title: Edvard Beneš

text: Beneš initially refused to accept their resignations and insisted that no government could be formed without the non-Communist parties. However, Gottwald had by this time dropped all pretense of working within the system. He threatened a general strike unless Beneš appointed a Communist-dominated government. The Communists also occupied the offices of the non-Communists who had resigned. Faced with the crisis, Beneš hesitated and sought more time.


title: Edvard Beneš

text: On 22 February, a large parade by the Communist action committees took place in Prague, and ended with the people's militia attacking the offices of opposition parties and the Sokols. Amid fears that civil war was imminent and rumours that the Red Army would sweep in to back Gottwald, Beneš gave way. On 25 February, he accepted the resignations of the non-Communist ministers and appointed a new Communist-dominated government in accordance with Gottwald's specifications. The non-Communist parties were still nominally represented, so the government was still technically a coalition. However, with the exception of Masaryk, the non-Communist ministers were fellow travelers. In effect, Beneš had given legal sanction to a Communist coup.


title: Edvard Beneš

text: During the crisis, Beneš failed to rally support as he could have done from the Sokols, the Legionnaire veterans' associations, the churches and many of the university students. Richard J. Crampton wrote: "In February 1948, Beneš still commanded enormous respect and authority", and if he had used his moral prestige, he could have rallied public opinion against the Communists. However, Beneš still saw Germany as the main danger to Czechoslovakia and ultimately believed that Czechoslovakia needed the alliance with the Soviet Union more than the other way around, and as such Prague could never afford a lasting rift with Moscow. Finally, Beneš was a deeply ill man in February 1948, suffering from high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis and spinal tuberculosis, and his poor health contributed to the lack of fight in him.


title: Edvard Beneš

text: Shortly afterward, elections were held in which voters were presented with a single list from the National Front, now a Communist-dominated organization. On 12 March 1948, professor Václav Černý visited Beneš at his villa at Sezimovo Usti, where the president accused Stalin of using him. According to Černý, Beneš used such violent and vulgar language about Stalin that he did not bother writing down the president's commentary, believing it was unpublishable.


title: Edvard Beneš

text: The Constituent National Assembly, now a subservient tool of the Communists, approved a new constitution on 9 May. Although it was not a completely Communist document, it was close enough to the Soviet Constitution that Beneš refused to sign it. He resigned as president on 7 June 1948, and Gottwald took over most presidential functions until being elected his successor a week later.


title: Edvard Beneš

text: On 14 August 1948, the Soviet and Czechoslovak media launched a campaign of vilification against Beneš, accusing him of being an enemy of the Soviet Union and claimed that he refused a Soviet offer of unilateral military assistance in September 1938 because he wanted the Munich Agreement imposed on Czechoslovakia. On his deathbed, Beneš became furious about the claim the Soviet Union had offered to help unilaterally in 1938 with the former presidential chancellor Jaromír Smutný () writing: "He would like to know when, by whom and to whom was the offer made". During the Communist era in Czechoslovakia, Beneš was vilified as a traitor for turning down this purported offer.


title: Edvard Beneš

text: Already in poor health after suffering two strokes in 1947, Beneš was left completely broken after seeing the undoing of his life's work. He died of natural causes at his villa in Sezimovo Ústí on 3 September 1948, seven months after the communist coup. He is interred in the garden of his villa, and his bust is part of the gravestone. His wife Hana, who lived until 2 December 1974, is interred next to him.


title: Edvard Beneš

text: Much controversy remains on his character and policy. According to the SVR, Beneš had closely co-operated with the Soviet intelligence before the war especially with Soviet agent Pyotr Zubov.


title: Edvard Beneš

text: Beneš's friend, the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, wrote in 1945: "Beck, Stojadinović, Antonescu, and Bonnet despised Beneš's integrity and prided themselves on their cunning; but their countries, too, fell before the German aggressor, and every step they took has made the resurrection of their countries more difficult. In contrast, the foreign policy of Dr. Beneš during the present war has won Czechoslovakia a secure future". The leaders to whom Taylor referred were Colonel Józef Beck, the Polish foreign minister 1932–39 and a leading figure in the "Sanation" military dictatorship, who at times was willing to flirt with the Third Reich to achieve his goals; Milan Stojadinović, who served as the prime minister of Yugoslavia 1935–39 and who followed a pro-German foreign policy; General Ion Antonescu, the Conducător (dictator) of Romania 1940–44; and Georges Bonnet, the French foreign minister 1938–39, who favored abandoning Eastern Europe to Nazi Germany. Taylor's assessment that Beneš was a man of integrity (unlike Bonnet, Antonescu, Beck and Stojadinović) and that he was leading Czechoslovakia in the right direction was widely shared in 1945.


title: Steve Berra

text: Steve Berra (born May 10, 1973) is an American professional skateboarder and director, and is also the cofounder/co-owner of the skateboarding website The Berrics.


title: Steve Berra

text: Berra grew up in both Nebraska and Missouri and he explained in 2007 that his family was poor: "I was considered poor when I was growing up. I didn't have a phone." Berra was bullied at school for skateboarding and struggled as a student, with Berra stating that he "was the kid who everybody assumed was a complete lost cause." It was at the age of 14 years that the isolated Berra, who had a small number of friends at the time, decided that a professional skateboarding career was his aspiration.


title: Steve Berra

text: In pursuit of his skateboarding career, Berra relocated to southern California, US when he was 18 years old and lived with skateboarding legend Tony Hawk. Hawk provided guidance to Berra regarding the skateboarding industry and advised, "You have to look at skating as fun. But it's not a career," due to the subculture's marginal status at the time.


title: Steve Berra

text: Berra's first sponsor was Blockhead, which led to his experience with the "Blockhead House", where he met fellow skateboarder Jason Dill. He then moved onto the 101 skateboard brand, owned by Natas Kaupas, and he has since stated that "I didn't have a good time on 101". Before Kaupas could assign Berra the status of a "professional" team rider, Berra quit 101 and joined Tony Hawk's Birdhouse company. While with Birdhouse, the 23-year-old Hawk was a mentor figure to Berra, leading to Berra's initial forays into acting. In 1992, Berra left Birdhouse and since admitted that his departure was due to being "young, misunderstood, and silly". Several months later, Berra joined the Foundation team, skating in the company's 1993 video "Super Conductor Super Collider".


title: Steve Berra

text: In 1998 Berra returned to Birdhouse to create the skateboarding video "The End". In one of the notable scenes in the movie, Berra's death is simulated in a decapitation scene (filmed with the aid of a dummy).


title: Steve Berra

text: Shortly after the release of "The End" Berra once again left Birdhouse and joined Alien Workshop, alongside Dill and professionals such as Josh Kalis and Rob Dyrdek.


title: Steve Berra

text: In 2003 Berra struggled with severe ankle pain that prevented him from skating for most of the year and he underwent reconstructive surgery in January 2004. Footage of Berra entering ankle surgery is featured in the DVS Shoes (formerly DVS Shoe Co.) video, "Skate More", a production that he managed to film a full part for.


title: Steve Berra

text: Berra has been featured in MTV shows "Rob & Big" and "Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory". Season 2, Episode 6 of "Rob & Big" revolves around the Tampa Pro professional skateboarding contest, whereby Berra and Dyrdek engage in a US$5,000 bet to "up the ante" of the competition. In Season 2, Episode 8 of "Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory", entitled "The Berrics vs. Fantasy Factory", Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory skate park crew competes against The Berrics crew.


title: Steve Berra

text: As of 2013, Berra regularly appears on the website venture The Berrics that is co-owned with professional skateboarder Eric Koston. As of March 2013, Berra is no longer a member of the Alien Workshop team and his sponsors are DC Shoes, Grizzly Griptape, Skullcandy, and The Berrics.


title: Steve Berra

text: The Berrics concept was primarily conceived by Berra, who enlisted close friend, Koston, to invest in the premises that contains the training facility. Located in Los Angeles, U.S., the facility's name is an amalgamation of the pair's individual names: Berra + Eric = Berrics. In 2009, skateboarding journalist, Chris Nieratko, gained entrance to the skate park and its cardinal rule: "You have to film while you're skating The Berrics." The footage is later posted on The Berrics website, TheBerrics.com. TheBerrics.com grew to become one of skateboarding's most popular websites in only several months: "In January, the site had more unique visitors than sites for all of the major skateboarding magazines, and ESPN.com's action sports page, according to comScore, a market research firm."


title: Steve Berra

text: The website features a range of weekly, regular, and special features, including "Weekendtage", "Bangin'", "Battle at the Berrics", "Field Ops", and "Off the Grid". Berra has also used the website to feature colleagues and friends from the fields of film, advertising, and music.


title: Steve Berra

text: Berra is well known for his public opinions on skateboarding, and in a February 2013 interview with "Jenkem" magazine he explained his view on the status of the skateboarding industry at the commencement of the second decade of the 21st century:


title: Steve Berra

text: The economy is a huge challenge. There is only so much money in our industry and it is a very, very, very small industry. Skateboarding may mean everything to you and I and whoever is reading this but we are a small industry with a few examples of companies that have breached into the "real" world and sometimes give us the impression that we are bigger than what we are. There is a vast difference between the sales of Element and the sales of Expedition. The Berrics obstacles have been trying to get people to understand that things have changed, the world has changed, the skater and the consumer have changed. So… it was either we start it, Eric and I, or Google does.


title: Steve Berra

text: Berra also explained the manner in which the industry is often misperceived and how the economic conditions in the U.S.—at the time of the "Jenkem" interview—have affected the culture of skateboarding:


title: Steve Berra

text: We're all squirrels fighting for the same nuts in the worst economy in 100 years and everyone has it tough right now. I don't think people outside the industry understand that. I think a lot of these people who criticize the industry definitely don't understand that. They see these pillars of the skateboarding world and they equate them to the pillars of other worlds that are much bigger than ours not knowing that some are one bad month from closing their doors. Skateboarding companies are skin and bones operations. Popularity does not mean wealth in this industry.


