title: Banbury

text: The former Hunt Edmunds brewery premises became Crest Hotels headquarters, but closed in the late 1970s and was abandoned in the late 1980s, while the Crown Hotel and the Foremost Tyres/Excel Exhausts shops found new owners after they closed in 1976 due to falling sales. Hella Manufacturing, a vehicle Electronics firm, closed its factory on the Southam Road in the mid-2000s. The ironmonger, Hoods, opened in the mid-1960s and closed in 2007, with the shop becoming part of the then enlarged Marks and Spencer.


title: Banbury

text: Owing to the surrounding area's notable links with world motorsport, the town is home to many well known organisations within the industry. Prodrive, one of the world's largest motorsport and automotive technology specialists, is based in the town as are a host of race teams involved in competition across many different disciplines and countries.


title: Banbury

text: Within Formula One, two teams have had their base of operations in Banbury. The Simtek team which competed in the 1994 and 1995 F1 World Championships was based on the Wildmere Industrial Estate. The Marussia F1 team had its manufacturing and production facility sited on Thorpe Way Industrial Estate using the building formerly owned by Ascari Cars, a luxury sports car manufacturer. Both Simtek and Marussia F1 had been brought to Banbury by Nick Wirth who owned the Simtek team and was the former Technical Director at Marussia. After Marussia F1 went into administration in 2014, their base was purchased by the United States-based Haas F1 Team to service their cars during the European races.


title: Banbury

text: Until 2017, when the team went into administration and subsequently folded, Manor Racing (the successor to Marussia) was based in the town.


title: Banbury

text: Arden Motorsport, a British multi-formula motorsports team (founded by Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner), is also based in the town.


title: Banbury

text: Banbury has one of the UK's lowest unemployment rates, as of April 2016 it stood at 0.7%. Once Poland joined the European Union in 2004, a number of Banbury-based employment agencies began advertising for staff in major Polish newspapers. In 2006 one estimate placed between 5,000 and 6,000 Poles in the town. With the influx of the largely Roman Catholic Poles, one local church was offering a Mass said partially in Polish and specialist Polish food shops had opened.


title: Banbury

text: It was built in 1964 and has gone through a number of ownership changes since. It is still sometimes known by its previous names of Bird's, Kraft and General Foods or GF.


title: Banbury

text: Banbury was once home to Western Europe's largest cattle market, on Merton Street in Grimsbury. The market was a key feature of Victorian life in the town and county. It was formally closed in June 1998, after being abandoned several years earlier and was replaced with a new housing development and Dashwood Primary School.


title: Banbury

text: Banbury station is served by Chiltern Railways services to and Birmingham, both running to London Marylebone via the Chiltern Main Line. Services are also provided by Great Western Railway to , and London Paddington. Services to other parts of the country are provided by CrossCountry south to Reading, Southampton and Basingstoke; northbound trains travel to Manchester Piccadilly and Newcastle.


title: Banbury

text: The Oxford Canal is a popular place for pleasure trips and tourism. The canal's main boatyard is now the listed site Tooley's Boatyard.


title: Banbury

text: Banbury has Stagecoach in Oxfordshire bus services both within the town and linking it with Brackley, Chipping Norton, Oxford and places further afield including Daventry, Leamington Spa and Stratford-upon-Avon.


title: Banbury

text: National Express coaches serve Banbury with regular services to and from major UK towns and cities. Hennef Way (A422) was upgraded to a dual carriageway, easing traffic on the heavily congested road and providing north Banbury and the town centre with higher-capacity links to the M40 motorway.


title: Banbury

text: The "Banbury Guardian" is published weekly on Thursdays by Johnston Press, is priced for sale and is a tabloid. The "Banbury Cake" was formerly a free newspaper but is now online only.


title: Banbury

text: For regional TV news, Banbury is served by BBC South Today and ITV Meridian News, although some parts of the town are better served by BBC Midlands Today and ITV News Central.


title: Banbury

text: At one time Banbury had many crosses (the High Cross, the Bread Cross and the White Cross), but these were destroyed by Puritans in 1600. Banbury remained without a cross for more than 250 years until the current Banbury Cross was erected in 1859 at the centre of the town to commemorate the marriage of Victoria, Princess Royal (eldest child of Queen Victoria) to Prince Frederick of Prussia. The current Banbury Cross is a stone, spire-shaped monument decorated in Gothic form. Statues of Queen Victoria, Edward VII and George V were added in 1914 to commemorate the coronation of George V. The cross is high, and topped by a gilt cross. Towns with crosses in England before the reformation were places of Christian pilgrimage.


title: Banbury

text: The English nursery rhyme "Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross", in its several forms, may refer to one of the crosses destroyed by Puritans in 1600. In April 2005, Princess Anne unveiled a large bronze statue depicting the Fine Lady upon a White Horse of the nursery rhyme. It stands on the corner of West Bar and South Bar, just yards from the present Banbury Cross.


title: Banbury

text: Banbury has a museum in the town centre near Spiceball Park, replacing the old museum near Banbury Cross. It is accessible over a bridge from the Castle Quay Shopping Centre or "via" Spiceball Park Road. Admission to the museum is free. The town's tourist information centre is located in the museum entrance in the Castle Quay Shopping Centre.


title: Banbury

text: Spiceball Park is the largest park in Banbury. It is east of the Oxford Canal, mainly west of the River Cherwell, north of Castle Quay and south of Hennef Way. It includes three large fields, a children's play area and a skateboard park. Across the road from the main park there is the sports centre, which includes a swimming pool, courts, café and gym facilities. The sports centre began to be re-developed in late 2009, for a new centre and café, which was completed by mid 2010.


title: Banbury

text: Neithrop is home to the People's Park which opened in 1910, and has a bird house, tennis courts, a large field and a children's play area. The park is often used in the summer to hold small festivals. The park is also one of the town's biggest in terms of the area covered and one of the few major ones not to be built on a steep hill. Easington Recreation Ground is another principal park and recreational area.


title: Banbury

text: One of the campuses of Activate Learning, Banbury and Bicester College, as well as one of the international campuses of Fairleigh Dickinson University at Wroxton Abbey are situated in Banbury. The town also has four secondary schools – North Oxfordshire Academy, Wykham Park Academy, Space Studio Banbury and Blessed George Napier Roman Catholic School – and a number of primary schools. Independent schools in Banbury include Tudor Hall and Al-Madina School.


title: Banbury

text: In 1377 a pardon was given to a Welshman, who was wanted for killing another Welshman, after the accused person had taken sanctuary in St Mary's parish church. The Neithrop district of Banbury was the scene of rioting in 1589 after Neithrop's maypole was destroyed by Puritans.


title: Banbury

text: Reverend William Whateley (1583–1639), whose father was several times bailiff or mayor of Banbury, was a notable Banbury vicar, who was instituted in 1610 but had already been a 'lecturer' there for some years. In 1626 Whateley refused communion to his own brother, who had been presented for religious incompetence. A report by the church wardens in 1619 said he was a well liked and tolerant priest. The Quaker meeting house by the town centre lane called 'The Leys' was built between 1748 and 1750. In 1838, the Catholic St John the Evangelist Church was built, parts of it were designed by Augustus Pugin and it is a Grade II listed building.


title: Banbury

text: Banbury has several sporting clubs, most notably Banbury United football club. There are also rugby, canoeing, golf, running, triathlon and cricket clubs. These clubs represent a variety of age groups, and play at varying levels, from amateur to national. Banbury United F.C. was first formed as Spencer Villa in 1931 and their home matches played at Middleton Road. At this time it was essentially a works club. In 1934, they changed their name to Banbury Spencer and moved to the Spencer Stadium.


title: Banbury

text: Banbury and District Golf Club (now defunct) was founded in 1904. The club disappeared in the mid-1920s. A greyhound racing track was opened during the summer of 1951, north of Banbury town centre on the east side of Southam Road. The racing was independent (not affiliated to the sports governing body the National Greyhound Racing Club) known as a flapping track, which was the nickname given to independent tracks. The racing lasted until the latter part of 1954.


title: Banbury

text: American Haas F1 Team European forward base of operation is located in Banbury after the collapse of Marussia F1. Manor Racing formerly based in Banbury until the team went into administration in 2016. A number of other motor racing teams have been based in and around Banbury, including Prodrive, Simtek and Virgin Racing.


title: Banbury

text: Twinning in Banbury began on 26 October 1978, at a public meeting held at the Post-Graduate Education Centre, and called on the initiative of the late Councillor Ron Smith, the then Town Mayor of Banbury. Initial visits between Banbury and Ermont in 1979, and for a long time after there was a period of informal relationship before a formal agreement was signed in 1982. Contact was first made with Hennef about a possible agreement in October 1980 and within a year the formal agreement was signed. As a consequence of this, two roads in Banbury (Hennef Way and Ermont Way) have been named after the two towns. Likewise a former Railway station square in Hennef has been named Banburyplatz.


title: Blue field entoptic phenomenon

text: The blue field entoptic phenomenon is an entoptic phenomenon characterized by the appearance of tiny bright dots (nicknamed blue-sky sprites) moving quickly along squiggly lines in the visual field, especially when looking into bright blue light such as the sky. The dots are short-lived, visible for a second or less, and traveling short distances along seemingly random, curvy paths. Some of them follow the same path as predecessors. The dots may be elongated along the path like tiny worms. The speed of the dots varies in sync with the pulse; they briefly accelerate at each heartbeat. The dots appear in the central field of view, within 15 degrees from the fixation point. The left and right eye see different dots; someone looking with both eyes sees a mixture.


title: Blue field entoptic phenomenon

text: Most people are able to see this phenomenon in the sky, although it is rather weak, and many people do not notice it until asked to pay attention. The dots are highly conspicuous against a monochromatic blue background (~430 nm) instead of the sky. The phenomenon is also known as Scheerer's phenomenon after the German ophthalmologist Richard Scheerer, who first drew clinical attention to it in 1924.


title: Blue field entoptic phenomenon

text: Blue light (optimal wavelength: 430 nm) is absorbed by the red blood cells that fill the capillaries. The eye and brain "edit out" the shadow lines of the capillaries, partially by dark adaptation of the photoreceptors lying beneath the capillaries. The white blood cells, which are larger than red blood cells, but much rarer and do not absorb blue light, create gaps in the blood column, and these gaps appear as bright dots. The gaps are elongated because a spherical white blood cell is too wide for the capillary. Red blood cells pile up behind the white blood cell, showing up like a dark tail. This behavior of the blood cells in the capillaries of the retina has been directly observed in human subjects by adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopy, a real time imaging technique for examining retinal blood flow.


