title: Missile defense

text: Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the United States Project Nike air defense program focused initially on targeting hostile bombers before shifting focus to targeting ballistic missiles. In the 1950s, the first United States anti-ballistic missile system was the Nike Hercules, which had the ability to intercept incoming short-range ballistic missiles, but not intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) or ICBMs. This was followed by the Nike Zeus, which was capable of intercepting ICBMs by using a nuclear warhead, upgraded radar systems, faster computers, and control systems that were more effective in the upper atmosphere. However it was feared the missile's electronics may be vulnerable to x-rays from a nuclear detonation in space. A program was started to devise methods of hardening weapons from radiation damage. By the early 1960s the Nike Zeus was the first anti-ballistic missile to achieve hit-to-kill (physically colliding with the incoming warhead).


title: Missile defense

text: In 1963, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara diverted funds from the Zeus missile program, and instead directed that funding to the development of the Nike-X system, which utilized the high-speed, short-range Sprint missile. These missiles were meant to intercept incoming warheads after they had descended from space and were only seconds from their targets. To accomplish this, Nike-X required advances in missile design to make the Sprint missile quick enough to intercept incoming warheads in time. The system also included advanced active electronically scanned array radar systems and a powerful computer complex.


title: Missile defense

text: During the development of Nike-X, controversy over the effectiveness of anti-ballistic missile systems became more prominent. Critiques of the Nike-X included an estimate that the anti-ballistic missile system could be defeated by Soviets manufacturing more ICBMs, and the cost of those additional ICBMs needed to defeat Nike-X would also cost less than what the United States would spend on implementing Nike-X. Additionally, McNamara reported that a ballistic missile system would save American lives at the cost of approximately $700 per life, compared to a shelter system that could save lives at a lower cost of approximately $40 per life. As a result of these estimations, McNamara opposed implementation of Nike-X due to the high costs associated with construction and perceived poor cost-effectiveness of the system, and instead expressed support for pursuing arms limitations agreements with the Soviets. After the Chinese government detonated their first hydrogen bomb during Test No. 6. in 1967, McNamara modified the Nike-X program into a program called Sentinel. This program's goal was to protect major U.S. cities from a limited ICBM attack, especially on one from China.


title: Missile defense

text: This would be done by building fifteen sites across the continental US, and one site in each of Alaska and Hawaii. This in turn reduced tensions with the Soviet Union, which retained the offensive capability to overwhelm any U.S. defense. McNamara favored this approach as deploying the Sentinel program was less costly than a fully implemented Nike-X program, and would reduce Congressional pressures to implement an ABM system. In the months following the announcements regarding the Sentinel program, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara stated: "Let me emphasize—and I cannot do so too strongly—that our decision to go ahead with a limited ABM deployment in no way indicates that we feel an agreement with the Soviet Union on the limitation of strategic nuclear offensive and defensive forces is in any way less urgent or desirable.


title: Missile defense

text: With the conclusion of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the withdrawal of Soviet missiles from their strategic positions in Cuba, the USSR to begin thinking about a missile defense systems. A year after the crisis in 1963 the Soviets created the SA-5. Unlike its predecessors like the SA-1 or Griffon systems, this system was able to fly much higher and further  and was fast enough to intercept some missiles however its main purpose was to intercept the new XB-70 supersonic aircraft the U.S was planning to make. However, since these types of aircraft never went into production in the U.S, the project was abandoned, and the Soviets reverted to the slower, low altitude SA-2 and SA-3 systems. In 1964 the Soviets publicly unveiled their newest interceptor missile named the "Galosh" which was nuclear armed and was meant for high altitude, long range interception. The Soviet Union began installing the A-35 anti-ballistic missile system around Moscow in 1965 using these "Galosh" missiles and would become operational by 1971. It consisted of four complex around Moscow each with 16 launchers and two missile tracking radars. Another notable feature of the A-35 was that it was the first monopulse radar. Developed by OKB 30, the Russian Special Design Bureau, the effort design to create a monopulse radar started in 1954. This was used to conduct the first successful intercept in 1961. There were known flaws with the design such as an inability to defend against MIRV and decoy style weapons.The reason for this was because the detonation of a nuclear interceptor missile like the "Galosh" creates a cloud of plasma that temporarily impairs radar readings around the area of the explosion limiting these kinds of systems to a one-shot capacity. This means that with MIRV style attacks the interceptor would be able to take out one or two but the rest would slip though. Another issue with the 1965 model was that it consisted of 11 large radar stations at six locations on the borders of Russia. These bases where visible to the US and could be taken out easily leaving the defense system useless in a concentrated and coordinated attack. Finally, the missiles that could be held on each base was limited by the ABM treaty to only 100 launchers maximum, meaning that in a massive attack they would be depleted quickly. During installation, a Ministry of Defense commission concluded that the system should not be fully implemented, reducing the capabilities of the completed system. That system was later upgraded to the A-135 anti-ballistic missile system and is still operational. This upgrade period started in 1975 and was headed by Dr. A.G. Basistov. When it was completed in 1990, the new A-135 system had a central control multifunctional radar called the "Don" and 100 interceptor missiles. Another improvement was the layering of interceptor missiles where high acceleration missiles are being added for low flying targets and the "Galosh" style missiles where improved further for high altitude targets. All of these missiles where moved underground into silos to make them less vulnerable, which was a flaw of the previous system.


title: Missile defense

text: The SALT I talks began in 1969, and led to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 1972, which ultimately limited the U.S. and U.S.S.R. to one defensive missile site each, with no more than 100 missiles per site. This included both ABM interceptor missiles as well as launchers. Originally, the agreement made by the Nixon administration and the Soviet Union stated that both of the two nations were each allowed to have two ABM defensive systems present in their own countries. The goal was to effectively have one ABM defense system located near each nation's capital city as well as another ABM defense system placed near the nation's most important or strategical ICBM field. This treaty allowed for an effective form of deterrence for both sides as if either side were to make an offensive move, the other side would be capable of countering that move. However, a few years later in 1974 both sides reworked the treaty to include only one ABM defensive system present around an ICBM launch area or the nation's capital city. This occurred once both sides determined the other side was not going to construct a second ABM defensive system. Along with limiting the amount of ballistic missile defense systems each nation could have, the treaty also stated if either country desired to have a radar for incoming missile detection, the radar system must be located on the outskirts of the territory and must be aligned in the opposite direction of one's own country. This treaty would end up being the precedent set for future missile defense programs, as any systems that were not stationary and land-based were a violation of the treaty.


title: Missile defense

text: As a result of the treaty and of technical limitations, along with public opposition to nearby nuclear-armed defensive missiles, the U.S. Sentinel program was re-designated the Safeguard Program, with the new goal of defending U.S. ICBM sites, not cities. The U.S. Safeguard system was planned to be implemented in various sites across the US, including at Whiteman AFB in Missouri, Malmstrom AFB in Montana, and Grand Forks AFB in North Dakota. The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972 placed a limit of two ABM systems within the US, causing the work site in Missouri to be abandoned, and the partially-completed Montana site was abandoned in 1974 after an additional agreement between the US and USSR that limited each country to one ABM system. As a result, the only Safeguard system that was deployed was to defend the LGM-30 Minuteman ICBMs near Grand Forks, North Dakota. However, it was deactivated in 1976 after being operational for less than four months due to a changing political climate plus concern over limited effectiveness, low strategic value, and high operational cost.


title: Missile defense

text: In the early 1980s, technology had matured to consider space based missile defense options. Precision hit-to-kill systems more reliable than the early Nike Zeus were thought possible. With these improvements, the Reagan Administration promoted the Strategic Defense Initiative, an ambitious plan to provide a comprehensive defense against an all-out ICBM attack. In pursuit of that goal, the Strategic Defense Initiative investigated a variety of potential missile-defense systems, which included systems utilizing ground-based missile systems and space-based missile systems, as well as systems utilizing lasers or particle beam weapons. This program faced controversy over the feasibility of the projects it pursued, as well as the substantial amount of funding and time required for the research to develop the requisite technology. The Strategic Defense Initiative earned the nickname "Star Wars" due to criticism from Senator Ted Kennedy in which he described the Strategic Defense Initiative as "reckless Star Wars schemes.". Reagan established the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) to oversee the development of the program's projects. Upon request by the SDIO, the American Physical Society (APS) performed a review of the concepts being developed within SDIO and concluded that all of the concepts pursuing use of Directed Energy Weapons were not feasible solutions for an anti-missile defense system without decades of additional research and development. Following the APS's report in 1986, the SDIO switched focus to a concept called the Strategic Defense System, which would utilize a system of space-based missiles called Space Rocks which would intercept incoming ballistic missiles from orbit, and would be supplemented by ground-based missile defense systems. In 1993, the SDIO was closed and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) was created, which focuses on ground-based missile defense systems utilizing interceptor missiles. In 2002, BMDO's name was changed to its current title, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). See National Missile Defense for additional details. In the early 1990s, missile defense expanded to include tactical missile defense, as seen in the first Gulf War. Although not designed from the outset to intercept tactical missiles, upgrades gave the Patriot system a limited missile defense capability. The effectiveness of the Patriot system in disabling or destroying incoming Scuds was the subject of Congressional hearings and reports in 1992.