title: Steve Berra

text: In the winter of 2006, Berra began his role as director of "The Good Life", a film that he also wrote the screenplay for. Starring Mark Webber, Zooey Deschanel, Bill Paxton, Harry Dean Stanton, Chris Klein, Patrick Fugit, Drea de Matteo and Donal Logue, "The Good Life" was described by Berra in the following manner: "... it had been my ‘other woman’ for many years, but because of my commitments as a professional skateboarder I couldn't pursue it 100%." The film, described as "a coming-of-age tale set in Lincoln, Nebraska, portrayed as a grim town of vacant lots, shuttered buildings, sidewalk drug dealers and deep poverty, all accented by overcast skies", premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and garnered a positive reception.


title: Steve Berra

text: Following the commencement of a new chapter of the Berrics project in early 2013, whereby a new premises was officially opened and the website was reconstructed, Berra has collaborated with professional skateboarder Paul Rodriguez on numerous projects, such as the Network A series "LIFE" and a Mountain Dew commercial entitled "Progression".


title: Steve Berra

text: Berra has maintained an interest in acting since the age of 18. He was a series regular on the short-lived Fox drama "413 Hope St.", portraying Quentin Jefferson, a young man infected with HIV. Berra has also held brief roles in the television shows "Felicity" and "Nash Bridges", as well as a minor role in the 1999 film "Anywhere but Here".


title: Steve Berra

text: Since the age of 18, Berra has juggled his interests in skateboarding and acting, although he maintains that skateboarding has always been his primary passion.


title: Steve Berra

text: Well, it's just helped me as an individual. I understand life much better and when you understand life, you have an easier time understanding other aspects of it, skateboarding included. I don't claim to be perfect, far from it in fact, but I at least have the self awareness to know that and see upon where I can improve, see where I've been the architect of my doom. Scientology has enabled me to really look at who I am, what I am doing and put myself in check if it I get too crazed. The best way I can further help people understand it is by telling them to actually go and buy a book. It's what I did.


title: Steve Berra

text: As of August 15, 2013, Berra has not been filmed with his two children on the Berrics, or any other media, but he responded to a fatherhood question in 2009 in the following manner:


title: Steve Berra

text: It's tough [being a father] sometimes because you go through a lot of heartbreak as a kid and then when you think you've grown out of it, you have a child of your own and you go through it all over again. You also have expectations that are sometimes unrealistic, you have heartache with them not liking you, you have heartache as a result of their heartache, but on the flipside you have this indescribable joy and connection with another person that you just don't have with anyone else and you have a real sense of achievement and pride when they turn out to be an extraordinary individual.


title: Travis Scott discography

text: American rapper, singer, and record producer Travis Scott has released three studio albums, three mixtapes, two collaborative albums, four extended plays (EP), 40 singles, seven promotional singles, and 43 music videos.


title: Travis Scott discography

text: In 2012, Scott signed his first major-label deal with Epic Records, before eventually signing to Kanye West's GOOD Music production wing known as Very G.O.O.D. Beats. In April 2013, it was announced that he signed a recording contract with T.I.'s Grand Hustle imprint. The following years he released the debut mixtape "Owl Pharaoh" (2013) and the second mixtape "Days Before Rodeo" (2014). Scott's debut studio album, "Rodeo", was released on September 4, 2015. Its lead single "3500", featuring Future and 2 Chainz, peaked at number 82 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. The album's second single, "Antidote", peaked at number 16 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, becoming his first top 20. Scott's second studio album, "Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight", was released on September 2, 2016. Its lead single "Pick Up the Phone", with Young Thug featuring Quavo, peaked at number 43 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. Scott's third studio album, "Astroworld", was released on August 3, 2018. Its lead single "Butterfly Effect", peaked at number 50 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. He has four number-one songs on the Hot 100, "Sicko Mode" (featuring Drake), "Highest in the Room", "The Scotts" (with Kid Cudi as The Scotts), and "Franchise" (featuring Young Thug and M.I.A.) all songs, except "Sicko Mode", were also debuts. His next album "Utopia"


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: In November 2019, the gang rape and murder of a 26-year-old veterinary doctor in Shamshabad, near Hyderabad, sparked outrage across India. Her body was found in Shadnagar on 28 November 2019, the day after she was murdered. Four suspects were arrested and, according to the Cyberabad Metropolitan Police, confessed to having raped and killed the doctor.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: The Telangana Police Department stated the victim parked her scooter near a toll plaza, catching the attention of two lorry drivers and their assistants. According to police, they deflated her tire, pretended to help her, and pushed her into nearby bushes, where they raped and smothered her. Allegedly, they loaded her corpse onto a lorry and dropped it onto the roadside.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: The police arrested four men based on the evidence gathered from CCTV cameras and from the victim's mobile phone. The accused were taken into judicial custody at Cherlapally Central Jail for seven days. The Chief Minister of Telangana ordered the formation of a fast-track court to try the accused for their alleged crimes. The rape and murder elicited outrage in several parts of the country. Protests and public demonstration against rape were organised nationwide after the incident, with the public demanding stricter laws against rape and rapists. The Minister of Home Affairs criticised the Telangana Police and stated that the government intended to amend the Indian Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure to introduce laws for quicker punishment by fast-track courts.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: All four accused were killed on 6 December 2019, under a bridge on the Bengaluru-Hyderabad national highway, while they were in police custody. According to the police, the suspects were taken to the location for a reconstruction of the crime scene, where two of them allegedly snatched guns and attacked the police. In the ensuing shootout, all four suspects were shot dead. Some accused the police of extrajudicial execution, while thousands of people celebrated the men's deaths.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: The first post-mortem of the four accused who were killed in the encounter was conducted on the same day itself at a government hospital in Mahbubnagar from where the bodies were subsequently moved to the Gandhi Hospital. The Telangana High Court on 21 December ordered the re-postmortem of the four accused. The second autopsy was done by a team of forensic experts of AIIMS, Delhi at a hospital in Hyderabad. After re-postmortem, the bodies have been handed over to the next of kin after due identification process was done. In 2022, an Inquiry Commission appointed by the Supreme Court of India concluded in its report that encounter was staged, and the matter was transferred to the Telangana High Court for further action. The name of the 4 suspects who were killed in encounter were Chintakunta Chennakeshavulu, Jolu Shiva, Jollu Naveen and Mohammed Arif.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: India has been characterised as one of the "countries with the lowest per capita rates of rape". Many rapes go unreported in various countries including India. The willingness to report rape has increased in recent years, after several incidents of rape received widespread media attention and triggered public protest. Most notably, the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder led the Government of India to reform its penal code for crimes of rape and sexual assault.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: use both this parameter and |birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) -->| death_place = Shamshabad, Hyderabad, India


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: The victim Disha (changed name to protect the identity) had pursued a degree in a veterinary college in Rajendranagar mandal. She was a resident of Shamshabad and was working as a veterinary assistant surgeon at the state-run hospital at Kollur village.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: According to the Telangana Police Department remand report, the victim had parked her scooter near Tondupally toll plaza, where the accused ones saw her, two lorry drivers and their assistants, who had been drinking whiskey before allegedly planning the crime.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: According to the remand report, on 27 November 2019 at around 6:15 p.m., after parking the scooter, the victim took a taxi to a dermatologist's office in Hyderabad. The suspects allegedly deflated her scooter's tire in her absence. After returning at around 9:15 p.m., she noticed the flat tyre and made a call to her sister. The accused told police they offered to help her, then ambushed her. Three of the suspects pushed her into bushes near the toll gate and turned off her phone. She continued screaming for help, so the men poured whiskey into her mouth in an attempt to silence her. The four men removed her clothes and took turns sexually assaulting her until she started bleeding and lost consciousness. When she regained consciousness, they smothered her, wrapped the corpse in a blanket, transported it in their truck 27 km to a location near the Shadnagar interchange on the Hyderabad Outer Ring road, and at approximately 2:30 a.m. burnt it under a bridge using diesel and petrol purchased for the purpose.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: The police arrested the four accused based on the evidence gathered from CCTV cameras, an eyewitness, and the victim's mobile phone. It was reported that they were drunk during the rape and murder.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: The woman's charred corpse was found under Chatanpally Bridge in Shadnagar located from the toll booth where she was abducted. Her scooter was found at a distance of from the place where her body was found. The police found her clothes, handbag, footwear and a liquor bottle near the toll booth. 70% of the body was covered with burns. A locket of Ganesha found on the charred corpse helped her family to identify the victim. The body was handed over to the family after a post mortem.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: The executive magistrate sent the four accused into custody for 14 days to Cherlapally Central Jail. On 1 December 2019, Telangana Chief Minister ordered that a fast-track court be formed to try the accused of this crime.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: Although the case was solved by the police in twenty-four hours, the family was dissatisfied. According to the victim's family, the response by the Hyberabad Police was improper, claiming that a quicker response by the police could have saved the victim's life. The victim's father had approached the police at 11 p.m. on 27 November, after which the police allegedly wasted time over the applicability of the jurisdiction of the police station and inappropriate questioning of the family. Constables were only sent for a search along with the family at 3 a.m. to Thondupally toll plaza and could not find the victim.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: The day after the incident the local police suspended three policemen, including a sub-inspector, belonging to the Shamshabad airport police station for negligence and the delay in registering a missing person case.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: The local police convinced the victim's family to allow the use of a fictional name, Disha, in place of the victim's true name in media reporting. They also suggested using the hashtag "#JusticeForDisha" for social media posts instead of using the real name. Indian laws prohibit naming rape victims, and violations are subject to legal penalties. On 3 December, a man from Nizamabad district was arrested by the Cyberabad Police, after a cyber crime case was filed against him, for posting pictures and spreading derogatory posts about the victim.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: The half-burnt corpse of another woman was found nearby, and the case is under investigation as of 1 December 2019. The police stated that it was not clear if it was a case of self immolation or if she was set on fire. Police have not confirmed a link between the second corpse and the veterinarian's murder.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: The rape and murder caused outrage in several parts of the country. Protests against rape were organised across the country including the major cities, New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad. Hyderabad was the centre of the protests. Politicians including Rahul Gandhi, expressed shock over the incident that happened near Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. Protesters across India demanded stricter laws against rapists. After the arrest of the four suspects, a crowd of local residents gathered at the Shadnagar police station to protest against the crime and demanding that the police either hang or shoot the culprits.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: Due to the crowd of protestors around the police station, the accused could not be brought to court. Instead the executive magistrate arrived to the police station and passed the order to send the accused on judicial custody for 14 days.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: While the police were transporting the accused from the Shadnagar police station to the prison in Hyderabad, several protestors threw stones over police vehicles. Police used force and wielded batons to control the crowd, who were demanding the police hand over the accused to them. The public sentiment was against the police. The protestors questioned the priorities of the police and demanded that police act in a sensitive, responsive and proactive manner.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: On 2 December 2019, the incident was discussed in both houses of the Indian parliament, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. The members of the two houses expressed outrage on the incident and demanded concrete action. In the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister Rajnath Singh stated that the government was "open to every suggestion to curb such heinous crimes" and ready to explore strongest legal provisions. Minister of State for Home Affairs G. Kishan Reddy said, "There is zero tolerance towards crimes against women and children. Our government will soon bring requisite amendments to CrPC and IPC." He further added that the government will possibly try to bring the changes in the ongoing winter session of Parliament.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: In Rajya Sabha, an adjournment motions over the incident was rejected by Chairman Venkaiah Naidu, but he allowed the members to discuss such incidents in the country. Member of Parliament Jaya Bachchan said during a heated debate that the rapists should be lynched. P. Wilson suggested courts be empowered "to surgically and chemically castrate convicted rapists before they are released from jails" to prevent repeat offenders. He stated that the list of sexual offenders should be released publicly. Vijila Sathyananth asked for faster delivery of justice and the hanging of the accused before 31 December. A speedy trial and death penalty for the accused was common demand of the members.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: Mohd. Ali Khan asked for defined timelines for the trial in fast-track courts. He also asked to avoid giving a religious colour to the accused since they belonged to different religions. The Communist Party of India which generally opposes capital punishment demanded it for the accused and its member Binoy Viswam stated "I do not believe in death penalty but these accused should be hanged for such a heinous crime".


