title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: The soundtrack album received critical acclaim. Abhishek Singh from "Planet Bollywood" said "Over all, as expected, the music turns out to be daringly different and in complete contrast to anything that you might have ever listened. Almost all the songs carry the message of the film along and for that reason only, one can’t be sure of this album on a stand alone basis but seen alongside the concept of the movie, it sure hits the bulls eye". Joginder Tuteja from "India Fm" said "With music by Vishal Bhardwaj and lyrics by Gulzar saab, one expects an unconventional soundtrack in the offering. Well, unconventional it is and in at least a couple of places, exciting too! This has to be one of the most original tracks ever written. 'Jab Bhi Cigarette' is the opening song of the album and may well be termed as the title song of the album". Satyajit from "Glamsham" said ""No Smoking" dares to be different for chartering unexplored territories and have surprises in raucously driven vivacious tracks like "Phoonk De" and "Jab Bhi Cigarette". Rekha Bhardwaj's peculiar nasal twang will be garnering major spotlight in "Phoonk De" (club mix) with chartbusting success after her subtle and submissive "Laaga Chunari Mein Daag"".


title: Hindi–Urdu controversy

text: The Hindi–Urdu controversy arose in 19th century colonial India out of the debate over whether the Hindi or Urdu language should be chosen as a national language.


title: Hindi–Urdu controversy

text: Hindi and Urdu are mutually intelligible as spoken languages, to the extent that they are sometimes considered to be dialects or registers of a single spoken language referred to as Hindi-Urdu or sometimes Hindustani. The respective writing systems used to write the languages, however, are different: Hindi is written using Devanagari, whereas Urdu is written using a modified version of the Arabic script, each of which is completely illegible to readers literate only in the other.


title: Hindi–Urdu controversy

text: Both Modern Standard Hindi and Urdu are literary forms of the Dehlavi dialect of Hindustani. A Persianized variant of Hindustani began to take shape during the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526 AD) and Mughal Empire (1526–1858 AD) in South Asia. Known as Deccani in southern India, and by names such as Hindi, Hindavi, and Hindustani in northern India and elsewhere, it emerged as a lingua franca across much of India and was written in several scripts including Perso-Arabic, Devanagari, Kaithi, and Gurmukhi.


title: Hindi–Urdu controversy

text: The Perso-Arabic script form of this language underwent a standardization process and further Persianization in the late Mughal period (18th century) and came to be known as Urdu, a name derived from the Turkic word "ordu" (army) or "orda" and is said to have arisen as the "language of the camp", or ""Zaban-i-Ordu"", or in the local ""Lashkari Zaban"". As a literary language, Urdu took shape in courtly, elite settings. Along with English, it became the official language of northern parts of British India in 1837.


title: Hindi–Urdu controversy

text: Hindi as a standardized literary register of the Delhi dialect arose in the 19th century; the Braj dialect was the dominant literary language in the Devanagari script up until and through the nineteenth century. Efforts by Hindi movements to promote a Devanagari version of the Delhi dialect under the name of Hindi gained pace around 1880 as an effort to displace Urdu's official position.


title: Hindi–Urdu controversy

text: The last few decades of the nineteenth century witnessed the eruption of the Hindi–Urdu controversy in the United Provinces (present-day Uttar Pradesh, then known as "the North-Western Provinces and Oudh"). The controversy comprised "Hindi" and "Urdu" protagonists each advocating the official use of Hindustani with the Devanagari script or with the Nastaʿlīq script, respectively. Hindi movements advocating the growth of and official status for Devanagari were established in Northern India. Babu Shiva Prasad and Madan Mohan Malaviya were notable early proponents of this movement. This, consequently, led to the development of Urdu movements defending Urdu's official status; Sir Syed Ahmed Khan was one of its noted advocates.


title: Hindi–Urdu controversy

text: In 1900, the government issued a decree granting symbolic equal status to both Hindi and Urdu. Hindi and Urdu started to diverge linguistically, with Hindi drawing on Sanskrit as the primary source for formal and academic vocabulary, often with a conscious attempt to purge the language of Persian-derived equivalents. Deploring this Hindu-Muslim divide, Gandhi proposed re-merging the standards, using either Devanagari or Urdu script, under the traditional generic term Hindustani. Bolstered by the support of the Indian National Congress and various leaders involved in the Indian Independence Movement, Hindi, in the Devanagari script, along with English, replaced Urdu as one of the official languages of India during the institution of the Indian constitution in 1950.


title: Hindi–Urdu controversy

text: Hindustani was the native language spoken in northern India (what is historically known as the region of Hindustan), and it belongs to the Western Hindi language class of Central Indo-Aryan languages. Mughal rulers brought with them to India the Persian language. In cities such as Delhi, Hindustani began to acquire some Persian loanwords and continued to be called "Hindi" as well as "Urdu". While Urdu retained the grammar and core vocabulary of the local Delhi dialect, it adopted the Nastaleeq writing system.


title: Hindi–Urdu controversy

text: Urdu, like Hindi, is a form of the same language, Hindustani. It evolved from the medieval (6th to 13th century) Apabhraṃśa register of the preceding Shauraseni language, a Middle Indo-Aryan language that is also the ancestor of other modern Indo-Aryan languages. Around 75% of Urdu words have their etymological roots in Sanskrit and Prakrit, and approximately 99% of Urdu verbs have their roots in Sanskrit and Prakrit. The remaining 25% of Urdu's vocabulary consists of loanwords from Persian and Arabic.


title: Hindi–Urdu controversy

text: The conflict over language reflected the larger politicization of culture and religion in nineteenth century colonial India, when religious identities were utilized in administration in unprecedented ways. In time, Hindustani written in Perso-Arabic script also became a literary language with an increasing body of literature written in the 18th and 19th century. A division developed gradually between Hindus, who chose to write Hindustani in Devanagari script, and Muslims and some Hindus who chose to write the same in Urdu script. The development of Hindi movements in the late nineteenth century further contributed to this divergence. Sumit Sarkar notes that in the 18th and the bulk of the 19th century, "Urdu had been the language of polite culture over a big part of north India, for Hindus quite as much as Muslims". For the decade of 1881-90, Sarkar gives figures which showed that the circulation of Urdu newspapers was twice that of Hindi newspapers and there were 55% more Urdu books as Hindi books. He gives the example of the author Premchand who wrote mainly in Urdu till 1915, until he found it difficult to publish in the language.


title: Hindi–Urdu controversy

text: In 1837, the British East India company replaced Persian with local vernacular in various provinces as the official language of government offices and of the lower courts. However, in the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent, Urdu in Urdu script was chosen as the replacement for Persian, rather than Hindi in the Devanagari script. The most immediate reason for the controversy is believed to be the contradictory language policy in North India in the 1860s. Although the then government encouraged both Hindi and Urdu as a medium of education in school, it discouraged Hindi or Nagari script for official purposes. This policy gave rise to conflict between students educated in Hindi or Urdu for the competition of government jobs, which eventually took on a communal form.


