type of battery. Initial light output is measured with an integrating sphere photometer, 30 seconds after the light is switched on with fresh (or newly charged) batteries. The total light emitted is reported in lumens. Luminous intensity is determined by measuring the brightest spot in the beam produced by the flashlight, in candelas. Since this is a measure of all the light emitted in a solid angle (the "cone" of light in a particular direction), the beam intensity is independent of distance.


title: Flashlight

text: The working distance is defined as the distance at which the maximum light falling on a surface (illuminance) would fall to 0.25 lux. This is comparable to a full moon on a clear night. The distance is calculated from the square root of (the beam intensity in candelas divided by 0.25 lux); for example, a beam intensity of 1000 candelas produces a working range rating of the square root of (1000/0.25), or 63 meters. The result is reported in meters or feet. The working distance is from the point of view of the user of the flashlight. A light directly pointed at an observer may be visible against a dark background for many times this distance, especially if the observer has night-vision equipment.


title: Flashlight

text: Run time is measured using the supplied or specified batteries and letting the light run until the intensity of the beam has dropped to 10% of the value 30 seconds after switching on. The standard does not evaluate the behavior of the flashlight output during run time. A regulated flashlight may run at only a slowly declining output and then abruptly cut off, but unregulated types may have steeply-declining light output after only a short time. Manufacturers of headlamps may use a different standard which rates run times until light output falls to 1 lux at 2 meters distance; this value is not comparable to the FL 1 runtime measurement.


title: Flashlight

text: Impact resistance is measured by dropping the flashlight in six different orientations and observing that it still functions and has no large cracks or breaks in it; the height used in the test is reported. Water resistance, if specified, is evaluated after impact testing; no water is to be visible inside the unit and it must remain functional. Ratings are given in IP Code terms, where jet spray corresponds to IP X6, brief immersion to IPX7, 30 minutes immersion at 1 meter or more is IP X8; (the depth is reported if greater than 1 meter). An IP X8 rating by FL1 does not imply that the lamp is suitable for use as a diver's light since the test protocol examines function of the light only after immersion, not during immersion.


title: Flashlight

text: The consumer must decide how well the ANSI test conditions match their requirements, but all manufacturers testing to the FL1 standard can be compared on a uniform basis. The light measurements are more directly related to the use of flashlights than is the nominal power input to the lamp (watts), since different LED and incandescent lamp types vary widely in the amount of light produced per watt. Even the same LED or lamp in different optical systems will show different beam characteristics. The visibility of objects depends on many factors as well as the amount of light emitted by the flashlight.


title: Flashlight

text: ANSI standard FL1 does not specify measurements of the beam width angle but the candela intensity and total lumen ratings can be used by the consumer to assess the beam characteristics. Where two flashlights have similar total light (lumen) measures, the unit with the higher candela rating produces a more concentrated beam of light, suitable for lighting distant objects; it will also have a higher working distance. If two lights have similar candela ratings, the light with higher lumen value will produce a wider beam and will light a wider area overall. A beam width (containing most of the power of the beam, or "hot spot") of a few degrees corresponds to a spot light, useful for searching for distant objects; beam widths of 20 degrees or more are described as flood lights, suitable for lighting a wide nearby area. Typically even a flashlight beam with a small hot spot will have some light visible as "spill" around the spot.


title: Flashlight

text: In 2018, in the United States, Underwriter's Laboratories published UL standard 1576 for flashlights and lanterns, outlining safety requirements and performance tests.


title: Duck typing

text: Duck typing in computer programming is an application of the duck test—"If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, then it must be a duck"—to determine whether an object can be used for a particular purpose. With nominative typing, an object is "of a given type" if it is declared to be (or if a type's association with the object is inferred through mechanisms such as object inheritance). In duck typing, an object is "of a given type" if it has all methods and properties required by that type. Duck typing can be viewed as a usage-based structural equivalence between a given object and the requirements of a type. See structural typing for a further explanation of structural type equivalence.


title: Duck typing

text: This is a simple example in Python 3 that demonstrates how any object may be used in any context, up until it is used in a way that it does not support.


title: Duck typing

text: So, if we assume everything that can swim is a duck because ducks can swim, we will consider a whale to be a duck, but, if we also assume it has to be capable of flying, the whale won’t be considered to be a duck.


title: Duck typing

text: In some statically typed languages such as Boo and D, class type checking can be specified to occur at run time rather than compile time.


title: Duck typing

text: Duck typing is similar to, but distinct from, structural typing. Structural typing is a static typing system that determines type compatibility and equivalence by a type's structure, whereas duck typing is dynamic and determines type compatibility by only that part of a type's structure that is accessed during run time.


title: Duck typing

text: Protocols and interfaces provide a way to declare, explicitly, that some methods, operators, or behaviors need to be defined (e.g. must have a "quack()" method). If a third-party library implements a class that cannot be modified, a client cannot use an instance of it with an interface unknown to that library even if the class does, in fact, satisfy the interface requirements. A common solution to this problem is the Adapter pattern. In contrast, under duck typing, the object would be accepted directly, without the need for an adaptor.


title: Duck typing

text: Template, or generic functions or methods apply the duck test in a static typing context; this brings all the advantages and disadvantages of static versus dynamic type checking in general. Duck typing can also be more flexible in that only the methods "actually called at runtime" need to be implemented, while templates require implementations of all methods that "can not be proven unreachable at compile time".


title: Duck typing

text: In languages like Java, Scala, and Objective-C, reflection can be used to inspect whether objects implement methods or even add necessary methods at runtime.


title: Ann Morgan Guilbert

text: Ann Morgan Guilbert (October 16, 1928 – June 14, 2016), sometimes credited as Ann Guilbert, was an American television and film actress and comedian who portrayed a number of roles from the 1950s on, most notably as Millie Helper in 61 episodes of the early 1960s sitcom "The Dick Van Dyke Show", and later Yetta Rosenberg, Fran Fine's doddering grandmother, in 56 episodes of the 1990s sitcom "The Nanny".


title: Ann Morgan Guilbert

text: Guilbert was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the daughter of Dr. Gerald Guilbert, a physician, and his wife, Cornelia (née Morgan). Her paternal grandfather, Lionel Guilbert, was an immigrant from England.