title: Blue field entoptic phenomenon

text: The dots will not appear at the very center of the visual field, because there are no blood vessels in the foveal avascular zone.


title: Blue field entoptic phenomenon

text: In a technique known as blue field entoptoscopy, the effect is used to estimate the blood flow in the retinal capillaries. The patient is alternatingly shown blue light and a computer generated picture of moving dots; by adjusting the speed and density of these dots, the patient tries to match the computer generated picture to the perceived entoptic dots.


title: Blue field entoptic phenomenon

text: Scheerer's phenomenon consists of corpuscles of identical diameter and visual sharpness, of a simple dot or worm-like shape, brighter than the background. If the eye stops moving, the dots keep darting around. If the eye moves, the dots follow instantaneously, because they are contained in the retina. In contrast, floaters are specks or threads of variable diameter and variable visual sharpness, some of complex shape, darker than the background. If the eye stops moving, the floaters settle down. If the eye moves, the floaters follow sluggishly, because they are contained in the vitreous humor, which is subject to inertia.


title: Blue field entoptic phenomenon

text: Scheerer's phenomenon can be distinguished from visual snow because it appears only when looking into bright light, whereas visual snow is constantly present in all light conditions including the dark.


title: Super Audio CD

text: Super Audio CD (SACD) is an optical disc format for audio storage introduced in 1999. It was developed jointly by Sony and Philips Electronics and intended to be the successor to the Compact Disc (CD) format.


title: Super Audio CD

text: The SACD format allows multiple audio channels (i.e. surround sound or multichannel sound). It also provides a higher bit rate and longer playing time than a conventional CD.


title: Super Audio CD

text: An SACD is designed to be played on an SACD player. A "hybrid SACD" contains a Compact Disc Digital Audio (CDDA) layer and can also be played on a standard CD player.


title: Super Audio CD

text: The Super Audio CD format was introduced in 1999, and is defined by the "Scarlet Book" standard document. Philips and Crest Digital partnered in May 2002 to develop and install the first SACD hybrid disc production line in the United States, with a production capacity of up to three million discs per year. SACD did not achieve the level of growth that compact discs enjoyed in the 1980s, and was not accepted by the mainstream market.


title: Super Audio CD

text: By 2007, SACD had failed to make a significant impact in the marketplace; consumers were increasingly downloading low-resolution music files over the internet rather than buying music on physical disc formats. A small and niche market for SACD has remained, serving the audiophile community.


title: Super Audio CD

text: By October 2009, record companies had published more than 6,000 SACD releases, slightly more than half of which were classical music. Jazz and popular music albums, mainly remastered previous releases, were the next two genres most represented.


title: Super Audio CD

text: Many popular artists have released some or all of their back catalog on SACD. Pink Floyd's album "The Dark Side of the Moon" (1973) sold over 800,000 copies by June 2004 in its SACD Surround Sound edition. The Who's rock opera "Tommy" (1969), and Roxy Music's "Avalon" (1982), were released on SACD to take advantage of the format's multi-channel capability. All three albums were remixed in 5.1 surround, and released as hybrid SACDs with a stereo mix on the standard CD layer.


title: Super Audio CD

text: Some popular artists have released new recordings on SACD. Sales figures for Sting's "Sacred Love" (2003) album reached number one on SACD sales charts in four European countries in June 2004.


title: Super Audio CD

text: Between 2007 and 2008, the rock band Genesis re-released all of their studio albums across three SACD box sets. Each album in these sets contains both new stereo and 5.1 mixes. The original stereo mixes were not included. The US & Canada versions do not use SACD but CD instead.


title: Super Audio CD

text: By August 2009 443 labels had released one or more SACDs. Instead of depending on major label support, some orchestras and artists have released SACDs on their own. For instance, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra started the Chicago Resound label to provide full and burgeoning support for high-resolution SACD hybrid discs, and the London Symphony Orchestra established their own "LSO Live" label.


title: Super Audio CD

text: Many SACD discs that were released from 2000-2005 are now out of print and available only on the used market. By 2009, the major record companies were no longer regularly releasing discs in the format, with new releases confined to the smaller labels.


title: Super Audio CD

text: SACD discs have identical physical dimensions as standard compact discs. The areal density of the disc is the same as a DVD. There are three types of disc:


title: Super Audio CD

text: A stereo SACD recording has an uncompressed rate of 5.6 Mbit/s, four times the rate for Red Book CD stereo audio.


title: Super Audio CD

text: Commercial releases commonly include both surround sound (five full-range plus LFE multi-channel) and stereo (dual-channel) mixes on the SACD layer. Some reissues retain the mixes of earlier multi-channel formats (examples include the 1973 quadraphonic mix of Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" and the 1957 three-channel stereo recording by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition", reissued on SACD in 2001 and 2004 respectively).


title: Super Audio CD

text: Objective lenses in conventional CD players have a longer working distance, or focal length, than lenses designed for SACD players. In SACD-capable DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray players, the red DVD laser is used for reading SACDs. This means that when a hybrid SACD is placed into a conventional CD player, the infrared laser beam passes through the SACD layer and is reflected by the CD layer at the standard 1.2 mm distance, and the SACD layer is out of focus. When the same disc is placed into an SACD player, the red laser is reflected by the SACD layer (at 0.6 mm distance) before it can reach the CD layer. Conversely, if a conventional CD is placed into an SACD player, the laser will read the disc as a CD since there is no SACD layer.


title: Super Audio CD

text: SACD audio is stored in Direct Stream Digital (DSD) format using pulse-density modulation (PDM) where audio amplitude is determined by the varying proportion of 1s and 0s. This contrasts with compact disc and conventional computer audio systems using pulse-code modulation (PCM) where audio amplitude is determined by numbers encoded in the bit stream. Both modulations require neighboring samples to reconstruct the original waveform, the more the lower frequency that can be encoded.


title: Super Audio CD

text: DSD is 1-bit, has a sampling rate of 2.8224 MHz, and makes use of noise shaping quantization techniques in order to push 1-bit quantization noise up to inaudible ultrasonic frequencies. This gives the format a greater dynamic range and wider frequency response than the CD. The SACD format is capable of delivering a dynamic range of 120 dB from 20 Hz to 20 kHz and an extended frequency response up to 100 kHz, although most available players list an upper limit of 70–90 kHz, and practical limits reduce this to 50 kHz. Because of the nature of sigma-delta converters, DSD and PCM cannot be directly compared. DSD's frequency response can be as high as 100 kHz, but frequencies that high compete with high levels of ultrasonic quantization noise. With appropriate low-pass filtering, a frequency response of 20 kHz can be achieved along with a dynamic range of nearly 120 dB, which is about the same dynamic range as PCM audio with a resolution of 20 bits.


title: Super Audio CD

text: To reduce the space and bandwidth requirements of DSD, a lossless data compression method called Direct Stream Transfer (DST) is used. DST compression is compulsory for multi-channel regions and optional for stereo regions. It typically compresses by a factor of between two and three, allowing a disc to contain 80 minutes of both 2-channel and 5.1-channel sound.


title: Super Audio CD

text: Direct Stream Transfer compression was standardized as an amendment to the MPEG-4 Audio standard, ISO/IEC 14496-3:2001/Amd 6:2005 (Lossless coding of oversampled audio), in 2005. It contains the DSD and DST definitions as described in the Super Audio CD Specification. The MPEG-4 DST provides lossless coding of oversampled audio signals. Target applications of DST are archiving and storage of 1-bit oversampled audio signals and SA-CD.


title: Super Audio CD

text: SACD has several copy protection features at the physical level, which made the digital content of SACD discs difficult to copy until the jailbreak of the PlayStation 3. The content may be copyable without SACD quality by resorting to the analog hole, or ripping the conventional 700 MB layer on hybrid discs. Copy protection schemes include physical pit modulation and 80-bit encryption of the audio data, with a key encoded on a special area of the disc that is only readable by a licensed SACD device. The HD layer of an SACD disc cannot be played back on computer CD/DVD drives, and SACDs can only be manufactured at the disc replication facilities in Shizuoka and Salzburg. Nonetheless, a PlayStation 3 with an SACD drive and appropriate firmware can use specialized software to extract a DSD copy of the HD stream.


title: Super Audio CD

text: Sound quality parameters achievable by the Red Book CD-DA and SACD formats compared with the limits of human hearing are as follows:


title: Super Audio CD

text: In September 2007, the Audio Engineering Society published the results of a year-long trial, in which a range of subjects including professional recording engineers were asked to discern the difference between high-resolution audio sources (including SACD and DVD-Audio) and a compact disc audio (44.1 kHz/16 bit) conversion of the same source material under double-blind test conditions. Out of 554 trials, there were 276 correct answers, a 49.8% success rate corresponding almost exactly to the 50% that would have been expected by chance guessing alone. When the level of the signal was elevated by 14 dB or more, the test subjects were able to detect the higher noise floor of the CD-quality loop easily. The authors commented:


title: Super Audio CD

text: Following criticism that the original published results of the study were not sufficiently detailed, the AES published a list of the audio equipment and recordings used during the tests. Since the Meyer-Moran study in 2007, approximately 80 studies have been published on high-resolution audio, about half of which included blind tests. Joshua Reiss performed a meta-analysis on 20 of the published tests that included sufficient experimental detail and data. In a paper published in the July 2016 issue of the AES Journal, Reiss says that, although the individual tests had mixed results, and that the effect was "small and difficult to detect," the overall result was that trained listeners could distinguish between hi-resolution recordings and their CD equivalents under blind conditions: "Overall, there was a small but statistically significant ability to discriminate between standard quality audio (44.1 or 48 kHz, 16 bit) and high-resolution audio (beyond standard quality). When subjects were trained, the ability to discriminate was far more significant." Hiroshi Nittono pointed out that the results in Reiss's paper showed that the ability to distinguish high-resolution audio from CD-quality audio was "only slightly better than chance."


