title: Tableware

text: The knife is much the oldest type of cutlery; early ones were normally carried by the individual at all times. Forks and spoons came later, and are initially only for the wealthy, who typically carried their own personal set. After the Romans, who made great use of spoons, joined by forks later, there were only knives and perhaps wooden spoons for most of the Middle Ages. It was only in the 17th century that hosts among the elite again began to lay out cutlery at the table, although at an Italian banquet in 1536 for Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, it is recorded that each guest was provided with knife, spoon and fork, evidently a rarity. The table fork was revived in Italy in the 16th century, and was described for his English readers by Thomas Coryat in the 1590s as "not used in any other country that I saw in my travels". In England and France, it only became common after the 1660s, even in the court of Louis XIV, and for a while seems to have mostly been used by ladies, and for especially messy food, like fruits in syrup.


title: Tableware

text: Tableware is generally the functional part of the settings on dining tables but great attention has been paid to the purely decorative aspects, especially when dining is regarded as part of entertainment such as in banquets given by important people or special events, such as State occasions. Table decoration may be ephemeral and consist of items made from confectionery or wax - substances commonly employed in Roman banqueting tables of the 17th century. During the reign of George III of the United Kingdom, ephemeral table decoration was done by men known as "table-deckers" who used sand and similar substances to create marmotinto works (sand painting) for single-use decoration. In modern times, ephemeral table decorations continue to be made from sugar or carved from ice.


title: Tableware

text: The porcelain figurine began in early 18th-century Germany as a permanent replacement for sugar sculptures on the dining table.


title: Tableware

text: In wealthy countries such as 17th century France, table decorations for the aristocracy were sometimes made of silver. One of the most famous table decorations is the "Cellini Salt Cellar". Ephemeral and silver table decorations were replaced with porcelain items after its reinvention in Europe in the 16th century.


title: Tableware

text: A table setting in Western countries is mainly in one of two styles: "service à la russe" (French for "in the Russian style"), where each course of the meal is brought out in specific order; and "service à la française" (French for "in the French style"), where all the courses for the meal are arranged on the table and presented at the same time that guests are seated. "Service à la russe" has become the custom in most restaurants, whereas "service à la française" is the norm in family settings.


title: Tableware

text: Place settings for "service à la russe" dining are arranged according to the number of courses in the meal. The tableware is arranged in a particular order. With the first course, each guest at the table begins by using the tableware placed on the outside of place setting. As each course is finished the guest leaves the used cutlery on the used plate or bowl, which are removed from the table by the server. In some case, the original set is kept for the next course. To begin the next course, the diner uses the next item on the outside of the place setting, and so on. Forks are placed on the left of a dinner plate, knives to the right of the plate, and spoons to the outer right side of the place setting.


title: Tableware

text: Items of tableware include a variety of plates, bowls; or cups for individual diners and a range of serving dishes to transport the food from the kitchen or to separate smaller dishes. Plates include charger plates as well as specific dinner plates, lunch plates, dessert plates, salad plates or side plates. Bowls include those used for soup, cereal, pasta, fruit or dessert. A range of saucers accompany plates and bowls, those designed to go with teacups, coffee cups, demitasses and cream soup bowls. There are also individual covered casserole dishes.


title: Tableware

text: Dishes come in standard sizes, which are set according to the manufacturer. They are similar throughout the industry. Plates are standardised in descending order of diameter size according to function. One standard series is charger (12 inches); dinner plate (10.5 inches); dessert plate (8.5 inches) salad plate (7.5 inches); side plate, tea plate (6.75 inches).


title: Tableware

text: Glasses and mugs of various types are an important part of tableware, as beverages are important parts of a meal. Vessels to hold alcoholic beverages such as wine, whether red, white, sparkling tend to be quite specialised in form, with for example Port wine glasses, beer glasses, brandy balloons, aperitif and liqueur glasses all having different shapes. Water glasses, juice glasses and hot chocolate mugs are also differentiated. Their appearance as part of the tableware depends on the meal and the style of table arrangement.


title: Tableware

text: Tea and coffee tend to involve strong social rituals and so teacups and, coffee cups (including demitasse cups) have a shape that depends on the culture and the social situation in which the drink is taken.


title: Tableware

text: Cutlery is an important part of tableware. A basic formal place setting will usually have a dinner plate at the centre, resting on a charger. The rest of the place setting depends upon the first course, which may be soup, salad or fish.


title: Tableware

text: In either arrangement, the napkin may either rest folded underneath the forks, or it may be folded and placed on the dinner plate.


title: Tableware

text: When more courses are being served, place settings may become more elaborate and cutlery more specialised. Examples include fruit spoon or fruit knife, cheese knife, and pastry fork. Other types of cutlery, such as boning forks, were used when formal meals included dishes that have since become less common. Carving knives and forks are used to carve roasts at the table.


title: Tableware

text: A wide range of serving dishes are used to transport food from kitchen to table or to serve it at table, in order to make food service easier and cleaner or more efficient and pleasant. Serving dishes include: butter dishes; casseroles; fruit bowls; ramekins or lidded serving bowls; compotes; pitchers or jugs; platters, salvers, and trays; salt and pepper shakers or salt cellars; sauce or gravy boats; tureens and tajines; vegetable or salad bowls.


title: Tableware

text: A range of items specific to the serving of tea or coffee also have long cultural traditions. They include teapots and coffee pots as well as samovars, sugar bowls; milk or cream jugs.


title: Tableware

text: Place markers are used to designate assigned seats to guests. They are typically used at large formal functions such as weddings, banquets for dignitaries, politicians or diplomats as well as on special occasions such as large children's parties. Some are collectible


title: Tableware

text: Chinese table settings are traditional in style. Table setting practices in Japan and other parts of East Asia have been influenced by Chinese table setting customs. The emphasis in Chinese table settings is on displaying each individual food in a pleasing way, usually in separate bowls or dishes. Formal table settings are based upon the arrangements used in a family setting, although they can become extremely elaborate with many dishes. Serving bowls and dishes are brought to the table, where guests can choose their own portions. Formal Chinese restaurants often use a large turning wheel in the centre of the table to rotate food for easier service.


title: Tableware

text: In a family setting, a meal typically includes a "fan" dish, which constitutes the meal's base (much like bread forms the base of various sandwiches), and several accompanying mains, called "cai" dish ("choi" or "seoung" in Cantonese). More specifically, "fan" usually refers to cooked rice, but can also be other staple grain-based foods. If the meal is a light meal, it will typically include the base and one main dish. The base is often served directly to the guest in a bowl, whereas main dishes are chosen by the guest from shared serving dishes on the table.


title: Tableware

text: Japanese ceramic tableware is an industry that is many centuries old. Unlike in Western cultures, where tableware is often produced and bought in matching sets, Japanese tableware is set on the table so that each dish complements the type of food served in it. Since Japanese meals normally include several small amounts of each food per person, this means that each person has a place setting with several different small dishes and bowls for holding individual food and condiments. The emphasis in a Japanese table setting is on enhancing the appearance of the food, which is partially achieved by showing contrasts between the items. Each bowl and dish may have a different shape, colour or pattern.


title: Tableware

text: Not all of these plates and bowls would be necessary for one meal. A rice bowl, a soup bowl, two or three small dishes with accompanying foods, and two or three condiment dishes for person would be typical. Various serving bowls and platters would also be set on a table for a typical meal, along with a soy sauce cruet, a small pitcher for tempura or other sauce, and a tea setting of tea pot, tea cups and tea cup saucers.


title: Tableware

text: Tableware for special circumstances has to be adapted. Dining in the outdoors, for example, whether for recreational purposes, as on a picnic or as part of a journey, project or mission requires specialised tableware. It must be portable, more robust and if possible, lighter in weight than tableware used indoors. It is usually carefully packed for transportation to the place where it will be used.


title: Yakuza 5

text: The game features a new graphics engine, unlike previous games in the series that have been re-utilizing the same engine since "Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan!". For the first time in the series, it features five settings across Japan along with five playable main characters. "Yakuza 5" was followed up by the spinoff "" and the prequel installment "Yakuza 0" in 2014 and 2015 respectively.


title: Yakuza 5

text: The gameplay is relatively similar to previous games in the series, with a few changes. Similar to past games, gameplay is divided into two components: Adventure Mode and Combat Mode. Adventure Mode allows players to explore different areas and participate in side activities including mini-games and retro games such as "Virtua Fighter 2" and "Taiko No Tatsujin". The cities are also significantly bigger than previous games, providing more areas to explore in the game and is said to feature the greatest volume of play spots across cities in the series' history. The change between the game's Adventure Mode and Combat Mode is also said to be more seamless than previous games, which involved a transitional change when encountering enemies whilst in adventure mode. Controls for the game have also been said to have been improved "dramatically" as with the tempo of the game's combat mode.


title: Yakuza 5

text: The game features five main protagonists, the second highest number of main protagonists of any game in the series, with the previous highest being "Yakuza 4's" four main protagonists (With "" surpassing "Yakuza 5" with a total of 7 protagonists). The game features series protagonist, Kazuma Kiryu, the main character since the original "Yakuza" game. There are also two returning protagonists from "Yakuza 4", namely Shun Akiyama and Taiga Saejima. One of the new main protagonists is Haruka Sawamura, a recurring character of the series since the original game. Though she has always been an integral part of the story, she has never been a playable main character before the game. Lastly is Tatsuo Shinada (Toshiyuki Morikawa), a new character to the "Yakuza" series.


title: Yakuza 5

text: For the first time in the series, the game features five distinct locales across Japan. First of which, returning from previous games, is Kamurocho (a.k.a. Kamuro City), a fictionalized yet realistic recreation of Shinjuku's red-light district, Kabukichō. Second is Sōtenbori, a fictional Osaka district based on Dōtonbori, returning from "Yakuza 2". The three new cities in the game are: Nagasugai, the fictional red light district of Fukuoka, based on Nakasu; Tsukimino, part of the fictional Sapporo, based on Susukino; and Kin'eicho, part of the fictional Nagoya, based on Sakae. According to general director Toshihiro Nagoshi and producer/writer Masayoshi Yokoyama, it would be like the """" of the "Yakuza" series, as a "massive expansion on the core concept that takes the franchise to new heights."


