title: Police officer

text: The responsibilities of a police officer are varied, and may differ greatly from within one political context to another. Typical duties relate to keeping the peace, law enforcement, protection of people and property and the investigation of crimes. Officers are expected to respond to a variety of situations that may arise while they are on duty. Rules and guidelines dictate how an officer should behave within the community, and in many contexts, restrictions are placed on what the uniformed officer may wear. In some countries, rules and procedures dictate that a police officer is obliged to intervene in a criminal incident, even when off-duty. Police officers in nearly all countries retain their lawful powers while off duty.


title: Police officer

text: In the majority of Western legal systems, the major role of the police is to maintain order, keeping the peace through surveillance of the public, and the subsequent reporting and apprehension of suspected violators of the law. They also function to discourage crimes through high-visibility policing, and most police forces have an investigative capability. Police have the legal authority to arrest and detain, usually granted by magistrates. Police officers also respond to emergency calls, along with routine community policing.


title: Police officer

text: Police are often used as an emergency service and may provide a public safety function at large gatherings, as well as in emergencies, disasters, search and rescue situations, and road traffic collisions. To provide a prompt response in emergencies, the police often coordinate their operations with fire and emergency medical services. In some countries, individuals serve jointly as police officers as well as firefighters (creating the role of fire police). In many countries, there is a common emergency service number that allows the police, firefighters, or medical services to be summoned to an emergency. Some countries, such as the United Kingdom, have introduced command procedures for use in major emergencies or disorder. In the UK, The Gold Silver Bronze command structure is a system set up to improve communications between ground-based officers and the control room. Typically, a Bronze Commander would be a senior officer on the ground, coordinating the efforts in the center of the emergency, Silver Commanders would be positioned in an 'Incident Control Room' erected to improve better communications at the scene, and a Gold Commander would be in overall command in the Control Room.


title: Police officer

text: Police are also responsible for reprimanding minor offenders by issuing citations which typically may result in the imposition of fines, particularly for violations of traffic law. Traffic enforcement is often and effectively accomplished by police officers on motorcycles—called "motor officers," these officers refer to the motorcycles they ride on duty as simply "motors." Police are also trained to assist persons in distress, such as motorists whose cars have broken down and people experiencing a medical emergency. Police are typically trained in basic first aid such as CPR.


title: Police officer

text: Some park rangers are commissioned as law enforcement officers and carry out a law-enforcement role within national parks and other back-country wilderness and recreational areas, whereas Military police perform law enforcement functions within the military.


title: Police officer

text: In most countries, candidates for the police force must have completed some formal education. Increasing numbers of people joining the police possess tertiary education qualifications and in response to this, many police forces have developed a "fast-track" scheme whereby those with university degrees spend two to three years as a Constable before receiving promotion to higher ranks, such as Sergeants or Inspectors. (Officers who work within investigative divisions or plainclothes are not necessarily of a higher rank but merely have different duties.) Police officers are also recruited from those with experience in the military or security services. In the United States, state laws may codify statewide qualification standards regarding age, education, criminal record, and training but in other countries requirements are set by local police agencies. Each local Police agency has different requirements.


title: Police officer

text: Promotion is not automatic and usually requires the candidate to pass some kind of examination, interview board or other selection procedure. Although promotion normally includes an increase in salary, it also brings with it an increase in responsibility and for most, an increase in administrative paperwork. There is no stigma in shunning promotion, as experienced line patrol officers are highly regarded.


title: Police officer

text: Dependent upon each agency, but generally after completing two years of service, officers may apply for specialist positions, such as detective, police dog handler, mounted police officer, motorcycle officer, water police officer, or firearms officer (in countries where police are not routinely armed).


title: Police officer

text: In some countries, including Singapore, police ranks are supplemented through conscription, similar to national service in the military. Qualifications may thus be relaxed or enhanced depending on the target mix of conscripts. Conscripts face tougher physical requirements in areas such as eyesight, but minimum academic qualification requirements are less stringent. Some join as volunteers, again via differing qualification requirements.


title: Police officer

text: In some societies, police officers are paid relatively well compared to other occupations; their pay depends on what rank they are within their police force and how many years they have served. In the United States, an average police officer's salary was between $53,561 and $64,581 in 2020. In London, capital of the UK, a police officer's average basic salary in 2020 was £36,773 per annum. In the Netherlands, the average police officer working on the street is ranked in salary scale 6 to 9, €27,584 to €54,177 gross (€23,805 to €38,037 net) per year. Apart from these scales, there are higher functions which can increase an officer's salary.


title: Police officer

text: There are numerous concerns affecting the safety and health of police officers, including occupational stress and death in the line of duty. On August 6, 2019, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced the creation of the first U.S. state-wide program to support the mental health of police officers. The goal of the program is to train officers in emotional resiliency and to help destigmatize mental health problems.


title: Police officer

text: Almost universally, police officers are authorized to use force, up to and including deadly force, when acting in a law enforcement capacity. Although most law enforcement agencies follow some variant of the use of force continuum, where officers are only authorized to use the level of force required to match situational requirements, specific thresholds and responses vary between jurisdictions. While officers are trained to avoid excessive use of force, and may be held legally accountable for infractions, the variability of law enforcement and its dependence on human judgment have made the subject an area of controversy and research.


title: Police officer

text: In the performance of their duties, police officers may act unlawfully, either deliberately or as a result of errors in judgment. Police accountability efforts strive to protect citizens and their rights by ensuring legal and effective law enforcement conduct, while affording individual officers the required autonomy, protection, and discretion. As an example, the use of body-worn cameras has been shown to reduce both instances of misconduct and complaints against officers.


title: MBDA

text: MBDA is a European multinational developer and manufacturer of missiles. It was created in December 2001 after the merger of the main French, British and Italian missile systems companies. They were the missile businesses of Aérospatiale-Matra (merged into EADS, now called Airbus), BAE Systems and Finmeccanica (now Leonardo). "MBDA" is an initialism of the names of said missile businesses: Matra, BAe Dynamics and Alenia. The company's headquarters are located in Le Plessis-Robinson, France.


title: MBDA

text: Despite being a European joint venture, MBDA has maintained national divisions since its creation: MBDA France, MBDA UK and MBDA Italy. They were formed by simply grouping in their respective countries the assets and activities of the various French, British and Italian businesses that had merged to create MBDA.


title: MBDA

text: In March 2006, LFK-Lenkflugkörpersysteme GmbH, the German missile subsidiary of EADS, was acquired by MBDA and Spanish assets followed in 2010, leading to the formation of two additional national divisions (MBDA Germany and MBDA Spain).


title: MBDA

text: In 2016, the company had more than 10,500 employees. In 2017, MBDA recorded orders for €4.2 bn and an order book of €16.8 bn. MBDA works with over 90 armed forces worldwide and also has a number of subsidiaries, including one in the United States (MBDA Inc).


title: MBDA

text: The consolidation of Europe's missile companies began in 1996 when parts of Matra Defence and BAe Dynamics merged their missile activities to form Matra BAe Dynamics (MBD). Matra BAe Dynamics represented half of Matra Hautes Technologies' missile business; the other half was Matra Missiles which became Aérospatiale-Matra Missiles (AMM). In 1999, Matra group merged with Aérospatiale. In 2000, Aérospatiale-Matra became part of EADS (now Airbus).


title: MBDA

text: In 1998, GEC-Marconi Radar and Defence Systems and combined their missile and radar activities to form Alenia Marconi Systems (AMS). In 1999, British Aerospace purchased GEC's defence business to form BAE Systems.


title: MBDA

text: In December 2001, MBD (including AMM) and the Missile and Missile Systems activities of AMS merged, creating MBDA. In June 2005, LFK, a unit of Airbus Defence and Security Systems, agreed to be merged into MBDA. On 1 March 2006, LFK became MBDA Germany. ON 9 May 2012, the LFK-Lenkflugkörpersysteme GmbH became MBDA Deutschland GmbH. Since February 2002, MBDA has owned 40% of Inmize Sistemas S.L., a Spanish company that was formed to integrate the experience and technology of the major Spanish defence companies in the guided weapons sector. As AMS had R&D assets located in California, MBDA also managed to acquire development and production facilities in the United States, choosing to operate in the country as a wholly-owned subsidiary, called MBDA Inc. In December 2011, MBDA Inc acquired the Viper Strike activity of Northrop Grumman in Huntsville, Alabama.


title: MBDA

text: In August 2022, MBDA Missile Systems' data was hacked from a compromised external hard drive. The data included blueprints of weapons used by NATO allies in the Ukraine conflict, and 80 GB of such data was sold for 15 Bitcoin. NATO started an investigation trying to assess and minimize the impact of this data breach.


title: Alison Hammond

text: Alison Hammond (born 5 February 1975) is an English television personality and actress. She competed in the third series of the reality show "Big Brother" in 2002, in which she was the second housemate to be evicted. She has since become a presenter and reporter on ITV's "This Morning" (2002–present), and has appeared on reality shows, such as "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!" (2010), "Celebrity Coach Trip" (2012), "Strictly Come Dancing" (2014), "Celebrity Masterchef" (2014), and "I Can See Your Voice" (2020).


title: Alison Hammond

text: As an actress, Hammond has appeared in "Palace Hill" (1988–1990), "Doctors" (2002) and "The Dumping Ground" (2016).


title: Alison Hammond

text: Hammond was born on 5 February 1975, and was raised in the north Birmingham district of Kingstanding, alongside her two siblings. She attended Cardinal Wiseman School. Her mother was an immigrant from Jamaica, and had several jobs concurrently, including one as a manager for Tupperware. From the age of 11, she participated in drama workshops run by Central Television, but lack of funds meant she was unable to attend drama school. She later moved to Hall Green, in south Birmingham.