title: Super Audio CD

text: Contradictory results have been found when comparing DSD and high-resolution PCM formats. Double-blind listening tests in 2004 between DSD and 24-bit, 176.4 kHz PCM recordings reported that among test subjects no significant differences could be heard. DSD advocates and equipment manufacturers continue to assert an improvement in sound quality above PCM 24-bit 176.4 kHz. A 2003 study found that despite both formats' extended frequency responses, people could not distinguish audio with information above 21 kHz from audio without such high-frequency content. In a 2014 study, however, Marui et al. found that under double-blind conditions, listeners were able to distinguish between PCM (192 kHz/24 bits) and DSD (2.8 MHz) or DSD (5.6MHz) recording formats, preferring the qualitative features of DSD, but could not discriminate between the two DSD formats.


title: Super Audio CD

text: The Sony SCD-1 player was introduced concurrently with the SACD format in 1999, at a price of approximately US$5,000. It weighed over and played two-channel SACDs and Red Book CDs only. Electronics manufacturers, including Onkyo, Denon, Marantz, Pioneer and Yamaha offer or offered SACD players. Sony has made in-car SACD players.


title: Super Audio CD

text: The first two generations of Sony's PlayStation 3 game console were capable of reading SACD discs. Starting with the third generation (introduced October 2007), SACD playback was removed. All PlayStation 3 models, however, will play DSD Disc format. The PlayStation 3 was capable of converting multi-channel DSD to lossy 1.5 Mbit/s DTS for playback over S/PDIF using the 2.00 system software. The subsequent revision removed the feature.


title: Super Audio CD

text: Several brands have introduced (mostly high-end) Blu-ray Disc and Ultra HD Blu-ray players that can play SACD discs.


title: Super Audio CD

text: Unofficial playback of SACD disc images on a PC is possible through freeware audio player foobar2000 for Windows using an open source plug-in extension called SACDDecoder. macOS music software Audirvana also supports playback of SACD disc images.


title: Debt

text: Debt is an obligation that requires one party, the debtor, to pay money or other agreed-upon value to another party, the creditor. Debt is a deferred payment, or series of payments, which differentiates it from an immediate purchase. The debt may be owed by sovereign state or country, local government, company, or an individual. Commercial debt is generally subject to contractual terms regarding the amount and timing of repayments of principal and interest. Loans, bonds, notes, and mortgages are all types of debt. In financial accounting, debt is a type of financial transaction, as distinct from equity.


title: Debt

text: The term can also be used metaphorically to cover moral obligations and other interactions not based on a monetary value. For example, in Western cultures, a person who has been helped by a second person is sometimes said to owe a "debt of gratitude" to the second person.


title: Debt

text: The English term "debt" was first used in the late 13th century. The term "debt" comes from "dette, from Old French dete, from Latin debitum "thing owed," neuter past participle of debere "to owe," originally, "keep something away from someone," from de- "away" (see de-) + habere "to have" (see habit (n.)). Restored spelling [was used] after c. 1400. The related term "debtor" was first used in English also in the early 13th century; the terms "dettur, dettour, [came] from Old French detour, from Latin debitor "a debter," from past participle stem of debere;...The -b- was restored in later French, and in English c. 1560-c. 1660." In the King James Bible, only one spelling, "debtor", is used.


title: Debt

text: Principal is the amount of money originally invested or loaned, on which basis interest and returns are calculated.


title: Debt

text: There are three main ways repayment may be structured: the entire principal balance may be due at the maturity of the loan; the entire principal balance may be amortized over the term of the loan; or the loan may be partially amortized during its term, with the remaining principal due as a "balloon payment" at maturity. Amortization structures are common in mortgages and credit cards.


title: Debt

text: Debtors of every type default on their debt from time to time, with various consequences depending on the terms of the debt and the law governing default in the relevant jurisdiction.


title: Debt

text: If the debt was secured by specific collateral, such as a car or home, the creditor may seek to repossess the collateral. In more serious circumstances, individuals and companies may go into bankruptcy.


title: Debt

text: Common types of debt owed by individuals and households include mortgage loans, car loans, credit card debt, and income taxes. For individuals, debt is a means of using anticipated income and future purchasing power in the present before it has actually been earned. Commonly, people in industrialized nations use consumer debt to purchase houses, cars and other things too expensive to buy with cash on hand.


title: Debt

text: People are more likely to spend more and get into debt when they use credit cards vs. cash for buying products and services. This is primarily because of the transparency effect and consumer's "pain of paying." The transparency effect refers to the fact that the further you are from cash (as in a credit card or another form of payment), the less transparent it is and the less you remember how much you spent. The less transparent or further away from cash, the form of payment employed is, the less an individual feels the “pain of paying” and thus is likely to spend more. Furthermore, the differing physical appearance/form that credit cards have from cash may cause them to be viewed as “monopoly” money vs. real money, luring individuals to spend more money than they would if they only had cash available.


title: Debt

text: Besides these more formal debts, private individuals also lend informally to other people, mostly relatives or friends. One reason for such informal debts is that many people, in particular those who are poor, have no access to affordable credit. Such debts can cause problems when they are not paid back according to expectations of the lending household. In 2011, 8 percent of people in the European Union reported their households has been in arrears, that is, unable to pay as scheduled "payments related to informal loans from friends or relatives not living in your household".


title: Debt

text: A company may use various kinds of debt to finance its operations as a part of its overall corporate finance strategy.


title: Debt

text: A term loan is the simplest form of corporate debt. It consists of an agreement to lend a fixed amount of money, called the principal sum or principal, for a fixed period of time, with this amount to be repaid by a certain date. In commercial loans interest, calculated as a percentage of the principal sum per year, will also have to be paid by that date, or may be paid periodically in the interval, such as annually or monthly. Such loans are also colloquially called "bullet loans", particularly if there is only a single payment at the end – the "bullet" – without a "stream" of interest payments during the life of the loan.


title: Debt

text: A revenue-based financing loan comes with a fixed repayment target that is reached over a period of several years. This type of loan generally comes with a repayment amount of 1.5 to 2.5 times the principle loan. Repayment periods are flexible; businesses can pay back the agreed-upon amount sooner, if possible, or later. In addition, business owners do not sell equity or relinquish control when using revenue-based financing. Lenders that provide revenue-based financing work more closely with businesses than bank lenders, but take a more hands-off approach than private equity investors.


title: Debt

text: A syndicated loan is a loan that is granted to companies that wish to borrow more money than any single lender is prepared to risk in a single loan. A syndicated loan is provided by a group of lenders and is structured, arranged, and administered by one or several commercial banks or investment banks known as arrangers. Loan syndication is a risk management tool that allows the lead banks underwriting the debt to reduce their risk and free up lending capacity.


title: Debt

text: A company may also issue bonds, which are debt securities. Bonds have a fixed lifetime, usually a number of years; with long-term bonds, lasting over 30 years, being less common. At the end of the bond's life the money should be repaid in full. Interest may be added to the end payment, or can be paid in regular installments (known as coupons) during the life of the bond.


title: Debt

text: A letter of credit or LC can also be the source of payment for a transaction, meaning that redeeming the letter of credit will pay an exporter. Letters of credit are used primarily in international trade transactions of significant value, for deals between a supplier in one country and a customer in another. They are also used in the land development process to ensure that approved public facilities (streets, sidewalks, stormwater ponds, etc.) will be built. The parties to a letter of credit are usually a beneficiary who is to receive the money, the issuing bank of whom the applicant is a client, and the advising bank of whom the beneficiary is a client. Almost all letters of credit are irrevocable, i.e., cannot be amended or canceled without prior agreement of the beneficiary, the issuing bank and the confirming bank, if any. In executing a transaction, letters of credit incorporate functions common to giros and traveler's cheque. Typically, the documents a beneficiary has to present in order to receive payment include a commercial invoice, bill of lading, and a document proving the shipment was insured against loss or damage in transit. However, the list and form of documents is open to imagination and negotiation and might contain requirements to present documents issued by a neutral third party evidencing the quality of the goods shipped, or their place of origin.


title: Debt

text: Companies also use debt in many ways for capital expenditures and other business investments made in their assets, "leveraging" the return on their equity. This leverage, the proportion of debt to equity, is considered important in determining the riskiness of an investment; the more debt per equity, the riskier.


title: Debt

text: Governments issue debt to pay for ongoing expenses as well as major capital projects. Government debt may be issued by sovereign states as well as by local governments, sometimes known as municipalities.


title: Debt

text: Debt issued by the government of the United States, called Treasuries, serves as a reference point for all other debt. There are deep, transparent, liquid, and open capital markets for Treasuries. Furthermore, Treasuries are issued in a wide variety of maturities, from one day to thirty years, which facilitates comparing the interest rates on other debt to a security of comparable maturity. In finance, the theoretical "risk-free interest rate" is often approximated by practitioners by using the current yield a Treasury of the same duration.


title: Debt

text: The overall level of indebtedness by a government is typically shown as a ratio of debt-to-GDP. This ratio helps to assess the speed of changes in government indebtedness and the size of the debt due.


title: Debt

text: The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 17, an integral part of the 2030 Agenda has a target to address the external debt of highly indebted poor countries to reduce debt distress.


title: Debt

text: Municipal bonds (or muni bonds) are typical debt obligations, for which the conditions are defined unilaterally by the issuing municipality (local government), but it is a slower process to accumulate the necessary amount. Usually, debt or bond financing will not be used to finance current operating expenditures, the purposes of these amounts are local developments, capital investments, constructions, own contribution to other credits or grants.


title: Debt

text: The debt service coverage ratio is the ratio of income available to the amount of debt service due (including both interest and principal amortization, if any). The higher the debt service coverage ratio, the more income is available to pay debt service, and the easier and lower-cost it will be for a borrower to obtain financing.


title: Debt

text: Different debt markets have somewhat different conventions in terminology and calculations for income-related metrics. For example, in mortgage lending in the United States, a debt-to-income ratio typically includes the cost of mortgage payments as well as insurance and property tax, divided by a consumer's monthly income. A "front-end ratio" of 28% or below, together with a "back-end ratio" (including required payments on non-housing debt as well) of 36% or below is also required to be eligible for a conforming loan.


title: Debt

text: The loan-to-value ratio is the ratio of the total amount of the loan to the total value of the collateral securing the loan.


title: Debt

text: For example, in mortgage lending in the United States, the loan-to-value concept is most commonly expressed as a "down payment." A 20% down payment is equivalent to an 80% loan to value. With home purchases, value may be assessed using the agreed-upon purchase price, and/or an appraisal.