title: Ann Morgan Guilbert

text: She attended Solomon Juneau High School and after moving to San Francisco studied theater arts at Stanford University. She began her career as a featured performer and singer in the "Billy Barnes Revues" of the 1950s and 1960s.


title: Ann Morgan Guilbert

text: After "The Dick Van Dyke Show", she made guest appearances in many other television shows, including "Adam-12" (the premiere episode), as well as "The Andy Griffith Show", "Love, American Style", "That Girl", "Dragnet", "Picket Fences", "Seinfeld", "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "". From 1993 to 1999, she appeared as Yetta Rosenberg on "The Nanny". In December 2004, she appeared in the reunion of "The Nanny" titled "" with Fran Drescher and other cast members of "The Nanny".


title: Ann Morgan Guilbert

text: She appeared in such feature films as "A Guide for the Married Man", "Viva Max!", "Grumpier Old Men" (as the mother of Sophia Loren's character), and "Please Give", for which she received the CFA for Best Supporting Actress.


title: Ann Morgan Guilbert

text: Guilbert was married to writer and producer George Eckstein from 1951 until their divorce in 1966. They had two children together, actress Hallie Todd and acting coach Nora Eckstein. Her second marriage, to Guy Raymond, lasted from 1967 until his death in 1997.


title: Ann Morgan Guilbert

text: Guilbert died of pancreatic cancer in Los Angeles on June 14, 2016, aged 87. An episode of "Life in Pieces" was dedicated in her memory.


title: Golmaal Again

text: Golmaal Again () is a 2017 Indian Hindi-language supernatural comedy film written and directed by Rohit Shetty; produced by Rohit Shetty Pictures, Mangal Murti Films and Reliance Entertainment. The film is the fourth installment of "Golmaal" franchise and stars Ajay Devgn, Arshad Warsi, Parineeti Chopra, Tabu, Tusshar Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade, Kunal Khemu, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Johnny Lever.


title: Golmaal Again

text: The film was released on Diwali 2017. Despite clashing with Aamir Khan's "Secret Superstar", "Golmaal Again" became one of the year's highest grossers, was a blockbuster at the box office and became the 42nd highest grossing Indian film of all time. Its lifetime domestic net collection was more than 205 crores, while the worldwide gross ended at 311 crores. The film received mixed reviews from critics with praise for its humour and performances and criticism for its flaws in the technical aspects.


title: Golmaal Again

text: Gopal, Madhav, Lucky, Laxman and Laxman 2 are orphans in an orphanage in Ooty managed by businessman Jamnadas. Gopal is afraid of ghosts, Lucky is mute and Laxman has a speech impediment. The boys find a baby girl and take her in, naming her Khushi. They care for her and are also aware of librarian Anna's ability to see ghosts and spirits. One day, when Madhav pranks and scares the timid Gopal in an empty bungalow, a fight ensues between the boys. Gopal gets punished, which prompts Gopal and Laxman to leave the orphanage, and soon, Madhav, Lucky and Laxman also do the same. Khushi is later adopted by the loving Colonel Chauhan and his wife.


title: Golmaal Again

text: Some years later, Gopal and Laxman work for Babli Bhai and Madhav, Lucky and Laxman work for Vasooli Bhai. The group reunites after learning about Jamnadas' demise. Returning to the orphanage after 25 years, they meet Col. Chauhan, Anna and Pappi, another orphan from the orphanage who has frequent memory loss. They meet a girl who they think is the bungalow's caretaker, Damini and learn about Khushi's demise. At an event after Jamnadas' funeral, businessman Vasu Reddy reveals the orphanage would be demolished and moved elsewhere in plans to make his own building. When the group leaves the orphanage and returns, a ghost possesses Laxman and speak in Nana Patekar's voice which scares Gopal. Next, the ghost possesses Madhav and prompts Vasooli to give them a task, indirectly bringing the three back to Ooty. A scared Gopal calls Anna, who reveals that there is a spirit in their house and suggests him and Laxman to move to Col. Chauhan's house. Upon reaching Ooty, the two groups start fighting each other out of anger. The three try to scare Gopal into leaving the house, but Gopal gets possessed and beats Lucky and Laxman badly. Later, Vasu Reddy assigns Madhav, Lucky and Laxman to burn down the house. But things go awry when Lucky gets possessed by the spirit and starts talking, which scares the group. The two groups then decide to leave, but Anna and Damini convince them to stay for the birthday celebration, and the group makes amends. The four find that Gopal has fallen in love with Damini and force him to confess his feelings. Pappi arrives and reveals that the girl they assumed to be Damini is actually Khushi, who is dead, while the real Damini is Pappi's girlfriend. The boys get terrified and try to escape the house along with Pappi, Babli Bhai and Vasooli Bhai after Damini confesses it herself. Anna arrives and stops them and explains to them that the ghost is none other than their childhood friend Khushi.


title: Golmaal Again

text: A flashback narrated by Khushi explains how her boyfriend, Nikhil Surana, a young businessman and Jamnadas' nephew, killed him in order to obtain the orphanage in his name and demolish it for the construction of a site. Upon confronting him and threatening to go to the police, Khushi was strangled to death by Nikhil. With the help of Vasu Reddy, he managed to prove the killings to be accidents. However, Khushi's spirit came for help to Anna, who was surprised that the boys could see Khushi and eventually brought them to the house to help get justice for Khushi.


title: Golmaal Again

text: Back to the present, Gopal thrashes the goons sent by Vasu Reddy while the rest of the boys, who wanted to stay away from the matter, get emotionally convinced to stay. They convince Gopal to stop chasing the goons and later almost manage to scare Vasu into confessing the truth, but Nikhil arrives before they can and reveals that there is no evidence to prove him guilty. This leads to a fight, during which Khushi attacks and nearly kills Nikhil but is calmed down by Anna, and Vasu convinces Nikhil to confess. With the orphanage saved, Khushi's spirit departs to heaven after bidding goodbye to the boys and Anna.


title: Golmaal Again

text: In July 2016, Rohit Shetty and Ajay Devgn announced the fourth installment of "Golmaal" series. For the female lead role, Shetty again wanted to cast Kareena Kapoor who played the heroine in "Golmaal 2" & "Golmaal 3". However, she stepped out owing to her pregnancy and Parineeti Chopra was signed. After Tabu's entry in the film, Neil Nitin Mukesh was confirmed for the antagonistic part. Prakash Raj joined the film in February 2017.