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: In an interview to "NDTV" while visiting the family of the victim, Union Minister of State for Home, G. Kishan Reddy criticised the casual attitude of Telangana Police and their lack of a sense of urgency, saying it might have saved the victim. He stated "No one can be turned away from the police station like that. We will make it compulsory for every police station to accept a complaint. The FIR can be filed later; first they should have helped to search [for] the girl". He added "We take a very serious view of the developments. We intend to amend the IPC (Indian Penal Code) and CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure) to make the law such that punishment is quick through fast-track courts. We will discuss this in great detail in a meeting of DGPs (senior police officers) between December 6 and 8. We want to publicise 112 as an emergency response system. Every woman must download the app to use in emergency. At the same time, the police and law enforcement authorities, her family, even some volunteers will be alerted, so response can be quick. We have recently introduced it in Delhi and want to publicise it everywhere."


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: The Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) has made additional suggestions for changes to IPC and CrPC rules.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: The Government of Andhra Pradesh passed a bill named Disha Act (also known as, Andhra Pradesh Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2019) to award death penalty for rapists within 21 days after the crime is committed.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: All four accused were killed in an encounter (a term used in India for killings by police), at around 3:30 am IST on 6 December 2019, under a bridge on Bangalore Hyderabad national highway, prompting accusations of extrajudicial execution. "The New York Times" reported that police "had been under enormous pressure to bring the rapists to justice".


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: According to Prakash Reddy, Deputy Commissioner of Shamshabad Police in Hyderabad, the four suspects were taken to the location for a reconstruction of the crime scene, where two of them snatched guns and attacked the police. In the ensuing shootout all four suspects were shot dead. According to reports in "The Indian Express", police alleged that one of four accused had gestured to the other three to flee after attacking the police. The four tried to run towards a deserted pathway when police opened fire in what they described as self-defence. The suspects were not wearing handcuffs. According to Cyberabad police chief V. C. Sajjanar, the suspects had managed to snatch and use the weapons because the guns were unlocked. He stated "All four accused got together and started attacking the police party. Officers maintained restraint and asked them to surrender but without listening to us they kept firing. Our officers retaliated".


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: The family of the victim welcomed the encounter. Thousands of people celebrated at the scene of the men's deaths the following day, some setting off firecrackers, distributing candies, showering police with flower petals, hoisting police to their shoulders, and shouting "hail the police!" "The New York Times" reported that crowds celebrating in the streets had brought traffic to a standstill. Celebrations were also reported in other areas. Politicians and celebrities thanked police for the encounter on social media. The BBC attributed the celebrations to frustration with the "meandering pace" of the judicial system in India, which often requires years and occasionally decades to adjudicate clear cases. The BBC noted the popularity of films featuring "trigger-happy, vigilante cops brazenly carrying out extrajudicial executions" and the number of tweets comparing the Cyberabad police officers with the protagonist of "Singam", a 2010 film about an avenging police officer.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: The families of the accused were shocked with the news and questioned the killings. Human rights organizations and activists condemned the encounter. Maneka Gandhi stated that the case should have been tried in court. Karuna Nundy expressed concerns that "now nobody will ever know if the four men killed by the police were innocent men, arrested fast to show action. And whether four of the most brutal rapists roam free, to rape and kill more women." Amnesty International India stated that the "alleged extrajudicial execution" had raised disturbing questions and asked for an independent investigation. "The Pioneer" reported that multiple rights activists had termed the encounter as a distraction from the government's failures to safeguard women's rights. Meenakshi Ganguly of Human Rights Watch tweeted, "To appease public rage over state failures against sexual assault, Indian authorities commit another violation." Activist Rukmini Rao criticized some members of parliament for adding to the pressure on police, telling "News Today" "The police are acting on what they see as public support. And today we find not just public support, ordinary citizens, but we are finding members of parliament demanding lynchings, demanding killings, and if that is the case, how do you expect the police to act? The parliament has to uphold constitutional law." The Telangana High Court ordered to preserve the bodies of the accused until 13 December, and permitted their transfer (due to lack of morgue space) to Gandhi Hospital.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: The National Human Rights Commission of India initiated an investigation of the killings and will send a team led by a senior officer to Telangana. "News Today" has questioned whether the encounter was staged. In May 2022, the Inquiry Commission headed by former Supreme Court judge V. S. Sirpurkar concluded in its report that the encounter was staged, and the accused "were deliberately fired upon with an intent to cause their death". The commission went on to recommend that the involved police officers be tried for murder. The Supreme Court of India transferred the matter to the Telangana High Court for further action.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: In response to the incident, the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly passed Andhra Pradesh Disha-Criminal Law (Andhra Pradesh Amendment) Bill, 2019 and Special Courts for Specified Offences against Women and Children) Bill, 2020. The bills seek to expedite the investigation and trail of heinous cases related to sexual offences against women and children when substantial conclusive evidence is present. , the bills were reserved for the President's assent.


title: 2019 Hyderabad gang rape

text: In September 2020, filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma announced the film "Disha Encounter" which is based on the incident. The Central Board of Film Certification initially refused the certify the film but later passed it with an adult-only rating. The film's release has been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the victim's parents approached the Telangana High Court petitioning that the film would bring disrepute to their family.


title: Sanhedrin trial of Jesus

text: In the New Testament, the Sanhedrin trial of Jesus refers to the trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin (a Jewish judicial body) following his arrest in Jerusalem and prior to the trial before Pontius Pilate. It is an incident reported by all three Synoptic Gospels of the New Testament, while the Gospel of John refers to a preliminary inquiry before Annas. The gospel accounts vary on a number of details but are identical in essence.


title: Sanhedrin trial of Jesus

text: Jesus is generally quiet, does not defend himself, rarely responds to the accusations, and is found guilty of: violating the Sabbath law (by healing on the Sabbath); threatening to destroy the Jewish Temple; practicing sorcery, exorcising people by the power of demons and; claiming to be the Messiah. He is then taken to Pontius Pilate, the governor of Roman Judaea, to be tried for claiming to be the King of the Jews.


title: Sanhedrin trial of Jesus

text: Jewish tradition and texts portray the Sanhedrin to be an established court based in Jerusalem with strict guidelines on how to function, including a prohibition against trials after dark, and a requirement that they occur in a public venue. Talmud Sanhedrin (tractate) 32a reads: (Steinsaltz Translation) And further on 32a


title: Sanhedrin trial of Jesus

text: Maimonides quotes this mishna verbatim in his authoritative compendium of Jewish law Mishneh Torah, "The Sanhedrin and the Penalties within their Jurisdiction" §11.1


title: Sanhedrin trial of Jesus

text: This is often considered by Christian sources to show that the Gospel authors accused the Sanhedrin of violating the Torah during the trial. David Chapman and Eckhard J. Schnabel say that an exception to the usual procedural safeguards in capital cases was made in the case of someone suspected of seducing others away from Israel's religion.


title: Sanhedrin trial of Jesus

text: Raymond E. Brown and others think that in the era in which the narrative is set, the Sanhedrin was, rather than a fixed court, more of an "ad hoc" body that the high priest consulted to investigate religious offenses or to discuss political concerns. Craig A. Evans, citing theologian C.E.B. Cranfield, says that if the meeting at the house of Caiaphas is seen as "an informal hearing designed to gain a consensus among Jewish authorities that Jesus should be handed over to the Romans with a capital recommendation" there would be no violations of the rules regarding capital trials.