title: Missile defense

text: In the time following the agreement of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, it was becoming increasingly more and more difficult for the United States to create a new missile defense strategy without violating the terms of the treaty. During the Clinton administration, the initial goal the United States had interest in, was to negotiate with the former Soviet Union, which is now Russia, and hopefully agree to a revision to the treaty signed a few decades prior. In the late 1990s the United States had interest in an idea termed NMD or National Missile Defense. This idea essentially would allow the United States to increase the number of ballistic missile interceptors that would be available to missile defense personnel at the Alaska location. While the initial ABM treaty was designed primarily to deter the Soviet Union and help create a period of détente, the United States was primarily fearing other threats such as Iraq, North Korea, and Iran. The Russian government was not interested in making any sort of modification to the ABM treaty that would allow for technology to be developed that was explicitly banned when the treaty was agreed upon. However, Russia was interested in revising the treaty in such a way that would allow for a more diplomatic approach to potential missile harboring countries. During this period, the United States was also seeking assistance for their ballistic missile defense systems from Japan. Following the testing of the Taepo Dong missile by the North Korean government, the Japanese government became more concerned and inclined to accept a partnership for a BMD system with the United States. In late 1998, Japan and the United States agreed to the Naval Wide Theater system which would allow the two sides to design, construct, and test ballistic missile defense systems together. Nearing the end of Clinton's time in office, it had been determined that the NMD program was not as effective as the United States would have liked, and the decision was made to not employ this system while Clinton served out the rest of his term. The decision on future of the NMD program was going to be given to the next president in line, who ultimately would end up being George W. Bush.


title: Missile defense

text: In the late 1990s, and early 2000s, the issue of defense against cruise missiles became more prominent with the new Bush Administration. In 2002, President George W. Bush withdrew the US from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, allowing further development and testing of ABMs under the Missile Defense Agency, as well as deployment of interceptor vehicles beyond the single site allowed under the treaty. During the Bush's time in office, the potentially threatening countries to the United States included North Korea as well as Iran. While these countries might not have possessed the weaponry that many countries containing missile defense systems had, the Bush administration expected an Iranian missile test within the next ten years. In order to counter the potential risk of North Korean missiles, the United States Department of Defense desired to create missile defense systems along the west coast of the United States, namely in both California and Alaska.There are still technological hurdles to an effective defense against ballistic missile attack. The United States National Ballistic Missile Defense System has come under scrutiny about its technological feasibility. Intercepting midcourse (rather than launch or reentry stage) ballistic missiles traveling at several miles per second with a "kinetic kill vehicle" has been characterized as trying to hit a bullet with a bullet. Despite this difficulty, there have been several successful test intercepts and the system was made operational in 2006, while tests and system upgrades continue. Moreover, the warheads or payloads of ballistic missiles can be concealed by a number of different types of decoys. Sensors that track and target warheads aboard the kinetic kill vehicle may have trouble distinguishing the "real" warhead from the decoys, but several tests that have included decoys were successful. Nira Schwartz's and Theodore Postol's criticisms about the technical feasibility of these sensors have led to a continuing investigation of research misconduct and fraud at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


title: Missile defense

text: In February 2007, the U.S. missile defense system consisted of 13 ground-based interceptors (GBIs) at Fort Greely, Alaska, plus two interceptors at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The U.S. planned to have 21 interceptor missiles by the end of 2007. The system was initially called National Missile Defense (NMD), but in 2003 the ground-based component was renamed Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD). As of 2014, the Missile Defense Agency had 30 operational GBIs, with a total 44 GBIs in the missile fields in 2018. In 2021 an additional 20 GBIs of 64 total were planned, but not yet fielded. They are tasked with meeting more complex threats than those met by the EKV.


title: Missile defense

text: Defending against cruise missiles is similar to defending against hostile, low-flying manned aircraft. As with aircraft defense, countermeasures such as chaff, flares, and low altitude can complicate targeting and missile interception. High-flying radar aircraft such as AWACS can often identify low flying threats by using doppler radar. Another possible method is using specialized satellites to track these targets. By coupling a target's kinetic inputs with infrared and radar signatures it may be possible to overcome the countermeasures.


title: Missile defense

text: In March 2008, the U.S. Congress convened hearings to re-examine the status of missile defense in U.S. military strategy. Upon taking office, President Obama directed a comprehensive review of ballistic missile defense policy and programs. The review's findings related to Europe were announced on 17 September 2009. The Ballistic Missile Defense Review (BMDR) Report was published in February 2010.


title: Missile defense

text: The Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD) is the senior NATO committee which acts as the tasking authority for the theater missile defense program. The ALTBMD Program Management Organization, which comprises a steering committee and a program office hosted by the NATO C3 Agency, directs the program and reports to the CNAD.


title: Missile defense

text: The focal point for consultation on full-scale missile defense is the Reinforced Executive Working Group. The CNAD is responsible for conducting technical studies and reporting the outcome to the Group.


title: Missile defense

text: The NRC Ad hoc Working Group on TMD is the steering body for NATO-Russia cooperation on theater missile defense.


title: Missile defense

text: In September 2018, a consortium of 23 NATO nations met to collaborate on the Nimble Titan 18 integrated air and missile defense (IAMD) campaign of experimentation.


title: Missile defense

text: By early 2010, NATO will have an initial capability to protect Alliance forces against missile threats and is examining options for protecting territory and populations. This is in response to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems, including missiles of all ranges. NATO is conducting three missile defense–related activities:


title: Missile defense

text: As of early 2010, the Alliance has an interim capability to protect troops in a specific area against short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles (up to 3,000 kilometers).


title: Missile defense

text: The end system consist of a multi-layered system of systems, comprising low- and high-altitude defenses (also called lower- and upper-layer defenses), including Battle Management Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence (BMC3I), early warning sensors, radar, and various interceptors. NATO member countries provide the sensors and weapon systems, while NATO has developed the BMC3I segment and facilitate the integration of all these elements.


title: Missile defense

text: A Missile Defense Feasibility Study was launched after NATO's 2002 Prague summit. The NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency (NC3A) and NATO's Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD) were also involved in negotiations. The study concluded that missile defense is technically feasible, and it provided a technical basis for ongoing political and military discussions regarding the desirability of a NATO missile defense system.


title: Missile defense

text: During the 2008 Bucharest summit, the alliance discussed the technical details as well as the political and military implications of the proposed elements of the U.S. missile defense system in Europe. Allied leaders recognized that the planned deployment of European-based U.S. missile defense assets would help protect North American Allies, and agreed that this capability should be an integral part of any future NATO-wide missile defense architecture. However, these opinions are in the process of being reconstructed given the Obama administration's decision in 2009 to replace the long-range interceptor project in Poland with a short/medium range interceptor.


title: Missile defense

text: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has stated that NATO's pattern of deployment of Patriot missiles indicates that these will be used to defend against Iranian missiles in addition to the stated goal of defending against spillover from the Syrian civil war.


title: Missile defense

text: Under the auspices of the NATO-Russia Council, a 2003 study assessed possible levels of interoperability among in-theater missile defense systems of NATO allies and Russia.


title: Missile defense

text: Together with the interoperability study, several computer-assisted exercises have been held to provide the basis for future improvements to interoperability and to develop mechanisms and procedures for joint operations in the area of in-theater missile defense.


title: Missile defense

text: In order to accelerate the deployment of a missile shield over Europe, Barack Obama sent ships with the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System to European waters, including the Black Sea as needed.


title: Missile defense

text: In 2012 the system will achieve an "interim capability" that will for the first time offer American forces in Europe some protection against IRBM attack. However, these interceptors may be poorly placed and of the wrong type to defend the United States, in addition to American troops and facilities in Europe.


title: Missile defense

text: The Aegis ballistic missile defense-equipped SM-3 Block II-A missile demonstrated it can shoot down an ICBM target on 16 Nov 2020.


title: Missile defense

text: According to BioPrepWatch, NATO has signed a 136 million euro contract with ThalesRaytheonSystems to upgrade its current theatre missile defense program.


title: Missile defense

text: The project, called ACCS Theatre Missile Defense 1, will bring new capabilities to NATO's Air Command and Control System, including updates for processing ballistic missile tracks, additional satellite and radar feeds, improvements to data communication and correlation features. The upgrade to its theatre missile defense command and control system will allow for NATO to connect national sensors and interceptors in defense against short and medium-range ballistic missiles. According to NATO's Assistant Secretary General for Defense Investment Patrick Auroy, the execution of this contract will be a major technical milestone forward for NATO's theatre missile defense. The project was expected to be complete by 2015. An integrated air and missile defense (IAMD) capability will be delivered to the operational community by 2016, by which time NATO will have a true theatre missile defense.<ref name = "AN/SPY-6(V) AMDR supersedes AN/SPY-1">John Keller (3 September 2019) The Navy's Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Is About to Get a Major Radar Upgrade by 2025</ref>


title: Mohamed al-Menfi

text: On 5 February 2021, he was chosen as the president of the Libyan Presidential Council at the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum. Previously, he had served as the Libyan Ambassador to Greece.


title: Mohamed al-Menfi

text: Al-Menfi's period as ambassador in Athens was marked by a tense relationship between the GNA and the Greek government because of the Libyan (GNA)–Turkish accord on maritime boundaries. He was eventually expelled from Athens in December 2019.


title: Mohamed al-Menfi

text: In the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum procedure for choosing a unified executive authority to lead into the 24 December 2021 Libyan general election, al-Menfi ran on a joint ticket with Abdul Hamid al-Dabaib as prime minister and Musa al-Koni and Abdallah al-Lafi as members of the Presidential Council. Their list obtained 39 votes, five more than that of Aguila Saleh Issa and Fathi Bashagha. The Aguila Saleh–Bashagha list was perceived to be favoured by the United States of America. The US ambassador denied any attempt to influence the electoral process.


title: Arc length

text: Determining the length of an irregular arc segment by approximating the arc segment as connected (straight) line segments is also called curve rectification. A rectifiable curve has a finite number of segments in its rectification (so the curve has a finite length).


title: Arc length

text: If a curve can be parameterized as an injective and continuously differentiable function (i.e., the derivative is a continuous function) formula_1, then the curve is rectifiable (i.e., it has a finite length).


title: Arc length

text: The advent of infinitesimal calculus led to a general formula that provides closed-form solutions in some cases.


title: Arc length

text: A curve in the plane can be approximated by connecting a finite number of points on the curve using (straight) line segments to create a polygonal path. Since it is straightforward to calculate the length of each linear segment (using the Pythagorean theorem in Euclidean space, for example), the total length of the approximation can be found by summation of the lengths of each linear segment; that approximation is known as the "(cumulative) chordal distance".