title: Golmaal Again

text: Principal photography commenced at Mumbai in March 2017. First schedule ended in April 2017. The film wrapped up in July 2017, and post-production work was finished in the last week of August 2017.


title: Golmaal Again

text: Meena Iyer of "The Times of India" gave the film 3.5 stars and stated that the film is full of laughs with no substance. Raja Sen of NDTV gave the film 2 stars, stating that "Golmaal Again" is "a marginally better film than "Golmaal 3" and "Golmaal Returns"" but felt the film was too long. Rajeev Masand of News 18 gave the film 2 out of 5 stars and said, "Mercifully no cars are spun around like tops and exploded this time around, but the characters repeatedly bandy about the film's message like a disclaimer, as if warning you not to expect any more than they promise to deliver: “No logic, only magic.” Logic indeed is in short supply here, and frankly, the real magic the filmmakers conjure up is the ability to keep this franchise on the road for all these years with such minimal creative investment."


title: Golmaal Again

text: On its opening day, "Golmaal Again" grossed 30.10 crore net, one of the highest openings for a Bollywood film in 2017. The film collected 28.25 on the second day. The third day's collection was 28.5 crore. On the fourth day, the film collected 15.25 crore, taking the total collections to 102.85 crore. On the fifth day, the film collected 13.25 crore. The sixth day's collection of the film was 10.5 crore.


title: Golmaal Again

text: By the end of the first week, the film grossed 135 crore. The third week's gross was 1974 million. "Golmaal Again" grossed 200 crore after four weeks of its release in Indian box office. The film grossed US$3 million in its first weekend in overseas. The film grossed $160,000 in Nepal, and $400,000 in Pakistan in the first weekend. The worldwide collection of the film was 3 billion in its fourth week. Also it is the highest-grossing Indian film in Fiji. The film became the highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2017 Until Tiger Zinda Hai broke its record in 2017. "Golmaal Again" ran in cinemas for more than 50 days in India.


title: Golmaal Again

text: The music of the film have been composed by Amaal Mallik, S. Thaman, Lijo George-DJ Chetas and Abhishek Arora while the lyrics of the film have been penned by Kumaar. The first track of the film titled as "Golmaal (Title Track)" sung by Brijesh Shandilya and Aditi Singh Sharma was released on 23 September 2017. The second track of the film "Neend Churai Meri" from the 1997 film "Ishq" has been recreated to "Maine Tujhko Dekha" for this film in the voices of Neeraj Shridhar and Sukriti Kakar and was released on 29 September 2017. The soundtrack was released on 6 October 2017 by T-Series.


title: Amazon Music

text: Amazon Music (previously Amazon MP3) is a music streaming platform and online music store operated by Amazon. Launched in public beta on September 25, 2007, in January 2008 it became the first music store to sell music without digital rights management (DRM) from the four major music labels (EMI, Universal, Warner, and Sony BMG), as well as many independents. All tracks were originally sold in 256 kilobits-per-second variable bitrate MP3 format without per-customer watermarking or DRM; however, some tracks are now watermarked. Licensing agreements with recording companies restrict the countries in which the music can be sold.


title: Amazon Music

text: After the United States, Amazon MP3 was launched in the United Kingdom on December 3, 2008, in Germany on April 1, 2009, and in France on June 10, 2009. The German edition has been available in Austria and Switzerland since December 3, 2009. The Amazon MP3 store was launched in Japan on November 10, 2010. The Spanish and Italian editions were launched on October 4, 2012. The edition in Mexico was announced on November 7, 2018.


title: Amazon Music

text: On September 17, 2019, Amazon Music announced the launch of Amazon Music HD, a new tier of lossless quality music with more than 50 million songs in High Definition (16bit/44.1kHz), and millions of songs in Ultra High Definition (24(bit)/44(kHz), 24/48, 24/96, 24/192), the highest-quality streaming audio available. Amazon is now among Tidal and Qobuz who offer lossless music for audiophiles. The HD streaming service was later made available to all unlimited customers for free on May 17, 2021.


title: Amazon Music

text: At launch, Amazon offered "over 2 million songs from over 180,000 artists and over 20,000 labels, including EMI Music and Universal Music Group", to customers located in the United States only. In December 2007 Warner Music announced that it would offer its catalog on Amazon MP3 and in January 2008, Sony BMG followed suit. The current catalog is 29.1 million songs.


title: Amazon Music

text: In January 2008, Amazon announced plans to roll Amazon MP3 out "internationally". Amazon limits international access by checking users' credit card issued country. The first international version was launched December 3, 2008 in the United Kingdom. German, Austrian, French, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, Canadian, and Indian versions of the store followed.


title: Amazon Music

text: "Music Prime", a service offering unlimited streaming of a limited music catalog has been available to Amazon Prime subscribers at no additional cost in several countries since mid 2014.


title: Amazon Music

text: "Music Unlimited", a full-catalog streaming service has been available as an additional tier or as a standalone subscription since late 2016. Though in India, there is only one tier of Amazon Music available, known as the "Amazon Prime Music" and is provided to all the existing Prime members at no additional cost and gives access to the full catalog, including podcasts.


title: Amazon Music

text: Amazon Music's streaming music catalog is accessible from the Amazon.com web player using HTML DRM extensions or from player apps for multiple platforms including macOS, iOS, Windows, Android, FireOS, Alexa devices, and some automobiles and smart TVs. Amazon's purchasable music catalog is accessible from the Amazon.com web site by searching for an artist or title name, or via a store embedded in many, but not all, of the player apps. To download purchased music, Amazon offers either the Amazon Music player (which runs on Windows 7 or later and Mac OS X 10.9 and later) or a zip file of MP3s downloaded from Amazon's web player.


title: Amazon Music

text: Amazon Music previously offered additional applications, such as one for Blackberry and one for Palm. These are no longer offered. Amazon also previously offered a separate app for Mac OS X and Windows, called the Amazon Music Downloader, which is no longer available. The downloader was purely for downloading purchased tracks, it did not offer music playback capabilities.


title: Amazon Music

text: On February 1, 2008, Pepsi introduced a Pepsi Stuff promotion in partnership with Amazon MP3. Customers can exchange points offered on 4 billion Pepsi bottles for, among other prizes, MP3 downloads from Warner, EMI, and Sony BMG (though not Universal).