title: Debt

text: A debt obligation is considered secured if creditors have recourse to specific collateral. Collateral may include claims on tax receipts (in the case of a government), specific assets (in the case of a company) or a home (in the case of a consumer). Unsecured debt comprises financial obligations for which creditors do not have recourse to the assets of the borrower to satisfy their claims.


title: Debt

text: Credit bureaus collect information about the borrowing and repayment history of consumers. Lenders, such as banks and credit card companies, use credit scores to evaluate the potential risk posed by lending money to consumers. In the United States, the primary credit bureaus are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.


title: Debt

text: Debts owed by governments and private corporations may be rated by rating agencies, such as Moody's, Standard & Poor's, Fitch Ratings, and A. M. Best. The government or company itself will also be given its own separate rating. These agencies assess the ability of the debtor to honor his obligations and accordingly give him or her a credit rating. Moody's uses the letters "Aaa Aa A Baa Ba B Caa Ca C", where ratings "Aa-Caa" are qualified by numbers 1-3. S&P and other rating agencies have slightly different systems using capital letters and +/- qualifiers. Thus a government or corporation with a high rating would have Aaa rating.


title: Debt

text: A change in ratings can strongly affect a company, since its cost of refinancing depends on its creditworthiness. Bonds below Baa/BBB (Moody's/S&P) are considered junk or high-risk bonds. Their high risk of default (approximately 1.6 percent for Ba) is compensated by higher interest payments. Bad Debt is a loan that can not (partially or fully) be repaid by the debtor. The debtor is said to default on their debt. These types of debt are frequently repackaged and sold below face value. Buying junk bonds is seen as a risky but potentially profitable investment.


title: Debt

text: Bonds are debt securities, tradeable on a bond market. A country's regulatory structure determines what qualifies as a security. For example, in North America, each security is uniquely identified by a CUSIP for trading and settlement purposes. In contrast, loans are not securities and do not have CUSIPs (or the equivalent). Loans may be sold or acquired in certain circumstances, as when a bank syndicates a loan.


title: Debt

text: Loans can be turned into securities through the securitization process. In a securitization, a company sells a pool of assets to a securitization trust, and the securitization trust finances its purchase of the assets by selling securities to the market. For example, a trust may own a pool of home mortgages, and be financed by residential mortgage-backed securities. In this case, the asset-backed trust is a debt issuer of residential mortgage-backed securities.


title: Debt

text: Central banks, such as the U.S. Federal Reserve System, play a key role in the debt markets. Debt is normally denominated in a particular currency, and so changes in the valuation of that currency can change the effective size of the debt. This can happen due to inflation or deflation, so it can happen even though the borrower and the lender are using the same currency.


title: Debt

text: Some argue against debt as an instrument and institution, on a personal, family, social, corporate and governmental level. Some Islamic banking forbids lending with interest even today. In hard times, the cost of servicing debt can grow beyond the debtor's ability to pay, due to either external events (income loss) or internal difficulties (poor management of resources).


title: Debt

text: Debt with an associated interest rate will increase through time if it is not repaid faster than it grows through interest. This effect may be termed usury, while the term "usury" in other contexts refers only to an excessive rate of interest, in excess of a reasonable profit for the risk accepted.


title: Debt

text: In international legal thought, odious debt is debt that is incurred by a regime for purposes that do not serve the interest of the state. Such debts are thus considered by this doctrine to be personal debts of the regime that incurred them and not debts of the state. International Third World debt has reached the scale that many economists are convinced that debt relief or debt cancellation is the only way to restore global equity in relations with the developing nations.


title: Debt

text: Excessive debt accumulation has been blamed for exacerbating economic problems. For example, before the Great Depression, the debt-to-GDP ratio was very high. Economic agents were heavily indebted. This excess of debt, equivalent to excessive expectations on future returns, accompanied asset bubbles on the stock markets. When expectations corrected, deflation and a credit crunch followed. Deflation effectively made debt more expensive and, as Fisher explained, this reinforced deflation again, because, in order to reduce their debt level, economic agents reduced their consumption and investment. The reduction in demand reduced business activity and caused further unemployment. In a more direct sense, more bankruptcies also occurred due both to increased debt cost caused by deflation and the reduced demand.


title: Debt

text: At the household level, debts can also have detrimental effects — particularly when households make spending decisions assuming income will increase, or remain stable, in years to come. When households take on credit based on this assumption, life events can easily change indebtedness into over-indebtedness. Such life events include unexpected unemployment, relationship break-up, leaving the parental home, business failure, illness, or home repairs. Over-indebtedness has severe social consequences, such as financial hardship, poor physical and mental health, family stress, stigma, difficulty obtaining employment, exclusion from basic financial services (European Commission, 2009), work accidents and industrial disease, a strain on social relations (Carpentier and Van den Bosch, 2008), absenteeism at work and lack of organisational commitment (Kim "et al.", 2003), feeling of insecurity, and relational tensions.


title: Debt

text: According to historian Paul Johnson, the lending of "food money" was commonplace in Middle Eastern civilizations as early as 5000 BC.


title: Debt

text: Religions like Judaism and Christianity for example, demand that debt be forgiven on a regular basis, in order to prevent systemic inequities between groups in society, or anyone becoming a specialist in holding debt and coercing repayment. An example is the Biblical Jubilee year, described in the Book of Leviticus. Similarly, in Deuteronomy chapter 15 and verse 1 states that debts be forgiven after seven years. This is because biblically debt is seen as both the creditor and debtor responsibility. Traditional Christian teaching holds that a lifestyle of debt should not be normative; the Emmanuel Association, a Methodist denomination in the conservative holiness movement, for example, teaches: "We are to refrain from entering into debt when we have no reasonable plan to pay. We are to be careful to meet all financial engagements promptly when due, if at all possible, remembering that we are to 'Provide things honest in the sight of all men' and to 'owe no man any thing, but to love one another' (Romans 12:17; 13:8)."


title: Kadhalar Dhinam

text: Kadhalar Dhinam () is a 1999 Indian Tamil-language romance film written and directed by Kathir. It is based on a love relationship which begins through an internet chatroom and takes a turn after the protagonist has second thoughts about the relationship after finding out his lover's true identity. The film stars newcomer Kunal and Sonali Bendre (her Tamil debut), while Nassar, Manivannan, Goundamani and Chinni Jayanth appeared in supporting roles. The film produced by A. M. Rathnam, had music composed by A. R. Rahman and cinematography by P. C. Sriram. The film was released on 9 July 1999, while a partially reshot dubbed Hindi version, "Dil Hi Dil Mein" was released on 21 April 2000. The film received positive reviews and was a commercial success. The film was also dubbed in Telugu as "Premikula Roju".


title: Kadhalar Dhinam

text: Raja is from a very poor, illiterate family, from Tamil Nadu. People from his region consider that "education is meant only for the rich". There, poor boys are made to work from age five, either at factories or farms, so that they can support their families. Raja's dad is a violent alcoholic. He spends half of the family's income on alcohol. Raja's family struggles to survive hard every day. But, Raja's mother forced his father to let Raja finish high school, without doing any other work. But he refuses to fund him, and orders him to start work as accountant for their landlord. Raja's mom begs him to move to Mumbai to start a new life. Raja heeds his mom's pleas and moves to Mumbai to attend under graduate entrance exam at Ramachandra Institute of Management Studies, the top-most premier b-school in India.


title: Kadhalar Dhinam

text: The movie starts at a train station on New Year Day, 1999. Raja talks with a manager / veteran colonel named Manivannan in the station. Due to insistence, Raja goes into a flashback. Three years ago, he reaches Mumbai, where he plans to get admitted into the prestigious Ramachandra College of management, one of the most premier institutes in the nation. He gains admission for an MBA program at the Ramachandra College in Mumbai, though he was in 41st rank, in admission tests, for the 40 member class, courtesy of the college chairman, Dr.Ramachandra, but he doesn't realize this at first. He thinks that he managed to get a seat due to his own abilities. This was because Ramachandra saw Raja sleeping on the same enclave-side bench, where he had slept without having anything else than the thought of providing quality education to all, 40 years ago. Ramachandra was born to a poor illiterate family and his father abandoned them after his sister's birth. Out of his desire to become a student, his mother rents the baby sister for beggars, to pay fees. But the poor baby dies and this pushes Ramachandra to create the best institute in India, by hard work. He brings up his daughter, in a humble manner, all alone after the death of his wife.


title: Kadhalar Dhinam

text: Raja meets Roja through the Internet. After a brief introduction, Raja and Roja started loving each other. They have yet to see each other and thus, they sent their pictures through e-mail to each other. As Roja checks her e-mail and sees Raja's photo, Raja enters the Net Cafe where Roja was. Then, they meet each other. They are initially shocked by seeing each other as Roja told him that she is in America and Raja told her that he is in London, although they were both in India and were studying in the same college.


title: Kadhalar Dhinam

text: The very next day, Raja meets Roja again in the train station where he usually comes to board the train. Again they are both surprised and were speechless when they saw each other. However, things take a turn for the bad when they are both unable to express their feelings about each other due to fated accidents. Raja wanted to see if Roja really likes him by asking her to wear a rose on her head. But, as she walks towards the train station, her rose drops off. Unaware of this, Raja believes that Roja really doesn't like him. Ramachandra meets him and tells him to be practical. He suggests that Raja should write her a love letter. As Raja doesn't know how to write one, Ramachandra helps him. Even his daughter, Roja, helps him write a letter for Raja, unaware that it was for Raja that the father was writing it.


title: Kadhalar Dhinam

text: The next day, Raja meets her in the train station and gives her his books, with the love letter inside of it. Not knowing why he gave her his books, she just skims through his books, accidentally causing his love letter to fly away. However, Roja does write a love letter to him too. As she returns his books, a long-lost friend of Raja meets him on the train station. Raja writes the address on the first page of the book and tears it off to give to his friend. Unfortunately, he wasn't aware that Roja wrote her love-letter right behind it. He feels disappointed and doesn't show interest to Roja, causing her to think that he doesn't like her. Ramachandra comes to the rescue again and asks Raja to write another love letter and give it to her the next day, which happens to be Valentine's Day. When Raja comes to express his love for Roja, he finds out that Roja is the daughter of Ramachandra, who has decided to fix his daughter up with Rajesh Gupta, a smart and wealthy golf player who completed his MBA degree in America. Rajesh's father owns the second best private university in India and wants to merge his with Ramachandra's. Roja makes a last attempt to find out if Raja likes her or not. She sends him an e-mail stating that she loves him. On the other hand, Raja doesn't want to hurt the feelings of his beloved guide and teacher, whom he respects as his father. Thus, he sends her an e-mail stating that he is unable to return his feelings for Roja. Roja begrudgingly agrees to the wedding, assuming that Raja will never fall in love with her.