title: Arc length

text: If the curve is not already a polygonal path, then using a progressively larger number of line segments of smaller lengths will result in better curve length approximations. Such a curve length determination by approximating the curve as connected (straight) line segments is called "rectification" of a curve. The lengths of the successive approximations will not decrease and may keep increasing indefinitely, but for smooth curves they will tend to a finite limit as the lengths of the segments get arbitrarily small.


title: Arc length

text: For some curves, there is a smallest number formula_2 that is an upper bound on the length of all polygonal approximations (rectification). These curves are called and the is defined as the number formula_2.


title: Arc length

text: A signed arc length can be defined to convey a sense of orientation or "direction" with respect to a reference point taken as origin in the curve (see also: curve orientation and signed distance).


title: Arc length

text: Let formula_1 be an injective and continuously differentiable (i.e., the derivative is a continuous function) function. The length of the curve defined by formula_5 can be defined as the limit of the sum of linear segment lengths for a regular partition of formula_6 as the number of segments approaches infinity. This means


title: Arc length

text: where formula_8 with formula_9 for formula_10 This definition is equivalent to the standard definition of arc length as an integral:


title: Arc length

text: Terms are rearranged so that it becomes formula_28 where in the leftmost side formula_29 is used. By formula_23 for formula_31 so that formula_22, it becomesformula_33with formula_34, formula_35, and formula_31. In the limit formula_37 formula_38 so formula_39 thus the left side of formula_40 approaches to formula_41. In other words, formula_42 in this limit, and the right side of this equality is just the Riemann integral of formula_43 on formula_44 This definition of arc length shows that the length of a curve represented by a continuously differentiable function formula_45 on formula_46 is always finite, i.e., "rectifiable".


title: Arc length

text: The definition of arc length of a smooth curve as the integral of the norm of the derivative is equivalent to the definition


title: Arc length

text: where the supremum is taken over all possible partitions formula_48 of formula_44 This definition as the supremum of the all possible partition sums is also valid if formula_5 is merely continuous, not differentiable.


title: Arc length

text: A curve can be parameterized in infinitely many ways. Let formula_51 be any continuously differentiable bijection. Then formula_52 is another continuously differentiable parameterization of the curve originally defined by formula_53 The arc length of the curve is the same regardless of the parameterization used to define the curve:


title: Arc length

text: If a planar curve in formula_55 is defined by the equation formula_56 where formula_5 is continuously differentiable, then it is simply a special case of a parametric equation where formula_58 and formula_59 The Euclidean distance of each infinitesimal segment of the arc can be given by:


title: Arc length

text: Curves with closed-form solutions for arc length include the catenary, circle, cycloid, logarithmic spiral, parabola, semicubical parabola and straight line. The lack of a closed form solution for the arc length of an elliptic and hyperbolic arc led to the development of the elliptic integrals.


title: Arc length

text: In most cases, including even simple curves, there are no closed-form solutions for arc length and numerical integration is necessary. Numerical integration of the arc length integral is usually very efficient. For example, consider the problem of finding the length of a quarter of the unit circle by numerically integrating the arc length integral. The upper half of the unit circle can be parameterized as formula_62 The interval formula_63 corresponds to a quarter of the circle. Since formula_64 and formula_65 the length of a quarter of the unit circle is


title: Arc length

text: by and the 16-point Gaussian quadrature rule estimate of differs from the true length by only . This means it is possible to evaluate this integral to almost machine precision with only 16 integrand evaluations.


title: Arc length

text: Let formula_68 be a surface mapping and let formula_69 be a curve on this surface. The integrand of the arc length integral is formula_70 Evaluating the derivative requires the chain rule for vector fields:


title: Arc length

text: The squared norm of this vector is formula_72 (where formula_73 is the first fundamental form coefficient), so the integrand of the arc length integral can be written as formula_74 (where formula_75 and formula_76).


title: Arc length

text: Let formula_77 be a curve expressed in polar coordinates. The mapping that transforms from polar coordinates to rectangular coordinates is


title: Arc length

text: The integrand of the arc length integral is formula_70 The chain rule for vector fields shows that formula_80 So the squared integrand of the arc length integral is


title: Arc length

text: Now let formula_85 be a curve expressed in spherical coordinates where formula_86 is the polar angle measured from the positive formula_87-axis and formula_88 is the azimuthal angle. The mapping that transforms from spherical coordinates to rectangular coordinates is


title: Arc length

text: Using the chain rule again shows that formula_90 All dot products formula_91 where formula_92 and formula_93 differ are zero, so the squared norm of this vector is


title: Arc length

text: A very similar calculation shows that the arc length of a curve expressed in cylindrical coordinates is


title: Arc length

text: In the following lines, formula_97 represents the radius of a circle, formula_98 is its diameter, formula_99 is its circumference, formula_100 is the length of an arc of the circle, and formula_86 is the angle which the arc subtends at the centre of the circle. The distances formula_102 and formula_100 are expressed in the same units.


title: Arc length

text: Two units of length, the nautical mile and the metre (or kilometre), were originally defined so the lengths of arcs of great circles on the Earth's surface would be simply numerically related to the angles they subtend at its centre. The simple equation formula_119 applies in the following circumstances:


title: Arc length

text: The lengths of the distance units were chosen to make the circumference of the Earth equal kilometres, or nautical miles. Those are the numbers of the corresponding angle units in one complete turn.


title: Arc length

text: Those definitions of the metre and the nautical mile have been superseded by more precise ones, but the original definitions are still accurate enough for conceptual purposes and some calculations. For example, they imply that one kilometre is exactly 0.54 nautical miles. Using official modern definitions, one nautical mile is exactly 1.852 kilometres, which implies that 1 kilometre is about nautical miles. This modern ratio differs from the one calculated from the original definitions by less than one part in 10,000.


title: Arc length

text: For much of the history of mathematics, even the greatest thinkers considered it impossible to compute the length of an irregular arc. Although Archimedes had pioneered a way of finding the area beneath a curve with his "method of exhaustion", few believed it was even possible for curves to have definite lengths, as do straight lines. The first ground was broken in this field, as it often has been in calculus, by approximation. People began to inscribe polygons within the curves and compute the length of the sides for a somewhat accurate measurement of the length. By using more segments, and by decreasing the length of each segment, they were able to obtain a more and more accurate approximation. In particular, by inscribing a polygon of many sides in a circle, they were able to find approximate values of π.


title: Arc length

text: In the 17th century, the method of exhaustion led to the rectification by geometrical methods of several transcendental curves: the logarithmic spiral by Evangelista Torricelli in 1645 (some sources say John Wallis in the 1650s), the cycloid by Christopher Wren in 1658, and the catenary by Gottfried Leibniz in 1691.


title: Arc length

text: In 1659, Wallis credited William Neile's discovery of the first rectification of a nontrivial algebraic curve, the semicubical parabola. The accompanying figures appear on page 145. On page 91, William Neile is mentioned as "Gulielmus Nelius".


title: Arc length

text: Before the full formal development of calculus, the basis for the modern integral form for arc length was independently discovered by Hendrik van Heuraet and Pierre de Fermat.


title: Arc length

text: In 1659 van Heuraet published a construction showing that the problem of determining arc length could be transformed into the problem of determining the area under a curve (i.e., an integral). As an example of his method, he determined the arc length of a semicubical parabola, which required finding the area under a parabola. In 1660, Fermat published a more general theory containing the same result in his "De linearum curvarum cum lineis rectis comparatione dissertatio geometrica" (Geometric dissertation on curved lines in comparison with straight lines).


title: Arc length

text: Next, he increased "a" by a small amount to "a" + "ε", making segment "AC" a relatively good approximation for the length of the curve from "A" to "D". To find the length of the segment "AC", he used the Pythagorean theorem:


title: Arc length

text: As mentioned above, some curves are non-rectifiable. That is, there is no upper bound on the lengths of polygonal approximations; the length can be made arbitrarily large. Informally, such curves are said to have infinite length. There are continuous curves on which every arc (other than a single-point arc) has infinite length. An example of such a curve is the Koch curve. Another example of a curve with infinite length is the graph of the function defined by "f"("x") = "x" sin(1/"x") for any open set with 0 as one of its delimiters and "f"(0) = 0. Sometimes the Hausdorff dimension and Hausdorff measure are used to quantify the size of such curves.


title: Arc length

text: Let formula_129 be a (pseudo-)Riemannian manifold, formula_130 a curve in formula_129 and formula_132 the (pseudo-) metric tensor.


title: Arc length

text: where formula_135 is the tangent vector of formula_133 at formula_137 The sign in the square root is chosen once for a given curve, to ensure that the square root is a real number. The positive sign is chosen for spacelike curves; in a pseudo-Riemannian manifold, the negative sign may be chosen for timelike curves. Thus the length of a curve is a non-negative real number. Usually no curves are considered which are partly spacelike and partly timelike.


title: Arc length

text: In theory of relativity, arc length of timelike curves (world lines) is the proper time elapsed along the world line, and arc length of a spacelike curve the proper distance along the curve.


title: Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing

text: The typing program was initially released in late 1987 by The Software Toolworks and has been published regularly ever since. The first version written for MS-DOS was created by Norm Worthington, Walt Bilofsky, and Mike Duffy. Editions of Mavis Beacon are currently published by Encore Software (hybrid Mac and Windows) and Software MacKiev (macOS only) and are available throughout the retail sales world. An early version supported both QWERTY and the alternative Dvorak Simplified Keyboard layout. Later versions supported only QWERTY until the 2011 Ultimate Mac Edition from Software MacKiev which returned full Dvorak keyboard lessons to the product. Earlier versions were made for Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit family (version 1 only), Apple IIGS, Atari ST, Mac OS, Microsoft Windows, Palm OS (version 16), and Amiga. The current Windows and Mac versions are published under the Broderbund trademark by both Encore and Software MacKiev.