title: Amazon Music

text: Rockstar Games' 2008 title "Grand Theft Auto IV" connects to Amazon MP3. Players can register on the Rockstar Games Social Club web site to receive e-mail outside the game containing a link to buy marked songs from Amazon MP3.


title: Amazon Music

text: On June 24, 2021, Amazon announced its acquisition of Art19, a major podcast hosting and monetization platform.


title: Amazon Music

text: Initial reaction to Amazon MP3 was generally positive. The unofficial Apple Weblog praised the lack of DRM especially given that track prices were cheaper than iTunes Plus songs at launch, but the reviewer considered the user experience better in iTunes than on the Amazon web site. Om Malik of GigaOM also praised the lack of DRM and the high bitrate but disliked the need to install another application to download albums. Overall, the reviewer said "…I think it makes sense for everyone to browse the Amazon store before hitting the 'buy' button on iTunes."


title: Amazon Music

text: A 2007 study by Eliot Van Buskirk of "Wired News"'s "Listening Post" blog investigated whether Amazon MP3 was watermarking tracks with personally identifiable information. Van Buskirk quoted an Amazon spokesperson as saying, "Amazon does not apply watermarks. Files are generally provided to us from the labels and some labels use watermarks to identify the retailer who sold the tracks (there is no information on the tracks that identifies the customer)." The study concluded that although tracks may be watermarked to indicate that they were purchased on Amazon MP3, there is no data to indicate which specific customer purchased a given MP3 file. This observation reflected Amazon's policy at the time.


title: Amazon Music

text: By 2011, however, the policy had changed and certain explicitly labeled tracks embed "Record Company Required Metadata" including, among other information, unique identifiers:


title: Amazon Music

text: Embedded in the metadata of each purchased MP3 from [Universal Music Group] are a random number Amazon assigns to your order, the Amazon store name, the purchase date and time, codes that identify the album and song (the UPC and ISRC), Amazon's digital signature, and an identifier that can be used to determine whether the audio has been modified. In addition, Amazon inserts the first part of the email address associated with your Amazon.com account


title: Amazon Music

text: Music downloaded during the temporary promotional time period of trial membership will be blocked from access if the membership isn't continued.


title: Amazon Music

text: The Amazon Music player (formerly branded Cloud Player) is integrated with the digital music Prime and Unlimited streaming services, as well as the music store for purchases (on most platforms). The players allow users to store and play their music from a web browser, mobile apps, and desktop applications, Sonos (United States only), Bose (United States only) and other platforms such as certain smart TVs.


title: Amazon Music

text: Amazon Music Player accounts get 250 tracks of free storage; however, music purchased through Amazon MP3 store does not count towards the storage limit. Once the music is stored in Amazon Music, a user can choose to download it to one of the Android, iOS, or desktop devices using Amazon Music application.


title: Amazon Music

text: Music is uploaded via the Amazon Music player for PC and Mac. Previously, Amazon offered the Amazon MP3 Uploader, which was an Adobe AIR application.


title: Amazon Music

text: Amazon Music allows 10 devices (computer, browser, mobile, etc.) to be authorized. Customers can deauthorize their old devices via a web interface.


title: Amazon Music

text: Originally bundled with Amazon Cloud Drive was the music streaming application called Cloud Player which allowed users to play their music stored in the Cloud Drive from any computer or Android device with Internet access. This was discontinued.


title: Amazon Music

text: Amazon Music for PC was launched in May 2013 as a downloadable Windows application for playing music outside a web browser. The OS X version of Amazon Music was released in October 2013.


title: Amazon Music

text: On December 8, 2015, Amazon Music Prime became available on Denon® Electronics HEOS by Denon wireless sound systems, adding a new streaming outlet for music and entertainment enthusiasts.


title: Amazon Music

text: On October 12, 2016, Amazon Music Unlimited was released in the United States. Music Unlimited is a full-catalog unlimited streaming service, available as a monthly or annual subscription. It is billed in addition to, and available without an Amazon Prime account. The service later expanded to users in the United Kingdom, Germany and Austria on November 14, 2016.


title: Amazon Music

text: Much commentary on Amazon Music at launch focused on its legality, since Amazon launched the service without the approval of the record labels. Amazon's official statement was "Cloud Player is an application that lets customers manage and play their own music. It's like any number of existing media management applications. We do not need a license to make Cloud Player available." Technology website Ars Technica noted that this is "seemingly logical" since users are uploading and playing back their own music, so the licenses users acquired from the original purchase apply to the Cloud Player in the same way they apply to transferring and playing music from an external hard drive or digital audio player. Techdirt commented that the Cloud Player is "just letting people take music files they already [have], and allowing them to store and stream them from the internet. Why should it require an extra license to let people listen to music they already have?"


title: Amazon Music

text: Record labels reacted in shock to the Cloud Player's launch, insisting that licenses were needed for this type of service.


title: Amazon Music

text: Intellectual property lawyer Denise Howell stated that "the legality of cloud storage and remote access to items already purchased make intuitive sense", but given the record labels' reaction and track record of legal action against online music services, warned that it will likely take "definitive and hard-fought judicial pronouncements" to settle the issue.


title: Amazon Music

text: In October 2022, Amazon Music began to make its entire library of over 100 million songs available to Amazon Prime subscribers. However, when doing so, it restricted the ability to play songs or albums on-demand. In addition, previously purchased and downloaded music can no longer be played unless connected to the internet.


title: ASVEL Basket

text: ASVEL Basket, commonly known as ASVEL or sometimes as ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne, and also known as LDLC ASVEL for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional basketball team that is located in the city of Villeurbanne, which is a suburb of Lyon, France. The club, which is the basketball section of the ASVEL multi-sports club, competes in the top-tier level French Pro A League. The club's home games are played at L'Astroballe, which seats 5,556 people.


title: ASVEL Basket

text: Founded in 1948, the team is the most successful in French basketball with 21 Pro A championships and 10 French Cup titles.


title: ASVEL Basket

text: In 2014, Tony Parker became the president of the club. In 2017, Nicolas Batum became the club's director of basketball operations. In June 2019, football club Olympique Lyonnais purchased a 25% stake in the ASVEL men's team, plus a 10% stake in the ASVEL women's team, in a deal worth around €3.7 million. The deal also included a plan for a new EuroLeague-standard arena.