title: Hindi–Urdu controversy

text: In 1867, some Hindus in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh during the British Raj in India began to demand that Hindi be made an official language in place of Urdu. Babu Shiva Prasad of Banares was one of the early proponents of the Nagari script. In a "Memorandum on court characters" written in 1868, he accused the early Muslim rulers of India for forcing them to learn Persian. In 1897, Madan Mohan Malaviya published a collection of documents and statements titled "Court character and primary education in North Western Provinces and Oudh", in which he made a compelling case for Hindi.


title: Hindi–Urdu controversy

text: Several Hindi movements were formed in the late 19th and early 20th century; notable among them were Nagari Pracharini Sabha formed in Banaras in 1893, Hindi Sahitya Sammelan in Allahabad in 1910, Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha in 1918 and Rashtra Bhasha Prachar Samiti in 1926. The movement was encouraged in 1881 when Hindi in Devanagari script replaced Urdu in Persian script as the official language in neighboring Bihar. They submitted 118 memorials signed by 67,000 people to the Education Commission in several cities. The proponents of Hindi argued that the majority of people spoke Hindi and therefore introduction of Nagari script would provide better education and improve prospects for holding Government positions. They also argued that Urdu script made court documents illegible, encouraged forgery and promoted the use of complex Arabic and Persian words.


title: Hindi–Urdu controversy

text: Organisations such as Anjuman Taraqqi-e-Urdu were formed in defence of the official status given to Urdu. Advocates of Urdu argued that Hindi scripts could not be written faster, and lacked standardisation and vocabulary. They also argued that the Urdu language originated in India, asserted that Urdu could also be spoken fluently by most of the people and disputed the assertion that official status of language and script is essential for the spread of education.


title: Hindi–Urdu controversy

text: Communal violence broke out as the issue was taken up by firebrands. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan had once stated, "I look to both Hindus and Muslims with the same eyes & consider them as two eyes of a bride. By the word nation I only mean Hindus and Muslims and nothing else. We Hindus and Muslims live together under the same soil under the same government. Our interest and problems are common and therefore I consider the two factions as one nation." Speaking to Mr. Shakespeare, the governor of Banaras, after the language controversy heated up, he said "I am now convinced that the Hindus and Muslims could never become one nation as their religion and way of life was quite distinct from one another."


title: Hindi–Urdu controversy

text: In the last three decades of the 19th century the controversy flared up several times in North-Western provinces and Oudh. The Hunter commission, appointed by the Government of India to review the progress of education, was used by the advocates of both Hindi and Urdu for their respective causes.


title: Hindi–Urdu controversy

text: Hindi and Urdu continued to diverge both linguistically and culturally. Linguistically, Hindi continued drawing words from Sanskrit, and Urdu from Persian, Arabic and Chagatai. Culturally Urdu came to be identified with Muslims and Hindi with Hindus. This wide divergence in the 1920s was deplored by Gandhi, who exhorted the re-merging of both Hindi and Urdu, naming it Hindustani, written in both Nagari and Persian scripts. Though he failed in his attempt to bring together Hindi and Urdu under the Hindustani banner, he popularised Hindustani in other non-Hindustani speaking areas.


title: Hindi–Urdu controversy

text: It has been argued that the Hindi–Urdu controversy sowed the seeds for Muslim nationalism in India. Some also argued that Syed Ahmad had expressed separatist views long before the controversy developed.


title: Hindi–Urdu controversy

text: Because of linguistic purism and its orientation towards the pre-Islamic past, advocates for pure Hindi have sought to remove many Persian, Arabic, and Turkic loanwords and replaced them with borrowings from Sanskrit. Conversely, formal Urdu employs far more Perso-Arabic words than does vernacular Hindustani.


title: Hindi–Urdu controversy

text: In April 1900, the colonial Government of the North-Western Provinces issued an order granting equal official status to both Nagari and Perso-Arabic scripts. This decree evoked protests from Urdu supporters and joy from Hindi supporters. However, the order was more symbolic in that it did not provision exclusive use of Nagari script. Perso-Arabic remained dominant in North-Western provinces and Oudh as the preferred writing system until independence.


title: Hindi–Urdu controversy

text: C. Rajagopalachari, chief minister of Madras Presidency (where a majority of the population would have spoken Tamil or other Dravidian languages) introduced Hindi as a compulsory language in secondary school education though he later relented and opposed the introduction of Hindi during the Madras anti-Hindi agitation of 1965. Bal Gangadhar Tilak supported Devanagari script as the essential part of nationalist movement. The language policy of Congress and the independence movement paved its status as an alternative official language of independent India. Hindi was supported by religious and political leaders, social reformers, writers and intellectuals during independence movement securing that status. Hindi, along with English, was recognised as the official language of India during the institution of the Indian constitution in 1950.


title: Betty Boothroyd

text: Betty Boothroyd, Baroness Boothroyd (born 8 October 1929) is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich and West Bromwich West from 1973 to 2000. From 1992 to 2000, she served as Speaker of the House of Commons. She is the only woman to have served as Speaker, and one of two living former Speakers of the British House of Commons. She sits, by tradition, as a Crossbench peer in the House of Lords.


title: Betty Boothroyd

text: Boothroyd was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, in 1929, the only child of Ben Archibald Boothroyd (1886–1948) and his second wife Mary ("" Butterfield, 1901–1982), both textile workers. She was educated at council schools and went on to study at Dewsbury College of Commerce and Art (now Kirklees College). From 1946 to 1952, she worked as a dancer, as a member of the Tiller Girls dancing troupe, briefly appearing in the London Palladium. A foot infection, however, brought an end to her dancing career, and she chose to enter politics.


title: Betty Boothroyd

text: During the mid to late 1950s, Boothroyd worked as secretary to Labour MPs Barbara Castle and Geoffrey de Freitas. In 1960, she travelled to the United States to see the Kennedy campaign. She subsequently began work in Washington as a legislative assistant for an American Congressman, Silvio Conte, between 1960 and 1962. When she returned to London she continued her work as secretary and political assistant to various senior Labour politicians such as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Harry Walston. In 1965, she was elected to a seat on Hammersmith Borough Council, in Gibbs Green ward, where she remained until 1968.


title: Betty Boothroyd

text: Running for the Labour Party, Boothroyd contested several seats – Leicester South East in 1957, Peterborough in 1959, Nelson and Colne in 1968, and Rossendale in 1970 – before being elected Member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich in a by-election in 1973.


title: Betty Boothroyd

text: In 1974, Boothroyd was appointed an assistant Government Whip and she was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1975 to 1977. In 1979, she became a member of the Select committee on Foreign Affairs, until 1981, and of the Speaker's Panel of Chairmen, until 1987. She was also a member of the Labour Party National Executive Committee (NEC) from 1981 to 1987 and the House of Commons Commission from 1983 to 1987.