title: Alison Hammond

text: Following her appearance on "Big Brother", Hammond has appeared on many television programmes, including "Celebrity Fit Club", "Celebrities Under Pressure" and "Big Star's Little Star". She has also appeared on "Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes", performing as Nina Simone, "Celebrity Ready Steady Cook", "Daily Cooks Challenge", as a panellist on ITV's "Loose Women", and as a presenter on the short-lived "ITV Play" channel. In 2004, Hammond played herself as a TV reporter in "Christmas Lights" opposite Robson Green. In 2008, Hammond was named as the face of online bingo site Crown Bingo and took part in live chats, voiced characters and can be heard as the bingo caller in the bingo room. In November 2010, Hammond became a contestant on the tenth series of "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!" and, on 28 November 2010, became the fourth contestant to leave the show.


title: Alison Hammond

text: In 2014, Hammond participated in the ninth series of "Celebrity MasterChef" on BBC One. She also participated in the twelfth series of "Strictly Come Dancing" in 2014 on BBC One. She partnered with 11th series' champion Aljaž Škorjanec. They were voted off in the seventh week of competition and finished 10th. On 19 November 2015 it was announced she would compete in the annual "Strictly" Christmas Special. Hammond made her Hollywood debut in the animated film "" (2018). In 2020, ITV announced a shake-up of "This Morning" presenters, with Hammond replacing Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford on a Friday, presenting alongside Dermot O'Leary.


title: Alison Hammond

text: Hammond was The Countess in Sainsbury's 2022 Christmas Advert, starring alongside the voice of Stephen Fry. The advert was mainly used for advertising the brand's luxury range of products under the name 'Taste the Difference'. In the advert, Hammond chooses food for a festive feast, hosted by The Countess, while showcasing the brand's Christmas range.


title: George Dantzig

text: George Bernard Dantzig (; November 8, 1914 – May 13, 2005) was an American mathematical scientist who made contributions to industrial engineering, operations research, computer science, economics, and statistics.


title: George Dantzig

text: Dantzig is known for his development of the simplex algorithm, an algorithm for solving linear programming problems, and for his other work with linear programming. In statistics, Dantzig solved two open problems in statistical theory, which he had mistaken for homework after arriving late to a lecture by Jerzy Neyman.


title: George Dantzig

text: At his death, Dantzig was the Professor Emeritus of Transportation Sciences and Professor of Operations Research and of Computer Science at Stanford University.


title: George Dantzig

text: Born in Portland, Oregon, George Bernard Dantzig was named after George Bernard Shaw, the Irish writer. He was born to Jewish parents; his father, Tobias Dantzig, was a mathematician and linguist, and his mother, Anja Dantzig (née Ourisson), was a Russian-born linguist of French-Lithuanian origin. Dantzig's parents met during their study at the University of Paris, where Tobias studied mathematics under Henri Poincaré, after whom Dantzig's brother was named. The Dantzigs immigrated to the United States, where they settled in Portland, Oregon.


title: George Dantzig

text: Early in the 1920s the Dantzig family moved from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. His mother became a linguist at the Library of Congress, and his father became a math tutor at the University of Maryland, College Park.


title: George Dantzig

text: Dantzig attended Powell Junior High School and Central High School. By the time he reached high school, he was already fascinated by geometry, and this interest was further nurtured by his father, challenging him with complicated problems, particularly in projective geometry.


title: George Dantzig

text: George Dantzig received his B.S. from University of Maryland in 1936 in mathematics and physics. He earned his master's degree in mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1937. After working as a junior statistician at the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1937 to 1939, he enrolled in the doctoral program in mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied statistics under Jerzy Neyman.


title: George Dantzig

text: In 1939, a misunderstanding brought about surprising results. Near the beginning of a class, Professor Neyman wrote two problems on the blackboard. Dantzig arrived late and assumed that they were a homework assignment. According to Dantzig, they "seemed to be a little harder than usual", but a few days later he handed in completed solutions for both problems, still believing that they were an assignment that was overdue. Six weeks later, an excited Neyman eagerly told him that the "homework" problems he had solved were two of the most famous unsolved problems in statistics. He had prepared one of Dantzig's solutions for publication in a mathematical journal. This story began to spread and was used as a motivational lesson demonstrating the power of positive thinking. Over time, some facts were altered, but the basic story persisted in the form of an urban legend and as an introductory scene in the movie "Good Will Hunting".


title: George Dantzig

text: Dantzig recalled in a 1986 interview in the "College Mathematics Journal", "A year later, when I began to worry about a thesis topic, Neyman just shrugged and told me to wrap the two problems in a binder and he would accept them as my thesis."


title: George Dantzig

text: Years later, another researcher, Abraham Wald, was preparing to publish a paper where he had arrived at a conclusion for the second problem when he learned of Dantzig's earlier solution. When Dantzig suggested publishing jointly, Wald simply added Dantzig's name as co-author.


title: George Dantzig

text: With the outbreak of World War II, Dantzig took a leave of absence from the doctoral program at Berkeley to work as a civilian for the United States Army Air Forces. From 1941 to 1946, he became the head of the combat analysis branch of the Headquarters Statistical Control for the Army Air Forces. In 1946, he returned to Berkeley to complete the requirements of his program and received his PhD that year. Although he had a faculty offer from Berkeley, he returned to the Air Force as mathematical advisor to the comptroller.


title: George Dantzig

text: In 1952, Dantzig joined the mathematics division of the RAND Corporation. By 1960, he became a professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at UC Berkeley, where he founded and directed the Operations Research Center. In 1966, he joined the Stanford faculty as Professor of Operations Research and of Computer Science. A year later, the Program in Operations Research became a full-fledged department. In 1973, he founded the Systems Optimization Laboratory (SOL) there. On a sabbatical leave that year, he managed the Methodology Group at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria. Later, he became the C. A. Criley Professor of Transportation Sciences at Stanford University.


title: George Dantzig

text: He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dantzig was the recipient of many honors, including the first John von Neumann Theory Prize in 1974, the National Medal of Science in 1975, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1976. The Mathematical Programming Society honored Dantzig by creating the George B. Dantzig Prize, bestowed every three years since 1982 on one or two people who have made a significant impact in the field of mathematical programming. He was elected to the 2002 class of Fellows of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.


title: George Dantzig

text: Freund wrote further that "through his research in mathematical theory, computation, economic analysis, and applications to industrial problems, Dantzig contributed more than any other researcher to the remarkable development of linear programming".


title: George Dantzig

text: Dantzig's work allows the airline industry, for example, to schedule crews and make fleet assignments. Based on his work, tools are developed "that shipping companies use to determine how many planes they need and where their delivery trucks should be deployed. The oil industry long has used linear programming in refinery planning, as it determines how much of its raw product should become different grades of gasoline and how much should be used for petroleum-based byproducts. It is used in manufacturing, revenue management, telecommunications, advertising, architecture, circuit design and countless other areas".


title: George Dantzig

text: Linear programming is a mathematical method for determining a way to achieve the best outcome (such as maximum profit or lowest cost) in a given mathematical model for some list of requirements represented as linear relationships. Linear programming arose as a mathematical model developed during World War II to plan expenditures and returns in order to reduce costs to the army and increase losses to the enemy. It was kept secret until 1947. Postwar, many industries found its use in their daily planning.


title: George Dantzig

text: The founders of this subject are Leonid Kantorovich, a Russian mathematician who developed linear programming problems in 1939, Dantzig, who published the simplex method in 1947, and John von Neumann, who developed the theory of the duality in the same year.


title: George Dantzig

text: Dantzig was asked to work out a method the Air Force could use to improve their planning process. This led to his original example of finding the best assignment of 70 people to 70 jobs, showing the usefulness of linear programming. The computing power required to test all the permutations to select the best assignment is vast; the number of possible configurations exceeds the number of particles in the universe. However, it takes only a moment to find the optimum solution by posing the problem as a linear program and applying the Simplex algorithm. The theory behind linear programming drastically reduces the number of possible optimal solutions that must be checked.


title: George Dantzig

text: In 1963, Dantzig's "Linear Programming and Extensions" was published by Princeton University Press. Rich in insight and coverage of significant topics, the book quickly became "the bible" of linear programming.


title: George Dantzig

text: Dantzig married Anne S. Shmuner in 1936. He died on May 13, 2005, in his home in Stanford, California, of complications from diabetes and cardiovascular disease. He was 90 years old.


title: George Dantzig

text: On October 18, 1976 President Gerald Ford presented Dantzig with the President's National Medal of Science. The award was given "For inventing linear programming and discovering methods that led to wide-scale scientific and technical applications to important problems in logistics, scheduling, and network optimization, and to the use of computers in making efficient use of the mathematical theory."


title: NXT North American Championship

text: The NXT North American Championship is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE. It is primarily defended as the secondary men's championship of the NXT brand division, the promotion's developmental territory. The current champion is Wes Lee, who is in his first reign.


title: NXT North American Championship

text: The championship was introduced during the March 7, 2018, tapings of "NXT" (aired March 28) and the inaugural champion was Adam Cole. At the time, NXT was still regarded as a developmental territory for WWE. In September 2019, the company began promoting NXT as its "third brand" when the "NXT" television program was moved to the USA Network. Two years later, however, NXT reverted to its original function as WWE's developmental brand. In January 2022, the NXT Cruiserweight Championship was unified into the North American Championship.


title: NXT North American Championship

text: The title is distinct from the WWF North American Heavyweight Championship, as it does not carry the lineage of the former title, which was contested from 1979 to 1981.


title: NXT North American Championship

text: In June 2012, WWE established NXT as their developmental territory, replacing Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW). It was not until 2018, however, that a secondary championship was established for the brand. During the March 7, 2018, tapings of "NXT" (aired March 28), NXT General Manager William Regal announced a ladder match for to determine the inaugural NXT North American Champion. Later that night, EC3, Killian Dain, Adam Cole, Ricochet, Lars Sullivan, and Velveteen Dream were announced as the participants in the match. At the event, Cole won the match to become the inaugural champion.