title: ASVEL Basket

text: The parent club was founded in 1948, with the merger of two multi-sport clubs in Lyon and vicinity; ASVEL is an acronym combining the names of the predecessor clubs—Association Sportive Villeurbanne" and Éveil Lyonnais". In its history, ASVEL has won 20 French Pro A League championships, 10 French Cups, two French Supercups, one French Federation Cup, and one Semaine des As Cup (French Pro A Leaders Cup), which makes it the most titled basketball club in France.


title: ASVEL Basket

text: In 2014, former San Antonio Spurs star and French national team player, Tony Parker, became the club's president.


title: ASVEL Basket

text: In the French Pro A League 2015–16 season, ASVEL won its 18th French League title, after beating Strasbourg IG 3 games to 2 in the French Pro A League Finals. ASVEL was down 2–0 in the series, but won three games in a row to take the championship.


title: ASVEL Basket

text: In March 2017, NBA player, Nicolas Batum, became a shareholder in Infinity Nine Sports, the main investment company behind the club, and took over the position as director of basketball operations. Tony Parker remained majority owner, and ASVEL President. In 2018, the club signed a 10-year name sponsorship agreement with LDLC. The club also changed its main team colors from the original white and green to white and black, and changed its main logo design.


title: ASVEL Basket

text: In 2019, ASVEL returned to the EuroLeague after the organisation decided to give the team a wild card for two years.


title: ASVEL Basket

text: In the 2021–22 season, ASVEL won its third Pro A championship in a row, its first three-peat in 32 years after beating Monaco in the Finals.


title: ASVEL Basket

text: In July 2016, ASVEL announced that it would build a new multi-functional arena, with a projected seating capacity between 12,000 and 16,000 people, depending on the configuration. The arena is projected to cost €60 million. The new arena will be named the LDLC Arena, and its design and construction were given to architectural firm Populous and Citinea. Construction began in January 2022 and is expected to be finished by the end of 2023.


title: ASVEL Basket

text: On September 11, 2018, the club changed its name to LDLC ASVEL for sponsorship reasons. Along with this change, the club changed its main colors from green to black and white. The decision was made with the explanation that, "when you are European, green is a colour that does not make you dream", and was followed by criticism from fans. The new logo, used since 2018, consists of the number four, which refers to ASVEL legend Alain Gilles, while also keeping the V that was used in the previous logo.


title: Blockbuster (entertainment)

text: A blockbuster is a work of entertainment—typically used to describe a feature film produced by a major film studio, but also other media—that is highly popular and financially successful. The term has also come to refer to any large-budget production "intended" for "blockbuster" status, aimed at mass markets with associated merchandising, sometimes on a scale that meant the financial fortunes of a film studio or a distributor could depend on it. The term originated from the Blockbuster bomb which were used in World War II.


title: Blockbuster (entertainment)

text: The term began to appear in the American press in the early 1940s, referring to aerial bombs capable of destroying a whole block of buildings. Its first known use in reference to films was in May 1943, when advertisements in "Variety" and "Motion Picture Herald" described the RKO film, "Bombardier", as "The block-buster of all action-thrill-service shows!" Another trade advertisement in 1944 boasted that the war documentary, "With the Marines at Tarawa", "hits the heart like a two ton blockbuster."


title: Blockbuster (entertainment)

text: Several theories have been put forward for the origin of the term in a film context. One explanation pertains to the practice of "block booking" whereby a studio would sell a package of films to theaters, rather than permitting them to select which films they wanted to exhibit. However, this practice was outlawed in 1948 before the term became common parlance; while pre-1948 high-grossing big-budget spectacles may be retrospectively labelled "blockbusters," this is not how they were known at the time. Another explanation is that trade publications would often advertise the popularity of a film by including illustrations showing long queues often extending around the block, but in reality the term was never used in this way. The term was actually first coined by publicists who drew on readers' familiarity with the blockbuster bombs, drawing an analogy with the bomb's huge impact. The trade press subsequently appropriated the term as short-hand for a film's commercial potential. Throughout 1943 and 1944 the term was applied to films such as "Bataan", "No Time for Love" and "Brazil".


title: Blockbuster (entertainment)

text: The term fell out of usage in the aftermath of World War II but was revived in 1948 by "Variety" in an article about big budget films. By the early 1950s the term had become standardised within the film industry and the trade press to denote a film that was large in spectacle, scale and cost, that would go on to achieve a high gross. In December 1950 the "Daily Mirror" predicted that "Samson and Delilah" would be "a box office block buster", and in November 1951 "Variety" described "Quo Vadis" as "a b.o. blockbuster [...] right up there with "Birth of a Nation" and "Gone With the Wind" for boxoffice performance [...] a super-spectacle in all its meaning".


title: Blockbuster (entertainment)

text: According to Stephen Prince, Akira Kurosawa's 1954 film "Seven Samurai" had a "racing, powerful narrative engine, breathtaking pacing, and sense-assaulting visual style" (what he calls a "kinesthetic cinema" approach to "action filmmaking and exciting visual design") that was "the clearest precursor" and became "the model for" the "visceral" Hollywood blockbuster "brand of moviemaking" that emerged in the 1970s. According to Prince, Kurosawa became "a mentor figure" to a generation of emerging American filmmakers who went on to develop the Hollywood blockbuster format in the 1970s, such as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola.


title: Blockbuster (entertainment)

text: In 1975, the usage of "blockbuster" for films coalesced around Steven Spielberg's "Jaws". It was perceived as a new cultural phenomenon: fast-paced, exciting entertainment, inspiring interest and conversation beyond the theatre (which would later be called "buzz"), and repeated viewings. The film is regarded as the first film of the "blockbuster era", and founded the blockbuster film genre. Two years later, "Star Wars" expanded on the success of "Jaws", setting box office records and enjoying a theatrical run that lasted more than a year. After the success of "Jaws" and "Star Wars", many Hollywood producers attempted to create similar "event" films with wide commercial appeal, and film companies began green-lighting increasingly large-budget films, and relying extensively on massive advertising blitzes leading up to their theatrical release. These two films were the prototypes for the "summer blockbuster" trend, in which major film studios and distributors planned their annual marketing strategy around a big release by July 4.