title: Yakuza 5

text: In December 2012, the 7th chairman of the Omi Alliance, Tsubasa Kurosawa, is terminally ill. With his impending death, the truce between the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance deteriorates. Daigo Dojima leads delegations to negotiate with Yamagasa Family patriarch Tadashi Madarame. Daigo then meets Kazuma Kiryu, who is working as a taxi driver under the alias Taichi Suzuki.


title: Yakuza 5

text: After work, Kiryu meets Daigo's bodyguards, Yu Morinaga and Masato Aizawa, who inform him that Daigo is missing. Minoru Aoyama becomes interim chairman in his absence. Kiryu meets detective Kazuhiko Serizawa, who points out Omi Alliance Captain Masaru Watase as a suspect. Watase is unaware of Daigo's whereabouts, but claims that Aoyama has been secretly giving him information. At a hotel where Madarame and Aoyama are meeting, Kiryu finds Madarame stabbed by Aoyama, who plans to take over the Tojo Clan. Afterwards, Kiryu learns from Madarame that Daigo had gone into hiding in fear of Aoyama, who looks to start a conflict with the Yamagasa. Preventing bloodshed, Kiryu defeats Aoyama’s army by himself. Before Aoyama can reveal his boss's identity, Morinaga kills him, and directs Kiryu to Kamurocho. While making preparations for his return, Serizawa reveals that Goro Majima has died.


title: Yakuza 5

text: Taiga Saejima is serving his sentence, and learns of Majima's death. The deputy warden helps Saejima and his cellmate Shigeki Baba escape. The two kidnap Taizo Kitakata, Majima’s supposed killer, who reveals that Majima faked his death. Baba shoots Kitakata to silence him, but he survives. Baba also reveals to Saejima that he deliberately planned to have him and Saejima escape prison so that he could be lured. Saejima subdues him but decides to spare Baba. He is then directed by Serizawa to Kamurocho.


title: Yakuza 5

text: Haruka Sawamura trains for a J-pop competition, upon being scouted by Mirei Park, who forces Kiryu to hide his identity and leave the orphanage to protect Haruka's reputation. Haruka and Park bond, and Park confesses she received a letter from her ex-husband, who she plans to meet. The following day, she is found dead, of apparent suicide. Her death alerts Shun Akiyama, who reunites with Haruka. They conclude Park's suicide note was forged, at the behest of Naoyuki Katsuya, CEO of Osaka Enterprises, a subsidiary of the Omi Alliance. Akiyama finds Haruka's trainer, Kan Ogita, who confesses to killing Park accidentally after he tried to obtain a letter from Goro Majima from her, to find his whereabouts. Ogita is killed by Kamon Kanai, the Captain of Osaka Enterprises. It is revealed that Park's ex-husband was Majima. With Haruka's competitions completed and her protected from Kanai by Akiyama, she and Akiyama head to Tokyo, with Katsuya following.


title: Yakuza 5

text: Former pro-baseball player Tatsuo Shinada is hired by a disguised Daigo to investigate his own banishment from the league in 1997. Shinada investigates the scandal with Koichi Takasugi, his loan shark, and finds that his former manager, Fujita, is responsible for framing him, which led to the police investigation and subsequent expulsion of the local Tojo and Omi families. Daigo reveals his true identity, and the two return to Tokyo.


title: Yakuza 5

text: As Kiryu arrives in Tokyo, he learns that Baba is an accomplice in the Omi Alliance's plan, who planned to draw out Saejima and Kiryu. Serizawa tasks Saejima with finding Morinaga, but he is revealed to be dead. Akiyama and Shinada meet, and learn that Haruka may be targeted during the Princess League. Investigation into Katsuya reveals that he was Park's friend, and did not order her death.


title: Yakuza 5

text: Baba, Kiryu, Saejima and Aizawa see a broadcast claiming Haruka's concert has been canceled. Thinking Katsuya guilty, Kiryu and Saejima confront him. They, along with Watase, reach Katsuya, who intends to lure out the actual mastermind, Serizawa who is revealed to be Chairman Kurosawa. Daigo intervenes, but is shot and knocked unconscious by Kanai, who is also affiliated with Kurosawa. Kiryu refuses to cancel Haruka's concert, and the four decide to protect her. Majima is revealed to have only faked his death so that he could secretly investigate Kurosawa.


title: Yakuza 5

text: Before the plan can start, Kurosawa's men, impersonating the Majima Family, arrive at the Millennium Tower guns blazing to destroy Majima's reputation. With Haruka's concert underway, Akiyama and Kiryu fend off Kurosawa's men while Shinada fights Baba. At the top of the Millennium Tower, Saejima and Majima fight to a stalemate. Kurosawa loses his leverage when Baba refuses to shoot Haruka. Kurosawa attempts to kill Majima and Saejima, but is stopped by Daigo and Katsuya. In the streets, Akiyama defeats Kanai before being relieved by Watase, Madarame, and Kitakata.


title: Yakuza 5

text: At the Tojo Clan Headquarters, Kiryu learns that Aizawa is Kurosawa’s son. Kurosawa wanted to leave the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance to Aizawa, but Aizawa desired to gain power independently. A wounded Kiryu defeats Aizawa. Unable to choose fame at the expense of family, Haruka publicly confesses her background, retires and reunites with him.


title: Yakuza 5

text: The game had double the development time of previous games in the series, which generally had a one-year development cycle. The game was developed as something akin to being a reboot of the series, and dubbed as a "New Yakuza" by developers with the goal of having one of the greatest scripts and scenarios in the series' history. In addition, the game was developed on an all new graphics engine. The game was seen as a fresh start for developers, who treated "" as the end for everything developed for the series up to that point. On December 5, 2014, Sega announced "Yakuza 5" would be releasing worldwide in December 8, 2015 as a digital download via the PlayStation Network.


title: Yakuza 5

text: A remaster with improved resolution and frame rate was released for the PlayStation 4 on June 20, 2019 in Japan. The remaster was released in English on February 11, 2020 as part of "The Yakuza Remastered Collection", alongside remasters of "Yakuza 3" and "Yakuza 4", with a re-translated English script, restored content from the Japanese version, and a togglable option between Japanese kanji and romaji lyrics and English translated lyrics for the karaoke tracks.


title: Yakuza 5

text: "Yakuza 5" received generally positive reviews release in western territories, while receiving critical acclaim in Japan. It holds a score of 83 out of 100 on review aggregator website Metacritic. The game received a perfect score of 40 out of 40 from Japanese gaming magazine "Famitsu". "Hobby Consolas" called it "one of the best games in the history of PS3" and "an incomparable piece of art that has everything: five main characters, five cities, an attractive script, lots of missions, a great combat system." "Hardcore Gamer" called it "one of the best games of last generation."


title: Yakuza 5

text: IGN Italy said it is "steeped in Japanese culture to the core and exciting in its multiple storylines." GameSpot praised the "Engrossing storylines", "large variety of rich minigames", locales "alive with activity and diversions galore", "welcome surprise" pop idol chapter, and "Hard-hitting combat", but said the "Combat mechanics show their age". The Game Scouts said it looks "better than most recent next-gen releases" with "some of the best facial models" and "authentic" environments, stated the "writing is absolutely masterful, walking a fine line between satirical humor and serious gangster drama", and called it "a masterpiece", "one of the greatest games" on the PS3, and "right next to "The Witcher 3"" as a Game of the Year candidate. "GameSpot" also liked the handling of her story due to how the character of Haruka has matured ever since her debut although the reviews had mixed opinions about her career. "HobbyConsolas" stated while idols might not be interesting to Western gamers, Haruka still offered more variety to the game.


title: Yakuza 5

text: The game sold 590,000 copies in Japan by April 2013. In Japan, approximately 21,047 physical units for PlayStation 4 were sold during its PS4 release launch week becoming the second best selling game of any format.


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: Cancer is one of the twelve constellations of the zodiac and is located in the Northern celestial hemisphere. Its old astronomical symbol is (♋). Its name is Latin for crab and it is commonly represented as one. Cancer is a medium-size constellation with an area of 506 square degrees and its stars are rather faint, its brightest star Beta Cancri having an apparent magnitude of 3.5. It contains two stars with known planets, including 55 Cancri, which has five: one super-earth and four gas giants, one of which is in the habitable zone and as such has expected temperatures similar to Earth. At the (angular) heart of this sector of our celestial sphere is Praesepe (Messier 44), one of the closest open clusters to Earth and a popular target for amateur astronomers.


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: Cancer is a medium-sized constellation that is bordered by Gemini to the west, Lynx to the north, Leo Minor to the northeast, Leo to the east, Hydra to the south, and Canis Minor to the southwest. The three-letter abbreviation for the constellation, as adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1922, is "Cnc". The official constellation boundaries, as set by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined by a polygon of 3 main and 7 western edgework forming sides ("illustrated in infobox"). In the equatorial coordinate system, the right ascension coordinates of these borders lie between and , while the declination coordinates are between and . Covering 506 square degrees or 0.921% of the sky, it ranks 31st of the 88 constellations in size. It can be seen at latitudes between +90° and -60° and is best visible at 9 p.m. during the month of March. Cancer borders the bright constellations of Leo, Gemini and Canis Minor. Under city skies, Cancer is invisible to the naked eye.


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: Cancer is the second dimmest of the zodiacal constellations, having only two stars above the fourth magnitude. The German cartographer Johann Bayer used the Greek letters Alpha through Omega to label the most prominent stars in the constellation, followed by the letter A, then lowercase b, c and d. Within the constellation's borders, there are 104 stars brighter than or equal to apparent magnitude 6.5.


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: Also known as Altarf or Tarf, Beta Cancri is the brightest star in Cancer at apparent magnitude 3.5. Located 290 ± 30 light-years from Earth, it is a binary star system, its main component an orange giant of spectral type K4III that is varies slightly from a baseline magnitude of 3.53—dipping by 0.005 magnitude over a period of 6 days. An aging star, it has expanded to around 50 times the Sun's diameter and shines with 660 times its luminosity. It has a faint magnitude 14 red dwarf companion located 29 arcseconds away that takes 76,000 years to complete an orbit. Altarf represents a part of Cancer's body.