title: Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing

text: The program includes a number of speed tests and constantly tracks the user's words-per-minute typing speed. It also includes a number of typing games of which some versions have been included since the first release. (The 2011 Ultimate Mac Edition for macOS, published by Software MacKiev, also includes two-player competitive typing network games, integration with iTunes, Dvorak keyboard support, practice typing song lyrics, RSS news feeds and classic novels.) A certificate of achievement can be printed by the user upon the completion of tests.


title: Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing

text: Mavis Beacon is not a real person. The original photo of Mavis Beacon was of Haitian-born model Renee L'Esperance. She was introduced to Les Crane, the former talk-show host, while he was shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills. Crane, who was then a partner in The Software Toolworks, devised the sobriquet.


title: Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing

text: Mavis Beacon's first name was taken from Mavis Staples, lead vocalist for the Staple Singers. The surname derives from beacon, as in a light to guide the way.


title: Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing

text: A favorable review in 1987 by Peter Lewis, technology writer for "The New York Times", gave the program an early boost. "Compute!" favorably reviewed the program in 1989, stating that children, adults, and experienced typists would find it useful, and citing its support of Dvorak training. The Washington Post felt the product "conceals the typing drills rather nicely behind a game".


title: Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing

text: Paul Tyrrell for Amiga Format wrote that the program was well researched, well written, and easy to use. Nick Veitch for CU Amiga felt the product was much more interesting than other educational multimedia products.


title: Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing

text: Metzo Magic appreciated that the game had only few Americanised words, which increased the game's appeal in areas that use British spelling.


title: Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing

text: "The New York Times" noted that by 1999, although the product wasn't the "flashiest" option for players, it remained an effective typing program.


title: Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing

text: On April 21, 2000, two products reached the Top Selling Educational Software list: Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 10.0 (4th) and Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 5.0 (8th).


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: The Christian Democratic Appeal (, ; CDA) is a Christian-democratic political party in the Netherlands. It was originally formed in 1977 from a confederation of the Catholic People's Party, the Anti-Revolutionary Party and the Christian Historical Union; it has participated in all but three cabinets since it became a unitary party.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: Health Minister Hugo de Jonge served as Leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal from July 2020 until his resignation the following December. Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra was then chosen as "lijstrekker" for the 2021 general election, becoming the "de facto" party leader. After the 2017 general election, in which the party won 19 seats (third place), the CDA became a junior coalition partner in the Third Rutte cabinet with the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, Democrats 66 and Christian Union. The Fourth Rutte cabinet was formed upon the same coalition.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: Since 1880 the sizeable Catholic and Protestant parties had worked together in the so-called "Coalitie". They shared a common interest in public funding of religious schools. In 1888 they formed the first Christian-democratic government, led by the Anti-Revolutionary Æneas Baron Mackay. The cooperation was not without problems and in 1894 the more anti-papist and aristocratic conservatives left the Protestant Anti-Revolutionary Party, to found the Christian Historical Union (CHU). The main issues dividing Protestants and Catholics was the position of the Dutch Representation at the Holy See and the future of the Dutch Indies.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: By 1918, there were three major Christian Democratic parties in the Netherlands—the General League of Roman Catholic Caucuses, the Protestant Anti-Revolutionary Party and the Protestant Christian Historical Union. The General League evolved into the Roman Catholic State Party by 1926, and the Catholic People's Party in 1945.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: From 1918 to 1967, the three Christian Democratic parties had a majority in both houses of the States General, and at least two of them were included in every cabinet. The KVP and its antecedents had been in government without interruption since 1918.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: In the sixties, Dutch society became more secularised and the pillars faded, and voters began to move away from the three Christian-democratic parties. In the 1963 general election the three parties held 51% of the vote, whilst in 1972 general election they held only 32%. This decline forced the three parties to work closer together. In 1967 the Group of Eighteen was formed: it was a think-tank of six prominent politicians per party that planned the future cooperation of the three parties. In 1968 the three political leaders of the parties (Norbert Schmelzer (KVP), Barend Biesheuvel (ARP) and (CHU) made a public appearance, stating that the three parties would continue to work together.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: This caused progressive forces within the three parties, especially the ARP and KVP, to regret their political affiliation. In 1968 they founded the Political Party of Radicals (PPR), a left-wing party that sought cooperation with the Labour Party (PvdA). Locally and provincially however the three parties had long cooperated well, in some areas they formed one Christian-democratic parliamentary party and proposed one list of candidates. In the 1971 general election, the three parties presented a common political program, which lay the foundation for the first Biesheuvel cabinet.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: After the disastrous elections of 1972 the cooperation was given new momentum. Piet Steenkamp, a member of the Senate for the KVP was appointed chairman of a council which was to lay the foundation for a federation of the three parties, and provide a common manifesto of principles. In 1973 this federation was officially formed, with Steenkamp as chairperson.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: The cooperation was frustrated by the formation of the Den Uyl cabinet, established by the leader of the social-democratic PvdA and Prime Minister of the Netherlands Joop den Uyl. Den Uyl refused to allow members of the CHU in the cabinet that he would lead. This led to a situation where the CHU, ARP and KVP sat as a single faction in both houses of parliament, but only the KVP and ARP supplied ministers and junior ministers. The cabinet Den Uyl was riddled with political and personal conflicts. Another issue that split the three parties was the place that the Bible would take in the new party.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: In 1976, the three parties announced that they would field a single list at the 1977 general election under the name Christian Democratic Appeal ("Christen Democratisch Appèl"). The KVP minister of Justice, Dries van Agt, was the top candidate. In the election campaign he made clear the CDA was a centrist party, that would not lean to the left or to the right. The three parties were able to stabilise their proportion of the vote.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: The election result forced Van Agt to start talks with Den Uyl. Although Van Agt had been Deputy Prime Minister in the cabinet Den Uyl, the two had never gotten along well. The animosity between them frustrated the talks. After more than 300 days of negotiations, they finally officially failed, and Van Agt was able to negotiate a cabinet with the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). The first Van Agt cabinet had a very narrow majority. The unexpected cabinet with the VVD led to split within the newly founded CDA between more progressive and more conservative members. The progressives remained within the party, and were known as loyalists. On 11 October 1980, the three original parties ceased to exist and the CDA was founded as a unitary party. After the 1981 general election, the VVD and the CDA lost their majority, and the CDA was forced to cooperate with the PvdA. Den Uyl became deputy prime minister under van Agt. The second Van Agt cabinet was troubled by ideological and personal conflicts, and fell after one year.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: After the 1982 general election, the new CDA leader, Ruud Lubbers (formerly of the KVP), formed a majority coalition with the VVD. The first Lubbers cabinet set an ambitious reform program in motion, which included budget cuts, reform of the old age and disability pensions and liberalisation of public services. Lubbers was reelected in 1986 and in 1989. In 1989 however, the CDA only garnered a minimal majority with the VVD, which they had also gradually fallen out with during the previous cabinet, leading the CDA to instead cooperate with the PvdA in the new government. In the third Lubbers cabinet, a CDA-PvdA coalition, the ambitious reform project was continued, with some adaptations and protests from the PvdA.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: The 1994 general election was fraught with problems for the CDA: personal conflicts between retiring prime minister Lubbers and "lijsttrekker" Elco Brinkman, a lack of support for the reforms of old age and disability pensions, and the perceived arrogance of the CDA caused a dramatic defeat at the polls. A new coalition was formed between PvdA and the liberal parties VVD and Democrats 66 (D66), consigning the CDA to opposition for the first time ever. It was also the first government without any Christian Democratic ministers since 1918. The party was marred by subsequent internal battles over leadership. The party also reflected on its principals: the party began to orient itself more toward communitarian ideals.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: During the tumultuous 2002 general election, which saw the murder of right-wing politician Pim Fortuyn, many people voted for the CDA, hoping that it could bring some stability to Dutch politics. The CDA led the first Balkenende cabinet, which included the VVD and the Pim Fortuyn List (LPF). This cabinet fell due to internal struggles within the LPF. After the 2003 general election, the Christian Democrats were forced to begin cabinet negotiations with the PvdA. Personal animosity between Balkenende and the leader of the PvdA, Wouter Bos, frustrated these negotiations. Balkenende eventually formed a coalition with the VVD and D66. The coalition proposed an ambitious program of reforms, including more restrictive immigration laws, democratisation of political institutions and reforms of the system of social security and labour laws.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: After the 2006 general election the CDA changed their course radically: they formed a new fourth cabinet Balkenende still led by Balkenende, but now with the PvdA and the Christian Union (CU). The cabinet was more progressive, entailing increased government spending.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: In the 2010 general election the CDA lost half of its seats and came in fourth place after VVD, PvdA and the Party for Freedom (PVV). Balkenende announced his resignation and stayed prime minister until the formation and inauguration of the Rutte cabinet.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: After the fall of the short-lived first Rutte cabinet in 2012, in which the CDA participated as junior coalition partners to the VVD, the party announced a leadership election. On 18 May 2012 the party announced that the leadership elections were won by Sybrand van Haersma Buma. He received more than 50 percent of the votes. The popular Mona Keijzer, the rising star within the party, received 26% of the votes and announced that she would closely collaborate with Van Haersma Buma during the election campaign prior to the Dutch general election on 12 September 2012. In that election, the CDA suffered considerable losses, falling to 13 seats. The party was excluded from the second Rutte cabinet—only the second time in its history that the party has not been in government. At the municipal elections of 19 March 2014 the CDA won 18% of all the votes and remained the largest party in Dutch municipalities.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: In the 2017 general election, the CDA gained six seats to become the third largest party. It continued to remain in government as part of the third Rutte cabinet, with the VVD, D66 and CU.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: On 19 March 2021, chairman Rutger Ploum resigned after the party looked to have lost 4 out 19 seats in the 2021 general election.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: The CDA is a Christian democratic party, but Christian values are seen as only one source of inspiration for individual members of the States General. The party also has Jewish, Muslim and Hindu members of parliament and favours the integration of minorities into Dutch culture.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: The party has four main ideals: stewardship, solidarity, shared responsibility and public justice. Shared responsibility refers to the way society should be organised: not one organisation should control all society, instead the state, the market, and social institutions, like churches and unions should work together. This is called sphere sovereignty, a core concept of Neo-Calvinist political philosophy. Furthermore, this refers to the way the state should be organised. Not one level of the state should have total control; instead, responsibility should be shared between local, provincial, national and European governments. This is called subsidiarity in Catholic political thought. With stewardship the Christian Democrats refer to the way the planet ought to be treated: the Earth is a gift from God. Therefore, we should try to preserve our environment.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: Practically, this means the CDA is a centre party. However, the party has a considerable centre-left wing, that supports eco-friendly politics, a strong pro-European policy and favours centre-left coalitions. The position of the centre-left group within the party has been weakened since the party's participation in the centre-right minority cabinet with the VVD (the first Rutte cabinet), a cabinet that strongly depended on the parliamentary support of the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV). CDA politicians that can be considered centrist or centre-left: Jack Biskop (MP), Ad Koppejan (MP), Kathleen Ferrier (MP; daughter of the late Johan Ferrier, president of Suriname 1975–1980), Dries van Agt (former Prime Minister), Ruud Lubbers (former Prime Minister) and Herman Wijffels (former chairman of the Social Economic Council, former "informateur").