title: Blockbuster (entertainment)

text: The next fifteen years saw a number of high-quality blockbusters released including the likes of "Alien" (1979) and its sequel, "Aliens" (1986), the first three "Indiana Jones" films (1981, 1984 and 1989), "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" (1982), "Ghostbusters" (1984), "Beverly Hills Cop" (1984), the "Back to the Future" trilogy (1985, 1989 and 1990), "Top Gun" (1986), "Die Hard" (1988), "Batman" (1989) and its sequel "Batman Returns" (1992), and "The Hunt for Red October" (1990).


title: Blockbuster (entertainment)

text: Some examples of summer blockbusters from the 2000s include "" (2003), "The Da Vinci Code" (2006), and "Transformers" (2007)—all of which founded successful franchises—and "The Day After Tomorrow" (2004) and Pixar's "Up" (2009). The superhero genre saw renewed interest with "X-Men" (2000), "Spider-Man" (2002), "Batman Begins" (2005) and its sequel "The Dark Knight" (2008) all proving to be very popular.


title: Blockbuster (entertainment)

text: Blockbusters in the 2010s include "Inception" (2010), "Ted" (2012), "Despicable Me" (2010), "The Conjuring" (2013), "Edge of Tomorrow" (2014) and "Wonder Woman" (2017). "Snowpiercer" (2014) proved to be the rare example of a blockbuster that did not perform well in the North American market. Several established franchises continued to spawn successful entries with "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2" (2011), "" (2014), "" (2017), "" (2018) and Pixar's "Toy Story 3" (2010) and "Incredibles 2" (2018) among the highlights. Several older franchises were successfully resurrected by "" (2015), "Jurassic World" (2015), "Man of Steel" (2013), "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" (2014) and its sequel "War for the Planet of the Apes" (2017). The most successful franchise of the decade was arguably Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe, particularly "The Avengers" series.


title: Blockbuster (entertainment)

text: Eventually, the focus on creating blockbusters grew so intense that a backlash occurred, with some critics and film-makers decrying the prevalence of a "blockbuster mentality", lamenting the death of the author-driven, "more artistic" small-scale films of the New Hollywood era (despite criticism of the praise the latter set of films received). This view is taken, for example, by film journalist Peter Biskind, who wrote that all studios wanted was another "Jaws", and as production costs rose, they were less willing to take risks, and therefore based blockbusters on the "lowest common denominators" of the mass market. In his 2006 book "The Long Tail", Chris Anderson talks about blockbuster films, stating that a society that is hit-driven, and makes way and room for only those films that are expected to be a hit, is in fact a limited society. In 1998, writer David Foster Wallace posited that films are subject to an inverse cost and quality law.<ref name="F/X"></ref>


title: Numerical analysis

text: Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation (as opposed to symbolic manipulations) for the problems of mathematical analysis (as distinguished from discrete mathematics). It is the study of numerical methods that attempt at finding approximate solutions of problems rather than the exact ones. Numerical analysis finds application in all fields of engineering and the physical sciences, and in the 21st century also the life and social sciences, medicine, business and even the arts. Current growth in computing power has enabled the use of more complex numerical analysis, providing detailed and realistic mathematical models in science and engineering. Examples of numerical analysis include: ordinary differential equations as found in celestial mechanics (predicting the motions of planets, stars and galaxies), numerical linear algebra in data analysis, and stochastic differential equations and Markov chains for simulating living cells in medicine and biology.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Before modern computers, numerical methods often relied on hand interpolation formulas, using data from large printed tables. Since the mid 20th century, computers calculate the required functions instead, but many of the same formulas continue to be used in software algorithms.


title: Numerical analysis

text: The numerical point of view goes back to the earliest mathematical writings. A tablet from the Yale Babylonian Collection (YBC 7289), gives a sexagesimal numerical approximation of the square root of 2, the length of the diagonal in a unit square.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Numerical analysis continues this long tradition: rather than giving exact symbolic answers translated into digits and applicable only to real-world measurements, approximate solutions within specified error bounds are used.


title: Numerical analysis

text: The overall goal of the field of numerical analysis is the design and analysis of techniques to give approximate but accurate solutions to hard problems, the variety of which is suggested by the following:


title: Numerical analysis

text: The field of numerical analysis predates the invention of modern computers by many centuries. Linear interpolation was already in use more than 2000 years ago. Many great mathematicians of the past were preoccupied by numerical analysis, as is obvious from the names of important algorithms like Newton's method, Lagrange interpolation polynomial, Gaussian elimination, or Euler's method. The origins of modern numerical analysis are often linked to a 1947 paper by John von Neumann and Herman Goldstine,


title: Numerical analysis

text: To facilitate computations by hand, large books were produced with formulas and tables of data such as interpolation points and function coefficients. Using these tables, often calculated out to 16 decimal places or more for some functions, one could look up values to plug into the formulas given and achieve very good numerical estimates of some functions. The canonical work in the field is the NIST publication edited by Abramowitz and Stegun, a 1000-plus page book of a very large number of commonly used formulas and functions and their values at many points. The function values are no longer very useful when a computer is available, but the large listing of formulas can still be very handy.


title: Numerical analysis

text: The mechanical calculator was also developed as a tool for hand computation. These calculators evolved into electronic computers in the 1940s, and it was then found that these computers were also useful for administrative purposes. But the invention of the computer also influenced the field of numerical analysis, since now longer and more complicated calculations could be done.


title: Numerical analysis

text: The Leslie Fox Prize for Numerical Analysis was initiated in 1985 by the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.


title: Numerical analysis

text: For the iterative method, apply the bisection method to "f"("x") = 3"x" − 24. The initial values are "a" = 0, "b" = 3, "f"("a") = −24, "f"("b") = 57.


title: Numerical analysis

text: From this table it can be concluded that the solution is between 1.875 and 2.0625. The algorithm might return any number in that range with an error less than 0.2.


title: Numerical analysis

text: In a two-hour race, the speed of the car is measured at three instants and recorded in the following table.


title: Numerical analysis

text: A discretization would be to say that the speed of the car was constant from 0:00 to 0:40, then from 0:40 to 1:20 and finally from 1:20 to 2:00. For instance, the total distance traveled in the first 40 minutes is approximately . This would allow us to estimate the total distance traveled as + + = , which is an example of numerical integration (see below) using a Riemann sum, because displacement is the integral of velocity.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Ill-conditioned problem: Take the function . Note that "f"(1.1) = 10 and "f"(1.001) = 1000: a change in "x" of less than 0.1 turns into a change in "f"("x") of nearly 1000. Evaluating "f"("x") near "x" = 1 is an ill-conditioned problem.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Well-conditioned problem: By contrast, evaluating the same function near "x" = 10 is a well-conditioned problem. For instance, "f"(10) = 1/9 ≈ 0.111 and "f"(11) = 0.1: a modest change in "x" leads to a modest change in "f"("x").