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: At magnitude 3.9 is Delta Cancri, also known as Asellus Australis. Located 131±1 light-years from Earth, it is an orange-hued giant star that has swollen and cooled off the main sequence to become an orange giant with a radius 11 times and luminosity 53 times that of the Sun. Its common name means "southern donkey". The star also holds a record for the longest name, "Arkushanangarushashutu," derived from ancient Babylonian language, which translates to "the southeast star in the Crab." Delta Cancri also makes it easy to find X Cancri, the reddest star in the sky. Known as Asellus Borealis "northern donkey", Gamma Cancri is a white-hued A-type subgiant of spectral type A1IV and magnitude 4.67, that is 35 times as luminous as of the Sun. It is located 181 ± 2 light-years from Earth.


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: Iota Cancri is a wide double star. The primary is a yellow-hued G-type bright giant star of magnitude 4.0, located 330 ± 20 light-years from Earth. It spent much of its stellar life as a B-type main sequence star before expanding and cooling to its current state as it spent its core hydrogen. The secondary is a white main sequence star of spectral type A3V and magnitude 6.57. Despite having different distances when measured by the HIPPARCOS satellite, the two stars share a common proper motion and appear to be a natural binary system.


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: Located 181 ± 2 light-years from Earth, Alpha Cancri (Acubens) is a multiple star with a primary component an apparent white main sequence star of spectral type A5 and magnitude 4.26. The secondary is of magnitude 12.0 and is visible in small amateur telescopes. Its common name means "the claw". The primary is actually two very similar white main sequence stars that are 5.3 AU distant from each other and the secondary is two small main sequence stars, most likely red dwarfs, that are 600 AU from the main pair. Hence the system is a quadruple one.


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: Zeta Cancri or Tegmine ("the shell") is a multiple star system that contains at least four stars located 82 light-years from Earth. The two brightest components are a binary star with an orbital period of 1100 years; the brighter component is a yellow-hued binary pair and the dimmer component is a yellow-hued star of magnitude 6.2. The brighter component is itself a binary star with a period of 59.6 years; its primary is of magnitude 5.6 and its secondary is of magnitude 6.0. This pair is at its greatest separation around 2019.


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: Ten star systems have been found to have planets. Rho-1 Cancri or 55 Cancri (or Copernicus) is a binary star approximately 40.9 light-years distant from Earth. 55 Cancri consists of a yellow dwarf and a smaller red dwarf, with five planets orbiting the primary star; one low-mass planet that may be either a hot, water-rich world or a carbon planet and four gas giants. 55 Cancri A, classified as a rare "super metal-rich" star, is one of the top 100 target stars for NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder mission, ranked 63rd on the list. The red dwarf 55 Cancri B, a suspected binary, appears to be gravitationally bound to the primary star, as the two share common proper motion.


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: Cancer is best known among stargazers as the home of Praesepe (Messier 44), an open cluster also called the "Beehive Cluster", located right in the centre of the constellation. Located about 590 light-years from Earth, it is one of the nearest open clusters to our Solar System. M 44 contains about 50 stars, the brightest of which are of the sixth magnitude. Epsilon Cancri is the brightest member at magnitude 6.3. Praesepe is also one of the larger open clusters visible; it has an area of 1.5 square degrees, or three times the size of the full Moon. It is most easily observed when Cancer is high in the sky. North of the Equator, this period stretches from February to May. Ptolemy described the Beehive Cluster as "the nebulous mass in the breast of Cancer." It was one of the first objects Galileo observed with his telescope in 1609, spotting 40 stars in the cluster. Today, there are about 1010 high-probability members, most of them (68 percent) red dwarfs. The Greeks and Romans identified the nebulous object as a manger from which two donkeys, represented by the neighbouring stars [1213] Asellus Borealis and [1210] Asellus Australis, were eating. The stars represent the donkeys that the god Dionysus and his tutor Silenus rode in the war against the Titans. The ancient Chinese interpreted the object as a ghost or demon riding in a carriage, calling it a "cloud of pollen blown from under willow catkins."


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: The smaller, denser open cluster Messier 67 can also be found in Cancer, 2600 light-years from Earth. It has an area of approximately 0.5 square degrees, the size of the full Moon. It contains approximately 200 stars, the brightest of which are of the tenth magnitude.


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: QSO J0842+1835 is a quasar used to measure the speed of gravity in VLBI experiment conducted by Edward Fomalont and Sergei Kopeikin in September 2002.


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: OJ 287 is a BL Lacertae object located 3.5 billion light years away that has produced quasi-periodic optical outbursts going back approximately 120 years, as first apparent on photographic plates from 1891. It was first detected at radio wavelengths during the course of the Ohio Sky Survey. Its central supermassive black hole is among the largest known, with a mass of 18 billion solar masses, more than six times the value calculated for the previous largest object.


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: Cancer was first recorded by Claudius Ptolemy in the in "The Mathematical Syntaxis" (a.k.a. "Almagest"), under the Greek name ("Karkinos").


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: Very few of Cancer's stars are visible to the naked eye, and its brightest stars are only 4th magnitude. Cancer was often considered the "Dark Sign", quaintly described as "black and without eyes". Dante, alluded to its faintness in "Paradiso", and mentioned it being visibility for the whole night when it culminated at midnight in a Northern Hemisphere winter month:


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: Cancer was the backdrop to the Sun's most northerly position in the sky (the summer solstice) in ancient times, when the Earth's Sun-facing side was maximally tilted towards the south, in the Gregorian calendar kept within a few days of June 21. Equivalently, this is the date when the Sun is directly overhead as far north as 23.437° N. The northern-most parallel where the sun is directly overhead is still called the "Tropic of Cancer", even though the corresponding position on the sky now occurs in Taurus, due to the precession of the equinoxes.


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: The close conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 1563 – which was observed by Tycho Brahe and led him to note the inaccuracy of existing ephemerides and to begin his own program of astronomical measurements – occurred in Cancer not far from Praesepe.


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: In Greek mythology, Cancer is identified with the crab that appeared while Heracles fought the many-headed Lernaean Hydra. Hercules slew the crab after it bit him in the foot. Afterwards, the goddess Hera, an enemy of Heracles, placed the crab among the stars.


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: The modern symbol for Cancer represents the pincers of a crab, but Cancer has been represented as many types of creatures, usually those living in the water, and always those with an exoskeleton.


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: In the Egyptian records of about 2000 BC it was described as Scarabaeus (Scarab), the sacred emblem of immortality. In Babylonia the constellation was known as MUL.AL.LUL, a name which can refer to both a crab and a snapping turtle. On boundary stones, the image of a turtle or tortoise appears quite regularly and it is believed that this represents Cancer since a conventional crab has not so far been discovered on any of these monuments.


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: There also appears to be a strong connection between the Babylonian constellation and ideas of death and a passage to the underworld, which may be the origin of these ideas in later Greek myths associated with Hercules and the Hydra.


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: In the 12th century, an illustrated astronomical manuscript shows it as a water beetle. Albumasar writes of this sign in "Flowers of Abu Ma'shar". A 1488 Latin translation depicts cancer as a large crayfish, which also is the constellation's name in most Germanic languages. Jakob Bartsch and Stanislaus Lubienitzki, in the 17th century, described it as a lobster.


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: , the Sun appears in the constellation Cancer from July 20 – August 9. In tropical astrology, the Sun is considered to be in the "sign" of Cancer from June 22 – July 22, and in sidereal astrology, from July 16 – August 16.


title: Cancer (constellation)

text: In Chinese astronomy, the stars of Cancer lie within the Vermilion Bird of the South (南方朱雀, "Nán Fāng Zhū Què").


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: The Gothic War between the Eastern Roman Empire during the reign of Emperor Justinian I and the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy took place from 535 to 554 in the Italian Peninsula, Dalmatia, Sardinia, Sicily and Corsica. It was one of the last of the many Gothic Wars against the Roman Empire. The war had its roots in the ambition of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Emperor Justinian I to recover the provinces of the former Western Roman Empire, which the Romans had lost to invading barbarian tribes in the previous century, during the Migration Period.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: The war followed the Eastern Roman reconquest of the province of Africa from the Vandals. Historians commonly divide the war into two phases:


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: In 554 Justinian promulgated the Pragmatic sanction which prescribed Italy's new government. Several cities in northern Italy held out against the East Romans until 562. By the end of the war, Italy had been devastated and depopulated. It was seen as a Pyrrhic victory for the East Romans, who found themselves incapable of resisting an invasion by the Lombards in 568, which resulted in Constantinople permanently losing control over large parts of the Italian Peninsula.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: In 476 Odoacer deposed Emperor Romulus Augustulus and declared himself "rex Italiae" (King of Italy), resulting in the final dissolution of the Western Roman Empire in Italy. Although Odoacer recognised the nominal suzerainty of the Eastern Emperor, Zeno, his independent policies and increasing strength made him a threat in the eyes of Constantinople. To provide a buffer, the Ostrogoths, under their leader, Theodoric the Great, were settled as "foederati" (allies) of the Empire in the western Balkans, but unrest continued. Zeno sent the Ostrogoths to Italy as the representatives of the Empire to remove Odoacer. Theodoric and the Goths defeated Odoacer and Italy came under Gothic rule. In the arrangement between Theodoric and Zeno, and his successor Anastasius, the land and its people were regarded as part of the Empire, with Theodoric a viceroy and head of the army ("magister militum"). This arrangement was scrupulously observed by Theodoric; there was continuity in civil administration, which was staffed exclusively by Romans, and legislation remained the preserve of the Emperor. The army, on the other hand, was exclusively Gothic, under the authority of their chiefs and courts. The peoples were also divided by religion: the Romans were Chalcedonian Christian, while the Goths were Arian Christians. Unlike the Vandals or the early Visigoths the Goths practised considerable religious tolerance. The dual system worked under the capable leadership of Theodoric, who conciliated the Roman aristocracy, but the system began to break down during his later years and collapsed under his heirs.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: With the ascension of Emperor Justin I, the end of the Acacian schism between the Eastern and Western Churches, and the return of ecclesiastical unity within the East, several members of the Italian senatorial aristocracy began to favour closer ties to Constantinople to balance Gothic power. The deposition and execution of the distinguished "magister officiorum" Boethius and his father-in-law in 524 was part of the slow estrangement of their caste from the Gothic regime. Theodoric was succeeded by his 10-year old grandson Athalaric in August 526, with his mother, Amalasuntha, as regent; she had received a Roman education and began a rapprochement with the Senate and the Empire. This conciliation and Athalaric's Roman education displeased Gothic magnates, who plotted against her. Amalasuntha had three of the leading conspirators killed and wrote to the new Emperor, Justinian I, asking for sanctuary if she was deposed. Amalasuntha remained in Italy.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: In 533, using a dynastic dispute as a pretext, Justinian had sent his most talented general, Belisarius, to recover the North African provinces held by the Vandals. The Vandalic War produced an unexpectedly swift and decisive victory for the Byzantine Empire and encouraged Justinian in his ambition to recover the rest of the lost western provinces. As Regent, Amalasuntha had allowed the Byzantine fleet to use the harbours of Sicily, which belonged to the Ostrogothic Kingdom. After her son's death in 534, Amalasuntha offered the kingship to her cousin Theodahad; Theodahad accepted, but had her arrested and, in early 535, killed. Through his agents, Justinian tried to save Amalasuntha's life but to no avail and her death gave him a "casus belli" to go to war with the Goths. Procopius wrote that "as soon as he learned what had happened to Amalasuntha, being in the ninth year of his reign, he entered upon war".