title: Kadhalar Dhinam

text: Raja comes to the wedding, but leaves the hall to go back to his hometown, which goes back to the beginning of the story. Coincidentally, Ramachandra overhears his conversation between Raja and his friends and realizes that he is in love with his daughter. He goes to the train station to stop Raja, asking him to return and propose to his daughter. Raja and Ramachandra reach the wedding hall just in time to stop the wedding from taking place. But as they make their way, Roja faints due to ingesting poison in a suicide attempt. Raja comes and rescues Roja and she is saved.


title: Kadhalar Dhinam

text: Kathir, being an inveterate surfer of the cybercafes of Chennai and Bangalore, decided to make a film on what he felt the internet could develop and be used for - romance. He initially titled the film as "Lovers Day" and began pre-production work in 1997, before giving the project a Tamil title. Kathir got to visit a newly opened cyber cafe in Bangalore and the "way that picture downloaded, slowly, frame by frame, was mind-blowing. Something struck me and I rushed out to write the basic one-liner of Kadhalar Dhinam". The film came as a successor to his 1996 blockbuster "Kadhal Desam" produced by K. T. Kunjumon. Since Rathnam was not aware about internet, Kathir created comedy track of Goundamani "to make it reach audiences".


title: Kadhalar Dhinam

text: Actor Shaam was amongst the auditionees for the debut lead role, before Kunal Singh was selected after Kathir spotted him outside a Bangalore cybercafe. The Pune-based, Kunal Singh, had been in Bangalore only to bulk up his body before joining the army, but with the offer chose to make a career in films. Kathir had scouted for a non-Tamil actress to play the lead role and subsequently Sonali Bendre was signed on to play the lead role in the film, making her debut in Tamil films. Isha Koppikar had also been considered for the film, but after finalising Bendre, Kathir then recommended her to his friend K. S. Ravi to cast her in his "En Swasa Kaatre" (1999). For the launch of the film, the makers flew in models Lara Dutta, Laila Rouass and Rani Jeyraj to attend the launch event of the film. Rambha appeared in an item number in the film. For a song sequence in the film, red rose petals were used to cover the forecourt of the Taj Mahal in Agra.


title: Kadhalar Dhinam

text: "Kadhalar Dhinam" released on 9 July 1999. The film initially featured a different climax where Roja dies after taking tablets, but after release, the ending was altered to give a happy ending. "The Times of India" gave the film a negative review stating that ""Kadhalar Dhinam" is typically Kadhir. It's big, it's beautiful and it doesn't work." Indolink rated it 1.5 stars, citing, ""Kaadhalar Dhinam" needed to show a flair for a good story, screenplay and powerful dialogues. What Kadhir ended up with was a sagging script ... and a star cast whose characters lacked the necessary depth for this kind of a love story." Kalki wrote "Director Kathir gave www touch to the same old love story of Tamil cinema. Music and cinematography makes this old story look like a new film".


title: Kadhalar Dhinam

text: Director Kathir had actually reshot scenes in Hindi featuring actor Kunal and Anupam Kher to replace the Kunal-Manivannan tracks by conversing in Hindi while Johnny Lever's scenes replaced the Goundamani tracks (Even though he appeared briefly for the "Chand Aaya Hai" song) with the same "Titanic" hairdo. Chinni Jayanth's part was portrayed by Raju Shreshta in Hindi however scenes involving Kunal and Chinni in Tamil were dubbed in Hindi. Even the tracks dubbed from the Tamil version were reshot with Hindi synchronization sans for the first line of "Roja Roja". Actor Nasser, though dubbed in Hindi, had given his Hindi synching in the song "Sawar Gayee". Though actors Kunal and Sonali Bendre had synched their dialogues in Hindi, the rest of the film was dubbed and became a failure at box office.


title: Jim Harrison

text: James Harrison (December 11, 1937 – March 26, 2016) was an American poet, novelist, and essayist. He was a prolific and versatile writer publishing over three dozen books in several genres including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, children’s literature, and memoir. He wrote screenplays, book reviews, literary criticism, and published essays on food, travel, and sport. Harrison indicated that, of all his writing, his poetry meant the most to him. He published 24 novellas during his lifetime and is considered "America’s foremost master" of that form. His first commercial success came with the 1979 publication of the trilogy of novellas "Legends of the Fall," two of which were made into movies. Harrison's work has been translated into multiple languages including Spanish, French, Greek, Chinese, and Russian. He was the recipient of multiple awards and honors including a Guggenheim Fellowship (1969), the Mark Twain Award for distinguished contributions to Midwestern literature (1990), and induction into the American Academy of Arts & Letters (2007). Harrison wrote that "The dream that I could write a good poem, a good novel, or even a good movie for that matter, has devoured my life."


title: Jim Harrison

text: Harrison was born in Grayling, Michigan, to Winfield Sprague Harrison, a county agricultural agent, and Norma Olivia (Wahlgren) Harrison, both avid readers. Harrison was born 18 months after oldest child John, with whom Jim was close. Jim's younger siblings are Judith and then Mary and David. He became blind in one eye after a childhood accident. He wrote about his eye in an early poem:


title: Jim Harrison

text: Harrison graduated from Haslett High School (Haslett, Michigan) in 1956. When he was 24, on November 21, 1962, his father and sister Judy died in an automobile accident.


title: Jim Harrison

text: In 1959, he married Linda King, with whom he had two daughters. He was educated at Michigan State University, where he received a BA (1960) and MA (1964) in comparative literature. After a short stint as assistant professor of English at Stony Brook University (1965–66), Harrison started working full-time as a writer. His awards include National Academy of Arts grants (1967, 1968, and 1969), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1969–70), the Spirit of the West Award from the Mountain & Plains Booksellers Association, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2007).


title: Jim Harrison

text: His work has appeared in many leading publications, including "The New Yorker", "Esquire", "Sports Illustrated", "Rolling Stone", "Outside", "Playboy", "Men's Journal", and "The New York Times Book Review". He published several collections of novellas, two of which were eventually turned into films: "Revenge" (1990) and "Legends of the Fall" (1994).


title: Jim Harrison

text: Much of Harrison's writing is set in sparsely populated regions of North America and its West. Many stories are set in places such as Nebraska's Sand Hills, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Montana's mountains, and along the Arizona–Mexico border.


title: Jim Harrison

text: Harrison lived in Patagonia, Arizona, Livingston, Montana, and Grand Marais, Michigan. On August 31, 2009, he was featured in an episode of Anthony Bourdain's television show "," which took place in and around Livingston. He also appeared during season 7 of Bourdain's CNN series, , in an episode which first aired on May 15, 2016.


title: Jim Harrison

text: Harrison said he became a novelist after he fell off a cliff while bird hunting. During his convalescence, his friend Thomas McGuane suggested he write a novel, and "Wolf: A False Memoir" (1971) was the result. It is the story of a man who tells his life story while searching for signs of a wolf in the northern Michigan wilderness. This was followed by "A Good Day to Die" (1973), an ecotage novel and statement about the decline of American ecological systems, and "Farmer" (1976), a "Lolita"-like account of a country school teacher and farmer coming to grips with middle age, his mother’s dying, and complications of human sexuality.


title: Jim Harrison

text: Harrison’s first novellas were published in 1979 under the title "Legends of the Fall". The actor Jack Nicholson, a close friend of Harrison's whom he had met through Thomas McGuane, played a peripheral role in the creation of that book. When Nicholson heard that Harrison was broke, he sent $30,000, which allowed Harrison to write "Legends of the Fall". The title novella is an epic story that spans 50 years and tells the tale of a father and three sons in the vast spaces of the northern Rocky Mountains around the time of World War I. Referring to the title novella, Harrison said:"I wrote "Legends of the Fall" in nine days and when I re-read it, I only had to change one word. There was no revision process. None. I had thought so much about the character that writing the book was like taking dictation. I felt overwhelmed when I finished, I needed to take a vacation, but the book was done." The novella format would become an important part of both Harrison's future reputation and his output. Following "Legends of the Fall", seven more collections of novellas appeared over the course of Harrison's lifetime: "The Woman Lit by Fireflies" (1990), "Julip" (1994), "The Beast God Forgot to Invent" (2000), "The Summer He Didn’t Die" (2005), "The Farmer's Daughter" (2009), "The River Swimmer" (2013), and finally "The Ancient Minstrel" (2016), the latter appearing just before Harrison's death in March of that year.


title: Jim Harrison

text: After publishing "Warlock" (1981) and "Sundog" (1984), Harrison published "Dalva" (1988), one of his best-known novels. It is a complex tale, set in rural Nebraska, of a woman’s search for the son she had given up for adoption and for the boy’s father, who also happened to be her half-brother. Throughout the narrative, Dalva invokes the memory of her pioneer great-grandfather John Wesley Northridge, an Andersonville survivor during the Civil War and naturalist, whose diaries vividly tell of the destruction of the Plains Indian way of life. Many of these characters are featured also in "The Road Home" (1998), a complex work using five narrators, including Dalva, her 30-year-old son Nelse, and her grandfather John Wesley Northridge II. Harrison has been described as trying to get at "the soul history of where you live" in this sequel to "Dalva", in this case rural Nebraska in the latter half of the 20th century.


title: Jim Harrison

text: By the time Harrison turned 60 in 1998, he had published both a dozen works of fiction and another dozen volumes of poetry.


title: Jim Harrison

text: In terms of his publishing career, Harrison's final 18 years, after he turned 60, would be nearly as productive as the preceding 30 years. After age 60, he published another dozen works of fiction, at least six more volumes of poetry, a memoir "Off to the Side", and "The Raw and the Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand", a collection of his food essays which had first appeared in magazines, mostly in "Esquire" and "Men's Journal".