title: Betty Boothroyd

text: In 1987, following the general election that year, she became a Deputy Speaker under the Speaker Bernard Weatherill. She served in this role for five years. In 1992 she was elected Speaker, being the first woman ever to hold the position. There was some debate as to whether or not Boothroyd should wear the traditional Speaker's wig upon her election. She chose not to but also stated that any subsequent Speakers would be free to choose to wear the wig. In 1993, the Government won a vote on the Social Chapter of the Maastricht Treaty due to her casting vote (exercised in accordance with Speaker Denison's rule). However, it was subsequently discovered that her casting vote was not required, as the votes had been miscounted and the Government had won by one vote. She was keen to get young people interested in politics, and in the 1990s made an appearance as a special guest on the BBC's Saturday morning children's programme "Live & Kicking".


title: Betty Boothroyd

text: On 12 July 2000, following Prime Minister's Questions, she declared to the House of Commons that she would resign as Speaker after the summer recess. Tony Blair, then Prime Minister, paid tribute to her as "something of a national institution". Blair's predecessor, John Major, described her as an "outstanding Speaker". She resigned as Speaker and as an MP by accepting an appointment to the position of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds on 23 October 2000.


title: Betty Boothroyd

text: Boothroyd was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Civil Law (Hon DCL) by the City University London in 1993. Boothroyd was chancellor of the Open University from 1994 until October 2006, and has donated some of her personal papers to the University's archives. In March 1995, she also was awarded an honorary degree from the Open University as Doctor of the University (DUniv). Since 1999, she is an Honorary Fellow of St Hugh's College, Oxford. Two portraits of Boothroyd have been part of the parliamentary art collection since 1994 and 1999.


title: Betty Boothroyd

text: On 15 January 2001, she was created a life peer, taking as her title Baroness Boothroyd, of Sandwell in the County of West Midlands, and her autobiography was published in the same year. In April 2005, she was appointed to the Order of Merit (OM), an honour in the personal gift of the Queen.


title: Betty Boothroyd

text: Boothroyd is an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Light and Lighting (Hon. FSLL) since 2009, and she is an Honorary Fellow of St Hugh's College, Oxford and St Edmund's College, Cambridge. Boothroyd is furthermore the Patron of the Jo Richardson Community School in Dagenham, East London, England, as well as being President of NBFA Assisting the Elderly. She was also, for a period, Vice President of the Industry and Parliament Trust.


title: Betty Boothroyd

text: In January 2011, Boothroyd posited that Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's plans for some members to the upper house to be directly elected could leave Britain in constitutional disarray: "It is wantonly destructive. It is destruction that hasn’t been thought through properly." Boothroyd said she was concerned that an elected Lords would rival the Commons, risking power-struggles between the two.


title: Betty Boothroyd

text: Boothroyd took up paragliding while on holiday in Cyprus in her 60s. She has described the hobby as both "lovely and peaceful" and "exhilarating".


title: Betty Boothroyd

text: In April 1995, whilst on holiday in Morocco, Boothroyd became trapped in the Atlas Mountains in the country's biggest storm in 20 years. Her vehicle was immobilised by a landslide; she and a group of hikers walked through mud and rubble for 9 hours looking for help. They were eventually rescued.


title: Name of Greece

text: The name of Greece differs in Greek compared with the names used for the country in other languages and cultures, just like the names of the Greeks. The ancient and modern name of the country is "Hellas" or "Hellada"


title: Name of Greece

text: (; in polytonic: ), and its official name is the Hellenic Republic, "Helliniki Dimokratia" (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία ). In English, however, the country is usually called Greece, which comes from the Latin "Graecia" (as used by the Romans).


title: Name of Greece

text: The civilization and its associated territory and people, which is referred to in English as "Greece", have never referred to themselves in that term. In fact, they have rather referred to themselves as 'Hellenes', adopting the traditional appelation of the Hellas region, as in ancient greek literature it is mentioned as one of the first to be established thereby.


title: Name of Greece

text: This name, has its origins in the mythological figure of Hellen, the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, in an origin myth which has parallels to parts of the Book of Genesis. Hellen's father survived a great flood which Zeus caused to happen in order to wipe out humanity. Hellen himself became the founding father to all Greek tribes, begetting one from each of his sons: Aeolus the Aeolians, Dorus the Dorians, and Xuthus the Achaeans and Ionians through his son Ion.


title: Name of Greece

text: Of those, the Ionians largely lived in Anatolia, aka Asia Minor, ergo the most in contact with the Asian world, so their ethnonym became commonly used for all of the Hellenes, to civilizations to east of Greece.


title: Name of Greece

text: The name "Yūnān" (), came through Old Persian during the Achaemenid Empire (550-333 BC). It was derived from the Old Persian "Yauna" for the Ionian Greeks (, "iāones"), on the western coast of Asia Minor and were the first Greeks to come into contact with the Persians. The term would eventually be applied to all the Greeks. Today, words derived from "Yūnān" can be found in Persian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Uzbek, Kurdish, Armenian (as "Yūnānistan" "land of Yūnān"; -"istan" "land" in Persian), Arabic, Hebrew (Biblical and Modern)("Yavan" יָוָן), Aramaic (identical to Hebrew), Indian languages (such as Hindi and Urdu), Pashto, Laz, and Indonesian and Malaysian Malay.


title: Name of Greece

text: Similarly, ancient China referred to the Hellenistic Greco-Bactrian Kingdom in Central Asia as "Daxia" (Tokhara, or Bactria), and the various city-state confederations around the Ferghana Valley as "Dayuan", meaning "Great Ionians". Chinese contact was made first by Han Dynasty diplomat Zhang Qian in 139 BC during his mission to seek an anti-Xiongnu alliance with Greater Yuezhi. Zhang's report of the famous Ferghana horse led to Emperor Wu of Han sending further emissaries seeking trade, though frictions between the envoy and the rulers at Alexandria Eschate led to the War of the Heavenly Horses between the Chinese and the Ferghana confederations, and the eventual Chinese victory led to the establishment of the Protectorate of the Western Regions. The Hellenistic dominance was pushed out of Central Asia and remained further south as the Indo-Greek Kingdom, until eventually replaced by the expansion of Indo-Scythians and the Kushans.


title: Name of Greece

text: The English name "Greece" and the similar adaptations in other languages derive from the Latin name "Graecia" (Greek: ), literally meaning 'the land of the Greeks', which was used by Ancient Romans to denote the area of modern-day Greece. Similarly, the Latin name of the nation was "Graeci", which is the origin of the English name "Greeks".


title: Name of Greece

text: Those names, in turn, trace their origin from "Graecus", the Latin adaptation of the Greek name Γραικός (pl. ), which means 'Greek', but its etymology remains uncertain. It is unclear why the Romans called the country "Graecia" and its people "Graeci", but the Greeks called their land "Hellas" and themselves "Hellenes". Several speculations have been made.


title: Name of Greece

text: William Smith notes in his "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography" that foreigners frequently refer to people by a different name (an exonym) from their native one (an endonym).


title: Name of Greece

text: Aristotle had the first surviving written use the name "Graeci" (), in his "Meteorology". He wrote that the area around Dodona and the Achelous River was inhabited by the Selli and a people, who had been called "Graeci" but were called "Hellenes" by his time.


title: Name of Greece

text: From that statement, it is asserted that the name of Graeci was once widely used in Epirus and the rest of the western coast of Greece. It thus became the name by which the Hellenes were known to the Italic peoples, who were on the opposite side of the Ionian Sea.