title: Numerical analysis

text: Direct methods compute the solution to a problem in a finite number of steps. These methods would give the precise answer if they were performed in infinite precision arithmetic. Examples include Gaussian elimination, the QR factorization method for solving systems of linear equations, and the simplex method of linear programming. In practice, finite precision is used and the result is an approximation of the true solution (assuming stability).


title: Numerical analysis

text: In contrast to direct methods, iterative methods are not expected to terminate in a finite number of steps. Starting from an initial guess, iterative methods form successive approximations that converge to the exact solution only in the limit. A convergence test, often involving the residual, is specified in order to decide when a sufficiently accurate solution has (hopefully) been found. Even using infinite precision arithmetic these methods would not reach the solution within a finite number of steps (in general). Examples include Newton's method, the bisection method, and Jacobi iteration. In computational matrix algebra, iterative methods are generally needed for large problems.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Iterative methods are more common than direct methods in numerical analysis. Some methods are direct in principle but are usually used as though they were not, e.g. GMRES and the conjugate gradient method. For these methods the number of steps needed to obtain the exact solution is so large that an approximation is accepted in the same manner as for an iterative method.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Furthermore, continuous problems must sometimes be replaced by a discrete problem whose solution is known to approximate that of the continuous problem; this process is called 'discretization'. For example, the solution of a differential equation is a function. This function must be represented by a finite amount of data, for instance by its value at a finite number of points at its domain, even though this domain is a continuum.


title: Numerical analysis

text: The study of errors forms an important part of numerical analysis. There are several ways in which error can be introduced in the solution of the problem.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Round-off errors arise because it is impossible to represent all real numbers exactly on a machine with finite memory (which is what all practical digital computers are).


title: Numerical analysis

text: Truncation errors are committed when an iterative method is terminated or a mathematical procedure is approximated and the approximate solution differs from the exact solution. Similarly, discretization induces a discretization error because the solution of the discrete problem does not coincide with the solution of the continuous problem. In the example above to compute the solution of formula_1, after ten iterations, the calculated root is roughly 1.99. Therefore, the truncation error is roughly 0.01.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Once an error is generated, it propagates through the calculation. For example, the operation + on a computer is inexact. A calculation of the type is even more inexact.


title: Numerical analysis

text: A truncation error is created when a mathematical procedure is approximated. To integrate a function exactly, an infinite sum of regions must be found, but numerically only a finite sum of regions can be found, and hence the approximation of the exact solution. Similarly, to differentiate a function, the differential element approaches zero, but numerically only a nonzero value of the differential element can be chosen.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Numerical stability is a notion in numerical analysis. An algorithm is called 'numerically stable' if an error, whatever its cause, does not grow to be much larger during the calculation. This happens if the problem is 'well-conditioned', meaning that the solution changes by only a small amount if the problem data are changed by a small amount. To the contrary, if a problem is 'ill-conditioned', then any small error in the data will grow to be a large error.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Both the original problem and the algorithm used to solve that problem can be 'well-conditioned' or 'ill-conditioned', and any combination is possible.


title: Numerical analysis

text: So an algorithm that solves a well-conditioned problem may be either numerically stable or numerically unstable. An art of numerical analysis is to find a stable algorithm for solving a well-posed mathematical problem. For instance, computing the square root of 2 (which is roughly 1.41421) is a well-posed problem. Many algorithms solve this problem by starting with an initial approximation "x" to formula_2, for instance "x" = 1.4, and then computing improved guesses "x", "x", etc. One such method is the famous Babylonian method, which is given by "x" = "x"/2 + 1/"x". Another method, called 'method X', is given by "x" = ("x" − 2) + "x". A few iterations of each scheme are calculated in table form below, with initial guesses "x" = 1.4 and "x" = 1.42.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Observe that the Babylonian method converges quickly regardless of the initial guess, whereas Method X converges extremely slowly with initial guess "x" = 1.4 and diverges for initial guess "x" = 1.42. Hence, the Babylonian method is numerically stable, while Method X is numerically unstable.


title: Numerical analysis

text: One of the simplest problems is the evaluation of a function at a given point. The most straightforward approach, of just plugging in the number in the formula is sometimes not very efficient. For polynomials, a better approach is using the Horner scheme, since it reduces the necessary number of multiplications and additions. Generally, it is important to estimate and control round-off errors arising from the use of floating-point arithmetic.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Interpolation solves the following problem: given the value of some unknown function at a number of points, what value does that function have at some other point between the given points?


title: Numerical analysis

text: Extrapolation is very similar to interpolation, except that now the value of the unknown function at a point which is outside the given points must be found.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Regression is also similar, but it takes into account that the data is imprecise. Given some points, and a measurement of the value of some function at these points (with an error), the unknown function can be found. The least squares-method is one way to achieve this.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Another fundamental problem is computing the solution of some given equation. Two cases are commonly distinguished, depending on whether the equation is linear or not. For instance, the equation formula_10 is linear while formula_11 is not.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Much effort has been put in the development of methods for solving systems of linear equations. Standard direct methods, i.e., methods that use some matrix decomposition are Gaussian elimination, LU decomposition, Cholesky decomposition for symmetric (or hermitian) and positive-definite matrix, and QR decomposition for non-square matrices. Iterative methods such as the Jacobi method, Gauss–Seidel method, successive over-relaxation and conjugate gradient method are usually preferred for large systems. General iterative methods can be developed using a matrix splitting.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Root-finding algorithms are used to solve nonlinear equations (they are so named since a root of a function is an argument for which the function yields zero). If the function is differentiable and the derivative is known, then Newton's method is a popular choice. Linearization is another technique for solving nonlinear equations.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Several important problems can be phrased in terms of eigenvalue decompositions or singular value decompositions. For instance, the spectral image compression algorithm is based on the singular value decomposition. The corresponding tool in statistics is called principal component analysis.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Optimization problems ask for the point at which a given function is maximized (or minimized). Often, the point also has to satisfy some constraints.