title: Jim Harrison

text: Although he continued writing in the novella format, during these final years (1999-2016), Harrison refocused his efforts on the longer novel form. In the 2000s, Harrison published two of the most ambitious novels, setting them in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula: "True North" (2004) and its sequel "Returning to Earth" (2007). "True North" examines the costs to a timber and mining family torn apart by alcoholism and the moral recklessness of a war-damaged father. The novel contains two stories: that of the monstrous father and that of the son’s trying to atone for his father’s evil, and ultimately, reconciling with his family’s history.


title: Jim Harrison

text: "Returning to Earth" (2007) revisits the characters and setting of "True North" (2004) 30 years later. The story has four narrators: Donald, a mixed-blood Indian, now middle-aged and dying of Lou Gehrig’s disease; Donald’s wife Cynthia, whom he rescued as a teen from the ruins of her family; Cynthia’s brother David (the central character of "True North"); and K, Cynthia's nephew and Donald’s soul mate. Ultimately, the extended family helps Donald end his life at the place of his choosing, and then draw on the powers of love and commitment to reconcile loss and heal wounds borne for generations.


title: Jim Harrison

text: Harrison’s "The English Major" (2008) is a road novel about a 60-year-old former high school English teacher and farmer from Michigan, who after a divorce and the sale of his farm, heads westward on a mind-clearing road trip. Along the way, he falls into an affair with a former student, reconnects with his big-shot son in San Francisco, confers on questions of life and lust with an old doctor friend, and undertakes a project to rename all the states and their state birds.


title: Jim Harrison

text: Harrison wrote two darkly comic detective novels, "The Great Leader: A Faux Mystery" (Grove Press, 2012) and "The Big Seven" (Grove Press, 2015), both focused on protagonist Detective Sunderson. "The Great Leader: A Faux Mystery" was positively reviewed in" The New York Times", with critic Pete Dexter calling Harrison's writing "very close to magic."


title: Jim Harrison

text: Inspired by his study of Pablo Neruda, Harrison completed what he called his first acceptable poems in the early 1960s. In 1965 he had several poems published in "The Nation" and "Poetry" and then, with the assistance of the poet Denise Levertov, he published his first poetry collection "Plain Song" (1965).


title: Jim Harrison

text: Over the course of his life Harrison published his poetry in many periodicals including "Virginia Quarterly Review", "Triquarterly", "The American Poetry Review", and "The New York Times Book Review." He published 17 collections of poetry (the number includes chapbooks, limited editions, and coauthored works). "The Shape of the Journey: New and Collected Poems" (1998) collects over 120 of his poems. The posthumous "Jim Harrison: The Essential Poems" (2019) was selected from nearly 1000 poems that Harrison wrote.


title: Jim Harrison

text: Harrison was aware that his poetry did not have mass appeal. He wrote that to draw attention to poetry "you would have to immolate a volunteer poet in an 751 BMW". He hoped that by choosing a small press like Copper Canyon Press, his poetry collections would stay in print.


title: Jim Harrison

text: Harrison began his study of poetry as a teenager and, as a young man, thought of himself as "a poet and nothing else". His earliest influences included Arthur Rimbaud, Richard Wright, and Walt Whitman.


title: Jim Harrison

text: Harrison studied a multitude of English speaking poets including W.B. Yeats, Dylan Thomas, Robert Bly, and Robert Duncan. Harrison also cited a diverse set of influences from world poetry including: French Symbolist poetry; the Russian poets Georgy Ivanov and Vladimir Mayakovsky; the German poet Rainier Maria Rilke; and Chinese T'ang Dynasty poetry. He felt a particular affinity for the French poet Rene Char and the Russian poet Sergei Yesenin as they both came "from humble beginnings out in the country". Harrison's sequence of prose poems "Letters to Yesenin" (1973) was inspired by Yesenin.


title: Jim Harrison

text: Harrison's practice of Zen Buddhism was important to his poetry, in part because it kept his "head from flying off". He became aware of Zen inspired poetry "by way of poets like Clayton Eshleman and Cid Corman, and most powerfully of all through Gary Snyder""." He wrote that his long poem "The Theory and Practice of Rivers (1986)" was "basically Zennist". His sequence of 57 poems "After Ikkyū" (1996) is entitled after the Zen monk Ikkyū and was occasioned by his study of the Zen sages Tung-shan and Yunmen.


title: Jim Harrison

text: Harrison's poetry often concerns itself with the natural world. Nonhuman creatures, especially birds and dogs, populate his poetry and wild, uncivilized places are frequent settings. Harrison's poetry "returns us to some level of understanding about our relationship to other life on the planet". Harrison wrote that his "intimacy with the natural world has been a substitute for religion, or a religion of another sort." "The River", one of Harrison's later poems, is illustrative:


title: Jim Harrison

text: In 2009, University of Nebraska Press published "Jim Harrison: A Comprehensive Bibliography, 1964-2008", an illustrated guide to Harrison’s published works, edited by Gregg Orr and Beef Torrey, with an introduction by Robert DeMott, which contains more than 1600 citations of writing by and about Harrison. Many of Harrison’s papers are housed at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.


title: Jim Harrison

text: Harrison was interviewed in 2004 in Paris by François Busnel, and asked how he explained the success of his novel, "True North", in the United States where his previous books were not successful. Harrison replied, "The age, undoubtedly! Or a proof that America loves France, since it is said often over there that I am the most French of the American writers."


title: Jim Harrison

text: Many of Harrison's interviews between 1976 and 1999 are collected in the book, "Conversations with Jim Harrison", edited by Robert DeMott, published by the University Press of Mississippi, 2002. Harrison discusses his poetry in an extensive interview in "Five Points Magazine."


title: Jim Harrison

text: Harrison's work on films and in the screenplay format began with his book "Legends of the Fall", when he sold the film rights for all three stories in the book and became involved in writing the screenplay for the film with the same title. It was directed by Edward Zwick and starred Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, and Aidan Quinn; it won the 1995 Academy Award for cinematography. Jim Harrison had a writing credit for the film.


title: Jim Harrison

text: Other films he scripted or co-wrote include "Cold Feet" (1989), with Keith Carradine, Tom Waits, and Rip Torn, and "Revenge" (1990), starring Kevin Costner. For his work on the screenplay for "Wolf" (1994, starring Jack Nicholson) Harrison, along with co-writer Wesley Strick, shared the Saturn Award for Best Writing.


title: Low-density polyethylene

text: Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is a thermoplastic made from the monomer ethylene. It was the first grade of polyethylene, produced in 1933 by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) using a high pressure process via free radical polymerization. Its manufacture employs the same method today. The EPA estimates 5.7% of LDPE (resin identification code 4) is recycled in the United States. Despite competition from more modern polymers, LDPE continues to be an important plastic grade. In 2013 the worldwide LDPE market reached a volume of about US$33 billion.


title: Low-density polyethylene

text: Despite its designation with the recycling symbol, it cannot be as commonly recycled as No. 1 (polyethylene terephthalate) or 2 plastics (high-density polyethylene).


title: Low-density polyethylene

text: LDPE is defined by a density range of 917–930 kg/m. At room temperature it is not reactive, except to strong oxidizers; some solvents cause it to swell. It can withstand temperatures of continuously and for a short time. Made in translucent and opaque variations, it is quite flexible and tough.


title: Low-density polyethylene

text: LDPE has more branching (on about 2% of the carbon atoms) than HDPE, so its intermolecular forces (instantaneous-dipole induced-dipole attraction) are weaker, its tensile strength is lower, and its resilience is higher. The side branches mean that its molecules are less tightly packed and less crystalline, and therefore its density is lower.


title: Low-density polyethylene

text: When exposed to consistent sunlight, the plastic produces significant amounts of two greenhouse gases: methane and ethylene. Because of its lower density (high branching), it breaks down more easily than other plastics; as this happens, the surface area increases. Production of these trace gases from virgin plastics increases with surface area and with time, so that LDPE emits greenhouse gases at a more unsustainable rate than other plastics. In a test at the end of 212 days' incubation, emissions recorded were 5.8 nmol g-1 d-1 of methane, 14.5 nmol g-1 d-1 of ethylene, 3.9 nmol g-1 d-1 of ethane, and 9.7 nmol g-1 d-1 of propylene. When incubated in air, LDPE emits methane and ethylene at rates about 2 times and about 76 times, respectively, more than in water.


title: Low-density polyethylene

text: The standard method to test plastic density is ISO 1183 part 2 (gradient columns), alternatively ISO 1183 part 1 (MVS2PRO density analyzer).


title: Low-density polyethylene

text: Polyolefins (LDPE, HDPE, PP) are a major type of thermoplastic. LDPE is widely used for manufacturing various containers, dispensing bottles, wash bottles, tubing, plastic parts for computer components, and various molded laboratory equipment. Its most common use is in plastic bags. Other products made from it include:


title: Middle Francia

text: Middle Francia () was a short-lived Frankish kingdom which was created in 843 by the Treaty of Verdun after an intermittent civil war between the grandsons of Charlemagne resulted in division of the united empire. Middle Francia was allocated to emperor Lothair I, the eldest son and successor of emperor Louis the Pious. His realm contained the imperial cities of Aachen (the residence of Charlemagne) and Pavia, but lacked any geographic or cultural cohesion, which prevented it from surviving and forming a nucleus of a larger state, as was the case with West Francia (which became the Kingdom of France) and East Francia (which became the Kingdom of Germany).


title: Middle Francia

text: Middle Francia was situated between the realms of East and West Francia, and comprised the Frankish territory between the rivers Rhine and Scheldt, the Frisian coast of the North Sea, the former Kingdom of Burgundy (except for a western portion, later known as "Bourgogne") and Provence, as well as parts of northern Italy. Following the 855 partition, 'Middle Francia' became only a geographic term and the bulk of its territory was reorganized as Lotharingia, named after Lothair I's namesake son.


title: Middle Francia

text: In 855, on his deathbed at Prüm Abbey, Emperor Lothair I with the Treaty of Prüm divided Middle Francia among his three sons. The lands in northern Italy, which extended as far south as Rome and Spoleto, were left to the eldest son Louis II the Younger, crowned co-Emperor in 850 and sole Emperor from 855. This eventually became the Kingdom of Italy. Most of the lands north of the Alps, comprising the Low Countries, the western Rhineland, the lands today on the border between France and Germany, and what is now western Switzerland, passed to Lothair II and were called Lotharingia, after its ruler. Charles received the Kingdom of Burgundy (Upper Burgundy and Lower Burgundy) and Provence.