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: In the past Maxime Verhagen, then informal leader of the CDA and deputy Prime Minister, strongly denied the claim that the CDA is a right-wing party. Verhagen made it clear to the media that his party is a centrist and moderate party and that the CDA participates in a centre-right coalition (with the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) as the right-wing component and the CDA as the centrist component). However, his former colleague in the cabinet, minister of Defence Hans Hillen, was a strong proponent of a conservative CDA.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: At a congress on 21 January 2012 the party adopted a centrist course, dubbed by former minister of Social Affairs Aart-Jan de Geus as "radical centrist" "("het radicale midden")". The party explicitly abandoned its former center-right course. Despite this, the party continued its coalition with the centre-right VVD of Prime Minister Mark Rutte and the Party for Freedom of Geert Wilders until the government collapsed later in the year. The so-called Strategic Council, which was formed in 2011 and headed by former minister Aart-Jan de Geus, that worked on a report to redifine the party course, advised the following:


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: In 2014, Leader Van Haersma Buma announced that the party is now officially in favour of directly elected mayors, although a large majority of its members are opposed to elected mayors.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: The CDA has been a member of the European People's Party (EPP) since its founding in 1976; CDA MEPs sit in the EPP group.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: By far, the CDA has the most members of municipal and provincial councils in the Netherlands. Furthermore, it cooperates in most municipal and provincial governments.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: The CDA is mainly supported by religious voters, both Catholics and Protestants. These tend to live in rural areas and tend to be elderly. In some periods, however, the CDA has functioned as a centrist party, attracting people from all classes and religions.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: Geographically, the CDA is particularly strong in the provinces of North Brabant, Limburg and Overijssel and in the Veluwe and the Westland areas. In the 2006 elections the CDA received the highest percentage of votes in the municipality of Tubbergen, Overijssel (66,59% of the vote). The CDA is weaker in the four major cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht) and in Groningen and Drenthe.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: The youth movement of the CDA is the Christian Democratic Youth Appeal (CDJA). The CDA publishes a monthly magazine, and its scientific bureau publishes the "Christian Democratic Explorations" (Christen-Democratische Verkenningen).


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: As an effect of pillarisation, the CDA still has many personal and ideological ties with religious organisations, such as the broadcasting societies KRO and NCRV, the newspaper "Trouw", the employers organisations NCW and the union CNV.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: The CDA participates in the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, a democracy assistance organisation of seven Dutch political parties.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: The CDA is a member of the European People's Party and the Centrist Democrat International. Within the EPP the CDA belongs to those parties which least favour a cooperation with conservatives.


title: Christian Democratic Appeal

text: As a large Christian democratic party, the CDA is comparable to other European Christian democratic parties such as Germany's Christian Democratic Union (although it's more moderate). It is the Netherlands' third largest party (after the VVD and the PVV), but it is centrist unlike the British Conservative Party.


title: Nuclear-powered aircraft

text: A nuclear-powered aircraft is a concept for an aircraft intended to be powered by nuclear energy. The intention was to produce a jet engine that would heat compressed air with heat from fission, instead of heat from burning fuel. During the Cold War, the United States and Soviet Union researched nuclear-powered bomber aircraft, the greater endurance of which could enhance nuclear deterrence, but neither country created any such operational aircraft.


title: Nuclear-powered aircraft

text: One inadequately solved design problem was the need for heavy shielding to protect the crew and those on the ground from radiation; other potential problems included dealing with crashes.


title: Nuclear-powered aircraft

text: However, the advent of ICBMs and nuclear submarines in the 1960s greatly diminished the strategic advantage of such aircraft, and respective projects were canceled.


title: Nuclear-powered aircraft

text: In May 1946, the United States Army Air Forces started the Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft (NEPA) project, which conducted studies until the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP) program replaced NEPA in 1951. The ANP program included provisions for studying two different types of nuclear-powered jet engines: General Electric's Direct Air Cycle and Pratt & Whitney's Indirect Air Cycle. ANP planned for Convair to modify two B-36s under the MX-1589 project. One of the B-36s, the NB-36H, was to be used for studying shielding requirements for an airborne reactor, while the other was to be the X-6; however, the program was canceled before the X-6 was completed.


title: Nuclear-powered aircraft

text: The first operation of a nuclear aircraft engine occurred on January 31, 1956 using a modified General Electric J47 turbojet engine. The Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion program was terminated by President Kennedy after his annual budget message to Congress in 1961.


title: Nuclear-powered aircraft

text: The Oak Ridge National Laboratory researched and developed nuclear aircraft engines. Two shielded reactors powered two General Electric J87 turbojet engines to nearly full thrust. Two experimental reactors, HTRE-2 with its turbojet engines intact, and HTRE-3 with its engines removed, are at the EBR-1 facility south of the Idaho National Laboratory.


title: Nuclear-powered aircraft

text: The U.S. designed these engines for use in a new, specially-designed nuclear bomber, the WS-125. Although President Eisenhower eventually terminated it by cutting NEPA and telling Congress that the program was not urgent, he backed a small program for developing high-temperature materials and high-performance reactors; that program was terminated early in the Kennedy administration.


title: Nuclear-powered aircraft

text: In 1957, the Air Force and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission contracted with the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory to study the feasibility of applying heat from nuclear reactors to ramjet engines. This research became known as "Project Pluto". This program was to provide engines for an unmanned cruise missile, called SLAM, for Supersonic Low Altitude Missile. The program succeeded in producing two test engines, which were operated on the ground. On May 14, 1961, the world's first nuclear ramjet engine, "Tory-IIA," mounted on a railroad car, roared to life for just a few seconds. On July 1, 1964, seven years and six months after it was born, "Project Pluto" was canceled.


title: Nuclear-powered aircraft

text: There were several studies and proposals for nuclear-powered airships, starting with a 1954 study by F.W. Locke Jr for US Navy. In 1957 Edwin J. Kirschner published the book "The Zeppelin in the Atomic Age", which promoted the use of atomic airships. In 1959 Goodyear presented a plan for nuclear-powered airship for both military and commercial use. Several other proposals and papers were published during the next decades.


title: Nuclear-powered aircraft

text: The 1 December 1958 issue of "Aviation Week" included an article, "Soviets Flight Testing Nuclear Bomber", that claimed that the Soviets had greatly progressed a nuclear aircraft program: "[a] nuclear-powered bomber is being flight tested in the Soviet Union. Completed about six months ago, this aircraft has been flying in the Moscow area for at least two months. It has been observed both in flight and on the ground by a wide variety of foreign observers from Communist and non-Communist countries." Unlike the US designs of the same era, which were purely experimental, the article noted that "The Soviet aircraft is a prototype of a design to perform a military mission as a continuous airborne alert warning system and missile launching platform." Photographs illustrated the article, along with technical diagrams on the proposed layout; these were so widely seen that one company produced a plastic model aircraft based on the diagrams in the article. An editorial on the topic accompanied the article.


title: Nuclear-powered aircraft

text: Concerns were soon expressed in Washington that "the Russians were from three to five years ahead of the US in the field of atomic aircraft engines and that they would move even further ahead unless the US pressed forward with its own program". These concerns caused continued but temporary funding of the US's own program.


title: Nuclear-powered aircraft

text: The aircraft in the photographs was later revealed to be the conventional Myasishchev M-50 "Bounder", a medium-range strategic bomber that performed like the USAFs B-58 Hustler. The design was considered a failure, never entered service, and was revealed to the public on Soviet Aviation Day in 1963 at Monino, putting the issue to rest.


title: Nuclear-powered aircraft

text: The Soviet program of nuclear aircraft development resulted in the experimental Tupolev Tu-95LAL () which derived from the Tupolev Tu-95 bomber, but with a reactor fitted in the bomb bay. The aircraft is alleged to have been flown up to 40 times from 1961 to 1969. The main purpose of the flight phase was examining the effectiveness of the radiation shielding. A follow-up design, the Tu-119, was planned to have two conventional turboprop engines and two direct-cycle nuclear jet engines, but was never completed. Several other projects, like the supersonic Tupolev Tu-120 reached only the design phase.