title: NXT North American Championship

text: While NXT had originally been established as WWE's developmental territory, the NXT North American Championship was introduced in the midst of NXT establishing itself as WWE's third major brand. This became official when NXT was moved to the USA Network in September 2019, thus making the NXT North American Championship a third secondary title for WWE, along with the WWE Intercontinental Championship and WWE United States Championship. In September 2021, however, NXT reverted to being WWE's developmental brand.


title: NXT North American Championship

text: In January 2022, the NXT Cruiserweight Championship was unified into the North American Championship. At the special episode of "NXT 2.0" on January 4, 2022, reigning North American Champion Carmelo Hayes defeated Cruiserweight Champion Roderick Strong. The Cruiserweight Championship was retired with Hayes going forward as North American Champion.


title: NXT North American Championship

text: The title was defended on the main roster for the first time when champion Solo Sikoa, who had been promoted to SmackDown shortly before winning the title, defended it on the September 16, 2022, episode of "SmackDown" against Madcap Moss.


title: NXT North American Championship

text: The championship belt was unveiled by WWE executive and NXT head Triple H on April 3, 2018. Featuring three gold plates on a thick brown leather strap, the rounded center plate features a globe that only shows the continent of North America. The banner above the globe reads "North American" and above the banner is the NXT logo. The lower banner at the bottom of the globe reads "Champion". In what has become a prominent feature of WWE's championship belts, the two side plates feature a removable center section which can be customized with the champion's logos; the default side plates feature a vertical NXT logo on a globe. This was WWE's first secondary title to feature customizable side plates. It was the only NXT championship to feature the NXT logo for the default side plates until the introduction of the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship in 2021; the other NXT championships feature the WWE logo.


title: NXT North American Championship

text: As of 28, 2022, there have been 17 reigns between 14 champions and two vacancies. The inaugural champion was Adam Cole. Velveteen Dream has the longest reign as champion at 231 days (209 days as recognized by WWE due to tape delay, but still the longest). Johnny Gargano has the most reigns at three, with his first reign being the shortest at 4 days (due to tape delay, however, WWE recognizes that Gargano's first reign lasted 25 days, thus recognizing Solo Sikoa's reign as the shortest at 7 days). Dream is the youngest champion at 23 years old while Damian Priest is the oldest at 37.


title: NXT North American Championship

text: Wes Lee is the current champion in his first reign. He defeated Carmelo Hayes, Oro Mensah, Nathan Frazer and Von Wagner in a five-man ladder match on October 22, 2022 in Orlando, Florida at Halloween Havoc.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa (; 13 June 1888 – 30 November 1935) was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher, and philosopher, described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets in the Portuguese language. He also wrote in and translated from English and French.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Pessoa was a prolific writer, and not only under his own name, for he created approximately seventy-five others, of which three stand out, Alberto Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos, and Ricardo Reis. He did not call them "pseudonyms" because he felt that this did not capture their true independent intellectual life and instead called them "heteronyms". These imaginary figures sometimes held unpopular or extreme views.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Pessoa was born in Lisbon on 13 June 1888. When Pessoa was five, his father, Joaquim de Seabra Pessôa, died of tuberculosis and on 2 January of the following year, his younger brother Jorge, aged one, also died.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: After the second marriage of his mother, Maria Magdalena Pinheiro Nogueira, a proxy wedding to João Miguel dos Santos Rosa, Fernando sailed with his mother for South Africa in early 1896 to join his stepfather, a military officer appointed Portuguese consul in Durban, capital of the former British Colony of Natal. In a letter dated 8 February 1918, Pessoa wrote:


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: The young Pessoa received his early education at St. Joseph Convent School, a Roman Catholic grammar school run by Irish and French nuns. He moved to the Durban High School in April 1899, becoming fluent in English and developing an appreciation for English literature. During the Matriculation Examination, held at the time by the University of the Cape of Good Hope (forerunner of the University of Cape Town), in November 1903, he was awarded the recently created Queen Victoria Memorial Prize for best paper in English. While preparing to enter university, he also attended the Durban Commercial High School during one year, taking night classes.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Meanwhile, Pessoa started writing short stories in English, some under the name of David Merrick, many of which he left unfinished. At the age of sixteen, "The Natal Mercury" (edition of 6 July 1904) published his poem "Hillier did first usurp the realms of rhyme...", under the name of C. R. Anon (anonymous), along with a brief introductory text: "I read with great amusement...". In December, "The Durban High School Magazine" published his essay "Macaulay". From February to June 1905, in the section "The Man in the Moon", "The Natal Mercury" also published at least four sonnets by Fernando Pessoa: "Joseph Chamberlain", "To England I", "To England II" and "Liberty". His poems often carried humorous versions of Anon as the author's name. Pessoa started using pen names quite young. The first one, still in his childhood, was Chevalier de Pas, supposedly a French noble. In addition to Charles Robert Anon and David Merrick, the young writer also signed up, among other pen names, as Horace James Faber, Alexander Search, and other meaningful names.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Ten years after his arrival, he sailed for Lisbon by East through the Suez Canal on board the "Herzog", leaving Durban for good at the age of seventeen. This journey inspired the poems "Opiário" (dedicated to his friend, the poet and writer Mário de Sá-Carneiro) published on March 1915, in the literary journal "Orpheu" nr.1 and "Ode Marítima" (dedicated to the futurist painter Santa-Rita) published in June 1915, in "Orpheu" nr.2 by his heteronym Álvaro de Campos.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: While his family remained in South Africa, Pessoa returned to Lisbon in 1905 to study diplomacy. After a period of illness, and two years of poor results, a student strike against the dictatorship of Prime Minister João Franco put an end to his formal studies. Pessoa became an autodidact, a devoted reader who spent a lot of time at the library. In August 1907, he started working as a practitioner at R.G. Dun & Company, an American mercantile information agency (currently D&B, Dun & Bradstreet). His grandmother died in September and left him a small inheritance, which he spent on setting up his own publishing house, the "Empreza Ibis". The venture was not successful and closed down in 1910, but the name ibis, the sacred bird of Ancient Egypt and inventor of the alphabet in Greek mythology, would remain an important symbolic reference for him.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Pessoa returned to his uncompleted formal studies, complementing his British education with self-directed study of Portuguese culture. The pre-revolutionary atmosphere surrounding the assassination of King Charles I and Crown Prince Luís Filipe in 1908, and the patriotic outburst resulting from the successful republican revolution in 1910, influenced the development of the budding writer; as did his step-uncle, Henrique dos Santos Rosa, a poet and retired soldier, who introduced the young Pessoa to Portuguese poetry, notably the romantics and symbolists of the 19th century. In 1912, Fernando Pessoa entered the literary world with a critical essay, published in the cultural journal "A Águia", which triggered one of the most important literary debates in the Portuguese intellectual world of the 20th century: the polemic regarding a super-Camões. In 1915 a group of artists and poets, including Fernando Pessoa, Mário de Sá-Carneiro and Almada Negreiros, created the literary magazine "Orpheu", which introduced modernist literature to Portugal. Only two issues were published (Jan–Feb–Mar and Apr–May–Jun 1915), the third failed to appear due to funding difficulties. Lost for many years, this issue was finally recovered and published in 1984. Among other writers and poets, "Orpheu" published Pessoa, orthonym, and the modernist heteronym, Álvaro de Campos.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Along with the artist Ruy Vaz, Pessoa also founded the art journal "Athena" (1924–25), in which he published verses under the heteronyms Alberto Caeiro and Ricardo Reis. Along with his profession, as free-lance commercial translator, Fernando Pessoa undertook intense activity as a writer, literary critic and political analyst, contributing to the journals and newspapers "A Águia" (1912–13), "A República" (1913), "Theatro" (1913), "A Renascença" (1914), "O Raio" (1914), "A Galera" (1915), "Orpheu" (1915), "O Jornal" (1915), "Eh Real!" (1915), "Exílio" (1916), "Centauro" (1916), "A Ideia Nacional" (1916), "Terra Nossa" (1916), "O Heraldo" (1917), "Portugal Futurista" (1917), "Acção" (1919–20), "Ressurreição" (1920), "Contemporânea" (1922–26), "Athena" (1924–25), "Diário de Lisboa" (1924–35), "Revista de Comércio e Contabilidade" (1926), "Sol" (1926), "O Imparcial" (1927), "Presença" (1927–34), "Revista Solução Editora" (1929–1931), "Notícias Ilustrado" (1928–30), "Girassol" (1930), "Revolução" (1932), "Descobrimento" (1932), "Fama" (1932–33), "Fradique" (1934) and "Sudoeste" (1935).


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: After his return to Portugal, when he was seventeen, Pessoa barely left his beloved city of Lisbon, which inspired the poems "Lisbon Revisited" (1923 and 1926), written under the heteronym Álvaro de Campos. From 1905 to 1920, when his family returned from Pretoria after the death of his stepfather, he lived in fifteen different locations in the city, moving from one rented room to another depending on his fluctuating finances and personal troubles.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Pessoa adopted the detached perspective of the flâneur "Bernardo Soares", one of his heteronyms. This character was supposedly an accountant, working for "Vasques", the boss of an office located in Douradores Street. "Soares" also supposedly lived in the same downtown street, a world that Pessoa knew quite well due to his long career as freelance correspondence translator. Indeed, from 1907 until his death in 1935, Pessoa worked in twenty-one firms located in Lisbon's downtown, sometimes in two or three of them simultaneously. In "The Book of Disquiet", "Bernardo Soares" describes some of those typical places and its "atmosphere". In his daydream soliloquy he also wrote about Lisbon in the first half of the 20th century. "Soares" describes crowds in the streets, buildings, shops, traffic, river Tagus, the weather, and even its author, Fernando Pessoa:


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: A statue of Pessoa sitting at a table (below) can be seen outside A Brasileira, one of the preferred places of young writers and artists of "Orpheu"s group during the 1910s. This coffeehouse, in the aristocratic district of Chiado, is quite close to Pessoa's birthplace: 4, São Carlos Square (just in front of Lisbon's Opera House, where stands another statue of the writer), one of the most elegant neighborhoods of Lisbon. Later on, Pessoa was a frequent customer at Martinho da Arcada, a centennial coffeehouse in Comercio Square, surrounded by ministries, almost an "office" for his private business and literary concerns, where he used to meet friends in the 1920s and 1930s.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Pessoa translated a number of Portuguese books into English, and into Portuguese "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the short stories "The Theory and the Hound", "The Roads We Take" and "Georgia's Ruling" by O. Henry. He has also translated into Portuguese the poetry "Godiva" by Alfred Tennyson, "Lucy" by William Wordsworth, "Catarina to Camoens" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, "Barbara Frietchie" by John Greenleaf Whittier, and "The Raven", "Annabel Lee" and "Ulalume" by Edgar Allan Poe who, along with Walt Whitman, strongly influenced him.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: In addition, Pessoa translated into Portuguese some books by the leading theosophists Helena Blavatsky, Charles Webster Leadbeater, Annie Besant, and Mabel Collins.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: In 1912–14, while living with his aunt "Anica" and cousins, Pessoa took part in "semi-spiritualist sessions" that were carried out at home, but he was considered a "delaying element" by the other members of the sessions. Pessoa's interest in spiritualism was truly awakened in the second half of 1915, while translating theosophist books. This was further deepened in the end of March 1916, when he suddenly started having experiences where he believed he became a medium, having experimented with automatic writing. On June 24, 1916, Pessoa wrote an impressive letter to his aunt and godmother, then living in Switzerland with her daughter and son in law, in which he describes this "mystery case" that surprised him.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Besides automatic writing, Pessoa stated also that he had "astral" or "etherial visions" and was able to see "magnetic auras" similar to radiographic images. He felt "more curiosity than fear", but was respectful towards this phenomenon and asked secrecy, because "there is no advantage, but many disadvantages" in speaking about this. Mediumship exerted a strong influence in Pessoa's writings, who felt "sometimes suddenly being owned by something else" or having a "very curious sensation" in the right arm, which was "lifted into the air" without his will. Looking in the mirror, Pessoa saw several times what appeared to be the heteronyms: his "face fading out" and being replaced by the one of "a bearded man", or another one, four men in total.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Pessoa also developed a strong interest in astrology, becoming a competent astrologer. He elaborated hundreds of horoscopes, including well-known people such as William Shakespeare, Lord Byron, Oscar Wilde, Chopin, Robespierre, Napoleon I, Benito Mussolini, Wilhelm II, Leopold II of Belgium, Victor Emmanuel III, Alfonso XIII, or the Kings Sebastian and Charles of Portugal, and Salazar. In 1915, he created the heteronym "Raphael Baldaya", an astrologer who planned to write "System of Astrology" and "Introduction to the Study of Occultism". Pessoa established the pricing of his astrological services from 500 to 5,000 réis and made horoscopes of relatives, friends, customers, also of himself and astonishingly of the heteronyms and journals as "Orpheu".


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Pessoa was born on June 13. The characters of the main heteronyms were inspired by the four astral elements: air, fire, water and earth. It means that Pessoa and his heteronyms altogether constituted the full principles of ancient knowledge. Those heteronyms were designed according to their horoscopes, all including Mercury, the planet of literature. Astrology was part of his everyday life and Pessoa kept that interest until his death, which he was able to predict with some accuracy.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: As a mysticist, Pessoa was an enthusiast of esotericism, occultism, hermetism, numerology and alchemy. Along with spiritualism and astrology, he also paid attention to neopaganism, theosophy, rosicrucianism and freemasonry, which strongly influenced his literary work. He has declared himself a Pagan, in the sense of an "intellectual mystic of the sad race of the Neoplatonists from Alexandria" and a believer in "the Gods, their agency and their real and materially superior existence". His interest in occultism led Pessoa to correspond with Aleister Crowley and later helped him to elaborate a fake suicide, when Crowley visited Portugal in 1930. Pessoa translated Crowley's poem "Hymn To Pan" into Portuguese, and the catalogue of Pessoa's library shows that he possessed Crowley's books "Magick in Theory and Practice" and "Confessions". Pessoa also wrote on Crowley's doctrine of Thelema in several fragments, including "Moral".


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Literary critic Martin Lüdke described Pessoa's philosophy as a kind of pandeism, especially those writings under the heteronym Alberto Caeiro.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: In his early years, Pessoa was influenced by major English classic poets such as Shakespeare, Milton and Pope, or romantics like Shelley, Byron, Keats, Wordsworth, Coleridge and Tennyson. After his return to Lisbon in 1905, Pessoa was influenced by French symbolists and decadentists as Charles Baudelaire, Maurice Rollinat, Stéphane Mallarmé; mainly by Portuguese poets as Antero de Quental, Gomes Leal, Cesário Verde, António Nobre, Camilo Pessanha or Teixeira de Pascoaes. Later on, he was also influenced by modernists as W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot, among many other writers.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: During World War I, Pessoa wrote to a number of British publishers, namely Constable & Co. Ltd. (currently Constable & Robinson), trying to arrange publication of his collection of English verse "The Mad Fiddler" (unpublished during his lifetime), but it was refused. However, in 1920, the prestigious literary journal "Athenaeum" included one of those poems. Since the attempt at British publication failed, in 1918 Pessoa published in Lisbon two slim volumes of English verse: "Antinous" and "35 Sonnets", received by the British literary press without enthusiasm. Along with some friends, he founded another publishing house – Olisipo – which published in 1921 a further two English poetry volumes: "English Poems I–II" and "English Poems III" by Fernando Pessoa. In his publishing house, Pessoa issued also some books by his friends: "A Invenção do Dia Claro" (The invention of the clear day) by José de Almada Negreiros, "Canções" (Songs) by António Botto, and "Sodoma Divinizada" (Deified Sodom) by Raul Leal (Henoch). Olisipo closed down in 1923, following the scandal known as "Literatura de Sodoma" (Literature of Sodom), which Pessoa started with his paper "António Botto e o Ideal Estético em Portugal" (António Botto and the aesthetical ideal in Portugal), published in the journal "Contemporanea".


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Politically, Pessoa described himself as "a British-style conservative, that is to say, liberal within conservatism and absolutely anti-reactionary," and adhered closely to the Spencerian individualism of his upbringing. He described his brand of nationalism as "mystic, cosmopolitan, liberal, and anti-Catholic." He was an outspoken elitist and aligned himself against communism, socialism, fascism and Catholicism. He initially rallied to the First Portuguese Republic but the ensuing instability caused him to reluctantly support the military coups of 1917 and 1926 as a means of restoring order and preparing the transition to a new constitutional normality. He wrote a pamphlet in 1928 supportive of the military dictatorship but after the establishment of the New State, in 1933, Pessoa became disenchanted with the regime and wrote critically of Salazar and fascism in general, maintaining a hostile stance towards its corporatist program, illiberalism, and censorship. In the beginning of 1935, Pessoa was banned by the Salazar regime, after he wrote in defense of Freemasonry. The regime also suppressed two articles Pessoa wrote in which he condemned Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia and fascism as a threat to human liberty everywhere.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: On 29 November 1935, Pessoa was taken to the Hospital de São Luís, suffering from abdominal pain and a high fever; there he wrote, in English, his last words: "I know not what tomorrow will bring." He died the next day, 30 November 1935, around 8 pm, aged 47. His cause of death is commonly given as cirrhosis of the liver, due to alcoholism, though this is disputed: others attribute his death to pancreatitis (again from alcoholism), or other ailments.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: In his lifetime, he published four books in English and one alone in Portuguese: "Mensagem" (Message). However, he left a lifetime of unpublished, unfinished or just sketchy work in a domed, wooden trunk (25,574 manuscript and typed pages which have been housed in the Portuguese National Library since 1988). The heavy burden of editing this huge work is still in progress. In 1985 (fifty years after his death), Pessoa's remains were moved to the Hieronymites Monastery, in Lisbon, where Vasco da Gama, Luís de Camões, and Alexandre Herculano are also buried. Pessoa's portrait was on the 100-escudo banknote.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: As the fake heteronym Coelho Pacheco, over a long period Pessoa's "triumphant day" was taken as real, however, it has been proved that this event was one more fiction created by Pessoa.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Pessoa's earliest heteronym, at the age of six, was Chevalier de Pas. Other childhood heteronyms included Dr. Pancrácio and David Merrick, followed by Charles Robert Anon, an young Englishman that became Pessoa's "alter ego". In 1905/7, when Pessoa was a student at the University of Lisbon, Alexander Search took the place of Anon. The main reason for this was that, although Search is English, he was born in Lisbon, as was his author. But Search represents a transition heteronym that Pessoa used while searching to adapt to the Portuguese cultural reality. After the republican revolution, in 1910, and consequent patriotic atmosphere, Pessoa created another "alter ego", Álvaro de Campos, supposedly a Portuguese naval engineer, who was born in Tavira and graduated in Glasgow. Translator and literary critic Richard Zenith notes that Pessoa eventually established at least seventy-two heteronyms. According to Pessoa himself, there are three main heteronyms: Alberto Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos and Ricardo Reis. Pessoa's heteronyms differ from pen names, because they possess distinct biographies, temperaments, philosophies, appearances, writing styles and even signatures. Thus, heteronyms often disagree on various topics, argue and discuss with each other about literature, aesthetics, philosophy, etc.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Alberto Caeiro was Pessoa's first great heteronym; it is summarized by Pessoa as follows: "He sees things with the eyes only, not with the mind. He does not let any thoughts arise when he looks at a flower... the only thing a stone tells him is that it has nothing at all to tell him... this way of looking at a stone may be described as the totally unpoetic way of looking at it. The stupendous fact about Caeiro is that out of this sentiment, or rather, absence of sentiment, he makes poetry."