title: Middle Francia

text: Charles died early and without sons in 863. According to Frankish custom, his brothers Louis II and Lothair II divided his realm. Lothair II received the western Lower Burgundian parts (bishoprics of Lyon, Vienne, Vivarais and Uzès) which were bordering his western Upper Burgundy (remnants of his original Burgundian possessions) which were incorporated into Lotharingia; while Louis II received the Kingdom of Provence.


title: Middle Francia

text: When Lothair II died in 869, his only son Hugh by his mistress Waldrada was declared illegitimate, so his only legal heir was his brother, Louis II. If Louis II had inherited Lotharingia, Middle Francia would have been reunited. However, as Louis II was at that time campaigning against the Emirate of Bari, Lotharingia was partitioned between his uncles Charles the Bald and Louis the German by the Treaty of Meerssen in 870. Louis the German took Upper Burgundy, territory north of the Jura mountains ("Bourgogne Transjurane"), while the rest went to Charles the Bald.


title: Middle Francia

text: In 875 the last of Lothair I's children Louis II died without sons and named as his successor in Italy his cousin Carloman of Bavaria, eldest son of Louis the German. However, Pope John VIII, dealing with the constant threat of raiders from the Emirate of Sicily, sided with Charles the Bald. After much confusion and conflict, Charles the Bald took Louis' realm in Italy. Carloman was crowned King of Bavaria in 876 and invaded Italy in 877 to claim the Kingdom of Italy, but on his death in 880 also without any legitimate heirs, his kingdom went to his younger brother, King Charles the Fat. Charles was crowned Emperor by Pope John VIII in 881 and thus he reunited the entire Carolingian Empire in 884, although it lasted only until Charles' overthrow in 887.


title: Vijayanagara

text: Vijayanagara () was the capital city of the historic Vijayanagara Empire. Located on the banks of the Tungabhadra River, it spread over a large area and included the modern era Group of Monuments at Hampi site in Vijayanagara district, Bellary district and others in and around these districts in Karnataka, India. A part of Vijayanagara ruins known as Hampi has been designated as a UNESCO world heritage site. Vijayanagara is in the eastern part of central Karnataka, close to the Andhra Pradesh border.


title: Vijayanagara

text: Hampi is an ancient human settlement, mentioned in Hindu texts and has pre-Vijayanagara temples and monuments. In early 14th century, the Deccan region including the dominant Kakatiyas, Seuna Yadavas, Hoysalas and the tiny Kampili kingdom were invaded and plundered by armies of Khalji and later Tughlaq dynasties of the Delhi Sultanate. From these ruins was founded Vijayanagara by the Sangama brothers, who were working as soldiers in Kampli Kingdom under Kampalidevaraya. The city grew rapidly. The Vijayanagara-centered empire functioned as a barrier to the Muslim sultanates in the north, leading to the reconstruction of Hindu life, scholarship, multi-religious activity, rapid infrastructure improvements and economic activity. Along with Hinduism, Vijayanagara accepted communities of other faiths such as Jainism and Islam, leading to multi-religious monuments and mutual influences. Chronicles left by Persian and European travelers state Vijayanagara to be a prosperous and wealthy city. By 1500 CE, Hampi-Vijayanagara was the world's second largest medieval era city (after Beijing) and probably India's richest at that time, attracting traders from Persia and Portugal.


title: Vijayanagara

text: Wars between nearby Muslim Sultanates and Hindu Vijayanagara continued through the 16th century. In 1565, the Vijayanagara leader Aliya Rama Raya was captured and killed, and the city fell to a coalition of Muslim Sultanates of the Deccan. The conquered capital city of Vijayanagara was looted and destroyed for 6 months, after which it remained in ruins.


title: Vijayanagara

text: Vijayanagara is located in the modern era Indian state of Karnataka, along the banks of the Tungabhadra River. It is central and eastern part of the state, close to the Andhra Pradesh border. The city rapidly grew from an ancient pilgrimage center in 13th-century, to being founded as a capital of Vijayanagara Empire in early 14th century, to being a metropolis stretching by some estimates to 650 square kilometers by early 16th century. It became the world's second largest city, after Beijing, by about 1500 CE. Estimates of the population vary and are based on the size of the city and number of houses mentioned in the memoirs of foreigners who visited India and wrote about Vijayanagara. Some estimate the population was about 500,000 around 1500 CE, but others consider this estimate to be generous or too conservative.


title: Vijayanagara

text: The capital city was founded around the religious Hindu temple complex, Pampa Tirtha and Kishkinda that already existed at Hampi. The name of the city center, Hampi, is derived from Pampa, another name of goddess Parvati in Hindu theology. According to "Sthala Purana", Parvati (Pampa) pursued her ascetic, yogini lifestyle to win and bring ascetic Shiva back into householder life on the banks of Tungabhadra river, on Hemakuta hill now a part of Hampi. Shiva is also called Pampapati (lit. "husband of Pampa"). The river came to be known as Pampa river. The Sanskrit word Pampa morphed into Kannada word Hampa, and the place Parvati pursued what she wanted came to be known as Hampe or Hampi. Its significance to the Hindus also comes from the Kishkindha chapters of the Hindu epic "Ramayana", where Rama and Lakshmana meet Hanuman, Sugriva and the monkey army in their search for kidnapped Sita. Hampi area has many close resemblances between the place described in the epic. The regional tradition believes that it is that place mentioned in the Ramayana, attracting pilgrims.


title: Vijayanagara

text: Prior to its founding, Hindus and kings of various kingdoms visited Hampi. Hoysala Empire's Hindu kings built and supported the Hampi pilgrimage center before the 14th century. At the start of the 14th century, the armies of Delhi Sultanate, first those of Alauddin Khalji and later of Muhammad bin Tughlaq invaded and pillaged South India. The Hoysala Empire and temple cities such as those in Halebidu, Belur and Somanathapura were plundered in early 14th century. From the ruins of this collapse and destruction emerged Vijayanagara Empire and its new capital Vijayanagara. The city was founded by Harihara I and Bukka, the Sangama brothers.


title: Vijayanagara

text: The city was already a sacred site of pilgrimage for devotees of Shiva in the 10th century. It became the most powerful urban centre in the Deccan between 14th to 16th centuries and one of the ten largest cities of the world. The Renaissance Portuguese and Persian traders reported it as a marvelous achievement.


title: Vijayanagara

text: The city was a powerful urban centre in South India from 14th to 16th century and one of the ten largest cities of the world. It stood as a bastion of Hindu values dedicated to fighting back the encroachments of the Muslim sultans from the north, who soon came to be operating from Golkonda. The Sangama dynasty was involved in repeated conflicts with the Bahamani Sultanate. The Bahamanis had later disintegrated into five sultanates which formed a Deccan alliance. Krishnadevaraya after the Battle of Raichur allowed one sultan to stay in power rather than let it split into smaller kingdoms. However, later Vijayanagara kings had to contend with multiple Sultanates to their north. The Vijayanagara kingdom befriended and allowed the Portuguese to take control of Goa and western territories of the Bahamani Sultanate. The sultanates united against the Vijayanagara Empire.


title: Vijayanagara

text: An ongoing war between Muslim Sultanates and the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire led to the Battle of Talikota in 1565 CE, fought about north. It resulted in the capture and beheading of Vijayanagara leader Aliya Rama Raya, mass confusion within the Vijayanagara forces and a shock defeat. The Sultanate army then reached Vijayanagara, looted, destroyed and burnt it down to ruins over a period of several months. This is evidenced by the quantities of charcoal, the heat-cracked basements and burnt architectural pieces found by archaeologists in Vijayanagara region. The urban Vijayanagara was abandoned and remained in ruins ever since. Vijayanagara never recovered from the ruins.


title: Vijayanagara

text: The Italian Cesare Federici writing two years after the empire's defeat states that "The Citie of Bezeneger (Vijayanagara) is not altogether destroyed, yet the houses stand still, but emptie, and there is dwelling in them nothing, as is reported, but Tygres and other wild beasts."


title: Vijayanagara

text: Archaeological evidence suggests that while the urban settlement was abandoned, a number of rural settlement in the metropolitan region were not fully emptied. Some population remained in the region (though there isn't a good assessment of how much), and a number of settlements founded in the Vijayanagara period remain occupied up to the present.


title: Vijayanagara

text: The name translates as "City of Victory", from "vijaya" (victory) and "nagara" (city). As the prosperous capital of the largest and most powerful kingdom of its time in South India, Vijayanagara attracted people from all around the world.


title: Vijayanagara

text: The ruined city is a World Heritage Site, known in that context as the Ruins of Hampi. In recent years there have been concerns regarding damage to the site at Hampi from heavy vehicular traffic and the construction of road bridges in the vicinity. Hampi was listed as a "threatened" World Heritage Site by the UNESCO but was later removed from the list after appropriate corrective measures were taken.


title: Vijayanagara

text: Traveller memoirs before 1565 CE record it as a large and developed metropolitan area. The Italian Cesari Federici writing two years after the Vijayanagara Empire's military defeat in 1565 describes the city after its ruin, "...is not altogether destroyed, yet the houses stand still, but emptie [sic], and there is dwelling in them nothing, as is reported, but Tygres and other wild beasts."


title: Vijayanagara

text: Sanjay Subrahmanyam states that Vijayanagara was arguably one of the only three centers during this period with a population of over 100,000 in South India and that from the contemporary accounts and what remains of its expanse, the city proper and the suburbs had a population of 500,000 to 600,000. He notes that Domingo Paes had estimated its size at 100,000 houses.


title: Vijayanagara

text: The Karnataka Cabinet approved the decade-old demand of carving out Vijayanagara district from the existing Ballari district. Vijayanagara will be the 31st district of the State.


title: The Queen of the Damned

text: The Queen of the Damned (1988) is a horror novel by American writer Anne Rice, the third in her "The Vampire Chronicles" series. It follows "Interview with the Vampire" and "The Vampire Lestat". This novel is a continuation of the story that ends in a cliffhanger in "The Vampire Lestat" and explores the rich history and mythology of the origin of the vampires, which dates back to Ancient Egypt.


title: The Queen of the Damned

text: In March 2014, a new installment of Rice's series was announced titled "Prince Lestat", which Rice's son, novelist Christopher Rice, called "a true sequel to "The Queen of the Damned"".