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: Belisarius was appointed commander in chief ("stratēgos autokratōr") for the expedition against Italy with 7,500 men. Mundus, the "magister militum per Illyricum", was ordered to occupy the Gothic province of Dalmatia. The forces made available to Belisarius were small, especially when compared with the much larger army he had fielded against the Vandals, an enemy much weaker than the Ostrogoths. The preparations for the operation were carried out in secret, while Justinian tried to secure the neutrality of the Franks by gifts of gold.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: Belisarius landed at Sicily, between Roman Africa and Italy, whose population was well disposed toward the Empire. The island was quickly captured, with the only determined resistance, at Panormus (Palermo), overcome by late December. Belisarius prepared to cross to Italy and Theodahad sent envoys to Justinian, proposing at first to cede Sicily and recognise his overlordship but later to cede all of Italy.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: In March 536 Mundus overran Dalmatia and captured its capital, Salona, but a large Gothic army arrived and Mundus' son Mauricius died in a skirmish. Mundus inflicted a heavy defeat on the Goths but was himself mortally wounded in the pursuit. The Roman army withdrew and, except for Salona, Dalmatia was abandoned to the Goths. Encouraged, Theodahad imprisoned the Byzantine ambassadors. Justinian sent a new "magister militum per Illyricum", Constantinianus, to recover Dalmatia and ordered Belisarius to cross into Italy. Constantinianus accomplished his task speedily. The Gothic general, Gripas, abandoned Salona, which he had only recently occupied, because of the ruined state of its fortifications and the pro-Roman stance of its citizens, withdrawing to the north. Constantinianus occupied the city and rebuilt the walls. Seven days later the Gothic army departed for Italy and by late June the whole of Dalmatia was in Roman hands.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: In the late spring of 536 Belisarius crossed into Italy, where he captured Rhegium and made his way north. Neapolis () was besieged for three weeks before the Imperial troops forced their way in during November. The largely barbarian Roman army sacked the city. Belisarius moved north to Rome, which in view of the fate of Neapolis, put up no resistance; Belisarius entered unopposed in December. The rapidity of the Byzantine advance took the Goths by surprise and the inactivity of Theodahad enraged them. After the fall of Neapolis he was deposed and replaced by Vitiges. He left Rome for Ravenna, where he married Amalasuntha's daughter Matasuntha and began rallying his forces against the invasion. Vitiges led a large force against Rome, where Belisarius, who did not have enough troops to face the Goths in the open field, had remained. The subsequent siege of Rome, the first of three in the Gothic War, lasted from March 537 to March 538. There were sallies, minor engagements and several large actions but after 1,600 Huns and Slavs arrived from Constantinople in April 537 and 5,000 men in November, the Byzantines took the offensive and their cavalry captured several towns in the Goths' rear. The imperial navy cut off the Goths from seaborne supplies, worsening their supply difficulties, and threatened Gothic civilians. The fall of Ariminum, modern Rimini, close to Ravenna, forced Vitiges to abandon the siege and withdraw.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: As Vitiges marched to the northeast, he strengthened the garrisons of towns and forts along the way to secure his rear and then turned towards Ariminum. The Roman force of 2,000 horsemen occupying it comprised some of Belisarius' finest cavalry; Belisarius decided to replace them with an infantry garrison. Their commander, John, refused to obey orders and remained at Ariminum. Shortly after the Goths arrived, an assault failed, but the city had few supplies with which to stand a siege. A new force of 2,000 Herul "foederati", under the Armenian eunuch Narses, arrived at Picenum. Belisarius met Narses, who advocated a relief expedition to Ariminum, while Belisarius favoured a more cautious approach. The arrival of a letter from John, which illustrated the immediate danger of the city's fall, resolved the issue in favour of Narses. Belisarius divided his army into three, a seaborne force under his capable and trusted lieutenant Ildiger, another under the equally experienced Martin which was to arrive from the south, and the main force under him and Narses, which was to arrive from the northwest. Vitiges learned of their approach and, faced with the prospect of being surrounded by superior forces, hurriedly withdrew to Ravenna.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: The bloodless victory at Ariminum strengthened Narses against Belisarius, with many Roman generals, including John, turning their allegiance to him. In the council after the relief of Ariminum, Belisarius was in favour of reducing the strong Gothic garrison of Auximum, modern Osimo, in their rear and relieving the siege of Mediolanum; Narses favoured a less concentrated effort, including a campaign in Aemilia. Belisarius did not allow matters to fester and marched with Narses and John against Urbinum. The two armies encamped separately and shortly afterwards, Narses, convinced that the town was unassailable and well supplied, broke camp and departed for Ariminum. From there he sent John to Aemilia, which was quickly subdued. Aided by the fortunate drying up of Urbinum's only water spring, the town fell to Belisarius soon after.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: In April 538 Belisarius, petitioned by representatives from Mediolanum (Milan), the second most populous and wealthy city in Italy after Rome, had sent a force of 1,000 men under Mundilas to the city. This force secured the city and most of Liguria, except Ticinum (Pavia), with ease. Vitiges called upon the Franks for help and a force of 10,000 Burgundians unexpectedly crossed the Alps. Combining with the Goths under Uraias they laid siege to the city. Mediolanum was ill-provisioned and under-garrisoned; the already small Roman force had been dispersed to garrison the neighbouring cities and forts. A relief force was dispatched by Belisarius but its commanders, Martin and Uliaris, did not make any effort to help the besieged city. Instead, they asked for further reinforcements by the forces of John and the "magister militum per Illyricum" Justin, which were operating in the nearby province of Aemilia.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: Dissension in the Roman chain of command exacerbated the situation, as John and Justin refused to move without orders from Narses. John fell ill and the preparations were halted. The delays proved fatal for the city, which, after many months of siege, was close to starvation. The Goths offered Mundilas a guarantee that the lives of his soldiers would be spared if he surrendered the city but no guarantee was offered for the civilians and he refused. By the end of March 539, his starving soldiers forced him to accept the terms. The Roman garrison was spared but the inhabitants were subjected to a massacre and the city was razed.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: After this disaster Narses was recalled and Belisarius confirmed as supreme commander with authority throughout Italy. Vitiges sent envoys to the Persian court, hoping to persuade Khosrow I to reopen hostilities with the Byzantines to force Justinian to concentrate the majority of his forces, including Belisarius, in the east and allow the Goths to recover. Belisarius resolved to conclude the war by taking Ravenna but had to deal with the Gothic strongholds of Auximum and Faesulae (Fiesole) first. While Martin and John hindered the Gothic army under Uraias, which was attempting to cross the River Po, a part of the army under Justin besieged Faesulae and Belisarius undertook the siege of Auximum. During the sieges, a large Frankish army under King Theudebert I crossed the Alps and came upon the Goths and the Byzantines encamped on the two banks of the Po. They attacked the Goths who, thinking they had come as allies, were swiftly routed. The equally astonished Byzantines also gave battle, were defeated and withdrew southwards into Tuscany. The Frankish invasion was defeated by an outbreak of dysentery, which caused great losses and forced the Franks to withdraw. Belisarius concentrated on the besieged cities, and both garrisons were forced by starvation to capitulate in October or November 539.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: Troops from Dalmatia reinforced Belisarius and he moved against Ravenna. Detachments moved north of the Po and the imperial fleet patrolled the Adriatic, cutting the city off from supplies. Inside the Gothic capital, Vitiges received a Frankish embassy looking for an alliance but after the events of the previous summer no trust was placed in Frankish offers. Soon afterwards an embassy came from Constantinople, bearing surprisingly lenient terms from Justinian. Anxious to finish the war and concentrate against the impending Persian war, the Emperor offered a partition of Italy; the lands south of the Po would be retained by the Empire, those north of the river by the Goths. The Goths readily accepted the terms but Belisarius, judging this to be a betrayal of all he had striven to achieve, refused to sign, even though his generals disagreed with him.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: Disheartened, the Goths offered to make Belisarius, whom they respected, the western emperor. Belisarius had no intention of accepting the role but saw how he could use this situation to his advantage and feigned acceptance. In May 540 Belisarius and his army entered Ravenna; the city was not looted, while the Goths were well treated and allowed to keep their properties. In the aftermath of Ravenna's surrender, several Gothic garrisons north of the Po surrendered. Others remained in Gothic hands, among which were Ticinum, where Uraias was based and Verona, held by Ildibad. Soon after, Belisarius sailed for Constantinople, where he was refused the honour of a triumph. Vitiges was named a patrician and sent into comfortable retirement, while the captive Goths were sent to reinforce the eastern armies.