title: Name of Greece

text: According to Hesiod, in his "Catalogue of Women", Graecus was the son of Pandora and Zeus and gave his name to the people who followed the Hellenic customs. His brother Latinus gave his name to the Latins. Similarly, the eponymous Hellen is supposed to have given his name to the Greeks, or Hellenes.


title: Name of Greece

text: In his "Ethnica", Stephanus of Byzantium also states that Graecus, the son of Thessalus, was the origin of the name "Graeci" for the Hellenes.


title: Name of Greece

text: The eastern part of the Roman Empire, which was predominantly Greek-speaking, gave rise to the name ("Rhomania" or "Romania"). In fact, for a long time that started in Late Antiquity, the Greeks called themselves (sg. : "Romans"). Those terms or related ones are still sometimes used even in Modern Greek: (from .


title: Name of Greece

text: There was tension with Western Europe on how Roman the western and the eastern parts of the Roman Empire really were. The historian Hieronymus Wolf, after the Eastern Roman Empire had ceased to exist, was the first to call it the "Byzantine Empire", the term that later became usual in the West. However, because it lasted almost 1000 years longer than the Western Roman Empire, Persians, Arabs, and Turks, all in the East, used and sometimes still use terms from "Rhomania" or "Rome", such as "Rûm", to refer to its land or people.


title: Name of Greece

text: The third major form, "Hellas" and its derivatives, is used by a few languages around the world, including Greek itself. In several European languages in which the normal term is derived from "Graecia", names derived from "Hellas" exist as rare or poetic alternatives.


title: Name of Greece

text: The second major form, used in many languages and in which the common root is "yun" or "ywn", is borrowed from the Greek name "Ionia", the Ionian tribe region of Asia Minor, derived from Old Persian and meant for people with youthful appearances. In Greek, these forms have never normally been used to denote the whole Greek nation or Greece.


title: Name of Greece

text: In Sanskrit literature in India, the word यवन "yavana" is derived from this origin and meant the people with youthful appearances. It was used specifically for Greek people until 250 BCE while Indian kingdoms often traded with Greece. After Alexander's invasion on western borders of India, the word took a new meaning as foreigner or invader. The word यवन "yawan," meaning 'foreigner,' is still in use in languages like Hindi, Marathi and Malayalam.


title: Name of Greece

text: The first major form of names derives from the Latin "Graecus" and "Graecia" or their equivalent forms in Greek whence the former derive themselves. These terms have fallen out of use in Greek.


title: Name of Greece

text: The Georgian name for Greece is coined from the Georgian word "wise" "brdzeni" (Georgian: ბრძენი), thus "saberdzneti" would literally mean "land of the wise men", possibly referring to the Ancient Greek philosophy.


title: Name of Greece

text: From its establishment after the outbreak of the Greek War of Liberation in 1821, the modern Greek state has used a variety of official names, most often designating changes of regime. Internally, the country was called Hellas, not Greece, even in the cases below where the name was translated internationally as Greece.


title: Red Arrows

text: The Red Arrows, officially known as the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, is the aerobatics display team of the Royal Air Force based at RAF Waddington. The team was formed in late 1964 as an all-RAF team, replacing a number of unofficial teams that had been sponsored by RAF commands.


title: Red Arrows

text: The Red Arrows have a prominent place in British popular culture, with their aerobatic displays a fixture of British summer events. The badge of the Red Arrows shows the aircraft in their trademark diamond nine formation, with the motto "Éclat", a French word meaning "brilliance" or "excellence".


title: Red Arrows

text: Initially, they were equipped with seven Folland Gnat trainers inherited from the RAF Yellowjacks display team. This aircraft was chosen because it was less expensive to operate than front-line fighters. In their first season, they flew at 65 shows across Europe. In 1966, the team was increased to nine members, enabling them to develop their "Diamond Nine" formation. In late 1979, they switched to the BAE Hawk trainer. The Red Arrows have performed over 4,800 displays in 57 countries worldwide.


title: Red Arrows

text: The Red Arrows were not the first RAF aerobatics team. An RAF pageant was held at Hendon in 1920 with teams from front-line biplane squadrons.


title: Red Arrows

text: In 1925, No. 32 Squadron RAF flew an air display six nights a week entitled "London Defended" at the British Empire Exhibition. Similar to the display they had done the previous year, when the aircraft were painted black, it consisted of a night-time air display over the Wembley Exhibition flying RAF Sopwith Snipes which were painted red for the display and fitted with white lights on the wings, tail, and fuselage. The display involved firing blank ammunition into the stadium crowds and dropping pyrotechnics from the aeroplanes to simulate shrapnel from guns on the ground. Explosions on the ground also produced the effect of bombs being dropped into the stadium by the aeroplanes. One of the pilots in the display was Flying Officer C. W. A. Scott, who later became famous for breaking three England–Australia solo flight records and winning the MacRobertson Air Race with co-pilot Tom Campbell Black in 1934.


title: Red Arrows

text: In 1947, the first jet team of three de Havilland Vampires came from RAF Odiham Fighter Wing. Various teams flew the Vampire, and in 1950, No. 72 Squadron was flying a team of seven. No. 54 Squadron became the first RAF jet formation team to use smoke trails. Vampires were replaced by Gloster Meteors, No. 66 Squadron developing a formation team of six aircraft.


title: Red Arrows

text: Hawker Hunter aircraft were first used for aerobatics teams in 1955, when No. 54 Squadron flew a formation of four.


title: Red Arrows

text: The official RAF team was provided by No. 111 Squadron in 1956, and for the first time, the aircraft had a special colour scheme, which was an all-black finish. After a demonstration in France, they were hailed as ""Les Fleches Noires"" and from then on known as the Black Arrows. This team became the first team to fly a five-Hunter formation. In 1958, the Black Arrows performed a loop and barrel roll of 22 Hunters, a world record for the greatest number of aircraft looped in formation. The Black Arrows were the premier team until 1961, when the Blue Diamonds (No. 92 Squadron) continued their role, flying 16 blue Hunters.


title: Red Arrows

text: In 1960, the Tigers (No. 74 Squadron) were re-equipped with the supersonic English Electric Lightning and performed wing-overs and rolls with nine aircraft in tight formation. They sometimes gave co-ordinated displays with the Blue Diamonds. Yet another aerobatics team was formed in 1960 by No. 56 Squadron, the Firebirds, with nine red and silver Lightnings.


title: Red Arrows

text: In 1964, the Red Pelicans, flying six BAC Jet Provost T Mk 4s, assumed the role of the RAF's leading display team. In that same year, a team of five yellow Gnat trainers from No 4 Flying Training School displayed at the Farnborough Airshow. This team became known as the Yellowjacks after Flight Lieutenant Lee Jones's call sign, "Yellowjack".


title: Red Arrows

text: In 1964, all the RAF display teams were amalgamated, as it was feared pilots were spending too much time practising formation aerobatics rather than operational training. The new team name took the word "red" from the fact that the Red Pelicans' planes had been painted red (for safety reasons, as it was a far clearer and more visible colour in the sky) and "arrows" after the Black Arrows.