title: Nuclear-powered aircraft

text: In February 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Russia had developed a new, nuclear-powered cruise missile with nuclear warhead that can evade air and missile defenses and hit any point on the globe. According to the statements its first flight test occurred in 2017. It was claimed to feature "a small-size super-powerful power plant that can be placed inside the hull of a cruise missile and guarantee a range of flight ten times greater than that of other missiles." The video showed the missile evading defense systems over the Atlantic, flying over Cape Horn and finally north towards Hawaii. To date there is no publicly available evidence to verify these statements. The Pentagon stated that it is aware of a Russian test of a nuclear-powered cruise missile but the system is still under development and had crashed in the Arctic in 2017.


title: Nuclear-powered aircraft

text: A RAND Corporation researcher specializing in Russia said "My guess is they're not bluffing, that they've flight-tested this thing. But that's incredible." According to a CSIS fellow, such a nuclear-powered missile "has an almost unlimited range -- you could have it flying around for long periods of time before you order it to hit something" Putin's statements and the video showing a concept of the missile in flight suggest that it is not a supersonic ramjet like Project Pluto but a subsonic vehicle with a nuclear-heated turbojet or turbofan engine.


title: Terry Notary

text: Terry Notary (born August 14, 1968) is an American actor, stunt co-ordinator/double and movement coach. Notary mainly portrays creatures and animals for the film and television industry, and is known for his motion capture performances in films like "Avatar", "The Adventures of Tintin: Secrets of the Unicorn", the "Planet of the Apes" reboot series, "The Hobbit" trilogy, and "". In 2018, Notary played Cull Obsidian in the Marvel Studios films "" and "".


title: Terry Notary

text: Born in San Rafael, California, Notary was diagnosed as being severely hyperactive at age 7. His parents enrolled him in gymnastics class to burn off excess energy. He won a gymnastics scholarship at UCLA, where he graduated with a major in theatre.


title: Terry Notary

text: Notary's first career was as a performer with Cirque du Soleil. His first job as a stunt movement coach was on "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas". Director Ron Howard was hiring Cirque gymnasts for the film, and after sufficiently impressing Howard, Notary was offered the job of teaching all the actors how to move. Notary followed this new career path to Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes", for which he prepared by studying ape movements at the LA County Zoo. Notary's first motion capture film was "Avatar", where he was the movement coach for the Na'vi.


title: Terry Notary

text: Swedish director Ruben Östlund hired Notary when casting his Palme d'Or-winning 2017 film "The Square". For Oleg, a character who acts like an ape, Östlund discovered Notary after running a Google search for "actor imitating monkey" and viewing one of Notary's performances (which was for an audition for "Planet of the Apes"). His performance in that single scene, in which a performance artist acts like a hostile ape at a fancy dinner, was widely praised, "The Independent" calling it "the most tense, uncomfortable scene of the year."


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: Maserati Ghibli is the name of three different cars produced by Italian automobile manufacturer Maserati: the AM115, a V8 grand tourer from 1967 to 1973; the AM336, a V6 twin-turbocharged coupé from 1992 to 1998; and the M157, an executive saloon from 2013 onwards.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: The original Ghibli ("Tipo AM115") is a two-door, 2+2 V8-engined grand tourer. American magazine "Sports Car International" named it number nine on its list of Top Sports Cars of the 1960s.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: The Ghibli was first unveiled as a 2-seater concept car at the November 1966 Turin Motor Show. Its steel body, characterized by a low, shark-shaped nose, was designed by a young Giorgetto Giugiaro, then working at Ghia. The car featured pop-up headlamps, leather front sport seats and alloy wheels. Two rear seats consisting of nothing more than a cushion without a backrest were added to the production model, allowing the Ghibli to be marketed as a 2-door 2+2 fastback coupé. Deliveries started in March 1967.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: The car was powered by a front placed quad-cam dry sump V8 engine mated to a five-speed ZF manual transmission, with a three-speed automatic transmission being optional. The engine had a power output of . It had a 0- time of 6.8 seconds and a top speed of .


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: The 2-seat "Ghibli Spyder" went into production in 1969. Its convertible top folded under a flush fitting body-colour tonneau cover behind the front seats. A detachable hardtop was available as an option.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: The "Ghibli SS" was introduced in 1969. Its new engine was stroked up by to displace and was rated at at 5,500 rpm and of torque at 4,000 rpm. Its top speed of made it the fastest Maserati road car ever produced at the time. SS models have an additional /49 designation (ex. "AM115/49"). A Spyder version was introduced in the same year. Total production amounted to 45 Spyders and 425 coupés.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: In all, 1,170 coupés and 125 Spyders (including 45 Spyder SS) were produced. The Ghibli went out of production in 1973; it was succeeded the following year by the Bertone-designed Khamsin.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: The Ghibli used a tubular frame with a separate body. Front suspension used double wishbone type, coaxial dampers and coil springs, and an anti-roll bar. At the rear there was a live axle on semi-elliptic springs, with a single longitudinal torque arm, hydraulic dampers and an anti-roll bar. Magnesium wheels were standard, originally fitted with Pirelli Cinturato 205 VR15 tyres (CN72) until 1972 when it changed to 215/70VR15 Pirelli Cinturato CN12, while Borrani wire wheels were optional. Even by the standards of its time and class, the car consumed copious volumes of fuel, but Maserati fitted the car with two independent fuel tanks, which could be filled via flaps on either side of the roof pillars.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: The Ghibli name was resurrected with the unveiling of the 1992 Ghibli ("Tipo AM336"), a two-door, four-seater coupé offered with twin-turbocharged V6 engines. Like the V8 Shamal flagship, it was an evolution of the previous Biturbo coupés; the interior and basic bodyshell were carried over from the Biturbo.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: The Ghibli was launched at the 62nd Turin Motor Show in April 1992. The Ghibli was powered by updated 24-valve twin-turbocharged engines which had seen use on the Biturbo range: a 2.0-litre V6 coupled to a six-speed manual transmission for the Italian market, and a 2.8-litre V6 for export, at first coupled with a 5-speed manual, then from 1995 with the 6-speed manual. A 4-speed automatic was optional.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: The coupé was built for luxury as well as performance, and its interior featured Connolly leather upholstery and burr elm trim.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: At the 1994 Geneva Motor Show, Maserati launched an updated Ghibli. A refreshed interior, new wing mirrors, wider and larger 17-inch alloy wheels of a new design, fully adjustable electronic suspension and ABS brakes were added. The Ghibli Open Cup single-make racing car was announced in late 1994.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: Two sport versions were introduced in 1995. The first was the Ghibli Kit Sportivo, whose namesake handling kit included wider tyres on OZ "Futura III" split-rim wheels, specific springs, dampers and anti-roll bars. The second was the limited edition Ghibli Cup, which brought some features of the Open Cup racer into a road-going model; it debuted at the December 1995 Bologna Motor Show. It has a engine rated at .


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: At the time the Ghibli Cup had the highest ever specific power output of any street legal car at per litre, surpassing the Bugatti EB110 and Jaguar XJ220. Chassis upgrades included tweaked suspension and Brembo brakes.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: Visually the Cup was recognisable from its 5-spoke split-rim Speedline wheels and badges on the doors. Only four exterior colours were available: red, white, yellow and French blue. The sporty theme continued in the Cup's cabin with black leather, carbon fibre trim, aluminium pedals and a MOMO steering wheel.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: A second round of improvements resulted in the Ghibli GT in 1996. It was fitted with 7-spoke 17" alloy wheels, black headlight housings, and had suspension and transmission modifications.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: On 4 November 1996 on the Lake Lugano, Guido Cappellini broke the flying kilometre's World Speed Record on water in the 5-litre class, piloting a composite-hulled speedboat powered by the biturbo V6 from the Ghibli Cup and belonging to Bruno Abbate's Primatist/Special Team. The boat ran the kilometre at an average speed of .


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: To celebrate the world record Maserati made 60 special edition Ghiblis called the Ghibli Primatist, featuring special Ultramarine blue paintwork and an interior trimmed in two-tone blue/turquoise leather and polished burr walnut trim.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: Production of the second generation Ghibli ended in Summer 1998. It was replaced in the Maserati range by the 3200 GT.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: A single-make racing series for the Ghibli, the Open Cup, was run two seasons—1995 and 1996. Twenty-five Ghibli Open Cup racing cars were prepared. They were based on the two-litre model, with their "tipo AM 577" engines tuned to by using roller-bearing turbochargers, a freer-flowing exhaust, and remapped fuel computers; a roll cage, Sparco racing seats, a Momo racing steering wheel, aluminium shifter knob and pedals, 5-point belts, automatic fire extinguishing system, an aluminium sump guard, carbon fibre air-intakes, a modified fuel system and 17-inch 5-spoke Speedline wheels completed the outfitting.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: In 1996, the car received a modification upgrade, resulting in similar track times to those of the Ferrari 355 Challenge. After the end of the 1995 racing season, several of the original 23 cars were used in national GT events.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: Like the Biturbo, the Ghibli had unibody steel construction, with a conventional longitudinally-mounted, front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout. Suspension was of the MacPherson strut type at the front and semi-trailing arms at the rear, with coil springs, double-acting dampers and anti-roll bars on both axles. The differential and rear suspension arms were supported by a bushing-insulated subframe. It also featured ventilated disc brakes on all four wheels, and steering was servo-assisted rack and pinion.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: The engine was the latest evolution of Maserati's all-aluminium alloy, DOHC 4 valves per cylinder 90° V6 engine, fitted with water-cooled IHI twin-turbochargers and two air-to-air intercoolers, one per each cylinder bank. Weber-Magneti Marelli IAW electronic fuel injection and ignition system was used. The gearbox was a Getrag-supplied 6-speed manual transmission from the Shamal on 2-litre cars, while 2.8 litre cars initially used a 5-speed ZF unit and were update with the Getrag gearbox in 1995. At the rear axle there was Maserati's "Ranger" Torsen limited slip differential from the Biturbo, with an added oil cooler.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: The current third generation of the Ghibli ("Tipo M157") was unveiled at the 2013 Shanghai Motor Show.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: The Ghibli is offered with three different 3.0-litre V6 engines: a twin-turbocharged or petrol and a turbodiesel, making the Ghibli the first Maserati production car to be powered by a diesel engine.