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: Belisarius' departure left most of Italy in Roman hands, but north of the Po, Pavia (which became the new capital of the Ostrogothic Kingdom) and Verona remained unconquered. Soon after Belisarius' breach of faith towards them became apparent, the Goths, at the suggestion of Uraias, chose Ildibad as their new king and he re-established Gothic control over Venetia and Liguria. Justinian failed to appoint an Italian commander-in-chief. The Roman armies neglected military discipline and committed acts of plunder. The new imperial bureaucracy made itself immediately unpopular by its oppressive fiscal demands. Ildibad defeated the Roman general Vitalius at Treviso but after having Uraias murdered because of a quarrel between their wives, he was assassinated in May 541 in retribution. The Rugians, remnants of Odoacer's army who had remained in Italy and sided with the Goths, proclaimed one of their own, Eraric, as the new king, which was unexpectedly assented to by the Goths. Eraric persuaded the Goths to start negotiations with Justinian, secretly intending to hand over his realm to the Empire. The Goths perceived his inactivity for what it was and turned to Ildibad's nephew, Totila (or Baduila), and offered to make him king. Totila had already opened negotiations with the Byzantines but when he was contacted by the conspirators, he assented. In the early autumn of 541 Eraric was murdered and Totila proclaimed king.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: Totila enjoyed several advantages: the outbreak of the Plague of Justinian devastated and depopulated the Roman Empire in 542; the beginning of a new Roman–Persian War forced Justinian to deploy most of his troops in the east; and the incompetence and disunity of the various Roman generals in Italy undermined military function and discipline. This last brought about Totila's first success. After much urging by Justinian, the generals Constantinian and Alexander combined their forces and advanced upon Verona. Through treachery they managed to capture a gate in the city walls; instead of pressing the attack they delayed to quarrel over the prospective booty, allowing the Goths to recapture the gate and force the Byzantines to withdraw. Totila attacked their camp near Faventia (Faenza) with 5,000 men and, at the Battle of Faventia, destroyed the Roman army. Totila marched into Tuscany, where he besieged Florence. The Roman generals, John, Bessas, and Cyprian, marched to its relief but, at the Battle of Mucellium, their numerically superior forces were defeated.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: Totila marched south, where Roman garrisons were few and weak, bypassing Rome. The provinces of southern Italy were forced to recognise his authority. This campaign was one of rapid movement to take control of the countryside, leaving the Byzantines in control of isolated strongholds, mostly on the coast, which could be reduced later. When a fortified location fell, its walls were usually razed so that it would no longer be of any military value. Totila followed a policy of treating his captives well, enticing opponents to surrender rather than resist to the end. He also tried to win over the Italian population, exemplified by Totila's behaviour during the Siege of Naples, where he allowed the city to surrender on terms in 543 and displayed, in the words of J. B. Bury, "considerable humanity" in his treatment of the defenders. He nursed the famished citizens back to strength after allowing the Byzantine garrison safe departure. Having captured Naples Totila attempted to broker a peace with Justinian. When this was refused he had copies of his appeal posted throughout Rome; despite the disfavour in which the Byzantines were held, there was no uprising in Totila's favour, which disgusted him. He marched north and besieged the city.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: Taking advantage of a five-year truce in the East, Belisarius was sent back to Italy with 200 ships in 544. He successfully reoccupied much of southern Italy, but, according to Procopius, he was starved of supplies and reinforcements by a jealous Justinian and so felt unable to march to Rome's relief. Procopius describes famine during the siege, in which the ordinary Romans, who were not rich enough to buy grain from the military, were reduced to eating bran, nettles, dogs, mice and finally "each other's dung". Pope Vigilius, who had fled to the safety of Syracuse, sent a flotilla of grain ships, but Totila's navy intercepted them near the mouth of the Tiber and captured them. A desperate attempt by Belisarius to relieve Rome came close to success but ultimately failed. After more than a year Totila finally entered Rome on 17 December 546, when his men scaled the walls at night and opened the Asinarian Gate. Procopius states that Totila was aided by some Isaurian troops from the imperial garrison who had arranged a secret pact with the Goths. Rome was plundered and Totila, who had expressed an intention to completely level the city, satisfied himself with tearing down about one third of the walls. He then left in pursuit of the Byzantine forces in Apulia.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: Belisarius successfully reoccupied Rome four months later in the spring of 547 and hastily rebuilt the demolished sections of wall by piling up the loose stones "one on top of the other, regardless of order". Totila returned, but was unable to overcome the defenders. Belisarius did not follow up his advantage. Several cities, including Perugia, were taken by the Goths, while Belisarius remained inactive and was then recalled from Italy.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: In 549, Totila advanced again against Rome. He attempted to storm the improvised walls and overpower the small garrison of 3,000 men, but was beaten back. He then prepared to blockade the city and starve out the defenders, although the Byzantine commander Diogenes had previously prepared large food stores and had sown wheat fields within the city walls. However, Totila was able to suborn part of the garrison, who opened the Porta Ostiensis gate for him. Totila's men swept through the city, killing all but the women, who were spared on the orders of Totila, and looting what riches remained. Expecting the nobles and the remainder of the garrison to flee as soon as the walls were taken, Totila set traps along the roads to neighboring towns that were not yet under his control and many were killed while fleeing Rome.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: During 550–51, the Byzantines assembled a large expeditionary force of 20,000 or 25,000 men at Salona on the Adriatic, including regular Byzantine units and a large contingent of foreign allies, notably Lombards, Heruls and Bulgars. Narses, the imperial chamberlain ("cubicularius") was appointed to command in mid-551. The following spring, Narses led this Byzantine army around the coast of the Adriatic to Ancona and then turned inland, intending to march down the Via Flaminia to Rome. Near the village of Taginae, the Byzantines encountered the Ostrogothic army, commanded by Totila, who had been advancing to intercept Narses. Finding himself considerably outnumbered, Totila ostensibly entered into negotiations while planning a surprise attack, but Narses was not fooled by the ruse and deployed his army in a strong defensive position. Reinforcements having arrived, Totila launched a sudden attack at the Battle of Taginae, with a mounted assault on the Byzantine centre. The attack failed and, by evening, the Ostrogoths had broken and fled; Totila was killed in the rout. The Goths holding Rome capitulated and, at the Battle of Mons Lactarius in October 553, Narses defeated Teias and the last remnants of the Gothic army in Italy.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: Though the Ostrogoths were defeated, Narses soon had to face other barbarians who invaded Byzantine northern Italy and southern Gaul. In early 553, an army of about thirty thousand Franks and Alemanni crossed the Alps and took the town of Parma. They defeated a force under the Heruli commander Fulcaris and soon many Goths from northern Italy joined their forces. Narses had dispersed his troops to garrisons throughout central Italy and had wintered at Rome. After serious depredations throughout Italy, the barbarians were brought to battle by Narses on the banks of the river Volturnus. In the Battle of the Volturnus, the Byzantine phalanx held a furious Frankish assault while the Byzantine cavalry encircled them. The Franks and Alemanni were all but annihilated. Seven thousand Goths held out at Campsa, near Naples, until capitulating in the spring of 555. The lands and cities across the River Po were still held by Franks, Alemanni and Goths and it was not until 562 that their last strongholds, the cities of Verona and Brixia, were subjugated. According to the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea, the barbarian population was then allowed to live peacefully in Italy under Roman sovereignty.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: The Gothic War is often viewed as a Pyrrhic victory, which drained the Byzantine Empire of resources that might have been employed against more serious threats in western Asia and the Balkans. In the east, pagan Slavs and Kutrigurs raided and devastated the Byzantine provinces south of the Danube from 517. A century later Dalmatia, Macedonia, Thrace and most of Greece were lost to Slavs and Avars. Some recent historians have taken a different view of Justinian's western campaigns. Warren Treadgold placed greater blame for the vulnerability of the Empire in the late 6th century on the Plague of Justinian in 540–541, which is estimated to have killed up to a quarter of the population at the height of the Gothic War, sapping the Empire of manpower and tax revenues needed to complete the campaign more swiftly. No ruler, no matter how wise, could possibly have anticipated the Plague, he argues, which would have been disastrous for the Empire and Italy, regardless of the attempt to reconquer Italy. However, as a result of Rome having been under attack constantly during the war, the deaths not caused by the plague continued to rise.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: In Italy the war devastated the urban society that was supported by a settled hinterland. The great cities were abandoned as Italy fell into a long period of decline. The impoverishment of Italy and the drain on the Empire made it impossible for the Byzantines to hold their gains. Only three years after the death of Justinian in 565, the mainland Italian territories fell into the hands of the Germanic Lombards. The Exarchate of Ravenna, a band of territory that stretched across central Italy to the Tyrrhenian Sea and south to Naples, along with parts of southern Italy, were the only remaining Imperial holdings. After the Gothic Wars the Empire would entertain no more serious ambitions in the West. Rome would remain under imperial control until the Exarchate of Ravenna was finally conquered by the Lombards in 751. Some coastal areas of southern Italy would remain under East Roman influence, until the late 11th century, while the interior would be ruled by Lombard dukes based at Benevento and later also at Salerno and Capua.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: A decisive result was that Italyunited into a single political unit by the Romans in the early centuries of their expansion and remaining such throughout the Roman Empire and also under the Gothswas broken up, with the successor states often going to war with each other, until the Unification of Italy in the 19th Century.