title: Red Arrows

text: The Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, the formal name of the Red Arrows, began life at RAF Little Rissington in Gloucestershire, then the Central Flying School. The Red Arrows moved to RAF Kemble, now Cotswold Airport, in 1966 after RAF Fairford became the place of choice for BAC to run test flights for Concorde. When RAF Scampton became the CFS headquarters in 1983, the Red Arrows moved there. As an economy measure, Scampton closed in 1995, so the Red Arrows moved just 20 miles to RAF Cranwell; however, as they still used the air space above Scampton, the emergency facilities and runways had to be maintained. Since 21 December 2000, the Red Arrows have been based again at RAF Scampton, near Lincoln. On 13 October 2022, the Red Arrows moved to their new base at RAF Waddington.


title: Red Arrows

text: The first team, led by Squadron Leader Lee Jones, had seven display pilots and flew the Folland Gnat T1 jet trainer. The first display in the UK was on 6 May 1965, at Little Rissington for a press day. At the subsequent National Air Day display, three days later, at Clermont Ferrand in France, one French journalist described the team as ""Les Fleches Rouges"", confirming the name "The Red Arrows". By the end of their first season, the Red Arrows had displayed 65 times in Britain, France, Italy, Holland, Germany, and Belgium and were awarded the Britannia Trophy by the Royal Aero Club for their contribution to aviation.


title: Red Arrows

text: In 1968, the then team leader (Sqn Ldr Ray Hanna) expanded the team from seven to nine jets, as he wanted to expand the team's capabilities and the permutations of formation patterns. During this season, the 'Diamond Nine' pattern was formed and it has remained the team's trademark pattern ever since. Ray Hanna served as Red Leader for three consecutive years until 1968 and was recalled to supersede Squadron Leader Timothy Nelson for the 1969 display season, a record four seasons as Leader, which still stands. For his considerable achievements of airmanship with the team, Ray Hanna was awarded a bar to his existing Air Force Cross.


title: Red Arrows

text: After displaying 1,292 times in the Folland Gnat, the Red Arrows took delivery of the BAE Hawk in 1979. Since being introduced into service with the Red Arrows, the Hawk has performed with the Red Arrows in 50 countries.


title: Red Arrows

text: In July 2004, speculation surfaced in the British media that the Red Arrows would be disbanded, after a defence spending review, due to running costs between £5 million and £6 million. The Arrows were not disbanded and their expense has been justified through their public relations benefit of helping to develop business in the defence industry and promoting recruitment for the RAF. According to the BBC, disbanding the Red Arrows will be highly unlikely, as they are a considerable attraction throughout the world. This was reiterated by Prime Minister David Cameron on 20 February 2013, when he guaranteed the estimated £9m per annum costs while visiting India to discuss a possible sale of Hawk aircraft to be used by India's military aerobatics team, the Surya Kiran.


title: Red Arrows

text: With the planned closure of RAF Scampton, the future home of the Red Arrows became uncertain. On 20 May 2008, months of speculation were ended when it was revealed that the Ministry of Defence were moving the Red Arrows to nearby RAF Waddington. However, in December 2011, those plans were put under review. The Ministry of Defence confirmed in June 2012 that the Red Arrows would remain at RAF Scampton until at least the end of the decade. Scampton's runway was resurfaced as a result.


title: Red Arrows

text: In July 2018 the RAF announced that RAF Scampton, the wartime base of No. 617 Squadron also known as "The Dambusters", would close by 2022. In March 2019, the Ministry of Defence indicated that RAF Waddington, alongside RAF Leeming and RAF Wittering, was being considered as their future home. It was confirmed in May 2020 that Waddington had been selected. The move was completed on 13 October 2022. The Red Arrows will continue to use airspace above RAF Scampton for their training.


title: Red Arrows

text: In December 2021, Chief of the Air Staff Mike Wigston ordered an inquiry into the Red Arrows, which "The Times" later reported related to allegations of bullying, misogyny, sexual harassment and drunkenness. Up to 40 new recruits to the squadron, many of whom were female, described the culture as "toxic". While the inquiry was ongoing some pilots left, leaving a smaller display team. An inquiry delivered in November 2022 concluded that at least two pilots from the team had enough of a service case against them to warrant their discharge from the service. In November 2022 it was announced that the commanding officer had been suspended for investigations. The whole team were required to attend courses on "unacceptable behaviour" and "active bystander" training after one former female member claimed that newly arrived females on the team were seen as "fresh meat", and would be inundated with unwanted WhatsApp messages.


title: Red Arrows

text: Since 1966, the team has had nine display pilots each year, all volunteers. Pilots must have completed one or more operational tours on a fast jet such as the Tornado, Harrier, or Typhoon, have accumulated at least 1,500 flying hours, and have been assessed as above average in their operational role to be eligible. Even then, more than ten pilots apply for each place on the team. Pilots stay with the Red Arrows for a three-year tour of duty. Three pilots are changed every year, such that normally three first-year pilots, three second-year pilots, and three in their final year are on the team. The team leader also spends three years with the team. The 'Boss', as he is known to the rest of the team, is always a pilot who has previously completed a three-year tour with the Red Arrows, often (although not always) including a season as the leader of the Synchro Pair.


title: Red Arrows

text: During the second half of each display, the Red Arrows split into two sections. Reds 1 to 5 are known as 'Enid' (named after Enid Blyton, author of the "Famous Five" books) and Reds 6 to 9 are known as 'Gypo' (the nickname of one of the team's pilots back in the 1960s). Enid continue to perform close-formation aerobatics, while Gypo perform more dynamic manoeuvres. Red 6 (Syncro Leader) and Red 7 (Synchro 2) make up the Synchro Pair and they perform a series of opposition passes during this second half. At the end of each season, one of that year's new pilots will be chosen to be Red 7 for the following season, with that year's Red 7 taking over as Red 6.


title: Red Arrows

text: The Reds have no reserve pilots, as spare pilots would not perform often enough to fly to the standard required, nor would they be able to learn the intricacies of each position in the formation. If one of the pilots is not able to fly, the team flies an eight-plane formation. However, if the Team Leader, 'Red 1', is unable to fly, then the team does not display at all. Each pilot always flies the same position in the formation during a season. The pilots spend six months from October to April practising for the display season. Pilots wear green flying suits during training, and are only allowed to wear their red flying suits once they are awarded their Public Display Authority at the end of winter training.


title: Red Arrows

text: The new pilots joining the team spend their first season flying at the front of the formation near the team leader. As their experience and proficiency improve, they move to positions further back in the formation in their second and third seasons. Pilots who start on the left of the formation stay on that side for the duration of their three-year tour; the pilots on the right side stay on the right. The exception to this are Reds 6 and 7 (the Synchro Pair), who fly in the 'stem' of the formation - the two positions behind the team leader.


title: Red Arrows

text: During an aerobatics display, Red Arrows pilots experience forces up to five times that of gravity (1g), and when performing the aerobatic manoeuvre 'Vixen Break', forces up to 7g can be reached, close to the 8g structural limit of the aircraft.