title: Numerical analysis

text: The field of optimization is further split in several subfields, depending on the form of the objective function and the constraint. For instance, linear programming deals with the case that both the objective function and the constraints are linear. A famous method in linear programming is the simplex method.


title: Numerical analysis

text: The method of Lagrange multipliers can be used to reduce optimization problems with constraints to unconstrained optimization problems.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Numerical integration, in some instances also known as numerical quadrature, asks for the value of a definite integral. Popular methods use one of the Newton–Cotes formulas (like the midpoint rule or Simpson's rule) or Gaussian quadrature. These methods rely on a "divide and conquer" strategy, whereby an integral on a relatively large set is broken down into integrals on smaller sets. In higher dimensions, where these methods become prohibitively expensive in terms of computational effort, one may use Monte Carlo or quasi-Monte Carlo methods (see Monte Carlo integration), or, in modestly large dimensions, the method of sparse grids.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Numerical analysis is also concerned with computing (in an approximate way) the solution of differential equations, both ordinary differential equations and partial differential equations.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Partial differential equations are solved by first discretizing the equation, bringing it into a finite-dimensional subspace. This can be done by a finite element method, a finite difference method, or (particularly in engineering) a finite volume method. The theoretical justification of these methods often involves theorems from functional analysis. This reduces the problem to the solution of an algebraic equation.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Since the late twentieth century, most algorithms are implemented in a variety of programming languages. The Netlib repository contains various collections of software routines for numerical problems, mostly in Fortran and C. Commercial products implementing many different numerical algorithms include the IMSL and NAG libraries; a free-software alternative is the GNU Scientific Library.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Over the years the Royal Statistical Society published numerous algorithms in its "Applied Statistics" (code for these "AS" functions is here);


title: Numerical analysis

text: The Naval Surface Warfare Center several times published its "Library of Mathematics Subroutines" (code here).


title: Numerical analysis

text: There are several popular numerical computing applications such as MATLAB, TK Solver, S-PLUS, and IDL as well as free and open source alternatives such as FreeMat, Scilab, GNU Octave (similar to Matlab), and IT++ (a C++ library). There are also programming languages such as R (similar to S-PLUS), Julia, and Python with libraries such as NumPy, SciPy and SymPy. Performance varies widely: while vector and matrix operations are usually fast, scalar loops may vary in speed by more than an order of magnitude.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Many computer algebra systems such as Mathematica also benefit from the availability of arbitrary-precision arithmetic which can provide more accurate results.


title: Numerical analysis

text: Excel, for example, has hundreds of available functions, including for matrices, which may be used in conjunction with its built in "solver".


title: False accusation of rape

text: A false accusation of rape happens when a person states that they or another person have been raped when no rape has occurred.


title: False accusation of rape

text: Although some studies attempt to characterize the prevalence of false accusation of rape, according to a 2013 book on forensic victimology, the true percentage remains unknown due to the varying definitions of a "false accusation".


title: False accusation of rape

text: Rates of false accusation are sometimes inflated or misrepresented due to conflation with terms such as "unfounded". These designations, which allow law enforcement to close cases without arriving at a conclusion, are used to describe reports without enough evidence, as opposed to cases where the accuser is not credible or says that the account is untrue.


title: False accusation of rape

text: With regard to racism in the United States, false accusations of rape have been made by White women against African American men, with the Whites having greater influence in the judicial system, often resulting in wrongful convictions. Such incidents have historically led to extrajudicial acts of violence such as lynchings.


title: False accusation of rape

text: Causes of false accusations of rape may fall into two categories: non-deliberate deception (such as false memories), and lies.


title: False accusation of rape

text: There are several ways in which an alleged victim can accidentally come to believe that they have been raped by the person(s) they accuse. These include, but are not limited to:


title: False accusation of rape

text: An accuser may have several motivations to falsely claim they have been raped. There is disagreement on how many different categories these may be put into. Kanin (1994) put them in three: revenge, producing an alibi or to get sympathy/attention. Author Sandra Newman listed four categories in 2017. According to De Zutter et al. (2017), Kanin's division is inadequate and one should recognise eight distinct categories in total:


title: False accusation of rape

text: Facilitated communication (FC) is a scientifically discredited technique that attempts to aid communication by people with autism or other communication disabilities who are non-verbal. The facilitator guides the disabled person's arm or hand and attempts to help them type on a keyboard or other device. Research indicates that the facilitator is the source of the messages obtained through FC, not the disabled person. However, the facilitator may believe they are not the source of the messages due to the ideomotor effect, which is the same effect that guides a Ouija board.<ref name="Ganz/Katsiyannis/Morin"></ref> There have been a number of accusations of sexual abuse made through facilitated communication. As of 1995, there were sixty known cases, with an unknown numbers of others settled without reaching public visibility.


title: False accusation of rape

text: According to De Zutter et al. (2017), 20% of complainants said that they did not know why they had filed a false allegation.


title: False accusation of rape

text: It is extremely difficult to assess the prevalence of false accusations. All jurisdictions have a distinct classification of false accusation, resulting in these cases being combined with other types of cases (e.g. where the accuser did not physically resist the suspect or sustain injuries) under headings such as "unfounded" or "unproved". There are many reasons other than falsity that can result in a rape case being closed as unfounded or unproven. DiCanio (1993) states that while researchers and prosecutors do not agree on the exact percentage of cases in which there was sufficient evidence to conclude that allegations were false, they generally agree on a range of 2% to 10%. Due to varying definitions of a "false accusation", the true percentage remains unknown. A 2009 study of rape cases across Europe found the proportion of cases designated false ranged from four to nine percent.


title: False accusation of rape

text: Another complicating factor is that data regarding false allegations generally do not come from studies designed to estimate the prevalence of false allegations; rather, they come from reviews of data regarding investigations and prosecutions within criminal justice systems. The goal of such investigations is to determine whether or not there is sufficient evidence to prosecute, not to evaluate the cases for which there is not sufficient evidence to prosecute and classify such cases as "false" or "true".


title: False accusation of rape

text: Claire E. Ferguson and John M. Malouff conducted a meta-analysis of confirmed false rape reporting rates in the "Archives of Sexual Behavior" in 2016, and found that 5.2% of cases were confirmed false rape reports.