title: Gothic War (535–554)

text: The widespread destruction of Italy in the war, harsh Gothic and Byzantine reprisals of their opponents' supporters, and heavy Byzantine taxation led the Italian populace to shift allegiances: instead of loyalty to Empire, their identities were increasingly tied to religion, family and city instead.


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: The Chahamanas of Shakambhari (IAST: Cāhamāna), colloquially known as the Chauhans of Sambhar or Chauhans of Ajmer, were an Indian dynasty that ruled parts of the present-day Rajasthan and neighbouring areas in India, between the 6th and 12th centuries. The territory ruled by them was known as Sapadalaksha. They were the most prominent ruling family of the Chahamana (Chauhan) Rajput clan.


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: The Chahamanas originally had their capital at Shakambhari (present-day Sambhar Lake Town). Until the 10th century, they ruled as Pratihara vassals. When the Pratihara power declined after the Tripartite Struggle, the Chahamana ruler Simharaja assumed the title Maharajadhiraja. In the early 12th century, Ajayaraja II moved the kingdom's capital to Ajayameru (modern Ajmer). For this reason, the Chahamana rulers are also known as the "Chauhans of Ajmer".


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: The Chahamanas fought several wars with their neighbours, including the Chaulukyas of Gujarat, the Tomaras of Delhi, the Paramaras of Malwa and the Chandelas of Bundelkhand. From 11th century onwards, they started facing Muslim invasions, first by the Ghaznavids, and then by the Ghurids. The Chahamana kingdom reached its zenith under Vigraharaja IV in the mid-12th century. The dynasty's power effectively ended in 1192 CE, when the Ghurid invader Muhammad of Ghor defeated and executed his nephew Prithviraj Chauhan.


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: According to the 1170 CE Bijolia rock inscription of Someshvara, the early Chahamana king Samantaraja was born at Ahichchhatrapura in the gotra of sage Vatsa. Historian R. B. Singh theorizes that the Chahamanas probably started out as petty rulers of Ahichchhatrapura (identified with Nagaur), and moved their capital to Shakambhari (Sambhar) as their kingdom grew. Later, they became the vassals of the Imperial Pratiharas.


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: Several mythical accounts of the dynasty's origin also exist. The earliest of the dynasty's inscriptions and literary works state that the dynasty's progenitor was a legendary hero named Chahamana. They variously state that this hero was born from Indra's eye, in the lineage of the sage Vatsa, in the solar dynasty and/or during a ritual sacrifice performed by Brahma. A popular medieval account classifies the dynasty among the four Agnivanshi Rajput clans, whose ancestors are said to have come out of sacrificial fire pit. The earliest sources to mention this legend are the 16th century recensions of "Prithviraj Raso". Some colonial-era historians interpreted this myth to suggest a foreign origin of the dynasty, speculating that the foreign warriors were initiated into the Hindu society through a fire ritual. However, the earliest extant copy of "Prithviraj Raso" does not mention this legend at all. Instead, it states that the first ruler of the dynasty was Manikya Rai, who is said to have been born from Brahma's sacrifice.


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: The core territory of the Chahamanas was located in present-day Rajasthan. It was known as Sapadalaksha (IAST: Sapādalakṣa) or Jangala-desha (IAST: Jangaladeśa).


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: The term Jangladesha ("rough and arid country") appears to be older, as it mentioned in the "Mahabharata". The text does not mention the exact location of the region. The later Sanskrit texts, such as ' and ' suggest that it was a hot, arid region, where trees requiring little water grew. The region is identified with the area around Bikaner.


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: The term Sapadalaksha (literally "one and a quarter lakhs" or 125,000) refers to the large number of villages in the area. It became prominent during the Chahamana reign. It appears that the term originally referred to the area around modern Nagaur near Bikaner. This area was known as "Savalak" (vernacular form of Sapadalaksha) in as late as 20th century. The early Chahamana king Samantaraja was based in Ahichchhatrapura, which can be identified with modern Nagaur. The ancient name of Nagaur was Nagapura, which means "the city of the serpent". Ahichchhatrapura has a similar meaning: "the city whose "chhatra" or protector is serpent".


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: As the Chahamana territory expanded, the entire region ruled by them came to be known as Sapadalaksha. This included the later Chahamana capitals Ajayameru (Ajmer) and Shakambhari (Sambhar). The term also came to be applied to the larger area captured by the Chahamanas. The early medieval Indian inscriptions and the writings of the contemporary Muslim historians suggest that the following cities were also included in Sapadalaksha: Hansi (now in Haryana), Mandore (now in Marwar region), and Mandalgarh (now in Mewar region).


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: The earliest historical Chahamana king is the 6th century ruler Vasudeva. According to a mythical account in "Prithviraja Vijaya", he received the Sambhar Salt Lake as a gift from a vidyadhara (a supernatural being). Little is known about his immediate successors. The 8th century Chahamana ruler Durlabharaja I and his successors are known to have served the Gurjara-Pratiharas as vassals. In 10th century, Vakpatiraja I made an attempt to overthrow the Gurjara-Pratihara suzerainty, and assumed the title Maharaja ("great king"). His younger son Lakshmana established the Naddula Chahamana branch. Vakpatiraja's elder son and successor Simharaja assumed the title Maharajadhiraja ("king of great kings"), which suggests that he was a sovereign ruler.


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: Simharaja's successors consolidated the Chahamana power by engaging in wars with their neighbours, including the Chaulukyas of Gujarat and the Tomaras of Delhi. The dynasty's earliest extant inscription (973 CE) is from the reign of Vigraharaja II. During the reign of Viryarama (r. c. 1040 CE), the Paramara king Bhoja invaded the Chahamana kingdom, and probably occupied their capital Shakambhari for a brief period. Chamundaraja restored the Chahamana power, possibly with the help of the Naddula Chahamanas.


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: The subsequent Chahamana kings faced several Ghaznavid raids. Ajayaraja II (r. c. 1110-1135 CE) repulsed a Ghaznavid attack, and also defeated the Paramara king Naravarman. He moved the kingdom's capital from Shakambhari to Ajayameru (Ajmer), a city that he either established or greatly expanded. His successor Arnoraja raided the Tomara territory, and also repulsed a Ghaznavid invasion. However, he suffered setbacks against the Gujarat Chaulukya kings Jayasimha Siddharaja and Kumarapala, and was killed by his own son Jagaddeva.


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: Arnoraja's younger son Vigraharaja IV greatly expanded the Chahamana territories, and captured Delhi from the Tomaras. His kingdom included parts of the present-day Rajasthan, Haryana, and Delhi. It probably also included a part of Punjab (to the south-east of Sutlej river) and a portion of the northern Gangetic plain (to the west of Yamuna). His 1164 CE Delhi-Shivalik pillar inscription claims that he conquered the region between the Himalayas and the Vindhyas, and thus restored the rule of Aryans in Aryavarta. While this is an exaggeration, it is not completely baseless. The inscription was originally found in Topra village, near the Shivalik Hills (Himalayan foothills). Also, the exiled ruler of Malwa (Vindhyan region) possibly acknowledged his suzerainty. Thus Vigraharaja's influence extended from the Himalayas to the Vindhyas, at least in name.


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: Vigraharaja was succeeded by his son Amaragangeya, and then his nephew Prithviraja II. Subsequently, his younger brother Someshvara ascended the throne.


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: The most celebrated ruler of the dynasty was Someshvara's son Prithviraja III, better known as Prithviraj Chauhan. He defeated several neighbouring kings, including the Chandela ruler Paramardi in 1182–83, although he could not annex the Chandela territory to his kingdom. In 1191, he defeated the Ghurid Empire king Muhammad of Ghor at the first Battle of Tarain. However, the next year, he was defeated at the second Battle of Tarain by Muhammad of Ghor, and subsequently killed.


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: Muhammad of Ghor appointed Prithviraja's son Govindaraja IV as a vassal. Prithviraja's brother Hariraja dethroned him, and regained control of a part of his ancestral kingdom. Hariraja was defeated by the Ghurids in 1194 CE. Govindaraja was granted the fief of Ranthambore by the Ghurids. There, he established a new branch of the dynasty.


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: The Chahamanas commissioned a number of Hindu temples, several of which were destroyed by the Ghurid invaders after the defeat of Prithviraja III.


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: Multiple Chahamana rulers contributed to the construction of the Harshanatha temple, which was probably commissioned by Govindaraja I. According to "Prithviraja Vijaya":


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: Vigraharaja IV was known for his patronage to arts and literature, and himself composed the play "Harikeli Nataka". The structure that was later converted into the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra mosque was constructed during his reign.


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: The Chahamana rulers also patronized Jainism. Vijayasimha Suri's "Upadeśāmālavritti" (1134 CE) and Chandra Suri's "Munisuvrata-Charita" (1136 CE) state that Prithviraja I donated golden kalashas (cupolas) for the Jain temples at Ranthambore. The "Kharatara-Gachchha-Pattavali" states that Ajayaraja II allowed the Jains to build their temples in his capital Ajayameru (Ajmer), and also donated a golden kalasha to a Parshvanatha temple. Someshvara granted the Revna village to a Parshvanatha temple.


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: <mapframe text="Find spots of the inscriptions issued during the Shakambhari Chahamana reign." width="280" height="280" zoom="5" latitude="26.45" longitude="74.62">


title: Chahamanas of Shakambhari

text: Following is a list of Chahamana rulers of Shakambhari and Ajmer, with approximate period of reign, as estimated by R. B. Singh:


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: Innocence of Muslims is an anti-Islamic short film that was written and produced by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. Two versions of the 14-minute video were uploaded to YouTube in July 2012, under the titles "The Real Life of Muhammad" and "Muhammad Movie Trailer". Videos dubbed in Arabic were uploaded during early September 2012. Anti-Islamic content had been added in post-production by dubbing, without the actors' knowledge.


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: What was perceived as denigration of the Islamic prophet Muhammad resulted in demonstrations and violent protests against the video to break out on September 11 in Egypt and spread to other Arab and Muslim nations and to some western countries. The protests led to hundreds of injuries and over 50 deaths. Fatwas calling for the harm of the video's participants were issued and Pakistani government minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour offered a bounty for the killing of Nakoula, the producer. The film has sparked debates about freedom of speech and Internet censorship.


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: The video titled "The Real Life of Muhammad", uploaded on July 1, 2012, has a running time of 13:03 in 480p format. The video "Muhammad Movie Trailer" was uploaded on July 2, 2012, with a running time of 13:51 in 1080p format. They are similar in content.