title: Sanhedrin trial of Jesus

text: The Sadduccean priesthood was widely despised. Caiaphas had been installed as high priest by Pilate's predecessor, the Roman procurator Valerius Gratus. Gratus had earlier deposed Caiaphas' father-in-law Annas, and then installed and deposed three other high priests over the course of eleven years.


title: Sanhedrin trial of Jesus

text: The family of Annas, including his son-in-law Caiaphas, is portrayed in Talmud Pesachim (tractate) 57a as having influence but using it against the interests of the people.


title: Sanhedrin trial of Jesus

text: In the narrative in the synoptic gospels, after the arrest of Jesus he is taken to the private residence of Caiaphas, the high priest. Matthew 26 () states that Jesus was taken to the house of Caiaphas the High Priest of Israel, where the scribes and the elders were gathered together. Mark 14 () states that Jesus was taken that night "to the high priest" (without naming the priest), where all the chief priests and the elders gathered.


title: Sanhedrin trial of Jesus

text: According to John's gospel, Jesus was taken not to Caiaphas but to Annas, who questioned him only privately. A former high priest and father-in-law of Caiaphas, Annas remained very influential. The fact that Jesus was taken not to Caiaphas but to Annas is explained on the ground that the latter's palace was nearer the place of arrest than that of the former. Peter and other disciples, however, being ignorant of the state of affairs, went to Caiaphas' house in the night.


title: Sanhedrin trial of Jesus

text: In all four Gospel accounts, the trial of Jesus before the priests and scribes is interleaved with the Denial of Peter narrative, where Apostle Peter, who has followed Jesus, denies knowing him three times. The intercalated narrative of Jesus' resolute determination offers contrast to the framing narrative of Peter's aggrieved denials (Mark 14:53–54, 14:66–72). Luke 22 () states that as Jesus was bound and standing at the priest's house Peter was in the courtyard. Jesus "turned and looked straight at him", and Peter remembered the words Jesus had spoken to him: "Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times."


title: Sanhedrin trial of Jesus

text: In John 18 (), Jesus is sent from Annas to Caiaphas the high priest. Both Matthew and Mark say that another consultation was held among the priests the next morning. The second interview with Jesus was "...evidently held in the house of Caiaphas, rather than in the Chamber of Hewn Stone..."


title: Sanhedrin trial of Jesus

text: According to , at Caiaphas' house, Jesus is mocked and beaten. He is accused of claiming to be both the Messiah and the Son of God. Although the Gospel accounts vary with respect to some of the details, they agree on the general character and overall structure of the trials of Jesus.


title: Sanhedrin trial of Jesus

text: In the Gospel accounts, Jesus speaks very little, and gives very infrequent and indirect answers to the questions of the priests, according to John 18:22 prompting an officer to slap him. In , the lack of response from Jesus prompts the high priest to ask him: "Answerest thou nothing?" In the Gospel accounts, the men that hold Jesus at the high priest's house mock, blindfold, insult and beat him, at times slapping him and asking him to guess who had hit him that time.


title: Sanhedrin trial of Jesus

text: According to Luke, Joseph of Arimathea was a counsellor, a member of the Sanhedrin who dissented from the decision. According to John, Nicodemus was with Joseph of Arimathea to recover and bury Jesus' body, leading to the inference that he also dissented.


title: Sanhedrin trial of Jesus

text: states that, "as soon as it was day", the chief priests and scribes gathered together and led Jesus away into their council. states that, early in the morning, Jesus was led from Caiaphas to Pontius Pilate in the Praetorium.


title: Sanhedrin trial of Jesus

text: In , Jesus is asked: "If thou art the Christ, tell us. But he said unto them, If I tell you, ye will not believe". But, in , when asked "Are you then the Son of God?", Jesus answers "You say that I am", affirming the title Son of God. At that point, the priests say "What further need have we of witness? for we ourselves have heard from his own mouth", and they decide to condemn Jesus.


title: Sanhedrin trial of Jesus

text: Thereafter, in Pilate's Court, the Jewish elders ask Pontius Pilate to judge and condemn Jesus, accusing him of claiming to be the King of the Jews. Such a claim would be considered treasonous for being a direct challenge to the Roman authorities.


title: Sanhedrin trial of Jesus

text: The historicity of the gospel narratives has been questioned by scholars, who suggest that the evangelists' accounts reflect the later antagonism that arose between the Church and the Synagogue. They show a tendency to minimize the actions of Pilate and emphasize the responsibilities of the Jews. Pilate's effectiveness as governor depended on cooperation with the aristocratic Jewish leadership. Provincial governors "...had full jurisdiction over capital cases, even when they worked in conjunction with local courts".


title: The Top (album)

text: The Top is the fifth studio album by English rock band The Cure, released on 4 May 1984 by Fiction Records. The album entered the UK Albums Chart at number ten on 12 May. Shortly after its release, the Cure embarked on a major tour of the United Kingdom, culminating in a three-night residency at the Hammersmith Odeon in London.


title: The Top (album)

text: After recording psychedelic album "Blue Sunshine" for the one-off project the Glove during summer 1983, Robert Smith finished off the year composing and working on two other studio albums at the same time: "The Top" for the Cure and "Hyæna" for Siouxsie and the Banshees. Smith was still the official guitarist of the Banshees while he wrote "The Top".


title: The Top (album)

text: For "The Top", Smith teamed up with co-Cure founding member, Lol Tolhurst, who had given up drums for keyboards, and new drummer Andy Anderson, who had previously performed on the UK top 10 single "The Lovecats". Porl Thompson was credited for playing saxophone on "Give Me It". All the songs are credited to Smith but three tracks were co-written with Tolhurst: "The Caterpillar", "Bird Mad Girl" and "Piggy in the Mirror".


title: The Top (album)

text: The album's style is eclectic, with Smith using various instruments including violin and flute. "Bird Mad Girl" is in a Spanish style, while "Wailing Wall" contains Middle Eastern undertones. "Sounds" critic Jack Barron described the opening track "Shake Dog Shake" as "urbane metal".


title: The Top (album)

text: Prior to its release, the Cure had been promoting the forthcoming album, performing live twice on UK television. In late February, they had played two songs on BBC Two's Oxford Road Show, "Shake Dog Shake" and "Give Me It" and in early April, they had appeared on Channel Four's The Tube to perform three other tracks, "Bananafishbones", "Piggy in the Mirror" and the title track of the record. "The Top" album was released on 4 May 1984 by record label Fiction. It was a commercial success in the UK, peaking at No. 10 on the UK Albums Chart. "The Caterpillar" was the sole single released from the album.


title: The Top (album)

text: Upon its release, the reaction in the British press was mostly positive. Steve Sutherland of "Melody Maker" praised the album for its "psychedelia that can't be dated", while Andy Strike of "Record Mirror" called it "a record of wicked originality and wit". In "Smash Hits", Mark Ellen deemed "The Top" a "weird and wonderful" album with songs that "seem both enticing and faintly dangerous". In contrast, Barron at "Sounds" noted that "The Top" is "too often not the true bottom line in reflected experience to be indisposable", but nevertheless prophesied, "In 20 years' time, when the next generation blush with excitement at the word 'Psychedelic', it'll be regarded as a classic". On a more skeptical note, "NME" reviewer Danny Kelly considered it self-indulgent, qualifying it as "an ambitious, difficult record".


title: The Top (album)

text: In a retrospective review, "Q" writer Tom Doyle dismissed "The Top" as "a transitional record of forgettable songs". Thomas Inskeep of "Stylus Magazine" wrote that "The Top" "may well be the nadir of their catalog", concluding he would call it "a transitional album and leave it at that, for what came subsequently was an honest-to-goodness marvel". Chris True of AllMusic noted that while it is "an album obviously recorded under stress, drink, and drugs", Smith's ability "to fuse the paranoia and neuroses of former work with his newfound use of pop melody and outside influences" makes the record "a necessary step in the evolution of the band".


title: Oswald (TV series)

text: Oswald is a children's animated television series co-produced by HIT Entertainment and Nickelodeon. The show was created by Dan Yaccarino and developed by Lisa Eve Huberman. The main character is a thoughtful blue octopus named Oswald who lives in an apartment complex.


title: Oswald (TV series)

text: In the United States, the series premiered on Nickelodeon (as part of its Nick Jr. block) on August 20, 2001. It was also broadcast on Noggin and CBS (during the Nick Jr. on CBS block) in reruns. 26 episodes were produced.


title: Oswald (TV series)

text: The series is set in Big City, a colorful world populated by anthropomorphic animals, mythological creatures and humanoid beings. Each episode follows the daily experiences of an anthropomorphic blue octopus named Oswald (voiced by Fred Savage), accompanied by his beloved hotdog-shaped pet, Weenie, and their life in the cheerful and whimsically-designed community of Big City. Commonly, the program concentrates on Oswald's experiences with friends, acquaintances and neighbors, including Henry, a penguin, and Daisy, a flower, among others – and his patient methods of coping with or tolerating different situations and dilemmas, along with his thoroughly optimistic outlook on life.


title: Oswald (TV series)

text: In the United States, "Oswald" first aired on the Nick Jr. television block on Nickelodeon on August 20, 2001. It was removed from the lineup on May 24, 2005. On April 7, 2003, "Oswald" started airing on Noggin during its daytime preschool block. Reruns also aired on the 24-hour Nick Jr. channel upon its launch in 2009, but they were removed on March 8, 2013. The show aired briefly on Nick on CBS for one year from September 15, 2001, to September 7, 2002.


title: Oswald (TV series)

text: Paramount Home Entertainment is the VHS and DVD distributor for the series in the US while HIT Entertainment is the VHS and DVD distributor for the series internationally.