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: What this means, and what makes Caeiro such an original poet is the way he apprehends existence. He does not question anything whatsoever; he calmly accepts the world as it is. The recurrent themes to be found in nearly all of Caeiro's poems are wide-eyed childlike wonder at the infinite variety of nature, as noted by a critic. He is free of metaphysical entanglements. Central to his world-view is the idea that in the world around us, all is surface: things are precisely what they seem, there is no hidden meaning anywhere.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: He manages thus to free himself from the anxieties that batter his peers; for Caeiro, things simply exist and we have no right to credit them with more than that. Caeiro attains happiness by not questioning, and by thus avoiding doubts and uncertainties. He apprehends reality solely through his eyes, through his senses. Octavio Paz called him the innocent poet. Paz made a shrewd remark on the heteronyms: In each are particles of negation or unreality. Reis believes in form, Campos in sensation, Pessoa in symbols. Caeiro doesn't believe in anything. He exists.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Poetry before Caeiro was essentially interpretative; what poets did was to offer an interpretation of their perceived surroundings; Caeiro does not do this. Instead, he attempts to communicate his senses, and his feelings, without any interpretation whatsoever.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Caeiro attempts to approach Nature from a qualitatively different mode of apprehension; that of simply perceiving (an approach akin to phenomenological approaches to philosophy). Poets before him would make use of intricate metaphors to describe what was before them; not so Caeiro: his self-appointed task is to bring these objects to the reader's attention, as directly and simply as possible. Caeiro sought a direct experience of the objects before him.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: As such it is not surprising to find that Caeiro has been called an anti-intellectual, anti-Romantic, anti-subjectivist, anti-metaphysical...an anti-poet, by critics; Caeiro simply-is. He is in this sense very unlike his creator Fernando Pessoa: Pessoa was besieged by metaphysical uncertainties; these were, to a large extent, the cause of his unhappiness; not so Caeiro: his attitude is anti-metaphysical; he avoided uncertainties by adamantly clinging to a certainty: his belief that there is no meaning behind things. Things, for him, simply-are.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Caeiro represents a primal vision of reality, of things. He is the pagan incarnate. Indeed, Caeiro was not simply a pagan but paganism itself.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: The critic Jane M. Sheets sees the insurgence of Caeiro — who was Pessoa's first major heteronym — as essential in founding the later poetic "personae": By means of this artless yet affirmative anti-poet, Caeiro, a short-lived but vital member of his coterie, Pessoa acquired the base of an experienced and universal poetic vision. After Caeiro's tenets had been established, the avowedly poetic voices of Campos, Reis and Pessoa himself spoke with greater assurance.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: In a letter to William Bentley, Pessoa wrote that "a "knowledge" of the language would be indispensable, for instance, to appraise the 'Odes' of Ricardo Reis, whose Portuguese would draw upon him the blessing of António Vieira, as his stile and diction that of Horace (he has been called, admirably I believe, 'a Greek Horace who writes in Portuguese')".


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Reis, both a character and a heteronym of Fernando Pessoa himself, sums up his philosophy of life in his own words, admonishing, "See life from a distance. Never question it. There's nothing it can tell you." Like Caeiro, whom he admires, Reis defers from questioning life. He is a modern pagan who urges one to seize the day and accept fate with tranquility. "Wise is the one who does not seek. The seeker will find in all things the abyss, and doubt in himself." In this sense, Reis shares essential affinities with Caeiro.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Believing in the Greek gods, yet living in a Christian Europe, Reis feels that his spiritual life is limited and true happiness cannot be attained. This, added to his belief in Fate as a driving force for all that exists, as such disregarding freedom, leads to his epicureanist philosophy, which entails the avoidance of pain, defending that man should seek tranquility and calm above all else, avoiding emotional extremes.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Where Caeiro wrote freely and spontaneously, with joviality, of his basic, meaningless connection to the world, Reis writes in an austere, cerebral manner, with premeditated rhythm and structure and a particular attention to the correct use of the language when approaching his subjects of, as characterized by Richard Zenith, "the brevity of life, the vanity of wealth and struggle, the joy of simple pleasures, patience in time of trouble, and avoidance of extremes".


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: In his detached, intellectual approach, he is closer to Fernando Pessoa's constant rationalization, as such representing the orthonym's wish for measure and sobriety and a world free of troubles and respite, in stark contrast to Caeiro's spirit and style. As such, where Caeiro's predominant attitude is that of joviality, his sadness being accepted as natural ("My sadness is a comfort for it is natural and right."), Reis is marked by melancholy, saddened by the impermanence of all things.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Ricardo Reis is the main character of José Saramago's 1986 novel "The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis".


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Álvaro de Campos manifests, in a way, as a hyperbolic version of Pessoa himself. Of the three heteronyms he is the one who feels most strongly, his motto being 'to feel everything in every way.' 'The best way to travel,' he wrote, 'is to feel.' As such, his poetry is the most emotionally intense and varied, constantly juggling two fundamental impulses: on the one hand a feverish desire to be and feel everything and everyone, declaring that 'in every corner of my soul stands an altar to a different god' (alluding to Walt Whitman's desire to 'contain multitudes'), on the other, a wish for a state of isolation and a sense of nothingness.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: As a result, his mood and principles varied between violent, dynamic exultation, as he fervently wishes to experience the entirety of the universe in himself, in all manners possible (a particularly distinctive trait in this state being his futuristic leanings, including the expression of great enthusiasm as to the meaning of city life and its components) and a state of nostalgic melancholy, where life is viewed as, essentially, empty.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: One of the poet's constant preoccupations, as part of his dichotomous character, is that of identity: he does not know who he is, or rather, fails at achieving an ideal identity. Wanting to be everything, and inevitably failing, he despairs. Unlike Caeiro, who asks nothing of life, he asks too much. In his poetic meditation 'Tobacco Shop' he asks:


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: "Mensagem", written in Portuguese, is a symbolist epic made up of 44 short poems organized in three parts or Cycles:


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: The first, called "Brasão" (Coat-of-Arms), relates Portuguese historical protagonists to each of the fields and charges in the Portuguese coat of arms. The first two poems ("The castles" and "The escutcheons") draw inspiration from the material and spiritual natures of Portugal. Each of the remaining poems associates to each charge a historical personality. Ultimately they all lead to the Golden Age of Discovery.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: The second Part, called "Mar Português" (Portuguese Sea), references the country's Age of Portuguese Exploration and to its seaborne Empire that ended with the death of King Sebastian at El-Ksar el Kebir ("Alcácer-Quibir" in Portuguese) in 1578. Pessoa brings the reader to the present as if he had woken up from a dream of the past, to fall in a dream of the future: he sees King Sebastian returning and still bent on accomplishing a Universal Empire.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: The third Cycle, called "O Encoberto" ("The Hidden One"), refers to Pessoa's vision of a future world of peace and the Fifth Empire (which, according to Pessoa, is spiritual and not material, because if it were material England would already have achieved it). After the Age of Force (Vis), and Taedium (Otium) will come Science (understanding) through a reawakening of "The Hidden One", or "King Sebastian". The Hidden One represents the fulfillment of the destiny of mankind, designed by God since before Time, and the accomplishment of Portugal.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: King Sebastian is very important, indeed he appears in all three parts of Mensagem. He represents the capacity of dreaming, and believing that it's possible to achieve dreams.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: One of the most famous quotes from "Mensagem" is the first line from "O Infante" (belonging to the second Part), which is "Deus quer, o homem sonha, a obra nasce" (which translates roughly to "God wishes, man dreams, the work is born"). Another well-known quote from "Mensagem" is the first line from "Ulysses", "O mito é o nada que é tudo" (a possible translation is "The myth is the nothing that is all"). This poem refers to Ulysses, king of Ithaca, as Lisbon's founder (recalling an ancient Greek myth).


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: In 1912, Fernando Pessoa wrote a set of essays (later collected as "The New Portuguese Poetry") for the cultural journal "A Águia" (The Eagle), founded in Oporto, in December 1910, and run by the republican association Renascença Portuguesa. In the first years of the Portuguese Republic, this cultural association was started by republican intellectuals led by the writer and poet Teixeira de Pascoaes, philosopher Leonardo Coimbra and historian Jaime Cortesão, aiming for the renewal of Portuguese culture through the aesthetic movement called Saudosismo. Pessoa contributed to the journal "A Águia" with a series of papers: 'The new Portuguese Poetry Sociologically Considered' (nr. 4), 'Relapsing…' (nr. 5) and 'The Psychological Aspect of the new Portuguese Poetry' (nrs. 9,11 and 12). These writings were strongly encomiastic to saudosist literature, namely the poetry of Teixeira de Pascoaes and Mário Beirão. The articles disclose Pessoa as a connoisseur of modern European literature and an expert of recent literary trends. On the other hand, he does not care much for a methodology of analysis or problems in the history of ideas. He states his confidence that Portugal would soon produce a great poet – a super-Camões – pledged to make an important contribution for European culture, and indeed, for humanity.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: The philosophical notes of the young Pessoa, mostly written between 1905 and 1912, illustrate his debt to the history of Philosophy more through commentators than through a first-hand protracted reading of the Classics, ancient or modern. The issues he engages with pertain to every philosophical discipline and concern a large profusion of concepts, creating a vast semantic spectrum in texts whose length varies between half a dozen lines and half a dozen pages and whose density of analysis is extremely variable; simple paraphrasis, expression of assumptions and original speculation.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Such pantheist transcendentalism is used by Pessoa to define the project that "encompasses and exceeds all systems"; to characterize the new poetry of Saudosismo where the "typical contradiction of this system" occurs; to inquire of the particular social and political results of its adoption as the leading cultural paradigm; and, at last, he hints that metaphysics and religiosity strive "to find in everything a beyond".