title: Red Arrows

text: As well as the nine pilots, 'Red 10', who is the team supervisor, is a fully qualified Hawk pilot who flies the tenth aircraft when the Red Arrows are away from base. This means the team have a reserve aircraft at the display site. Red 10's duties include co-ordination of all practices and displays and acting as the team's ground safety officer. Red 10 often flies TV cameramen and photographers for air-to-air pictures of the Red Arrows and also provides the commentary for all of the team's displays.


title: Red Arrows

text: On 13 May 2009, it was announced that the Red Arrows would include their first female display pilot. Flt Lt Kirsty Moore (née Stewart) joined for the 2010 season. Flt Lt Moore was not the first female to apply to become a Red Arrow, but was the first to be taken forward to the intense final selection process. She joined the RAF in 1998 and was a qualified flying instructor on the Hawk aircraft at RAF Valley. Prior to joining the team, she flew the Tornado GR4 at RAF Marham.


title: Red Arrows

text: The engineering team that supports the Red Arrows is known as "The Blues" and consists of 85 members drawn from various technical and support trades in the RAF. Each season nine members of the Blues are selected to be members of the 'Circus'. The position of "Circus 1" (the engineer who accompanies the "Boss", Red 1) is normally occupied by the Junior Engineering Officer. Similarly, the position of Circus leader (Red 6 or 7) is occupied by a technician of sergeant rank; the other slots being filled by technicians holding corporal or senior aircraftman rank. Each member of the Circus works with the same pilot for the duration of the season and is responsible for servicing their aircraft and preparing their flying kit prior to each display. Circus members fly in the back seats of the jets during transit flights.


title: Red Arrows

text: The team use the same two-seat training aircraft used for advanced pilot training, at first the Folland Gnat which was replaced in 1979 by the BAE Systems Hawk T1. The Hawks are modified with an uprated engine and a modification to enable smoke to be generated; diesel is mixed with a coloured dye and ejected into the jet exhaust to produce either red, white or blue smoke.


title: Red Arrows

text: The first display by the Red Arrows was at RAF Little Rissington on 6 May 1965. The display was to introduce the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team to the media. However, the first public display was on 9 May 1965 in France, at the French National Air Day in Clermont-Ferrand. The first public display in the UK was on 15 May 1965 at the Biggin Hill International Air Fair. The first display with nine aircraft was on 8 July 1966 at RAF Little Rissington.


title: Red Arrows

text: The first display in Germany was at RAF Laarbruch on 6 August 1965. The Red Arrows performed in Germany a further 170 times before formation aerobatics were banned in Germany following the Ramstein airshow disaster in 1988.


title: Red Arrows

text: During displays, the aircraft do not fly directly over the crowd apart from entering the display area by flying over the crowd from behind; any manoeuvres in front of and parallel to the audience can be as low as , the 'synchro pair' can go as low as straight and level, or when in inverted flight. To carry out a full looping display the cloud base must be above to avoid the team entering the cloud while looping. If the cloud base is less than but more than the Team will perform the Rolling Display, substituting wing-overs and rolls for the loops. If the cloud base is less than the Team will fly the Flat Display, which consists of a series of fly-pasts and steep turns.


title: Red Arrows

text: The greatest number of displays flown in any year was in 1995, when the Red Arrows performed 136 times. The smallest number of displays in one year was in 1975, after the 1973 oil crisis limited their appearances. At a charity auction in 2008, a British woman paid £1.5 million to fly with them.


title: Red Arrows

text: By the end of the 2009 season, the Red Arrows had performed a total of 4,269 displays in 53 countries. The 4,000th display was at RAF Leuchars during the Battle of Britain Airshow in September 2006.


title: Red Arrows

text: Following the accidents during the 2011 season, the Red Arrows retained Red 8 and moved the original Red 10 to the Red 5 position to enable them to continue displaying with nine aircraft. In March 2012, the MOD announced that the Red Arrows would fly aerobatic displays with seven aircraft during the 2012 display season as Flt Lt Kirsty Stewart had moved into a ground-based role with the team. It is believed this was due to the emotional stress she had been suffering over the loss of her two Red Arrows colleagues the previous year. As a consequence of this, Red 8 also dropped out of the display team to enable an odd number of aircraft to perform and thus maintain formation symmetry. However, the team carried out official flypasts with nine aircraft by utilising Red 8 as well as ex-Red Arrow display pilot and then Red 10 Mike Ling. The Red Arrows returned to a full aerobatic formation of nine aircraft in 2013.


title: Red Arrows

text: In 2014, The Red Arrows celebrated 50 years of Aerobatic history as a display team returning to RAF Fairford for the Royal International Air Tattoo. For the entirety of the 2014 display season, the aircraft carried special 50th Anniversary markings on their tails instead of just the red, white and blue stripes.


title: Red Arrows

text: After the 2016 display season, the Red Arrows embarked on an Asia-Pacific and Middle East Tour. They performed flypasts or displays in Karachi in Pakistan; Hindon and Hyderabad in India; Dhaka in Bangladesh; Singapore; Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia; Danang in Vietnam; Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Zhuhai in China; Muscat in Oman; Manama in Bahrain; Abu Dhabi and Kuwait. The programme was the first time the team had displayed in China, and the first time a British military aircraft had deployed to Vietnam.


title: Red Arrows

text: The summer 2019 display season took the team on a tour of North America, known as "Western Hawk 19." After performing at the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT), the team departed across the Atlantic at the end of July. As well as performing at US and Canadian air shows, they promoted the UK through school visits and meetings with business leaders. This was the Red Arrows' biggest-ever tour, flying to more than 25 cities, 21 displays and 30 flypasts.


title: Red Arrows

text: On 2 June 2022 Trooping the Colour, as part of Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II, closed with the Queen and Royal Family observing a flypast from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.


title: Red Arrows

text: For the 2022 display season, The Red Arrows are flying a seven aircraft display, due to "2 formation pilots moving to other roles within the RAF". Flypasts are still intended to be performed with nine aircraft, with experienced Red Arrows pilots flying the remaining 2 aircraft.On 2 June 2022 Trooping the Colour, as part of Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II, closed with the Queen and Royal Family observing a flypast from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.


title: Red Arrows

text: In 1977, a charge of £200 was introduced by the MOD for a Red Arrows display. By 2000, the charge had risen to £2,000 (including VAT and insurance). In 2011 the team manager quoted the charge as £9,000.


title: Red Arrows

text: On a transit flight (getting to or from a display location) the team may fly at the relatively low altitude of . This avoids the complication of moving through the cloud base in formation, and also avoids much controlled air space. Jets are more efficient at higher altitude, so longer flights are made at . On transit flights, the formation can include spare planes. Sometimes a C-130 Hercules or an A400M accompanies them, carrying spare parts. They often provide flypasts and brief displays to smaller events if they are already passing over or it is a small detour.