title: Heaven Is a Place on Earth

text: "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" is a song by American singer Belinda Carlisle from her second studio album, "Heaven on Earth" (1987). Written by Rick Nowels and Ellen Shipley, the song was released as the lead single from the "Heaven on Earth" album on September 14, 1987, and it reached number one on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 on December 5, 1987, becoming Carlisle's only US chart-topper to date. A month later it peaked at number one in the United Kingdom, where it held the top spot of the UK Singles Chart for two weeks. It is considered to be Carlisle's signature song.


title: Heaven Is a Place on Earth

text: The song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1988, but lost out to Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)". In 2017, ShortList's Dave Fawbert listed the song as containing "one of the greatest key changes in music history".


title: Heaven Is a Place on Earth

text: In 2015, Carlisle re-recorded the song as an acoustic ballad. This version appeared on her album "Wilder Shores" (2017), which combines acoustic tracks with world beats and traditional Sikh chants.


title: Heaven Is a Place on Earth

text: The song is performed in the key of E major, with a tempo of 123 beats per minute in common time. Carlisle's vocals span from E to D. In the final chorus of the song, the key shifts up a tone to F major.


title: Heaven Is a Place on Earth

text: Carlisle's backup vocalists on the song include songwriters Nowels and Shipley as well as Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas, Chynna Phillips of Wilson Phillips, and songwriter Diane Warren. It also features Thomas Dolby on synthesizers.


title: Heaven Is a Place on Earth

text: "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" reached number one on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 and number seven on the Adult Contemporary chart. It was also a number-one hit in the United Kingdom, topping the UK Singles Chart for two weeks.


title: Heaven Is a Place on Earth

text: The single also reached number one in many other countries, among them Switzerland, Ireland, Zimbabwe, Sweden, South Africa and Norway. It also reached number three in Germany and Canada, number two in Australia, and number six in Italy. It reached gold status in Canada and platinum status in the United Kingdom.


title: Heaven Is a Place on Earth

text: The promotional music video for the song was directed by actress Diane Keaton and includes an appearance by Carlisle's husband Morgan Mason. It features children wearing black masks and capes, and holding illuminated plastic globes. Carlisle appears wearing a strapless dress and later changes to a black off-the-shoulder blouse. The video was partially filmed at Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park in Valencia, California (now Santa Clarita, California), on the now-defunct Spin Out ride.


title: Heaven Is a Place on Earth

text: The song appears in "Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay" (2008), "Love & Other Drugs" (2010) and the "Black Mirror" episode "San Junipero" (2016).


title: Heaven Is a Place on Earth

text: The artist as well as the song is referenced in "Belinda Says", from Canadian band Alvvays 2022 album Blue Rev.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: Exponential smoothing is a rule of thumb technique for smoothing time series data using the exponential window function. Whereas in the simple moving average the past observations are weighted equally, exponential functions are used to assign exponentially decreasing weights over time. It is an easily learned and easily applied procedure for making some determination based on prior assumptions by the user, such as seasonality. Exponential smoothing is often used for analysis of time-series data.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: Exponential smoothing is one of many window functions commonly applied to smooth data in signal processing, acting as low-pass filters to remove high-frequency noise. This method is preceded by Poisson's use of recursive exponential window functions in convolutions from the 19th century, as well as Kolmogorov and Zurbenko's use of recursive moving averages from their studies of turbulence in the 1940s.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: The raw data sequence is often represented by formula_1 beginning at time formula_2, and the output of the exponential smoothing algorithm is commonly written as formula_3, which may be regarded as a best estimate of what the next value of formula_4 will be. When the sequence of observations begins at time formula_2, the simplest form of exponential smoothing is given by the formulas:


title: Exponential smoothing

text: The use of the exponential window function is first attributed to Poisson as an extension of a numerical analysis technique from the 17th century, and later adopted by the signal processing community in the 1940s. Here, exponential smoothing is the application of the exponential, or Poisson, window function. Exponential smoothing was first suggested in the statistical literature without citation to previous work by Robert Goodell Brown in 1956, and then expanded by Charles C. Holt in 1957. The formulation below, which is the one commonly used, is attributed to Brown and is known as "Brown’s simple exponential smoothing". All the methods of Holt, Winters and Brown may be seen as a simple application of recursive filtering, first found in the 1940s to convert finite impulse response (FIR) filters to infinite impulse response filters.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: where formula_7 is the "smoothing factor", and formula_11. In other words, the smoothed statistic formula_12 is a simple weighted average of the current observation formula_13 and the previous smoothed statistic formula_14. Simple exponential smoothing is easily applied, and it produces a smoothed statistic as soon as two observations are available.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: The term "smoothing factor" applied to formula_7 here is something of a misnomer, as larger values of formula_7 actually reduce the level of smoothing, and in the limiting case with formula_7 = 1 the output series is just the current observation. Values of formula_7 close to one have less of a smoothing effect and give greater weight to recent changes in the data, while values of formula_7 closer to zero have a greater smoothing effect and are less responsive to recent changes.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: There is no formally correct procedure for choosing formula_7. Sometimes the statistician's judgment is used to choose an appropriate factor. Alternatively, a statistical technique may be used to "optimize" the value of formula_7. For example, the method of least squares might be used to determine the value of formula_7 for which the sum of the quantities formula_23 is minimized.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: Unlike some other smoothing methods, such as the simple moving average, this technique does not require any minimum number of observations to be made before it begins to produce results. In practice, however, a "good average" will not be achieved until several samples have been averaged together; for example, a constant signal will take approximately formula_24 stages to reach 95% of the actual value. To accurately reconstruct the original signal without information loss, all stages of the exponential moving average must also be available, because older samples decay in weight exponentially. This is in contrast to a simple moving average, in which some samples can be skipped without as much loss of information due to the constant weighting of samples within the average. If a known number of samples will be missed, one can adjust a weighted average for this as well, by giving equal weight to the new sample and all those to be skipped.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: This simple form of exponential smoothing is also known as an exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA). Technically it can also be classified as an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) (0,1,1) model with no constant term.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: The time constant of an exponential moving average is the amount of time for the smoothed response of a unit step function to reach formula_25 of the original signal. The relationship between this time constant, formula_26, and the smoothing factor, formula_27, is given by the formula:


title: Exponential smoothing

text: where formula_30 is the sampling time interval of the discrete time implementation. If the sampling time is fast compared to the time constant (formula_31) then


title: Exponential smoothing

text: Note that in the definition above, formula_33 is being initialized to formula_34. Because exponential smoothing requires that at each stage we have the previous forecast, it is not obvious how to get the method started. We could assume that the initial forecast is equal to the initial value of demand; however, this approach has a serious drawback. Exponential smoothing puts substantial weight on past observations, so the initial value of demand will have an unreasonably large effect on early forecasts. This problem can be overcome by allowing the process to evolve for a reasonable number of periods (10 or more) and using the average of the demand during those periods as the initial forecast. There are many other ways of setting this initial value, but it is important to note that the smaller the value of formula_7, the more sensitive your forecast will be on the selection of this initial smoother value formula_33.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: For every exponential smoothing method we also need to choose the value for the smoothing parameters. For simple exponential smoothing, there is only one smoothing parameter ("α"), but for the methods that follow there is usually more than one smoothing parameter.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: There are cases where the smoothing parameters may be chosen in a subjective manner – the forecaster specifies the value of the smoothing parameters based on previous experience. However, a more robust and objective way to obtain values for the unknown parameters included in any exponential smoothing method is to estimate them from the observed data.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: The unknown parameters and the initial values for any exponential smoothing method can be estimated by minimizing the sum of squared errors (SSE). The errors are specified as formula_37 for formula_38 (the one-step-ahead within-sample forecast errors). Hence we find the values of the unknown parameters and the initial values that minimize


title: Exponential smoothing

text: Unlike the regression case (where we have formulae to directly compute the regression coefficients which minimize the SSE) this involves a non-linear minimization problem and we need to use an optimization tool to perform this.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: The name 'exponential smoothing' is attributed to the use of the exponential window function during convolution. It is no longer attributed to Holt, Winters & Brown.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: By direct substitution of the defining equation for simple exponential smoothing back into itself we find that


title: Exponential smoothing

text: In other words, as time passes the smoothed statistic formula_12 becomes the weighted average of a greater and greater number of the past observations formula_42, and the weights assigned to previous observations are proportional to the terms of the geometric progression


title: Exponential smoothing

text: A geometric progression is the discrete version of an exponential function, so this is where the name for this smoothing method originated according to Statistics lore.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: Exponential smoothing and moving average have similar defects of introducing a lag relative to the input data. While this can be corrected by shifting the result by half the window length for a symmetrical kernel, such as a moving average or gaussian, it is unclear how appropriate this would be for exponential smoothing. They also both have roughly the same distribution of forecast error when "α" = 2/("k" + 1). They differ in that exponential smoothing takes into account all past data, whereas moving average only takes into account "k" past data points. Computationally speaking, they also differ in that moving average requires that the past "k" data points, or the data point at lag "k" + 1 plus the most recent forecast value, to be kept, whereas exponential smoothing only needs the most recent forecast value to be kept.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: In the signal processing literature, the use of non-causal (symmetric) filters is commonplace, and the exponential window function is broadly used in this fashion, but a different terminology is used: exponential smoothing is equivalent to a first-order infinite-impulse response (IIR) filter and moving average is equivalent to a finite impulse response filter with equal weighting factors.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: Simple exponential smoothing does not do well when there is a trend in the data. In such situations, several methods were devised under the name "double exponential smoothing" or "second-order exponential smoothing," which is the recursive application of an exponential filter twice, thus being termed "double exponential smoothing". This nomenclature is similar to quadruple exponential smoothing, which also references its recursion depth.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: The basic idea behind double exponential smoothing is to introduce a term to take into account the possibility of a series exhibiting some form of trend. This slope component is itself updated via exponential smoothing.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: Again, the raw data sequence of observations is represented by formula_13, beginning at time formula_45. We use formula_12 to represent the smoothed value for time formula_47, and formula_48 is our best estimate of the trend at time formula_47. The output of the algorithm is now written as formula_50, an estimate of the value of formula_51 at time formula_52 based on the raw data up to time formula_47. Double exponential smoothing is given by the formulas


title: Exponential smoothing

text: where formula_7 (formula_11) is the "data smoothing factor", and formula_59 (formula_60) is the "trend smoothing factor".