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Professor Jacksons research interests focus on Portuguese and Brazilian Literatures; modernist and inter-arts literature; Portuguese culture in Asia; and ethnomusicology. He has written and edited several books and other publications. We talk with Professor Jackson about his forthcoming book, Adverse Genres in Fernando Pessoa.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: Richard Zenith presented a lecture on Fernando Pessoa, one of Portugal's most important literary figures of the 20th century and a towering figure in modernism.


title: Fernando Pessoa

text: In this poem, Pessoa creates an inner struggle that the speaker has with trying to figure out whether it was fate or free will that has determined how his life panned out. By making the whole poem essentially one, elongated metaphor, Pessoa is able to give multiple interpretations to his poem. In the titular first line of the first stanza, Pessoa states “I don’t know how many souls I have”. Automatically, Pessoa causes the speaker to question his morality and inner being. Line two of the first stanza has a literal translation of “each time changed.” When put in context, it becomes apparent that the speaker is referring to himself that changes so often. These two lines become the foundation for the rest of the poem, seeing as they set up a questioning within the speaker. The translations of these two lines are also crucial to fully grasp the meaning of the poem as a whole.


title: Cosmological constant

text: In cosmology, the cosmological constant (usually denoted by the Greek capital letter lambda: ), alternatively called Einstein's cosmological constant,


title: Cosmological constant

text: is the constant coefficient of a term that Albert Einstein temporarily added to his field equations of general relativity. He later removed it. Much later it was revived and reinterpreted as the energy density of space, or vacuum energy, that arises in quantum mechanics. It is closely associated with the concept of dark energy.


title: Cosmological constant

text: Einstein originally introduced the constant in 1917 to counterbalance the effect of gravity and achieve a static universe, a notion that was the accepted view at the time. Einstein's cosmological constant was abandoned after Edwin Hubble's confirmation that the universe was expanding. From the 1930s until the late 1990s, most physicists agreed with Einstein's choice of setting the cosmological constant to zero. That changed with the discovery in 1998 that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, implying that the cosmological constant may have a positive value.


title: Cosmological constant

text: Since the 1990s, studies have shown that, assuming the cosmological principle, around 68% of the mass–energy density of the universe can be attributed to so-called dark energy. The cosmological constant is the simplest possible explanation for dark energy, and is used in the current standard model of cosmology known as the ΛCDM model.


title: Cosmological constant

text: According to quantum field theory (QFT), which underlies modern particle physics, empty space is defined by the vacuum state, which is composed of a collection of quantum fields. All these quantum fields exhibit fluctuations in their ground state (lowest energy density) arising from the zero-point energy present everywhere in space. These zero-point fluctuations should act as a contribution to the cosmological constant , but when calculations are performed, these fluctuations give rise to an enormous vacuum energy. The discrepancy between theorized vacuum energy from quantum field theory and observed vacuum energy from cosmology is a source of major contention, with the values predicted exceeding observation by some 120 orders of magnitude, a discrepancy that has been called "the worst theoretical prediction in the history of physics". This issue is called the cosmological constant problem and it is one of the greatest mysteries in science with many physicists believing that "the vacuum holds the key to a full understanding of nature".


title: Cosmological constant

text: Einstein included the cosmological constant as a term in his field equations for general relativity because he was dissatisfied that otherwise his equations did not allow for a static universe: gravity would cause a universe that was initially non-expanding to contract. To counteract this possibility, Einstein added the cosmological constant. However, soon after Einstein developed his static theory, observations by Edwin Hubble indicated that the universe appears to be expanding; this was consistent with a cosmological solution to the "original" general relativity equations that had been found by the mathematician Friedmann, working on the Einstein equations of general relativity. Einstein reportedly referred to his failure to accept the validation of his equations—when they had predicted the expansion of the universe in theory, before it was demonstrated in observation of the cosmological redshift—as his "biggest blunder".


title: Cosmological constant

text: It transpired that adding the cosmological constant to Einstein's equations does not lead to a static universe at equilibrium because the equilibrium is unstable: if the universe expands slightly, then the expansion releases vacuum energy, which causes yet more expansion. Likewise, a universe that contracts slightly will continue contracting.


title: Cosmological constant

text: However, the cosmological constant remained a subject of theoretical and empirical interest. Empirically, the cosmological data of recent decades strongly suggests that our universe has a positive cosmological constant. The explanation of this small but positive value is a remaining theoretical challenge, the so-called cosmological constant problem.


title: Cosmological constant

text: Some early generalizations of Einstein's gravitational theory, known as classical unified field theories, either introduced a cosmological constant on theoretical grounds or found that it arose naturally from the mathematics. For example, Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington claimed that the cosmological constant version of the vacuum field equation expressed the "epistemological" property that the universe is "self-gauging", and Erwin Schrödinger's pure-affine theory using a simple variational principle produced the field equation with a cosmological term.


title: Cosmological constant

text: where the Ricci tensor , Ricci scalar and the metric tensor describe the structure of spacetime, the stress–energy tensor describes the energy density, momentum density and stress at that point in spacetime, and . The gravitational constant and the speed of light are universal constants. When is zero, this reduces to the field equation of general relativity usually used in the 20th century. When is zero, the field equation describes empty space (a vacuum).


title: Cosmological constant

text: The cosmological constant has the same effect as an intrinsic energy density of the vacuum, (and an associated pressure). In this context, it is commonly moved to the right-hand side of the equation using . It is common to quote values of energy density directly, though still using the name "cosmological constant". The dimension of is generally understood as length.


title: Cosmological constant

text: where formula_3 is the Planck length. A positive vacuum energy density resulting from a cosmological constant implies a negative pressure, and vice versa. If the energy density is positive, the associated negative pressure will drive an accelerated expansion of the universe, as observed. (See "Dark energy" and "Cosmic inflation" for details.)


title: Cosmological constant

text: Instead of the cosmological constant itself, cosmologists often refer to the ratio between the energy density due to the cosmological constant and the critical density of the universe, the tipping point for a sufficient density to stop the universe from expanding forever. This ratio is usually denoted by and is estimated to be , according to results published by the Planck Collaboration in 2018.


title: Cosmological constant

text: In a flat universe, is the fraction of the energy of the universe due to the cosmological constant, i.e., what we would intuitively call the fraction of the universe that is made up of dark energy. Note that this value changes over time: The critical density changes with cosmological time but the energy density due to the cosmological constant remains unchanged throughout the history of the universe, because the amount of dark energy increases as the universe grows but the amount of matter does not.


title: Cosmological constant

text: Another ratio that is used by scientists is the equation of state, usually denoted , which is the ratio of pressure that dark energy puts on the universe to the energy per unit volume. This ratio is for the cosmological constant used in the Einstein equations; alternative time-varying forms of vacuum energy such as quintessence generally use a different value. The value = , measured by the Planck Collaboration (2018) is consistent with , assuming does not change over cosmic time.


title: Cosmological constant

text: Observations announced in 1998 of distance–redshift relation for Type Ia supernovae indicated that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, if one assumes the cosmological principle. When combined with measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation these implied a value of ≈ 0.7, a result which has been supported and refined by more recent measurements (as well as previous works). If one assumes the cosmological principle, as in the case for all models that use the Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker metric, while there are other possible causes of an accelerating universe, such as quintessence, the cosmological constant is in most respects the simplest solution. Thus, the Lambda-CDM model, the current standard model of cosmology which uses the FLRW metric, includes the cosmological constant, which is measured to be on the order of . It may be expressed as (by multiplication with , i.e. ≈) or as 10 "ℓ" (where "ℓ" is the Planck length). The value is based on recent measurements of vacuum energy density, = ≘ = . However, due to the Hubble tension and the CMB dipole, recently it has been proposed that the cosmological principle is no longer true in the late universe and that the FLRW metric breaks down, so it is possible that observations usually attributed to an accelerating universe are simply a result of the cosmological principle not applying in the late universe.


title: Cosmological constant

text: As was only recently seen, by works of 't Hooft, Susskind and others, a positive cosmological constant has surprising consequences, such as a finite maximum entropy of the observable universe (see "Holographic principle").


title: Cosmological constant

text: A major outstanding problem is that most quantum field theories predict a huge value for the quantum vacuum. A common assumption is that the quantum vacuum is equivalent to the cosmological constant. Although no theory exists that supports this assumption, arguments can be made in its favor.


title: Cosmological constant

text: Such arguments are usually based on dimensional analysis and effective field theory. If the universe is described by an effective local quantum field theory down to the Planck scale, then we would expect a cosmological constant of the order of formula_4 (formula_5 in reduced Planck units). As noted above, the measured cosmological constant is smaller than this by a factor of ~10. This discrepancy has been called "the worst theoretical prediction in the history of physics".


title: Cosmological constant

text: Some supersymmetric theories require a cosmological constant that is exactly zero, which further complicates things. This is the cosmological constant problem, the worst problem of fine-tuning in physics: there is no known natural way to derive the tiny cosmological constant used in cosmology from particle physics.


title: Cosmological constant

text: No vacuum in the string theory landscape is known to support a metastable, positive cosmological constant, and in 2018 a group of four physicists advanced a controversial conjecture which would imply that no such universe exists.


title: Cosmological constant

text: One possible explanation for the small but non-zero value was noted by Steven Weinberg in 1987 following the anthropic principle. Weinberg explains that if the vacuum energy took different values in different domains of the universe, then observers would necessarily measure values similar to that which is observed: the formation of life-supporting structures would be suppressed in domains where the vacuum energy is much larger. Specifically, if the vacuum energy is negative and its absolute value is substantially larger than it appears to be in the observed universe (say, a factor of 10 larger), holding all other variables (e.g. matter density) constant, that would mean that the universe is closed; furthermore, its lifetime would be shorter than the age of our universe, possibly too short for intelligent life to form. On the other hand, a universe with a large positive cosmological constant would expand too fast, preventing galaxy formation. According to Weinberg, domains where the vacuum energy is compatible with life would be comparatively rare. Using this argument, Weinberg predicted that the cosmological constant would have a value of less than a hundred times the currently accepted value. In 1992, Weinberg refined this prediction of the cosmological constant to 5 to 10 times the matter density.