title: Red Arrows

text: As the fuel capacity of the Hawk sets a limit to nonstop flight distance, and the Hawk is incapable of air-to-air refuelling, very long flights between display sites may need landings on the way to refuel. For example, a flight from RAF Scampton to Quebec for an international air display team competition had to be done in seven hops: RAF Scampton, RAF Kinloss (Scotland), Keflavík (Iceland), Kangerlussuaq (west Greenland), Narsarsuaq (south tip of Greenland), Goose Bay (Newfoundland), Bagotville, (Quebec).


title: Red Arrows

text: For the same reason, Red Arrows displays in New Zealand are unlikely because there is no land near enough for a Hawk to land and refuel to reach New Zealand on the most fuel that it can carry.


title: Red Arrows

text: The smoke trails left by the team are made by releasing diesel into the exhaust; this vaporises in the hot exhaust flow, then re-condenses into very fine droplets that give the appearance of a white smoke trail. Dyes can be added to produce the red and blue colour. The diesel is stored in the pod on the underside of the plane; it houses three tanks: one tank of pure diesel and two tanks of blue and red dyed diesel. The smoke system uses per minute; therefore each plane can trail smoke for a total of seven minutes: – five minutes of white smoke, a minute of blue and a minute of red.


title: Red Arrows

text: In 2021, the Ministry of Defence asked the civil sector to help develop an environmentally friendly smoke system for the team's aircraft. This is part of its drive to make the RAF net-zero by 2040.


title: Red Arrows

text: In 1985, Database Software released a flight simulator called "Red Arrows", made in cooperation with the flight team. In the simulator, stunts have to be performed while flying in formation. It was available for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Acorn Electron, BBC Micro and Atari.


title: Spring (device)

text: A spring is an elastic object that stores mechanical energy. In everyday use the term often refers to coil springs, but there are many different spring designs. Modern springs are typically manufactured from spring steel, although some non-metallic objects like the bow are also springs.


title: Spring (device)

text: When a conventional spring, without stiffness variability features, is compressed or stretched from its resting position, it exerts an opposing force approximately proportional to its change in length (this approximation breaks down for larger deflections). The "rate" or "spring constant" of a spring is the change in the force it exerts, divided by the change in deflection of the spring. That is, it is the gradient of the force versus deflection curve. An extension or compression spring's rate is expressed in units of force divided by distance, for example or N/m or lbf/in. A torsion spring is a spring that works by twisting; when it is twisted about its axis by an angle, it produces a torque proportional to the angle. A torsion spring's rate is in units of torque divided by angle, such as N·m/rad or ft·lbf/degree. The inverse of spring rate is compliance, that is: if a spring has a rate of 10 N/mm, it has a compliance of 0.1 mm/N. The stiffness (or rate) of springs in parallel is additive, as is the compliance of springs in series.


title: Spring (device)

text: Springs are made from a variety of elastic materials, the most common being spring steel. Small springs can be wound from pre-hardened stock, while larger ones are made from annealed steel and hardened after fabrication. Some non-ferrous metals are also used including phosphor bronze and titanium for parts requiring corrosion resistance and beryllium copper for springs carrying electrical current (because of its low electrical resistance).


title: Spring (device)

text: Simple non-coiled springs were used throughout human history, e.g. the bow (and arrow). In the Bronze Age more sophisticated spring devices were used, as shown by the spread of tweezers in many cultures. Ctesibius of Alexandria developed a method for making bronze with spring-like characteristics by producing an alloy of bronze with an increased proportion of tin, and then hardening it by hammering after it was cast.


title: Spring (device)

text: Coiled springs appeared early in the 15th century, in door locks. The first spring powered-clocks appeared in that century and evolved into the first large watches by the 16th century.


title: Spring (device)

text: In 1676 British physicist Robert Hooke postulated Hooke's law, which states that the force a spring exerts is proportional to its extension.


title: Spring (device)

text: As long as not stretched or compressed beyond their elastic limit, most springs obey Hooke's law, which states that the force with which the spring pushes back is linearly proportional to the distance from its equilibrium length:


title: Spring (device)

text: Coil springs and other common springs typically obey Hooke's law. There are useful springs that don't: springs based on beam bending can for example produce forces that vary nonlinearly with displacement.


title: Spring (device)

text: If made with constant pitch (wire thickness), conical springs have a variable rate. However, a conical spring can be made to have a constant rate by creating the spring with a variable pitch. A larger pitch in the larger-diameter coils and a smaller pitch in the smaller-diameter coils forces the spring to collapse or extend all the coils at the same rate when deformed.


title: Spring (device)

text: Since force is equal to mass, "m", times acceleration, "a", the force equation for a spring obeying Hooke's law looks like:


title: Spring (device)

text: The mass of the spring is small in comparison to the mass of the attached mass and is ignored. Since acceleration is simply the second derivative of x with respect to time,


title: Spring (device)

text: This is a second order linear differential equation for the displacement formula_4 as a function of time. Rearranging:


title: Spring (device)

text: formula_7 and formula_8 are arbitrary constants that may be found by considering the initial displacement and velocity of the mass. The graph of this function with formula_9 (zero initial position with some positive initial velocity) is displayed in the image on the right.


title: Spring (device)

text: In simple harmonic motion of a spring-mass system, energy will fluctuate between kinetic energy and potential energy, but the total energy of the system remains the same. A spring that obeys Hooke's Law with spring constant "k" will have a total system energy "E" of:


title: Spring (device)

text: Here, A is the amplitude of the wave-like motion that is produced by the oscillating behavior of the spring.


title: Spring (device)

text: The potential energy "U" of such a system can be determined through the spring constant "k" and its displacement "x":


title: Spring (device)

text: The kinetic energy "K" of an object in simple harmonic motion can be found using the mass of the attached object "m" and the velocity at which the object oscillates "v":


title: Spring (device)

text: The angular frequency ω of an object in simple harmonic motion, given in radians per second, is found using the spring constant "k" and the mass of the oscillating object "m"":"


title: Spring (device)

text: The period "T", the amount of time for the spring-mass system to complete one full cycle, of such harmonic motion is given by:


title: Spring (device)

text: The frequency "f", the number of oscillations per unit time, of something in simple harmonic motion is found by taking the inverse of the period:


title: Spring (device)

text: In classical physics, a spring can be seen as a device that stores potential energy, specifically elastic potential energy, by straining the bonds between the atoms of an elastic material.


title: Spring (device)

text: Hooke's law of elasticity states that the extension of an elastic rod (its distended length minus its relaxed length) is linearly proportional to its tension, the force used to stretch it. Similarly, the contraction (negative extension) is proportional to the compression (negative tension).


title: Spring (device)

text: This law actually holds only approximately, and only when the deformation (extension or contraction) is small compared to the rod's overall length. For deformations beyond the elastic limit, atomic bonds get broken or rearranged, and a spring may snap, buckle, or permanently deform. Many materials have no clearly defined elastic limit, and Hooke's law can not be meaningfully applied to these materials. Moreover, for the superelastic materials, the linear relationship between force and displacement is appropriate only in the low-strain region.


title: Spring (device)

text: Hooke's law is a mathematical consequence of the fact that the potential energy of the rod is a minimum when it has its relaxed length. Any smooth function of one variable approximates a quadratic function when examined near enough to its minimum point as can be seen by examining the Taylor series. Therefore, the force – which is the derivative of energy with respect to displacement – approximates a linear function.