title: Maserati Ghibli

text: An eight-speed automatic transmission is standard on all models; all wheel drive is available with the most powerful V6, although not in right hand drive markets.


title: Ludonarrative dissonance

text: Ludonarrative dissonance is the conflict between a video game's narrative told through the story and the narrative told through the gameplay. Ludonarrative, a compound of ludology and narrative, refers to the intersection in a video game of ludic elements (gameplay) and narrative elements. The term was coined by game designer Clint Hocking in 2007 in a blog post.


title: Ludonarrative dissonance

text: Clint Hocking, a former creative director at LucasArts (then at Ubisoft), coined the term on his blog in October 2007, in response to the game "BioShock". As explained by Hocking, "BioShock" is themed around the principles of Objectivism and the nature of free will, taking place in a dystopia within the underwater city of Rapture. During the game, the player-character encounters Little Sisters, young girls that have been conditioned to extract a rare resource from corpses, which is used as a means to increase the player-character's abilities. The player has the option of following the hedonistic approach of killing the Little Sister and gaining a larger amount of the resource, or following a compassionate approach, freeing the girl from the conditioning and only receiving a modest amount of the resource in return; this choice upholds the nature of free will that the gameplay presents, according to Hocking. Hocking then points out that as the story progresses, the player-character is forced into accepting one specific path, to help the person behind the revolution within Rapture, and given no option to challenge that role. This seemingly strips away the notion of free will that the gameplay had offered. Hocking claimed that because of this, "BioShock" promotes the theme of self-interest through its gameplay while promoting the opposing theme of selflessness through its narrative, creating a violation of aesthetic distance that often pulls the player out of the game. Jonathan Blow also used "BioShock" as an example in his 2008 talk. Writer Tom Bissell, in his book "" (2010), notes the example of "", where a player can all but kill their digital partner during gameplay without upsetting the built-in narrative of the game. Brett Makedonski of "Destructoid" used the "Mass Effect" series as another example, in which the player-character Commander Shepard can perform actions that are seen as ethically good (Paragon) or bad (Renegade), but throughout the game, Shepard is still regarded as a hero regardless of how much of a Renegade status they may have obtained.


title: Ludonarrative dissonance

text: Jeffrey Matulef of "Eurogamer" used the term when referencing the "Uncharted" series, saying that ""Uncharted" has often been mocked for being about a supposedly likable rogue who just so happens to recklessly slaughter hundreds of people". "" acknowledged the criticism with a trophy called "Ludonarrative Dissonance" that is awarded to the player for killing 1,000 enemies. The game's co-director Neil Druckmann said that in "Uncharted 4" the studio was "conscious to have fewer fights, but it came more from a desire to have a different kind of pacing than to answer the 'ludonarrative dissonance' argument. Because we don't buy into it".


title: Ludonarrative dissonance

text: In 2016, Frédéric Seraphine, semiotician and researcher specialized in game design at the University of Tokyo wrote a literature review about the notion of ludonarrative dissonance. In this article, developing on debates sparked by Hocking's blog post, Seraphine identifies the reason of ludonarrative dissonance as an opposition between "incentives" and "directives" within the "ludic structure (the gameplay)" and the "narrative structure (the story)".


title: Ludonarrative dissonance

text: Chris Plante of "Polygon" wrote there had been an increasing number of games being designed around violence that meant the story shifted to accommodate gameplay, rather than vice versa. He considered the game "The Last of Us Part II", also directed by Druckmann, to be the culmination of this ludonarrative dissonance due to its revenge-driven plot. Plante argued that due to the appeal and constant supply of violent games it was unnecessary for them to justify why their player characters exhibited violence, and expressed his desire for more games to tell stories that didn't hinge around violence.


title: Ludonarrative dissonance

text: Some scholars, game writers and journalists have challenged the supposedly negative nature of ludonarrative dissonance. Nick Ballantyne, managing editor at GameCloud Australia, in an article from 2015, argues: "What if it could be used to a dev's advantage? Video games can force players into uncomfortable situations, and ludonarrative dissonance can help foster that uncomfortableness. Faux glitches have been used as (ludo)narrative tools before in games such as "" and "", so why is ludonarrative dissonance avoided so much? If your intent is to unsettle or confuse a player, then ludonarrative dissonance seems perfect, but it heavily relies on the player". While acknowledging the potential of ludonarrative dissonance to create what he calls "emersion", defined as opposed to "immersion" as the "sensation of being pulled out of the play experience", Seraphine agrees with Ballantyne on the possibility to purposefully use ludonarrative dissonance as a storytelling device. Seraphine concludes his article with: "It seems that more games in the near future might use ludonarrative dissonance as a way to tell more compelling stories. In essence, stories are about characters and the most interesting stories are often told with dissonant characters; as it is the surprise, the disturbance, the accident, the sacrosanct disruptive element, that justifies the very act of telling a story".


title: Ludonarrative dissonance

text: In a 2013 Game Developers Conference talk, "" writer Walt Williams argued that embracing ludonarrative dissonance allows the developer to portray the character as a hypocrite and force the character to rationalize their actions.


title: Ludonarrative dissonance

text: The "Dead Space" series is noted for its ludonarrative consistency. Brett Makedonski of "Destructoid" states that the gameplay aptly conveys the sense of sheer terror and loneliness that the narrative expertly strives to establish.


title: Born to Be Wild

text: "Born to Be Wild" is a song written by Mars Bonfire and first performed by the band Steppenwolf. The song is often invoked in both popular and counter culture to denote a biker appearance or attitude. It is most notably featured in the 1969 film "Easy Rider". It is sometimes described as the first heavy metal song, and the second verse lyric "heavy metal thunder" marks the first use of this term in rock music (although not as a description of a musical style but rather a motorcycle).


title: Born to Be Wild

text: "Born to Be Wild" was written by Mars Bonfire as a ballad. Bonfire was previously a member of the Sparrows, the predecessor band to Steppenwolf, and his brother was Steppenwolf's drummer. Although he initially offered the song to other bands — The Human Expression, for one — "Born to Be Wild" was first recorded by Steppenwolf in a sped-up and rearranged version that AllMusic's Hal Horowitz described as "a roaring anthem of turbo-charged riff rock" and "a timeless radio classic as well as a slice of '60s revolt that at once defines Steppenwolf's sound and provided them with their shot at AM immortality".


title: Born to Be Wild

text: "Born to Be Wild" was the band's third single off their 1968 debut album "Steppenwolf" and became their most successful single, reaching No.2 on the "Billboard" Hot100 singles charts. It was kept from the No.1 spot by "People Got to Be Free" by the Rascals. In 2004, "Rolling Stone" magazine placed "Born to Be Wild" at No.129 on the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. Also in 2004, it finished at No.29 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema. In 2009, it was named the 53rd best hard rock song of all time by VH1 (It ranked 40th in the 100 Greatest Songs of Rock and Roll by VH1 nine years earlier.). In 2018, the song was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in a new category for singles.


title: Born to Be Wild

text: In 1985, the song was covered by Australian band Rose Tattoo. Their version peaked at No. 25 in Australia. In 2002, it was covered by Kim Wilde and released as a non-album single. Her cover reached No. 84 in Germany and No. 71 in Switzerland. Tanja Dexters also covered the song in 2002. Her version peaked at No. 21 in Belgium.


title: Born to Be Wild

text: Other artists that covered this song include Hinder, Etta James, Link Wray, Slade, The Cult, INXS, Ozzy Osbourne with Miss Piggy, Bruce Springsteen, Slayer, Blue Öyster Cult, Status Quo, Fanfare Ciocărlia, Krokus, Wilson Pickett, La Renga, and Jess Greenberg.


title: Tommy Tune

text: Thomas James Tune (born February 28, 1939) is an American actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer, and choreographer. Over the course of his career, he has won ten Tony Awards, the National Medal of Arts, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.


title: Tommy Tune

text: Tune was born in Wichita Falls, Texas, to oil rig worker, horse trainer, and restaurateur Jim Tune and Eva Mae Clark along with his sister, Gracey. He attended Mirabeau B. Lamar High School, Houston and the Methodist-affiliated Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, Texas. He studied dance under Patsy Swayze in Houston. He also studied dance with Kit Andree in Boulder, Colorado. He went on to earn his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama from the University of Texas at Austin in 1962 and his Master of Fine Arts in Directing from the University of Houston. Tune later moved to New York to start his career.


title: Tommy Tune

text: Tune stands a lanky tall, and at first he found his height to be a disadvantage when auditioning for roles, as he would tower over potential co-stars. He wore horizontally-striped shirts to auditions, dipped extra low when he did pliés and learned to dance upstage ("I'd look shorter that way. It's a law of perspective") to try to overcome it.


title: Tommy Tune

text: In 1965, Tune made his Broadway debut as a performer in the musical "Baker Street". His first Broadway directing and choreography credits were for the original production of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" in 1978. His direction of "Nine" in 1982, which also won the Tony for Best Musical, garnered him his first Tony for direction of a musical. He has gone on to direct and/or choreograph eight Broadway musicals. He directed a new musical titled "Turn of the Century", which premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago on September 19, 2008 and closed on November 2, 2008.


title: Tommy Tune

text: Off-Broadway, Tune has directed "The Club" and "Cloud Nine". Tune toured the United States in the Sherman Brothers musical "Busker Alley" in 1994–1995, and in the stage adaptation of the film "Dr. Dolittle" in 2006.


title: Tommy Tune

text: Tune is the only person to win Tony Awards in the same categories (Best Choreography and Best Direction of a Musical) in consecutive years (1990 and 1991), and the first to win in four categories. He has won ten Tony Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.