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: The trailer opens with a scene portraying the reportedly increasing persecution of Copts and poor human rights in Egypt around the time of the film's production, with increases in church burnings, religious intolerance and sectarian violence against the 10% population of Egypt that are Copts, as well as complaints that authorities have failed to protect this population. "The New York Times" stated: "The trailer opens with scenes of Egyptian security forces standing idle as Muslims pillage and burn the homes of Egyptian Christians. Then it cuts to cartoonish scenes depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a child of uncertain parentage, a buffoon, a womanizer, a homosexual, a child molester, and a greedy, bloodthirsty thug."


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: Most references to Islam were overdubbed over the original spoken lines after filming had been completed. The film's 80 cast and crew members have disavowed the film: "The entire cast and crew are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer. ... We are deeply saddened by the tragedies that have occurred."


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: The script was originally about life in Egypt 2,000 years ago and was titled "Desert Warrior". It was a story about a character called "Master George". Several actors were brought in to overdub lines. They were directed to say specific words, such as "Muhammad".


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: The trailer opens in a medical office, where a presumably Muslim police officer is bragging to Copts, including a doctor, about Muhammed's polygamous romantic life, and implying that Muhammad's marital and sexual practices are a model for all Muslim men. The Copts remain unimpressed, and one of them replies with sarcasm, thus irritating the police officer. The scene then cuts to anti-Coptic mob attacks taking place outside the clinic. As an Islamic call to prayer is sung from somewhere in the area, Muslims are shown committing arson and looting a business which appears to be the clinic, as police do nothing. A young woman wearing a cross is apparently murdered by the rioters. In the final shot of this segment, the police officer who had earlier been arguing in the clinic is seen standing passively in the street, holding some unidentified items presumably looted from the targeted businesses.


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: In the next scene, the doctor and his family, hiding from the anti-Coptic attacks, take shelter in their home, where the doctor informs two women, implied to be his wife and daughter, that the "angry mob in the city" is the "Islamic Egyptian Police". Presumably after the attack is over, he mentions that they had arrested 1,400 Christians, tortured them, and forced them to confess to "the killings". His daughter asks why they are doing doing this, to which her father responds "to protect Islamic crimes". The doctor then implies that a crackdown on the violence would save lives and taxpayers' money.


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: Following this exchange, the doctor takes up a marker and begins writing on a whiteboard: "Man + X = BT". "BT" is overdubbed as "Islamic terrorist". His daughter asks what "X" is. He tells her that she needs to discover that for herself. It is implied X is Muhammad, though the issue is never raised again.


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: The video continues with scenes set in pre-Islamic and early-Islamic Arabia. It starts with Muhammad supposedly being born 4 years after his father died. Some scenes depict the main character referred to in overdubbing as "Muhammad". In one scene, the "Muhammad" character's wife, "Khadija", suggests mixing parts of the Torah and the New Testament to create the Quran. In another scene, Muhammad is seen speaking to the donkey known as Yaʽfūr in Islamic tradition. It goes on to suggest that Muhammad was a rapist, pedophile, homosexual, and supported religious persecution, and that these actions were written into the Quran and contributed to the buildup of Islamist terrorist attacks.


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: A "Vanity Fair" article described the video as "Exceptionally amateurish, with disjointed dialogue, jumpy editing, and performances that would have looked melodramatic even in a silent movie, the clip is clearly designed to offend Muslims, portraying Mohammed as a bloodthirsty murderer, Lothario and pedophile with omnidirectional sexual appetites."


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: Reuters said "it portrays Mohammad as a fool, a philanderer and a religious fake and in one clip posted on YouTube, he was shown in an apparent sexual act with a woman. For many Muslims it is blasphemous even to show a depiction of the Prophet."


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: The movie was written and produced by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, using the pseudonym of "Sam Bacile". Nakoula claimed that he was creating an epic, two-hour film but no such film has come to light.


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: The project was promoted by Morris Sadek by email and on the blog of the National American Coptic Assembly.


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: According to a consultant on the project, the videos are "trailers" from a full-length film that was shown only once, to an audience of fewer than ten people, at a rented theater in Hollywood, California. Posters advertising the film used the title "Innocence of Bin Laden". The film's original working title was "Desert Warrior", and it told the story of "tribal battles prompted by the arrival of a comet on Earth". On September 27, 2012, U.S. federal authorities stated Nakoula was arrested in Los Angeles for allegedly violating terms of his probation. Prosecutors stated that some of the violations included making false statements regarding his role in the film and his use of the alias "Sam Bacile". On November 7, 2012, Nakoula pleaded guilty to four of the charges against him and was sentenced to one year in prison and four years of supervised release.


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: In July 2011, Nakoula started casting actors for "Desert Warrior", the working title at that time. The independent film was directed by a person first identified in casting calls as Alan Roberts, whose original cut and filmed dialog and script did not include references to Muhammad or Islam. According to the casting.backstage.com announcement, it was to be "an HD 24P historical Arabian Desert adventure film" with "Sam Bassiel" as producer with shooting to start in August 2011. The lead was to be "George: male, 20–40, a strong leader, romantic, tyrant, a killer with no remorse, accent".


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: American non-profit Media for Christ obtained film permits to shoot the movie in August 2011, and Nakoula provided his home as a set and paid the actors, according to government officials and those involved in the production. Joseph Nassralla Abdelmasih, president of Media for Christ, claimed that the company's name was used without his knowledge. He also stated that the film was edited afterwards without Media's involvement. Steve Klein, an anti-Muslim and self-styled counter-jihad activist was hired as a consultant, and was relied on to sharpen the film's Islamophobic framing. Nasralla has however also been noted to have had close ties both to Klein and to the counter-jihad movement. Klein later appeared publicly claiming to be the spokesman for the film. Klein told journalist Jeffrey Goldberg that despite previous claims, "Bacile" is not a real person and is neither Israeli nor Jewish and that the name is a pseudonym. Israeli authorities found no sign of his being an Israeli citizen, and there was no indication of a "Sam Bacile" living in California or participating in Hollywood filmmaking.


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: By September 13, 2012, "Sam Bacile" was identified as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a 55-year-old Coptic Christian from Egypt living near Los Angeles, California, with known aliases. In the 1990s, he served time in prison for manufacturing methamphetamine. He pleaded "no contest" in 2010 to bank fraud charges, was sentenced to 21 months in prison, and was released on probation in June 2011. Nakoula claims to have written the script while in prison and raised between $50,000 and $60,000 from his wife's family in Egypt to finance the film. The FBI contacted him due to the potential for threats, but said he was not under investigation. On September 27, 2012, U.S. federal authorities arrested Nakoula in Los Angeles for suspicion of violating terms of his probation. Violations included making false statements regarding his role in the film and his use of the alias "Sam Bacile". On November 7, 2012, Nakoula pleaded guilty to four of the charges against him and was sentenced to one year in prison and four years of supervised release.


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: Law professor Stephen L. Carter and constitutional law expert Floyd Abrams have each stated that the government cannot prosecute the film's producer for its "content" because of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protects freedom of speech in the United States.


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: The video production "Innocence of Bin Laden" was advertised in the Anaheim-based newspaper "Arab World" during May and June 2012. The advertisement cost $300 to run three times in the paper and was paid by an individual identified only as "Joseph". The advertisements were noted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), whose Islamic affairs director stated, "When we saw the advertisement in the paper, we were interested in knowing if it was some kind of pro-jihadist movie." Brian Donnelly, a guide for a Los Angeles based tour of famous crime scenes who noticed the poster advertising at the Vine Theater, said, "I didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing. We didn't know what it was about because we can't read Arabic." The earlier version of the film was screened once at the Vine Theater of June 23, 2012 to an audience of only ten people. The film had no subtitles and was presented in English. An employee of the theater stated, "The film we screened was titled "The Innocence of Bin Laden"", and added that it was a "small viewing".


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: A second screening was planned for June 30, 2012. A local Hollywood blogger, John Walsh, attended a June 29 Los Angeles City Council meeting, where he raised his concerns about the title of a film to be screened that appeared to support the leader of al-Qaeda. He said "There is an alarming event occurring in Hollywood on Saturday. A group has rented the Vine Street theater to show a video entitled "Innocence of Bin Laden". We have no idea what this group is." The blog site reported that the June 30 screening had been canceled. A Current TV producer photographed the poster while it was being displayed at the theater as advertising to later discuss on the talk show "The Young Turks". The poster did not denigrate Muslims, but rather referred to "my Muslim brother". In a translation provided by the ADL, the poster stated it would reveal "the real terrorist who caused the killing of our children in Palestine, and our brothers in Iraq and Afghanistan", a phrase that has been used by Palestinians to protest U.S. support of Israel.


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: The film was supported and promoted by pastor Terry Jones, known for a Quran-burning controversy, which also led to riots around the world. Jones said that he planned to show a 13-minute trailer at his church, the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, on September 11, 2012. It was reported on September 14, 2012, that a planned screening by a Hindu organization in Toronto would be coupled with "snippets from other movies that are offensive to Christians and Hindus". Because of security concerns, no public venue was willing to show the film, although the group still planned on showing the film in the future to a private audience of about 200 people. Siobhán Dowling of "The Guardian" reported that "a far-right Islamophobic group in Germany", the Pro Germany Citizens' Movement, had uploaded the trailer on their own website and wanted to show the entire film, but authorities were attempting to prevent it.


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: The video clips were posted to YouTube on July 1 by user "sam bacile"; however, by September, the film had been dubbed into Arabic and was drawn to the attention of the Arabic-speaking world by blogger Morris Sadek. Sadek's own Egyptian citizenship had been revoked. A two-minute excerpt dubbed in Arabic was broadcast on September 9 by Sheikh Khalad Abdalla.


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: YouTube voluntarily blocked the video in Egypt and Libya, and blocked the video in Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, India, and Singapore due to local laws, while Turkey, Brazil, and Russia initiated steps to get the video blocked. Google, Inc., the owner of YouTube, also blocked the video in Libya and Egypt citing "the very difficult situation" in those countries. In September 2012, the governments of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sudan, and Pakistan blocked YouTube for not removing the video, saying that the website would remain suspended until the film was removed. Government authorities in Chechnya and Daghestan issued orders to internet providers to block YouTube, and Iran announced that it was blocking Google and Gmail. Google also agreed to block the anti-Islamic movie in Jordan.