title: Exponential smoothing

text: Setting the initial value formula_63 is a matter of preference. An option other than the one listed above is formula_64 for some formula_65.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: Note that "F" is undefined (there is no estimation for time 0), and according to the definition "F"="s"+"b", which is well defined, thus further values can be evaluated.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: A second method, referred to as either Brown's linear exponential smoothing (LES) or Brown's double exponential smoothing works as follows.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: Triple exponential smoothing applies exponential smoothing three times, which is commonly used when there are three high frequency signals to be removed from a time series under study. There are different types of seasonality: 'multiplicative' and 'additive' in nature, much like addition and multiplication are basic operations in mathematics.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: If every month of December we sell 10,000 more apartments than we do in November the seasonality is "additive" in nature. However, if we sell 10% more apartments in the summer months than we do in the winter months the seasonality is "multiplicative" in nature. Multiplicative seasonality can be represented as a constant factor, not an absolute amount.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: Triple exponential smoothing was first suggested by Holt's student, Peter Winters, in 1960 after reading a signal processing book from the 1940s on exponential smoothing. Holt's novel idea was to repeat filtering an odd number of times greater than 1 and less than 5, which was popular with scholars of previous eras. While recursive filtering had been used previously, it was applied twice and four times to coincide with the Hadamard conjecture, while triple application required more than double the operations of singular convolution. The use of a triple application is considered a rule of thumb technique, rather than one based on theoretical foundations and has often been over-emphasized by practitioners.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: Suppose we have a sequence of observations formula_13, beginning at time formula_45 with a cycle of seasonal change of length formula_70.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: The method calculates a trend line for the data as well as seasonal indices that weight the values in the trend line based on where that time point falls in the cycle of length formula_70.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: Let formula_12 represent the smoothed value of the constant part for time formula_47, formula_48 is the sequence of best estimates of the linear trend that are superimposed on the seasonal changes, and formula_75 is the sequence of seasonal correction factors. We wish to estimate formula_75 at every time formula_47mod formula_70 in the cycle that the observations take on. As a rule of thumb, a minimum of two full seasons (or formula_79 periods) of historical data is needed to initialize a set of seasonal factors.


title: Exponential smoothing

text: The output of the algorithm is again written as formula_50, an estimate of the value of formula_51 at time formula_82 based on the raw data up to time formula_47. Triple exponential smoothing with multiplicative seasonality is given by the formulas


title: Exponential smoothing

text: where formula_7 (formula_11) is the "data smoothing factor", formula_59 (formula_60) is the "trend smoothing factor", and formula_89 (formula_90) is the "seasonal change smoothing factor".


title: Exponential smoothing

text: Setting the initial estimates for the seasonal indices formula_93 for formula_94 is a bit more involved. If formula_95 is the number of complete cycles present in your data, then:


title: Matilda Ziegler

text: Matilda Ziegler (born 23 July 1964) is an English actress, best known for her roles as Donna Ludlow in "EastEnders", Irma Gobb in "Mr. Bean", and Pearl Pratt in "Lark Rise to Candleford".


title: Matilda Ziegler

text: Ziegler's first screen role was in her early twenties, during 1987–89; she appeared in the BBC One soap opera "EastEnders", playing Donna Ludlow, the illegitimate daughter of series regular Kathy Beale. Donna contended with prostitution, an attempted gang rape, heroin addiction and finally suicide (dying of a heroin overdose). The final death scenes of Ziegler's character, who had choked to death on her own vomit, have been hailed as one of the most powerful anti-drug images ever screened on the programme. She left "EastEnders" in April 1989.


title: Matilda Ziegler

text: In the early 1990s, Ziegler starred in the ITV comedy, "Mr. Bean", where she played multiple characters, especially a three-episode stint as Irma Gobb, the title character's long-suffering girlfriend. She reprised her role as Irma Gobb, voicing her in "", from 2002 to 2004, and in the revived series from 2015 to 2019.


title: Matilda Ziegler

text: Other television credits include: "Lark Rise to Candleford" (2008–2010) in which she played the part of Pearl Pratt, in the BBC adaptation of Flora Thompson's novel; "Harbour Lights" (1999); "Where the Heart Is" (2000); "Holby City" (2003); "An Unsuitable Job for a Woman" (1998); "The Bill" (2003), and Home, alongside Anthony Sher in an adaptation of J.G. Ballard's novel.


title: Matilda Ziegler

text: Ziegler played Ruth, wife of car salesman Toni, in the BBC sitcom "Swiss Toni" (2003–04). She also appeared in the BAFTA Television Award winning drama, "Sex Traffic" (2004). In 2005, she played Christine Miller in the fourth series of "The Inspector Lynley Mysteries", and in 2007, she guest starred in the BBC One daytime medical drama "Doctors". She also appeared in "Outnumbered", "Lewis" (in the episode 'The Soul of Genius', 2012), "Death in Paradise" (2013), and Vera (in the episode "Young Gods", 2013).


title: Matilda Ziegler

text: In 2015, she appeared in an episode of "Foyle's War", and in series 4 episode of "Call the Midwife". In 2020 she appeared in a second season episode of "The Alienist", and appeared in two episodes of "The Girlfriend Experience" in 2021.


title: Matilda Ziegler

text: Ziegler's film roles include "Decadence" (1994), "Jilting Joe" (1998), "City Slacker" (2012), and "The Rhythm Section" (2019) where she played Blake Lively's mother.


title: Matilda Ziegler

text: Ziegler has appeared in many stage productions, including "Twelfth Night" for the Royal Shakespeare Company (2001); the theatrical version of "Mr. Bean"; "Women Laughing" at the Royal Court Theatre; "Volpone", "Inadmissible Evidence" and "Machinal", all at the National Theatre; "Featuring Loretta" and "The Memory of Water" – both at the Hampstead Theatre; "The Lady from the Sea", Lyric Hammersmith/West Yorkshire Playhouse (1994: TMA Award, nomination for Laurence Olivier Award) and also starred as Sheila Birling in Stephen Daldry's award winning production of "An Inspector Calls" at the Aldwych Theatre and for the production's Australian tour, along with Lady Sneerwell in Deborah Warner's 2011 production of "The School for Scandal" at the Barbican Centre.


title: Matilda Ziegler

text: She most recently appeared in "Downstate" in Chicago and at the National Theatre, a co production with Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Her radio work has included playing Dr Ruth Anderson in BBC Radio 4, "Rigor Mortis" (2004–06). She also featured in "Giles Wemmbley-Hogg Goes Off" in 2010, and as Princess Theresa of Liechtenstein in the fourth series of "Cabin Pressure" in 2013, a role she reprised for the show's final episode in 2014. She had previously played an air traffic controller and a paramedic in the second episode of the first series.


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: The General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger (formerly Predator C) is a developmental unmanned combat aerial vehicle built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems for the U.S. military.


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: Unlike the previous MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper (Predator B) drones, the Avenger is powered by a turbofan engine, and its design includes stealth features such as internal weapons storage and an S-shaped exhaust for reduced infrared and radar signatures.


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: The Avenger will support the same weapons as the MQ-9, and carry the Lynx synthetic aperture radar and a version of the F-35 Lightning II's electro-optical targeting system (EOTS), called the Advanced Low-observable Embedded Reconnaissance Targeting (ALERT) system. The Avenger will use the same ground support infrastructure as the MQ-1 and MQ-9, including the ground control station and existing communications networks.


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: The first flight of the first prototype Avenger occurred on 4 April 2009 at the company's Grey Butte Field Airport Flight Operations Facility in Palmdale, California. The aircraft took off and landed without any discrepancies and was ready to fly again once refueled. Following flights were performed successfully on 13 and 14 April. The second prototype Avenger performed its first flight on 12 January 2012, meeting all performance objectives and refining the first prototype design to an operational capability. The Tail 2 prototype featured a four-foot longer fuselage to accommodate larger payloads and more fuel. This larger Avenger can carry a larger payload of up to of weapons internally and on its wing hard points.


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: On 15 February 2012, the Air Force cancelled its MQ-X program, which was supposed to find an aircraft to replace the MQ-9 Reaper. The Sea Avenger variant was part of the Navy's cancelled Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program.


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: On 15 November 2012, the Avenger flew for three hours while being controlled by the General Atomics Advanced Cockpit Ground Control Station (GCS). The Advanced Cockpit GCS has a wrap-around visual display and multi-dimensional moving map to increase situational awareness and reduce pilot workload. The Advanced Cockpit GCS has flown an MQ-1 Predator and is planned to fly an MQ-9 Reaper as part of an Air Force initiative to enable interoperability with all USAF Remote Piloted Aircraft (RPA).


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: In July 2013, a third Avenger was scheduled to begin flight testing. Assembly of the fourth Avenger was expected to be finished by spring 2014.


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: On 27 October 2016, General Atomics flew an extended-range Avenger featuring wings extended by to . The extended wings add about of fuel totaling , extending endurance from 15 hours to 20 hours but reducing internal payload to . Since its first flight in 2009, the Avenger has completed more than 13,000 flight hours, reaching 11,000 hours in July 2016 and accumulating most of those hours within the past three years.


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: In December 2011, it was reported that the Air Force had ordered an Avenger and that it would be deployed to Afghanistan. "This aircraft will be used as a test asset and will provide a significantly increased weapons and sensors payload capacity on an aircraft that will be able to fly to targets much more rapidly than the MQ-9 [Reaper] UAS," the USAF said in an announcement. "Since it has an internal weapons bay and four hardpoints on each wing it will also allow greater flexibility and will accommodate a large selection of next generation sensor and weapons payloads."