title: Tommy Tune

text: On television, Tune was a recurring guest star and assistant choreographer from 1969 to 1970 on "The Dean Martin Show" and its summer replacement series, "Dean Martin Presents The Golddiggers". He also briefly appeared on "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" in 1988.


title: Tommy Tune

text: Tune appeared in a 1975 TV special titled "Welcome to the "World"" along with Lucie Arnaz and Lyle Waggoner to promote the opening of Space Mountain at Walt Disney World. His film credits include Ambrose Kemper in "Hello, Dolly!" (1969), directed by Gene Kelly and starring Barbra Streisand, "The Boy Friend" (1971) with Twiggy , and "Mimì Bluette... fiore del mio giardino" (1976) with Shelley Winters and Monica Vitti. Tune released his first record album, "Slow Dancin'," in 1997 on the RCA label featuring a collection of his favorite romantic ballads. In 1999, he made his Las Vegas debut as the star of "EFX" at the MGM Grand Las Vegas.


title: Tommy Tune

text: Tune staged an elaborate musical entitled "Paparazzi" for the Holland America Line cruise ship the Oosterdam in 2003. He works often with The Manhattan Rhythm Kings, for example touring in a Big Band revue entitled "Song and Dance Man" and "White Tie and Tails" (2002).


title: Tommy Tune

text: Tune performed in his musical revue, "Steps in Time: A Broadway Biography in Song and Dance", in Boston in April 2008 and continuing in various venues from Bethesda, Maryland in January 2009 to California in February 2009.


title: Tommy Tune

text: The Tommy Tune Awards, presented annually by Theatre Under The Stars (TUTS), honor excellence in high school musical theatre in Houston. The current home of the Tommy Tune Awards is the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in Houston, Texas.


title: Tommy Tune

text: Tune appeared as Argyle Austero in the revived fourth and fifth seasons of "Arrested Development" on Netflix. In 2015, he made a return to the New York stage as a featured performer in City Center's staged concert Encores!. He was featured in two numbers in "Lady, Be Good!"; his first act number was the Gershwin standard "Fascinating Rhythm."


title: Tommy Tune

text: In the eighteenth episode of the sixth season of "The Simpsons", "A Star Is Burns", the citizens of Springfield are invited to make their own movies for a town film festival. Mr. Burns’s film, “A Burns for All Seasons”, features Tune’s name in the credits playing the role of Waylon Smithers.


title: Tommy Tune

text: Before leaving Texas in the 1960s for a Broadway career in New York, Tune worked with Mary Highsmith (mother of novelist Patricia Highsmith) at the Point Summer Theatre. In a letter to her daughter, Highsmith referred to Tune as her "adopted boy" whom she called "Romano". Tune later praised Highsmith for helping him develop his talents: "She was an opening for me; she opened a little bit of my tight fabric so that I might peer through." When not performing, he used to run an art gallery in Tribeca that featured his own work. As of 2014, it is no longer open.


title: Tommy Tune

text: In 1997, Tune's memoir, "Footnotes", was published. In it, he wrote about what drives him as a performer, choreographer, and director and reminisced about his days with Twiggy in "My One and Only"; as well as meeting and working with his many idols. He further wrote about being openly gay in the world of theater; about losing his partner, choreographer David Steiger Wolfe, to AIDS in 1994, and about the unhappy ending of his relationship with "A Chorus Line" actor Michel Stuart. He also described a woman whom he did not name but who he said was the "love of [his] life", and some media speculated that the description he gave appeared to fit Twiggy.


title: Tommy Tune

text: As of September 2021, Tommy Tune was the honorary president of the American Guild of Variety Artists, the labor union for non-actor stage performers.


title: Rooster (zodiac)

text: The Rooster () is the tenth of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Rooster is represented by the Earthly Branch symbol 酉.


title: Rooster (zodiac)

text: People born within these date ranges can be said to have been born in the "Year of the Rooster", while bearing the following elemental signs:


title: Blanche Devereaux

text: Blanche Devereaux is a character from the sitcom television series "The Golden Girls", and its spin-off "The Golden Palace". Blanche was portrayed by Rue McClanahan for 8 years and 204 episodes across the two series. The character was inspired by Blanche DuBois (to whom Blanche Devereaux is compared in the pilot script) and Scarlett O'Hara.


title: Blanche Devereaux

text: McClanahan had previously co-starred with Beatrice Arthur in "Maude" and with Betty White in the first two seasons of "Mama's Family". In pre-production, producers had planned for White (who was already well known for playing the man-hungry character Sue Ann Nivens) to play Blanche, but neither White nor McClanahan wanted to be typecast, and the two roles were eventually switched by producers.


title: Blanche Devereaux

text: Blanche Elizabeth Marie Hollingsworth grew up near Atlanta, Georgia, at her family's plantation, Twin Oaks. Her parents were the late Elizabeth-Ann Margaret Bennett (later seasons named her "Samantha Roquet") (Helen Kleeb) and Curtis "Big Daddy" Hollingsworth (first Murray Hamilton and, after Hamilton died, David Wayne), the latter a revered man in his neck of the woods. Much to young Blanche's dismay, her father married a young widow named Margaret Spencer (Sondra Currie) years after Blanche's mother died, but she begrudgingly accepted the marriage. As a young child, she had a mammy (nanny) named Viola Watkins (Ruby Dee) who took care of her before abruptly leaving one day. After her father's death, she learned that he and Viola had been secret lovers for many years and Viola left their family after Blanche's mother found out.


title: Blanche Devereaux

text: Blanche is a member of "the Alpha Gams" (Alpha Gamma Delta), but which university she attended is not known. On a few occasions, Blanche states that she is of the Baptist faith. She is proud of her status as a Southern debutante, but was shocked to learn, when tracing her family history, that she had a New York born Jewish great-grandmother which prevented her from joining the Daughters of the Old South.


title: Blanche Devereaux

text: Blanche is the third of five Hollingsworth children. Charmaine Hollingsworth (Barbara Babcock) is the spoiled oldest sister, who infuriated Blanche when she wrote a sordid novel Blanche thought was about her. When it was revealed that the book was about Charmaine and not Blanche, they made up and apologized to each other. The next youngest sibling is Blanche's brother Tad.


title: Blanche Devereaux

text: Blanche's sister Virginia Hollingsworth Warren (Sheree North), with whom Blanche shares a mutual loathing, is one year her junior. They buried the hatchet when Virginia went into kidney failure and Blanche offered her kidney to her sister. However, their relationship became strained once more after their argument following Big Daddy's death, in which Virginia accused Blanche of being too selfish and self-centered to say goodbye to her own father.


title: Blanche Devereaux

text: The fifth Hollingsworth child (by deduction) is Clayton Hollingsworth (Monte Markham), who appears in season four (1988) and season six (1991). When Clayton tells Blanche that he is gay, she struggles to accept his sexuality, but eventually does after Clayton intends to marry his boyfriend Doug.


title: Blanche Devereaux

text: Blanche also has a promiscuous niece named Lucy (Hallie Todd), who visits her during the first season.


title: Blanche Devereaux

text: Although notoriously man-hungry, Blanche was faithfully married for decades to her husband, George Devereaux. George died (in a car accident) in either 1981 or 1982, three or four years before the start of the series in 1985, and at some point earlier they had moved from Atlanta to Miami.


title: Blanche Devereaux

text: In a 1990 episode, Blanche dreamt that George came back from the dead nine years later (George told her he faked his death to escape criminal prosecution for fraud, for which he was framed by his own business partner). Actress Rue McClanahan has suggested that George was the love of Blanche's life, and that her promiscuity was in fact a desperate search for the next love of her life.


title: Blanche Devereaux

text: During Blanche's senior year in high school, Christmas 1949, when she was 17, she almost eloped with Deck Boughvenlough, the father of her rival at cheerleading with the sole purpose of having the other girl taken off the squad. This establishes Blanche's year of birth as 1932.


title: Blanche Devereaux

text: Blanche is shown to have dated various men, some of them unsavory. She almost married a bigamist in the pilot episode before he was arrested. Another man stole her necklace at her full moon-leap year's party; he was also caught by the police. One boyfriend, Rex was emotionally and verbally abusive, until Dorothy helped Blanche realize his true personality. Another boyfriend, Gary (Jerry Hardin) cheated on her with Rose's sister Holly (Inga Swenson), who was visiting. Yet another, who appears in "The Golden Palace", turns out to be a gigolo (Barry Bostwick). Blanche overcame her apprehension of dating Ted, who was in a wheelchair, only to find out he was married, so she terminated the relationship because she has never been the "other woman" in extramarital affairs and never wanted to be. The only other time that occurred was when her beau's wife was revived by paramedics after she was declared dead.


title: Blanche Devereaux

text: Blanche has also ruined good relationships with worthy men. Jake (Donnelly Rhodes) was perfect and wanted to marry her; he was charming and romantic, but Blanche found him a little 'rough around the edges' compared to the gentlemanly types she usually dated. She turned down his marriage proposal, to the disgust of her roommates, and regretted it later. When another beau, Steven (Robert Mandan), was hospitalized, she refused to visit him until much later, by which time he reconciled with his ex-girlfriend, Karen. Unlike Blanche, who feared commitment and having another man die on her, when Karen heard of Steven's illness, she went right to his side when he needed someone.


title: Blanche Devereaux

text: Blanche dated a blind man, John Quinn (Edward Winter) and considered breaking up with him because she knew he was not attracted to her physical beauty. She later apologized to him and made plans to see him again, but the relationship apparently ended, as he was never mentioned on the series again. Blanche's most frequent (but only seen once in season six) date was Mel Bushman (Alan King), who was always available whenever she lacked male companionship. The one time he was not, Blanche assumed he was dead and promptly fell in temporary love with him when she realized he was alive. Because of his zipper manufacturing business, Mel was known as "The Zipper King". When Blanche's death was reported mistakenly in a newspaper, Mel sent flowers and a note, saying he went back to his ex-wife.