title: Cosmological constant

text: This argument depends on the vacuum energy density being constant throughout spacetime, as would be expected if dark energy were the cosmological constant. There is no evidence that the vacuum energy does vary, but it may be the case if, for example, the vacuum energy is (even in part) the potential of a scalar field such as the residual inflaton (also see "Quintessence"). Another theoretical approach that deals with the issue is that of multiverse theories, which predict a large number of "parallel" universes with different laws of physics and/or values of fundamental constants. Again, the anthropic principle states that we can only live in one of the universes that is compatible with some form of intelligent life. Critics claim that these theories, when used as an explanation for fine-tuning, commit the inverse gambler's fallacy.


title: Cosmological constant

text: In 1995, Weinberg's argument was refined by Alexander Vilenkin to predict a value for the cosmological constant that was only ten times the matter density, i.e. about three times the current value since determined.


title: Cosmological constant

text: An attempt to directly observe dark energy in a laboratory failed to detect a new force. Inferring the presence of dark energy through its interaction with baryons in the cosmic microwave background has also led to a negative result, although the current analyses have been derived only at the linear perturbation regime.


title: Miss America

text: Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 17 and 25. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is now judged on competitors' talent performances and interviews. As of 2018, there is no longer a swimsuit portion to the contest, or consideration of physical appearance. Miss America travels about 20,000 miles a month, changing her location every 24 to 48 hours, touring the nation and promoting her particular platform of interest. The winner is crowned by the previous year's titleholder.


title: Miss America

text: The current Miss America is Grace Stanke of Wisconsin, who was crowned Miss America 2023 on December 15, 2022.


title: Miss America

text: On February 1, 1919, there was a beauty pageant held in the Chu Chin Chow Ball at the Hotel des Artistes in New York City. The winner, Edith Hyde Robbins Macartney, was called "Miss America." Neither the title nor this pageant were related to the current "Miss America Pageant" which would develop a year later in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Rather, the origins of the "Miss America Pageant" lie in an event entitled "The Fall Frolic" which was held on September 25, 1920, in Atlantic City. This event was designed to bring business to the Boardwalk: "three hundred and fifty gaily decorated rolling wicker chairs were pushed along the parade route. Three hundred and fifty men pushed the chairs. However, the main attractions were the young 'maidens' who sat in the rolling chairs, headed by a Miss Ernestine Cremona, who was dressed in a flowing white robe and represented 'Peace.'"


title: Miss America

text: The event was so successful that "The Businessmen's League" planned to repeat it the following year as a beauty pageant or a "bather's revue" (to capitalize on the popularity of newspaper-based beauty contests that used photo submissions). The event was scheduled to take place the week-end following Labor Day, to encourage summer visitors to stay in Atlantic City. Thus, "newspapers from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C., were asked to sponsor local beauty contests. The winners would participate in the Atlantic City contest. If the local newspaper would pay for the winner's wardrobe, the Atlantic City Businessmen's League would pay for the contestant's travel to compete in the Inter-City Beauty Contest." Herb Test, a "newspaperman", coined the term for the winner: "Miss America." On September 8, 1921, 100,000 people gathered at the Boardwalk to watch the contestants from Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Ocean City, Camden, Newark, New York City, and Philadelphia. Out of the nine contestants, the two frontrunners were Virginia Lee and Margaret Gorman. A conflict ensued when the judges disqualified 22-year-old Lee at the last minute because she was deemed to be a professional rather than an amateur like the other contestants due to the fact that she was 1) a working actress, 2) married, and 3) a friend of the competition's chief judge.


title: Miss America

text: The 16-year-old winner from Washington, D.C., Margaret Gorman, was crowned the "Golden Mermaid" and won $100.


title: Miss America

text: The pageant continued consistently over the next eight decades except for the years 1928–1932, when it was temporarily shut down due to financial problems associated with the Great Depression and suggestions that it promoted "loose morals." With its revival in 1933, 15-year-old Marian Bergeron won, prompting future contestants to be between the ages of 18 and 26. In 1935, Lenora Slaughter was hired to "re-invent" the pageant and served for 32 years as its Director. By 1938, a talent section was added to the competition, and contestants were required to have a chaperone. In 1940, the title officially became "The Miss America Pageant" and the pageant was held in Atlantic City's Convention Hall. In 1944, compensation for "Miss America" switched from "furs and movie contracts" to college scholarships, an idea generally credited to Jean Bartel, Miss America 1943.


title: Miss America

text: During the early years of the pageant, under the directorship of Lenora Slaughter, it became racially segregated via rule number seven that stated: "contestants must be of good health and of the white race." Rule number seven was abolished in 1950. Miss New York 1945, Bess Myerson, the only Jewish American winner to date, became Miss America 1945 and faced antisemitism during her time as Miss America, leading to a cutback in her official duties. Although there were Native American, Latina, and Asian-American contestants, there were no African-American contestants for fifty years (African-Americans appeared in musical numbers as far back as 1923, however, when they were cast as slaves).


title: Miss America

text: In 1970, Cheryl Browne, Miss Iowa 1970, competed as the first African-American contestant in the Miss America 1971 pageant. She also participated in one of the last USO-Miss America tours in Vietnam. A decade later in 1983, Miss New York (and Miss Syracuse) 1983, Vanessa Williams (the first African-American woman to win the competition as Miss America 1984), faced discrimination in response to her win and later resigned under pressure due to a scandal involving nude photographs. Three decades after these events, Miss New York (and Miss Syracuse) 2013, Nina Davuluri, the first Indian-American woman to win the crown as Miss America 2014, faced xenophobic and racist comments in social media when she won. Two years later at the Miss America 2016 pageant, then Miss America CEO Sam Haskell apologized to Vanessa Williams (who was serving as head judge) for what was said to her during the events of 1984.


title: Miss America

text: In 2018, the pageant adopted a new format, referred to as "Miss America 2.0", as part of an effort under new chairwoman Gretchen Carlson to "[evolve Miss America] in this cultural revolution." Under the new format, competitors are no longer judged on their physical appearance (resulting in the highly publicized announcement that the event would no longer include a swimsuit competition), and there is a larger focus on the competitors' "talent, passion, and ambition".


title: Miss America

text: Margaret Gorman, Miss District of Columbia, was declared "The Most Beautiful Bathing Girl in America" in 1921 at the age of 16 and was recognized as the first "Miss America" when she returned to compete the next year. The contest that year was won by Mary Katherine Campbell (Miss Ohio), who won again in 1923. She returned to compete a third time in 1924 but placed as first runner-up that year, and pageant rules were then amended to prevent anyone from winning more than once.


title: Miss America

text: Alta Sterling, competing as Miss Sioux City, was the first to represent the state of Iowa at the 1924 Miss America pageant. Sterling had the distinction of being the first Jewish contestant to compete for Miss America – one of some very notable "firsts" by Miss Iowa contestants.


title: Miss America

text: Beginning in 1940, Bob Russell served as the first official host of the pageant. In 1941, Mifaunwy Shunatona, Miss Oklahoma, became the first Native American contestant.


title: Miss America

text: In 1945, Bess Myerson became the first Jewish-American and the first Miss New York (competing as Miss New York City, a competition organized by a local radio station) to win the Miss America pageant as Miss America 1945. As the only Jewish contestant, Myerson was encouraged by the pageant directors to change her name to "Bess Meredith" or "Beth Merrick", but she refused. After winning the title (and as a Jewish Miss America), Myerson received few endorsements and later recalled that "I couldn't even stay in certain hotels […] there would be signs that read no coloreds, no Jews, no dogs. I felt so rejected. Here I was chosen to represent American womanhood and then America treated me like this." She thus cut short her Miss America tour and instead traveled with the Anti-Defamation League. In this capacity, she spoke against discrimination in a talk entitled, "You Can't Be Beautiful and Hate."


title: Miss America

text: In 1948, Irma Nydia Vasquez, the first Miss Puerto Rico, became the first Latina contestant. In addition, in 1948, Yun Tau Chee, the first Miss Hawaii, was also the first Asian-American contestant. Miss America 1949, Jacque Mercer, was married and divorced during her reign; after this, a rule was enacted requiring Miss America contestants to sign a certification that they have never been married or pregnant. Starting in 1950, although the pageant continued to be in September, the Miss America title changed to "post-dated", thus that year's pageant winner became Miss America 1951, and there was no Miss America 1950. The pageant was first televised nationally in 1954, hosted by Bob Russell. Future television star Lee Meriwether was crowned Miss America 1955. It would also be the last time Russell served as host. He recommended, and was replaced by, Bert Parks, who served as the host for the second televised pageant in 1955 and stayed as host until 1979. Television viewership peaked during the early 1960s, when it was the highest-rated program on American television.


title: Miss America

text: With the rise of second-wave feminism and the civil rights movement during the 1960s, the Miss America pageant became the subject of a series of protests that attacked it as sexist, racist, and part of U.S. militarism. The first such demonstration took place during the Miss America 1969 pageant held on September 7, 1968 (won by Miss Illinois 1968, Judith Ford), when about 200 members of the group New York Radical Women demonstrated as part of the Miss America protest. Bev Grant's photographs of this event have become iconic. In addition, a pamphlet distributed at the protest by Robin Morgan, "No More Miss America!", became a source for feminist scholarship. The protest was co-sponsored by Florynce Kennedy's Media Workshop, an activist group she founded in 1966 to protest the media's representation of African-Americans, along with the feminist Jeanette Rankin Brigade and the ACLU. Morgan later stated that the Miss America pageant "was chosen as a target for a number of reasons: it has always been a lily-white, racist contest; the winner tours Vietnam, entertaining the troops as a 'Murder Mascot'; the whole gimmick is one commercial shillgame to sell the sponsor's products. Where else could one find such a perfect combination of American values—racism, militarism, sexism—all packaged in one ‘ideal symbol,’ a woman." The protesters compared the pageant to a county fair where livestock are judged. They thus crowned a sheep as Miss America and symbolically destroyed a number of feminine products, including false eyelashes, high-heeled shoes, curlers, hairspray, makeup, girdles, corsets, and bras. Burning the contents of a trash can was suggested, but a permit was unobtainable; news media seized on the similarity between draft resisters burning draft cards and women burning their bras. In fact, there was no bra burning, nor did anyone remove her bra. The Women's Liberation Front later demonstrated at the Miss America 1971 pageant.