title: The Queen of the Damned

text: Part One follows several different people over the same period of several days. Several of the characters from the two previous books appear, including Armand, Daniel Molloy (the "boy reporter" of "Interview with the Vampire"), Marius de Romanus, Louis de Pointe du Lac, Gabrielle de Lioncourt and Santino. Each of the six chapters in Part One tells a different story about a different person or group of people. Two things unify these chapters: a series of dreams about red-haired twin sisters, and the fact that a powerful being is killing vampires around the world by means of spontaneous combustion.


title: The Queen of the Damned

text: Pandora and Santino rescue Marius, having answered his telepathic call for help. Marius informs his rescuers that Akasha has been awakened by Lestat de Lioncourt, or rather his rock music, for he has joined a rock band with mortals Alex, Larry and Tough Cookie. Having been awakened by Lestat's rebellious music, Akasha destroys her husband Enkil and plots to rule the world. She is also revealed as the source of the attacks on other vampires.


title: The Queen of the Damned

text: Part Two takes place at Lestat's concert. Jesse Reeves, a member of the secret Talamasca and relative of Maharet, is mortally injured while attending the concert, and is taken to be made into a vampire at Maharet's compound in California's Sonoma Mountains. The vampires from Part One later congregate in the compound. Meanwhile, Akasha abducts Lestat and takes him as an unwilling consort to various locations in the world, inciting women to rise up and kill the men who have oppressed them.


title: The Queen of the Damned

text: Part Three takes place at Maharet's compound, where Maharet tells the story of Akasha and the red-haired twins, Maharet and her sister, Mekare to the other characters. Also present are Mael and Khayman, who already know the story.


title: The Queen of the Damned

text: In Part Four, Akasha confronts the gathered vampires, explaining that she plans to kill 90 percent of the world's human men and establish a new Eden in which women will worship Akasha as a goddess. If the assembled vampires refuse to follow her, she will destroy them. The vampires refuse, but Mekare enters and kills Akasha by severing her head and consuming her brain and heart. Amel passes into Mekare, thereby saving the lives of the remaining vampires. She becomes the new Queen of the Damned.


title: The Queen of the Damned

text: In Part Five, the vampires leave the compound and assemble at Armand's island resort in Florida to recover. They eventually go their separate ways. Lestat takes Louis to see David Talbot in London. After their brief visit with Talbot they depart into the night, an incensed Louis and his angry words filling Lestat with glee.


title: The Queen of the Damned

text: "The Queen of the Damned" deals with the origins of vampires themselves. The mother of all vampires, Akasha, begins as a pre-Egyptian queen, in a land called Kemet (which will become Egypt), many thousands of years ago. During this time two powerful witches (Maharet and Mekare) live in the mountains close to Nineveh. The witches are able to communicate with invisible spirits and gain simple favors from them. During this period there is a bloodthirsty, invisible spirit known as Amel who continually asks the two witches if they need his assistance, although they prudently decline the offer. The witches' village is destroyed and they are incarcerated by the king and queen, who desire their knowledge. When the witches offend Akasha, the queen condemns the twins. Enkil then orders his chief steward (who is Khayman as a mortal man) to rape the twins in his stead, which would prove their lack of power, before the eyes of the court. Afterward the witches are cast out into the desert. While making her way back home with a pregnant Maharet, Mekare curses the king and queen secretly with Amel. Eventually Amel inflicts such torment on Akasha and Enkil that they demand advice and help from the two witches.


title: The Queen of the Damned

text: Unhappy with the young king's policies, conspirators attempt to assassinate the royal couple in Khayman's house while they are attempting to exorcise Amel, who had also been tormenting Khayman. While the king and queen lie dying, the evil spirit sees its chance to ensnare the soul of the dying queen and pulls it back into her body. The spirit combines itself with the flesh and blood of the queen, transforming her into a vampire. Akasha allows the king to drink her blood, which saves his life. In desperation, she orders Khayman to find the witches and bring them back to Egypt, hoping the twins will use their knowledge of spirits to help the couple, as they are overwhelmed by their thirst for blood. However, when the witches admit that they cannot help the monarchs, Akasha orders the mutilation of the witches: Maharet loses her eyes and Mekare her tongue. Afterward, Khayman, who had been turned into a vampire by Akasha, comes to the witches' cell and turns them too. The three flee together, but are caught by Akasha's soldiers. Khayman escapes, but Maharet and Mekare are further punished. The witches are put into two separate coffins which are then set afloat on two separate bodies of water. They are only reunited near the end of the novel "Queen of the Damned".


title: The Queen of the Damned

text: In Mekare's absence, Maharet returns to watch over her daughter and her descendants. Maharet's descendants become what she calls the Great Family. A maternal line, the Great Family includes every culture, religion, ethnicity, and race. The Great Family represents all humanity and shows the vampires what Akasha would destroy with the creation of her New World Order.


title: The Queen of the Damned

text: As the source of all vampires, Akasha is connected to all vampires by the blood and spirit they collectively share. In an experiment by the first Keeper, Akasha and Enkil are exposed to sunlight when they are several thousand years old. This merely darkens their skin. However, the result on all other vampires is extreme, and many of the weakest vampires die, thus confirming the legend that anything that harms Akasha will also directly affect all of her progeny.


title: DF-41

text: The Dongfeng-41 (DF-41, CSS-20) () is a fourth-generation Chinese solid-fuelled road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile operated by the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force (formerly the Second Artillery Corps). DF-41 is the fourth and the latest generation of the "Dongfeng" series strategic missiles developed by China. The missile was officially unveiled at the China National Day military parade on 1 October 2019.


title: DF-41

text: The missile reportedly has an operational range between . It is believed to have a top speed of Mach 25, and to be capable of MIRV delivery (up to 10). The development of the MIRV technology is reported to be in response to the deployment of the United States national missile defense system which degrades China's nuclear deterrence capability. The project started in 1986, and may now be coupled with the JL-2 program.


title: DF-41

text: Though there have been reports that the DF-41 can carry 6 to 10 warheads, analysts think it most likely carries only three warheads, with the additional payload used for many penetration aids.


title: DF-41

text: Richard Fisher, an expert on Asia-Pacific military affairs, says that a typical PLA Rocket Force unit has 6-12 missile launchers and may have an additional 6-12 "reload missiles", i.e. missiles to be launched after the first missile with which the launcher is equipped are launched, indicating 12-24 DF-41 missiles per unit. If a missile had 10 warheads, that would give a single SAC unit the capability to target the contiguous United States with 120-240 nuclear warheads.


title: DF-41

text: Air Power Australia reported that the DF-41 was cancelled pre-2000, with the technology developed transferred to the DF-31A. It was incorrectly anticipated that the DF-41 would be delivered to the Second Artillery around the year 2010. Some military experts had expected that it could be unveiled at the 2009 National Parade. However, rehearsals of the military parade did not feature this missile.


title: DF-41

text: The American conservative website "The Washington Free Beacon" reported in August 2012 that the DF-41 had its first flight test on July 24, 2012.


title: DF-41

text: In April 2013, Taiwan's National Security Bureau head reported to the Legislative Yuan that the DF-41 was still in development, and not yet deployed.


title: DF-41

text: The U.S. Department of Defense in its 2013 report to Congress on China's military developments made no explicit mention of the DF-41, but did state that "China may also be developing a new road-mobile ICBM, possibly capable of carrying a multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle (MIRV)", which may refer to the DF-41. Later in 2013 "The Washington Free Beacon" reported that the second launch test took place on December 13, 2013 from the Wuzhai missile launch center in Shanxi province to an impact range in western China, according to officials familiar with details of the tests.


title: DF-41

text: The "Free Beacon" reported in June 2014 that U.S. officials had said by then that the DF-41 was test launched twice since 2012.


title: DF-41

text: In August 2014, China Shaanxi Provincial Environmental Monitoring Center website accidentally made a news report about events of setting environmental monitoring site for DF-41 ICBM; the news report (and the whole website) was taken down shortly after getting public attention.


title: DF-41

text: The "Free Beacon" claimed that China had test-launched a DF-41 using multiple reentry vehicles for the first time on 13 December 2014. Later that month, China confirmed that the launch occurred, saying it has a legitimate right to conduct scientific tests within its border, that they were not targeting any country, and the development of the missile did not affect China's policy of not using nuclear weapons first in a conflict. The launch took place at the Wuzhai Missile and Space Test Center in central China and impacted in the west of the country.


title: DF-41

text: In August 2015, the missile was flight-tested for the fourth time. In December 2015, the missile was flight-tested for the fifth time. The flight test demonstrated the use of two multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles. The missile launch and dummy warheads were tracked by satellites to an impact range in western China.


title: DF-41

text: In April 2016, China successfully conducted the 7th test of DF-41 with two dummy warheads near the South China Sea, amid growing tensions between Washington and Beijing about the area.


title: DF-41

text: On January 23, 2017, China was reported to have deployed a strategic ballistic missile brigade to Heilongjiang province, bordering Russia, along with another strategic ballistic missile brigade deploying to Xinjiang.


title: DF-41

text: In November 2017, just two days before U.S. President Trump's visit to China, the DF-41 was tested in the Gobi desert.


title: DF-41

text: On 5 December 2015, China conducted a launcher test of a new rail-mobile version of the DF-41, similar to the Russian RT-23 Molodets.


title: DF-41

text: In 2021, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) said China was building 120 missile silos for DF-41 near Yumen in Gansu and another 110 missile silos near Hami in Xinjiang.


title: DF-41

text: A third site was discovered to be under construction near Ordos in Inner Mongolia in August, 2021. The new site will hold more than 100 ICBM.


title: DF-41

text: Together, the three new missile bases will house 350 to 400 new long-range nuclear missiles, U.S. officials said.


title: Windermere

text: Windermere (sometimes tautologically called Windermere Lake to distinguish it from the nearby town of Windermere) is the largest natural lake in England. More than 11 miles (18 km) in length, and almost 1 mile (1.5 km) at its widest, it is a ribbon lake formed in a glacial trough after the retreat of ice at the start of the current interglacial period. It has been one of the country's most popular places for holidays and summer homes since the arrival of the Kendal and Windermere Railway's branch line in 1847. Forming part of the border between the historic counties of Lancashire and Westmorland, Windermere is today within the administrative county of Cumbria and the Lake District National Park.