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: The White House asked YouTube to review whether to continue hosting the video at all under the company's policies. YouTube said the video fell within its guidelines as the video is against Islam, but not against Muslim people, and thus not considered "hate speech". Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union said of this, "It does make us nervous when the government throws its weight behind any requests for censorship."


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: On February 26, 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ordered YouTube to remove the video from its website by a 2–1 majority. The ruling was in response to a complaint by actress Cindy Lee Garcia, who had objected to the use of her performance, which had been partially dubbed for its inclusion in "Innocence of Muslims". Garcia had believed during production that she was appearing in a film called "Desert Warrior", which was described as a "historical Arabian Desert adventure film", and was unaware that anti-Islamic material would be added at the post-production stage. Garcia had argued that she held a copyright interest in her performance.


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: In May 2015, in an en banc opinion, the Ninth Circuit reversed the panel's decision, vacating the order for the preliminary injunction. Ibrahim Hooper, the National Communications Director and spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), advised that people should not watch the film.


title: Innocence of Muslims

text: Protests were held in many nations, through Islamic countries in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa as well as the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, and Australia.


title: IHS Markit

text: IHS Markit Ltd was an information services provider that completed a merger with S&P Global in 2022. Headquartered in London, it was formed in 2016 with the merger of IHS Inc. and Markit Ltd.


title: IHS Markit

text: Information Handling Services (IHS) "was founded in 1959 as Information Handling Services to provide information for aerospace engineers through microfilm databases".


title: IHS Markit

text: It subsequently grew to incorporate other companies in the information services sector such as Cambridge Energy Research Associates, Global Insight, Jane's Information Group, Prime Publications Limited, and John S. Herold, Inc.


title: IHS Markit

text: In 2008, IHS acquired Fairplay, a firm that assigns IMO identification numbers for ships, companies and registered owners.


title: IHS Markit

text: In 2016, Englewood, Colorado-based IHS and London-based Markit merged. Jerre Stead was chief executive of the pre-merger IHS Inc. from 2006 to 2013 and from 2015 until the merger with Markit.


title: IHS Markit

text: Markit was founded in 2003 as Mark-it Partners, a financial data provider for daily credit default swap pricing. The company grew via joint ventures and by acquiring other companies, merging with IHS in 2016.


title: IHS Markit

text: On 30 November 2020, S&P Global and IHS Markit released information about a definitive all-stock deal for around $44 billion, a deal which would be the largest of the year globally, according to Dealogic data. On September 9th, 2021, GlobalData announced its purchase of the Pricing and Reimbursement dataset from IHS Markit. In December 2021, the IHS Markit announced its intention to sell Base Chemicals to News Corp for a reported $295 million as part of an effort to alleviate concerns about competitive effects. The purchase by S&P Global was finalized on 28 February 2022.


title: David Rose (Schitt's Creek)

text: David Rose is a fictional character in the Canadian sitcom "Schitt's Creek," which aired on the CBC and Pop TV from 2015 to 2020. David, a member of the central Rose family, is introduced as the spoiled adult son of Johnny and Moira Rose, and the older brother of Alexis Rose. His initial stories revolve around his attempts to adjust to the family's sudden loss of wealth and subsequent banishment to Schitt's Creek, a small town his father purchased as a joke for his birthday years earlier. As the series progresses, David's story focuses on his small business, Rose Apothecary, and his romantic relationship with Patrick Brewer.


title: David Rose (Schitt's Creek)

text: The character was portrayed by Dan Levy, who created the series alongside his father, Canadian actor Eugene Levy, for the entirety of the series' 80 episodes. His performance as David has been largely praised by critics and fans, earning him four consecutive Canadian Screen Award nominations and one nomination and one win at the MTV Movie & TV Awards for Best Comedic Performance and a Primetime Emmy Award win.


title: David Rose (Schitt's Creek)

text: David's character also garnered attention as one of the first openly pansexual characters depicted on television. The casual treatment of his sexuality and the absence of any homophobia has also been noted as rare for television. In 2019, "Schitt's Creek" won two Dorian Awards and was nominated for a GLAAD Award for its representation of LGBT characters.


title: David Rose (Schitt's Creek)

text: "Schitt's Creek" chronicles the lives of the once wealthy Rose family, which is forced to move to the small titular town after losing their fortune to a crooked business manager. Introduced as the adult son of Johnny (Eugene Levy) and Moira Rose (Catherine O'Hara), David is a former New York City gallerist with little direction and a sheltered worldview. The tight quarters of their new home, the Schitt's Creek Motel, create friction and opportunities for David and his disconnected family as they slowly grow closer. He becomes friends with Stevie Budd (Emily Hampshire), the motel clerk, but generally struggles to connect with others in his new surroundings. David eventually takes a job as a brand manager at a nearby clothing store, Blouse Barn, before opening his own local goods business, Rose Apothecary.


title: David Rose (Schitt's Creek)

text: While launching Rose Apothecary, David meets and begins dating his business partner, Patrick Brewer (Noah Reid). Despite having a rich dating history before moving to Schitt's Creek, David's courtship with Patrick quickly becomes his longest relationship ever. Their relationship hits a brief rough patch when Patrick's previously unknown fiancée comes to town, but David and Patrick eventually reconcile. The couple continues to grow personally and professionally before becoming engaged at the end of the show's penultimate season. David and Patrick marry at the Schitt's Creek town hall in the series' final episode.


title: David Rose (Schitt's Creek)

text: The character of David Rose was developed by series co-creators Dan and Eugene Levy. Dan originally conceived the show as an exploration of excessive family wealth and the consequences of suddenly losing it all. The idea came after Levy says he felt overwhelmed by the wealth showcased on American reality TV programs like "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" and "The Real Housewives" franchise and wondered what would happen if those families could no longer express their affection through "gifts and parties". Interested in pursuing the idea from a character-driven perspective, Dan brought the concept to his father, Eugene, who had experience writing character comedy. The two further developed the idea into what would eventually become "Schitt's Creek".


title: David Rose (Schitt's Creek)

text: David's overall persona was partially crafted during the early stages of filming. Levy initially portrayed the character as speaking in "a hushed whisper", but added more volume on the advice of his father. David's personality was further derived from his designer wardrobe. Speaking to "Flare.com", Levy recalled how when he put on the character's clothes, "there was this strange flamboyance that came out for David that was very controlled, and yet not controlled at all". He says this also helped remind him that his character is someone "who has spent his entire life being someone else".


title: David Rose (Schitt's Creek)

text: Levy drew additional inspiration for David's character from his own life experiences. In a radio interview with Boston's NPR affiliate, WBUR, Levy related that when crafting David's sexuality and relationships, he "tried writing [from his] experience" as an openly gay man. He has also said that some of David's pop culture reference points, including American singer Mariah Carey, come directly from his personal life. David's fear of moths is also drawn from Levy's own fear of them. Outside of these characteristics, Levy says he and David Rose are quite different.


title: David Rose (Schitt's Creek)

text: David is introduced as insecure, with a "general distaste for other people". In a review for "The Hollywood Reporter", Whitney Matheson notes that David "has a stronger bond with his Parisian moisturizer than any human being". David is also highly phobic – fearing bugs, disorganization, germs, nature, and heights. He sometimes downplays or denies these fears in an effort to defy his friends' and family's expectations, but his discomfort is apparent. David further suffers from hypochondriasis. This is revealed early in the series when David is convinced he is having a heart attack, only to discover he is suffering from a panic attack. When downplaying his fears, or otherwise expressing himself, David often displays a dryly sarcastic sense of humour and a lack of social grace. He is particularly blunt when interacting with his sister, Alexis, and best friend, Stevie, although no one is immune to his remarks. In one episode, he tells the owner of the Blouse Barn that the clothes she sells are "skanky". Like his mother, Moira, David is known for his melodramatic behavior, although to a lesser extent.


title: David Rose (Schitt's Creek)

text: One of the few assets the Rose family is allowed to retain when they move to Schitt's Creek is their designer clothing. David's wardrobe is rendered almost exclusively in black, white and gray and contains a wide variety of sweaters. He also frequently wears drop crotch pants and designer sneakers. David accessorizes with four identical silver rings, which he wears in a variety of configurations on his right hand. According to Levy, David's aesthetic is inspired by his mother, Moira, as he is "his mother's son". His style is also heavily influenced by designers Rick Owens and Ann Demeulemeester and often includes items from Givenchy, Neil Barrett, and Tisci.


title: David Rose (Schitt's Creek)

text: Levy wanted the Rose family's designer pieces to be authentic. This presented a challenge given the show's small wardrobe budget. To overcome the cost barrier, Levy worked in collaboration with costume designer Debra Hanson to source items from consignment stores, eBay, and other online resale markets at reduced prices. Items purchased for the character were dated back to the time the Roses lost their fortune, limiting David's clothing to 2015 or earlier. Levy also sourced pieces from his personal closet, including a pair of Rick Owens lace-ups.


title: David Rose (Schitt's Creek)

text: David is pansexual. This is revealed in season one's "Honeymoon" during a conversation with motel clerk Stevie Budd in which he describes his sexual orientation using a wine analogy. When asked if he drinks red (men) or white (women) wine, David demurs saying that he "like(s) the wine, not the label". A much more direct description of David's sexuality, free of analogies, was offered by Johnny in a later scene in the same episode. The reveal of David's pansexuality is scripted to challenge viewers' assumptions of the character. According to Levy, David's initial relationship with a woman, Stevie, is meant to dispel the notion that the character is gay due to his effeminate nature and push the boundaries of what it means to be traditionally masculine or feminine.


title: David Rose (Schitt's Creek)

text: Levy also chose to write the character's sexuality in an environment without homophobia. He has cited several reasons for this creative decision, including his own lack of "patience" for homophobia. Levy also calls this decision a form of "quiet protest" against the LGBTQ tragedy tropes often seen on television, and further stated that David's story is not written to explicitly educate the audience on LGBTQ issues. He says David's sexuality is presented "as it should be" to show the "transformational" impact of love without "the threat of intolerance or bigotry". This approach of acceptance and non-judgement has been widely noted by the press.