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: The aircraft ordered was the original Tail 1 prototype version. This announcement sparked rumors that the aircraft would be deployed to monitor neighboring Iran and Pakistan. These allegations were made because the Avenger is stealthy, while the battlespace over Afghanistan is free of radar guided missiles, as well as any other anti-aircraft weapons. The announcement also came two weeks after the Iran-US RQ-170 incident. The Air Force responded by clarifying that the purchase was initiated in July of that year, well before the incident.


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: However, the Air Force later clarified that the Avenger was being purchased only as a test asset, and that it was not being sent to Afghanistan. Discrepancies in the solicitation are believed to have caused the misinterpretation. After testing, the Air Force decided that the Avenger version they evaluated offered only modest improvements over the MQ-9 in terms of speed, payload, and reduced signature, and didn't meet survivability and reliability requirements to survive in contested environments needed to warrant buying a new aircraft of the type.


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: With the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, the US has lost access to airbases inside the country that are necessary for striking targets in neighboring Pakistan. Due to the longer distances from potential targets, General Atomics has pitched the Avenger to the Central Intelligence Agency as a better drone for the mission. The jet-powered Avenger can fly from its operating base and stay airborne for 18 hours.


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: General Atomics has offered the Predator C Avenger to Canada as a contender for its Joint Unmanned Surveillance and Target Acquisition System (JUSTAS) armed UAV project. In 2016, the JUSTAS project was prioritized by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and Liberal government. The RCAF has requested that the drones be armed, therefore making the General Atomics Avenger the only suitable contender, as the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk is unarmed.


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: Following a formal Invitation to Qualify issued by the Government of Canada, only General Atomics and L3 Technologies MAS were selected as being qualified suppliers allowed to submit a bid. Canada will begin to refine the preliminary requirements with General Atomics and L3 Technologies until a formal request for proposals and contract is awarded.


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: On 22 September 2015, the U.S. stated they backed India's membership in the Missile Technology Control Regime, which would enable them to buy armed drones. Two days later, the Indian Air Force sent a letter to General Atomics saying it wanted to purchase the Avenger.


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: As of 17 August 2017, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) is in the early stages of negotiating the potential sale of as many as 100 Predator C Avenger remotely piloted aircraft to an unidentified international customer. The renewed international interest is believed to be led by India, which has requested access to the capability as a potential follow-on to the planned acquisition of as many as 20 GA-ASI MQ-9 UAVs, 10 each for its Army and Navy and wants to acquire 100 Avenger drones for its Air Force at the cost of $8 Billion.


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: On 3 May 2010, GA-ASI introduced Sea Avenger, a carrier-based derivative of the Predator C Avenger UAS, intended to fulfill the U.S. Navy's need for an Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS). The Sea Avenger included a retractable electro-optical/infrared sensor, internal weapons bay, and folding wings. The aircraft's structure was designed with the flexibility to accommodate carrier suitable landing gear, tailhook, drag devices, and other provisions for carrier operations.


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: In April 2014, General Atomics displayed images of the Sea Avenger at the Navy League Sea Air and Space exposition. As requirements for the UCLASS program were altered from a high-end strike aircraft to an ISR machine operating in permissive environments, the Sea Avenger was modified accordingly. It appeared to have four external hardpoints and a small weapons bay, a wing-mounted buddy-refueling store to perform as an aerial tanker, and a larger airframe with a larger engine.


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: If Navy requirements favored a UAV optimized for permissive ISR over broadband stealth, the Sea Avenger would better meet them, as it was originally pitched as having a reduced signature to be "stealthier" than other aircraft. Sea Avenger stealth capabilities seemed to be limited to higher frequencies like C, X, and Ku bands, instead of broadband stealth effective against low-frequency radar bands like VHF and UHF.


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: In October 2017, General Atomics released images of its submission for the Navy's MQ-25 Stingray, an unmanned aerial tanker that formed out of the UCLASS effort. The aircraft is an Avenger-based wing-body-tail design with a standard D-704 buddy tank refueling system that has an electro-optical ball like the Predator and Reaper, landing gear that pulls into the fuselage, and a system for maneuvering around the flight deck using gestures from the flight crew. Though specifics are not known, the basic requirements will have the Stingray deliver about of fuel from the aircraft carrier to increase the F/A-18 Super Hornet's combat radius from .


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: GA-ASI's design is larger than the Sea Avenger and is powered by the Pratt & Whitney PW815 high-bypass turbofan, the same engine used on the Gulfstream G600. Generating of thrust, it is four times more powerful than the Predator C's PW545B turbofan, and the most powerful engine used by any Stingray competitor. In addition to structural reinforcements and additional systems for carrier operations, the aircraft is fitted with the same landing gear and arresting hook as the Super Hornet and has space available for future growth to perform ISR and strike missions; it would be able to fuel four to six aircraft.


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: On 27 October 2016, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) conducted the maiden flight of the Avenger ER. GA-ASI extended the wingspan of the Avenger ER by to , and enlarged its fuel capacity by to compared to previous specifications. The aircraft carries up to in its internal payload bay, less than previously described.


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: The modifications extend its endurance from the original 15 hours to 20 hours. The Avenger ER uses a modified fuselage design (completed in 2012) extended by four feet (to ) to accommodate larger payloads and more fuel. Earlier in 2016, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration granted GA-ASI an experimental certificate that allows it to fly the Avenger in the National Airspace System.


title: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger

text: From 24–25 January 2018, an Avenger ER set a new endurance record of 23.4 continuous hours, exceeding the 20 hour flight test goal and reflecting a 10-hour improvement over the baseline Predator C Avenger. The Avenger ER also has an increased maximum gross takeoff weight (MGTOW) of using a co-cured composite center wing and heavyweight landing gear as well as a dual redundant, light weight brake control capability using a lightweight hybrid linear anti-lock brake system.


title: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (film)

text: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a 1969 British drama film directed by Ronald Neame from a screenplay written by Jay Presson Allen, adapted from her own stage play, which was in turn based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Muriel Spark. The film stars Maggie Smith in the title role as an unrestrained teacher at a girls' school in Edinburgh. Celia Johnson, Robert Stephens, Pamela Franklin, and Gordon Jackson are featured in supporting roles.


title: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (film)

text: "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" premiered at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or and was released in cinemas in the UK on 24 February 1969 and in the US on 2 March 1969. The film received positive reviews with major acclaim drawn towards Smith's performance, although it was a box office disappointment, grossing $3 million on a $2.76 million budget. It received two nominations at the 42nd Academy Awards; Best Original Song for its theme song "Jean", and Best Actress for Smith, winning for the latter.


title: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (film)

text: Jean Brodie is a teacher at an all-girls school in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the 1930s. Brodie is known for her tendency to stray from the school's curriculum, to romanticize fascist leaders like Benito Mussolini and Francisco Franco, and to believe herself to be in the prime of life. Brodie devotes her energy and attention to girls she sees as special or moldable, who are referred to as the "Brodie Set". At the film's outset, the Brodie Set is composed of four 12-year-old junior school girls: Sandy, Monica, Jenny, and Mary.


title: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (film)

text: The Brodie Set often go to art museums, theatre, and have picnics on the school lawn, to the chagrin of the school's austere headmistress Emmeline Mackay, who dislikes that the girls are cultured to the exclusion of hard knowledge, and seem precocious for their age. She has a grudge against Brodie, who has tenure and was hired six years before Mackay became headmistress. Brodie boasts to her girls that the only way she will stop teaching is if she is assassinated.


title: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (film)

text: Brodie catches the eye of the school's music teacher and choirmaster Gordon Lowther, with whom she and the girls spend weekends with at his luxurious home in Cramond. Brodie sometimes spends the night with Lowther, although she tries to conceal this from the girls. Lowther wishes to marry Brodie, but she still has feelings for the school's art teacher Teddy Lloyd, an ex-lover of Brodie's who steadily pursues her.


title: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (film)

text: As the Brodie Set grow older and progress to the Senior School, they frequent Teddy Lloyd's studio, where he paints Jenny's portrait. Sandy initially rebuffs a lecherous advance from Lloyd. However, when Brodie tries to manoeuvre Jenny and Lloyd into an affair, and Sandy into spying on them, it is Sandy, resentful of Brodie's constant praise of Jenny's beauty, who becomes Teddy's lover and muse. Sandy ends the affair because of Lloyd's continuing obsession with Brodie.


title: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (film)

text: Mary, influenced by Brodie, leaves the school to join her brother, whom she believes to be fighting for Franco. She is killed shortly after crossing the frontier, which incites Sandy to inform the headmistress of Brodie's efforts to impose her politics on her students. The disclosure finally leads to Brodie's termination, her humiliation compounded by Mr. Lowther's engagement to another teacher.


title: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (film)

text: Before Brodie's departure, Sandy confronts her about her manipulation of Mary, Mary's senseless death, and the harmful influence she exerted on other girls, adding that Mary's brother is actually fighting for the Spanish Republicans. Brodie responds with a series of harsh but astute comments about Sandy's character, particularly her ability to coldly judge and destroy others. Sandy retorts that Brodie professed to be an admirer of conquerors and walks out of the classroom, as Brodie screams, ""Assassin!""


title: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (film)

text: Sandy, Monica, and Jenny graduate and leave the school. As Sandy departs, her face streaked with tears, Brodie's voice is heard proclaiming her oft-repeated motto: "Little girls, I am in the business of putting old heads on young shoulders, and all my pupils are the "crème de la crème". Give me a girl at an impressionable age, and she is mine for life."


title: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (film)

text: The cast included two pairs of married actors: Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens, and Gordon Jackson and Rona Anderson. Julie Andrews was initially offered the role of Jean Brodie.