title: Miss America

text: Miss Iowa 1970, Cheryl Browne, became the first African-American contestant in the competition's history during the Miss America 1971 pageant (September 12, 1970). She drew attention from reporters and from security personnel in Atlantic City who maintained a visible presence during pageant rehearsals. Browne was not a finalist, however, losing to future media personality, Miss Texas 1970, Phyllis George. In August 1971, Browne traveled to Vietnam with George; Miss Nevada 1970, Vicky Jo Todd; Miss New Jersey 1970, Hela Yungst; Miss Arizona 1970, Karen Shields; Miss Arkansas 1970, Donna Connelly; and Miss Texas 1970 (George's replacement), Belinda Myrick. They participated in a 22-day United Service Organizations tour for American troops that began in Saigon. Browne later commented that she thought "it was one of the last Miss America groups to go to Vietnam." Miss Arkansas 1980, Lencola Sullivan, finished the Miss America 1981 pageant (September 6, 1980) as fourth runner-up, making her the first African American contestant to place in the top five.


title: Miss America

text: A few years later, Vanessa Williams (Miss New York 1983) won the title of Miss America 1984 on September 17, 1983, making her the first African American woman to wear the crown. Williams later commented that she was one of five minority contestants that year, noting that ballet dancer Deneen Graham "had already had a cross burned on her front yard because she was the first black Miss North Carolina [1983]." She also pointed out that "Suzette Charles was the first runner-up, and she was biracial. But when the press started, when I would go out on the – on the tour and do my appearances, and people would come up and say they never thought they'd see the day that it would happen; when people would want to shake my hand, and you'd see tears in their eyes, and they'd say, I never thought I'd see it in my lifetime – that's when, you know, it was definitely a very special honor." Williams' reign as Miss America was not without its challenges and controversies, however. For the first time in pageant history, a reigning Miss America was the target of death threats and hate mail. Williams was forced to resign seven weeks prior to the end of her time as Miss America, however, after the unauthorized publication of nude photos in "Penthouse." First runner-up, Miss New Jersey 1983, Suzette Charles replaced her for the final weeks of Williams' reign. Thirty-two years after she resigned however, Vanessa Williams returned to the Miss America stage on September 13, 2015, for the Miss America 2016 pageant as head judge (where Miss Georgia 2015, Betty Cantrell, won the crown). The pageant began with former Miss America CEO Sam Haskell issuing an apology to Williams, telling her that although "none of us currently in the organization were involved then, on behalf of today's organization, I want to apologize to you and to your mother, Miss Helen Williams. I want to apologize for anything that was said or done that made you feel any less the Miss America you are and the Miss America you always will be." Suzette Charles (Williams' replacement) said in an interview with "Inside Edition" that she was perplexed over the apology and suggested that it was given for the purpose of ratings.


title: Miss America

text: In 1985, Miss Utah 1984, Sharlene Wells Hawkes, became the first foreign-born, bilingual Miss America, as she was born in Asunción, Paraguay. Miss Alabama 1994, Heather Whitestone, won the 1995 pageant becoming the first deaf Miss America (she lost most of her hearing at the age of 18 months). At the Miss America 1999 pageant held on September 19, 1998, Nicole Johnson (Miss Virginia 1998) became the first Miss America with diabetes and the first contestant to publicize an insulin pump. Around the same time, Miss America officials announced they had lifted the ban on contestants who were divorced or had had an abortion. This rule change, however, was rescinded and Miss America CEO Robert L. Beck, who had suggested it, was fired. Angela Perez Baraquio, Miss Hawaii 2000, was crowned Miss America 2001, thereby becoming the first Asian-American, the first Filipino-American, as well as the first teacher ever to win the pageant.


title: Miss America

text: A few years later, the Miss America 2005 pageant held on September 18, 2004, would be the last one televised live on ABC (which dropped the pageant after this broadcast, as it "drew a record-low 9.8 million viewers") and the last one held in Atlantic City for ten years. Miss Alabama 2004, Deidre Downs, reigned as Miss America four months longer than usual as the Miss America 2006 pageant was moved to a January broadcast at the Las Vegas Strip's Theatre for the Performing Arts (Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino). It was broadcast live on Country Music Television. After two years, the pageant moved to the TLC network. The Miss America 2011 pageant held on January 15, 2011, showcased Miss New York 2010, Claire Buffie, (the first Miss America contestant to advocate a gay-rights platform) and Miss Delaware 2010, Kayla Martell, (the first bald contestant). ABC also resumed broadcasting the pageant with the 2011 competition. The Miss America 2013 pageant, held on January 12, 2013, was the last one to take place in Las Vegas. Miss New York 2012, Mallory Hagan, won the competition but only served for eight months as the pageant moved back to its former broadcast slot in September 2013 Miss Montana 2012, Alexis Wineman, ("America's Choice" winner) was the pageant's first autistic contestant.


title: Miss America

text: With the Miss America 2014 pageant, held on September 15, 2013, the competition returned to Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey. Miss New York (Nina Davuluri) won the title of Miss America. Davuluri was also the first Indian-American and second Asian-American to win the crown. Shortly after her win, however, Davuluri became the target of xenophobic and racist comments in social media relating the proximity of the event date to the 9/11 anniversary and to anti-Indian sentiment. News agencies cited tweets that misidentified her as Muslim or Arab, associated her with groups such as Al-Qaeda, and questioned why she was chosen over Miss Kansas 2013, Theresa Vail (a soldier who won the "America's Choice" award and was the first contestant to display tattoos during the swimsuit competition). Davuluri said that she was prepared for this backlash because "as Miss New York, I was called a terrorist and very similar remarks", and Vail denounced the social media backlash, offering her support to Davuluri. In addition, a torn ACL and MCL forced Miss Florida 2013, Myrrhanda Jones, to perform her baton routine with a decorated leg brace, while Nicole Kelly (Miss Iowa 2013) was the first contestant without a forearm to compete in the pageant.


title: Miss America

text: Amanda Longacre, who was crowned Miss Delaware 2014 and was preparing to compete in Miss America 2015, was stripped of the title and the crown because she was deemed to be too old. Longacre filed a $3 million lawsuit, and Miss America officials later blamed the error on state pageant officials whom, they said, "missed the age discrepancy in Longacre's submitted paperwork." Miss New York 2014 (Kira Kazantsev) eventually won the title of Miss America 2015, making New York the first state to produce a winner for three consecutive years.


title: Miss America

text: In September 2014, comedian John Oliver ran a segment on his show, "Last Week Tonight", that investigated the Miss America Organization's claim that it is "the world's largest provider of scholarships for women." Oliver's team, which included four researchers with journalism backgrounds, collected and analyzed the organization's state and federal tax forms to find that the organization's scholarship program only distributes a small fraction of its claimed "$45 million made available annually". Oliver said that at the national level, the Miss America Organization and Miss America Foundation together spent only $482,000 in cash scholarships in 2012. Oliver found that at the state level, the Miss Alabama pageant claimed that it had provided $2,592,000 in scholarships to Troy University despite not actually distributing any such scholarships. The pageant appeared to multiply the value of a single available scholarship by the number of contestants theoretically eligible for it, while using the term "provided" in a way that did not mean "distributed." The Miss America Organization responded by stating that Oliver affirmed that it provides the most scholarships to women and that the $45 million figure was based on all scholarships made available whether or not they are accepted. In February 2015, Sharon Pearce announced that she was stepping down from her role as President of the Miss America Organization. At that time, former CEO Sam Haskell was named Executive Chairman of the Miss America Organization, retained the title of CEO, and assumed all of Pearce's responsibilities. In addition, Miss America 2014, Nina Davuluri, was appointed one of the new trustees to the Miss America Foundation. In September 2015, Miss America officials announced that the organization grants $5.5 million in scholarships, a number which still includes adding together offers of in-kind tuition waivers from multiple schools when a contestant could accept one at most.


title: Miss America

text: On March 24, 2016, the Miss America Organization announced a contract renewal with ABC to continue carrying the pageant for the next three years to the 2019 edition.


title: Miss America

text: In June 2016, Erin O'Flaherty was crowned Miss Missouri, becoming the first openly lesbian Miss America contestant.


title: Miss America

text: In late December 2017, "HuffPost" published an article exposing derogatory emails sent and received by CEO Sam Haskell, board members Tammy Haddad and Lynn Weidner, and lead writer Lewis Friedman. The emails, sent between 2014 and 2017, featured instances of expletive name-calling and unprofessional comments. The comments were often sexual or violent in nature and targeted former Miss America winners, notably Mallory Hagan and Katherine Shindle, both of whom joined 47 other former Miss Americas (including all Miss Americas from 1988 to 2017) in signing a joint open letter calling for the firing or resignation of all involved. On December 22, the Miss America Organization (MAO) released statements to "USA Today", saying that it was made aware of concerns several months prior. They stated that the organization does not "condone the use of inappropriate language" and reported that its investigation had determined that Haskell was under "unreasonable distress resulting from intense attacks on his family from disgruntled stakeholders". The organization also reported that its relationship with Friedman had been terminated. Haskell explained that attacks on his character impaired his judgment when responding to the emails. Miss America's board of directors also suspended Haskell, who released a statement labeling the HuffPost article "unkind and untrue". Hagan and Shindle criticized the decision to suspend Haskell, rather than fire him, as inadequate. The following day, the President of Miss America, Josh Randle; executive chairwoman Lynn Weidner; and Haskell all resigned. The scandal prompted the pageant's producer, Dick Clark Productions, to cut ties, and the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) announced that it was reconsidering its contract with Miss America, with its executive director Chris Howard describing the scandal as "troubling", and both Frank Gilliam, incoming mayor of Atlantic City, and State Senator Colin Bell called for CRDA to end its relationship with Miss America. On December 24, Haddad also resigned.