title: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (film)

text: Allen created a successful play out of a challenging short novel. Vanessa Redgrave triumphed in the lead role in London, as did Zoe Caldwell in New York. Vincent Canby, reviewing the film in the New York Times, said, "Jay Presson Allen . . . created a much better play than is generally recognized. Roles like that of Miss Jean Brodie don't often write themselves" (3 March 1969). However, some critics have questioned whether the play is a particularly faithful adaptation. They have suggested that it turned an experimental work into a realistic one and removed some theological issues, turning the final product into a story of failed love (and possibly also failed fascist politics).


title: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (film)

text: The play reduced the number of girls in the Brodie Set from six to four (and discarded another girl not in the set) and some of them are composites of girls in the novel. Mary is a composite of the original Mary and Joyce Emily; although mainly based on the original Mary, in the novel it was Joyce Emily who died in the Spanish Civil War (Mary later dies in a fire instead), and rather more is made of this incident in the play than in the novel. Jenny is a composite of the original Jenny and Rose; in spite of her name she has more in common with Rose who, in the novel, Miss Brodie tried to manoeuvre into having an affair with Mr Lloyd.


title: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (film)

text: The novel made extensive use of flash forward. The play largely dropped this device, although it did include a few scenes showing Sandy as a nun in later life. The film, which made a few changes from the play, discarded these scenes in favour of an entirely linear narrative.


title: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (film)

text: According to Fox records the film required $5,400,000 in rentals to break even and by 11 December 1970 had made $6,650,000. In September 1970 the studio reported it had made a profit of $831,000 on the film.


title: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (film)

text: Upon its initial release, the film received positive feedback from critics. Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 84% of 19 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.15 out of 10.


title: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (film)

text: Maggie Smith was singled out for her performance in the film. Dave Kehr of "Chicago Reader" said that Smith gives "one of those technically stunning, emotionally distant performances that the British are so damn good at." Greg Ferrara wrote that the film "is one of the best British films of the decade. It is as captivating today as it was upon its release and its two central performances by Maggie Smith and Pamela Franklin are both stirring and mesmerizing. "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" is the crème de la crème."


title: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (film)

text: "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" was adapted by Scottish Television into a seven episode television serial for ITV in 1978 that featured Geraldine McEwan in the lead role. Rather than recapitulate the plot of the novel, the series imagined episodes in the lives of the characters, such as conflict between Jean Brodie and the father of an Italian refugee student, who fled Mussolini's Italy because the father was persecuted as a journalist who objected to fascism. It consisted of seven episodes of 50 minutes. It was released on DVD in Region 1 and 2.


title: Robert Ley

text: Robert Ley (; 15 February 1890 – 25 October 1945) was a German politician and labour union leader during the Nazi era; Ley headed the German Labour Front from 1933 to 1945. He also held many other high positions in the Party, including "Gauleiter", "Reichsleiter" and "Reichsorganisationsleiter". He committed suicide while awaiting trial at Nuremberg for crimes against humanity and war crimes.


title: Robert Ley

text: Ley was born in Niederbreidenbach (now a part of Nümbrecht) in the Rhine Province, the seventh of 11 children of a farmer, Friedrich Ley, and his wife Emilie (née Wald). He studied chemistry at the universities of Jena, Bonn, and Münster. He volunteered for the army on the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and spent two years in the 10th Foot Artillery Regiment and saw action on both the eastern and western fronts. In 1916 he was promoted to "Leutnant" and trained as an aerial artillery spotter with Artillery Flier Detachment 202. In July 1917 his aircraft was shot down over France and he was taken prisoner of war. It has been suggested that he suffered a traumatic brain injury in the crash; for the rest of his life he spoke with a stammer and suffered bouts of erratic behaviour, aggravated by heavy drinking. He earned the Iron Cross, 2nd class and the Wound Badge, in silver.


title: Robert Ley

text: After the war Ley was released from captivity in January 1920 and returned to university, gaining a doctorate later that year. He was employed as a food chemist by a branch of the giant IG Farben company, based in Leverkusen in the Ruhr. Enraged by the French occupation of the Ruhr in 1924, Ley became an ultra-nationalist and joined the Nazi Party soon after reading Adolf Hitler's speech at his trial following the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich. Ley proved unswervingly loyal to Hitler, which led Hitler to ignore complaints about his arrogance, incompetence and drunkenness.


title: Robert Ley

text: Ley's impoverished upbringing and his experience as head of the largely working-class Rhineland party region meant that he was sympathetic to those elements in the party who were open to socialism, but he always sided with Hitler in inner party disputes. This helped him survive the hostility of other party officials such as the party treasurer, Franz Xaver Schwarz, who regarded him as an incompetent drunk.


title: Robert Ley

text: Ley rejoined the re-founded Nazi Party in March 1925, shortly after the ban on the Party was lifted (membership number 18,441). He was named Deputy "Gauleiter" of the Southern Rhineland (later, Rhineland) that month, and was promoted to "Gauleiter" on 17 July. In September 1925, he became a member of the National Socialist Working Association, a short-lived group of northern and western German "Gauleiters", organized and led by Gregor Strasser, which supported the "socialist" wing of the Party and unsuccessfully sought to amend the Party program. At a meeting on 24 January 1926, however, Ley joined with others in raising objections to Strasser's proposed new draft program and it was shelved. Shortly thereafter, the Working Association was dissolved following the Bamberg Conference.


title: Robert Ley

text: In March 1928, Ley became the editor and publisher of a virulently anti-Semitic Nazi newspaper, the "Westdeutscher Beobachter" (West German Observer) in Cologne. On 20 May 1928, he was elected to the Prussian Landtag, and also was appointed to the Rhenish provincial legislature. He was first elected to the "Reichstag" in September 1930 from electoral constituency 20, Cologne-Aachen. He remained as the "Gauleiter" of Rhineland until 1 June 1931 when his "Gau" was divided into two and new leaders named.


title: Robert Ley

text: On 21 October 1931, Ley was brought to Munich party headquarters as the Deputy to Strasser, then the head of party organization. Ley was styled "Reichsorganisationsinspekteur" and conducted inspection visits to the various "Gaue". On 10 June 1932, following a further organizational restructuring by Strasser, Ley was named one of two "Reichsinspecteurs" with oversight of approximately half the "Gaue". Furthermore, he was made the Acting Landesinspekteur for Bavaria with direct responsibility for the six Bavarian "Gaue". This was a short-lived initiative by Strasser to centralize control over the "Gaue". However, it was unpopular with the "Gauleiters" and was repealed on Strasser's fall from power. Strasser resigned on 8 December 1932 in a break with Hitler over the future direction of the Party. Hitler himself took over as "Reichsorganisationsleiter" and installed Ley as his "Stabschef" (Chief of Staff). The positions of "Reichsinspecteur" and "Landesinspekteur" were abolished. When Hitler became Reich Chancellor in January 1933, Ley accompanied him to Berlin. On 2 June 1933, Ley was among those raised to "Reichsleiter", the second highest political rank in the Nazi Party. On 3 October 1933, Ley was named to Hans Frank's Academy for German Law and, on 10 November 1934, Hitler finally formally promoted Ley to the position of "Reichsorganisationsleiter".


title: Robert Ley

text: By April, 1933 Hitler decided to have the Nazi Party take over the trade union movement. On 10 May 1933, Hitler appointed Ley head of the newly founded German Labour Front ("Deutsche Arbeitsfront", DAF). The DAF took over the existing Nazi trade union formation, the National Socialist Factory Cell Organisation ("Nationalsozialistische Betriebszellenorganisation", NSBO) as well as the main trade union federation. But Ley's lack of administrative ability meant that the NSBO leader, Reinhold Muchow, a member of the socialist wing of the Nazi Party, soon became the dominant figure in the DAF, overshadowing Ley. Muchow began a purge of the DAF administration, rooting out ex-Social Democrats and ex-Communists and placing his own militants in their place.


title: Robert Ley

text: The NSBO cells continued to agitate in the factories on issues of wages and conditions, annoying the employers, who soon complained to Hitler and other Nazi leaders that the DAF was as bad as the Communists had been.


title: Robert Ley

text: Hitler had no sympathy with the syndicalist tendencies of the NSBO, and in January 1934 a new Law for the Ordering of National Labour effectively suppressed independent working-class factory organisations, even Nazi ones, and put questions of wages and conditions in the hands of the Trustees of Labour (""), dominated by the employers. At the same time Muchow was purged and Ley's control over the DAF re-established. The NSBO was completely suppressed and the DAF became little more than an arm of the state for the more efficient deployment and disciplining of labour to serve the needs of the regime, particularly its massive expansion of the arms industry.


title: Robert Ley

text: As head of the Labour Front, Ley invited Edward, Duke of Windsor, and Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, to conduct a tour of Germany in 1937, months after Edward had abdicated the British throne. Ley served as their host and their personal chaperone. During the visit, Ley's alcoholism was noticed, and at one point he crashed the Windsors' car into a gate.


title: Robert Ley

text: Once his power was established, Ley began to abuse it in a way that was conspicuous even by the standards of the Nazi regime. On top of his generous salaries as DAF head, "Reichsorganisationsleiter", and Reichstag deputy, he pocketed the large profits of the "Westdeutscher Beobachter", and freely embezzled DAF funds for his personal use. By 1938 he owned a luxurious estate near Cologne, a string of villas in other cities, a fleet of cars, a private railway carriage and a large art collection. He increasingly devoted his time to "womanising and heavy drinking, both of which often led to embarrassing scenes in public."


title: Robert Ley

text: On 29 December 1942 his second wife Inge Ursula née Spilcker (1916–1942) shot herself after a drunken brawl Ley's subordinates took their lead from him, and the DAF became a notorious centre of corruption, all paid for with the compulsory dues paid by German workers. One historian says: "The DAF quickly began to gain a reputation as perhaps the most corrupt of all the major institutions of the Third Reich. For this, Ley himself had to shoulder a large part of the blame."