title: Spring (device)

text: "Zero-length spring" is a term for a specially designed coil spring that would exert zero force if it had zero length; if there were no constraint due to the finite wire diameter of such a helical spring, it would have zero length in the unstretched condition. That is, in a line graph of the spring's force versus its length, the line passes through the origin. Obviously a coil spring cannot contract to zero length, because at some point the coils touch each other and the spring can't shorten any more.


title: Spring (device)

text: Zero length springs are made by manufacturing a coil spring with built-in tension (A twist is introduced into the wire as it is coiled during manufacture; this works because a coiled spring "unwinds" as it stretches), so if it "could" contract further, the equilibrium point of the spring, the point at which its restoring force is zero, occurs at a length of zero. In practice, zero length springs are made by combining a "negative length" spring, made with even more tension so its equilibrium point would be at a "negative" length, with a piece of inelastic material of the proper length so the zero force point would occur at zero length.


title: Spring (device)

text: A zero length spring can be attached to a mass on a hinged boom in such a way that the force on the mass is almost exactly balanced by the vertical component of the force from the spring, whatever the position of the boom. This creates a horizontal "pendulum" with very long oscillation period. Long-period pendulums enable seismometers to sense the slowest waves from earthquakes. The LaCoste suspension with zero-length springs is also used in gravimeters because it is very sensitive to changes in gravity. Springs for closing doors are often made to have roughly zero length, so that they exert force even when the door is almost closed, so they can hold it closed firmly.


title: Fire lance

text: The fire lance () was a gunpowder weapon and the ancestor of modern firearms. It first appeared in 10th–12th century China and was used to great effect during the Jin-Song Wars. It began as a small pyrotechnic device attached to a polearm weapon, used to gain a shock advantage at the start of a melee. As gunpowder improved, the explosive discharge was increased, and debris or pellets added, giving it some of the effects of a combination modern flamethrower and shotgun, but with a very short range (about ), and only one shot (some were designed for two shots). By the late 13th century, fire lance barrels had transitioned to metal material to better withstand the explosive blast, and the lance-point was discarded in favor of relying solely on the gunpowder blast. These became the first hand cannons.


title: Fire lance

text: The first fire lances consisted of a tube, usually bamboo, containing gunpowder and a slow match, strapped to a spear or other polearm weapon. Once ignited, the gunpowder tube would ideally eject a stream of flames in the direction of the spearhead. Projectiles such as iron pellets or pottery shards were later added to the gunpowder. Upon firing, the gunpowder charge ejected the projectiles along with the flame.


title: Fire lance

text: Metal fire lance barrels appeared around the mid-13th century and these began to be used independently of the lance itself. The independent metal barrel was known as an 'eruptor' and became the forerunner of the hand cannon.


title: Fire lance

text: The earliest evidence of fire lances appeared in China in the year 950. However usage of fire lances in warfare was not mentioned until 1132 when Song garrisons used them during the Siege of De'an, in modern-day Anlu, Hubei, in a sortie against the Jin dynasty (1115–1234).


title: Fire lance

text: In 1163 fire lances were attached to war carts known as "at-your-desire-carts" used to defend mobile firebomb trebuchets.


title: Fire lance

text: In the late 1100s pieces of shrapnel such as porcelain shards and small iron pellets were added to the gunpowder tube. At some point fire lances discarded the spearhead altogether and relied solely on their firepower.


title: Fire lance

text: By 1232 the Jin were also using fire lances, but with improved reusable barrels consisting of durable paper material. According to the "History of Jin", these fire lances had a range of roughly three meters:


title: Fire lance

text: In 1233, Jin soldiers used fire lances successfully against the Mongols. Pucha Guannu led 450 Jin fire lancers and routed an entire Mongol encampment. The Mongol soldiers were apparently disdainful of other Jin weapons, but greatly feared the fire lance.


title: Fire lance

text: In 1259 a pellet wad that occluded the barrel was recorded to have been used as a fire lance projectile, making it the first recorded bullet in history.


title: Fire lance

text: By 1276 fire lances had transitioned to metal barrels. Fire lances were also being used by cavalrymen at this point, as evidenced by the account of a Song-Yuan battle in which two fire lance armed Song cavalrymen rushed a Chinese officer of Bayan of the Baarin. The "Huolongjing" also mentions a gourd fire lance which was used by cavalrymen as well as foot soldiers.


title: Fire lance

text: The metal-barreled fire lance began to be used independently of the lance around the mid to late 13th century. These proto-cannons which fired co-viative projectiles, known as 'eruptors,' were the forerunners of the hand cannon.


title: Fire lance

text: The last recorded usage of fire lances in Europe occurred during the Storming of Bristol in 1643 although the Commonwealth of England was still issuing them to ships in 1660.


title: Fire lance

text: Versions where the fireworks and shot were placed in a wooden tube at the end of a pole were known as Troncks, fire-trunks or bombas in Europe. The fireworks had alternating slow and fast burning sections.


title: Fire lance

text: They were frequently issued to warships and a surviving example was found in the wreck of the La Trinidad Valencera. Testing of an attempted reconstruction was carried out in 1988. During the test multiple sections of the Tronck ignited at once.


title: Hungarian notation

text: Hungarian notation is an identifier naming convention in computer programming, in which the name of a variable or function indicates its intention or kind, and in some dialects its type. The original Hungarian notation uses intention or kind in its naming convention and is sometimes called Apps Hungarian as it became popular in the Microsoft Apps division in the development of Word, Excel and other apps. As the Microsoft Windows division adopted the naming convention, they used the actual data type for naming, and this convention became widely spread through the Windows API; this is sometimes called Systems Hungarian notation.


title: Hungarian notation

text: Hungarian notation was designed to be language-independent, and found its first major use with the BCPL programming language. Because BCPL has no data types other than the machine word, nothing in the language itself helps a programmer remember variables' types. Hungarian notation aims to remedy this by providing the programmer with explicit knowledge of each variable's data type.


title: Hungarian notation

text: In Hungarian notation, a variable name starts with a group of lower-case letters which are mnemonics for the type or purpose of that variable, followed by whatever name the programmer has chosen; this last part is sometimes distinguished as the "given name". The first character of the given name can be capitalized to separate it from the type indicators (see also CamelCase). Otherwise the case of this character denotes scope.


title: Hungarian notation

text: The original Hungarian notation was invented by Charles Simonyi, a programmer who worked at Xerox PARC circa 1972–1981, and who later became Chief Architect at Microsoft. The name of the notation is a reference to Simonyi's nation of origin, and also, according to Andy Hertzfeld, because it made programs "look like they were written in some inscrutable foreign language". Hungarian people's names are "reversed" compared to most other European names; the family name precedes the given name. For example, the anglicized name "Charles Simonyi" in Hungarian was originally "Simonyi Károly". In the same way, the type name precedes the "given name" in Hungarian notation. The similar Smalltalk "type last" naming style (e.g. aPoint and lastPoint) was common at Xerox PARC during Simonyi's tenure there.


title: Hungarian notation

text: Simonyi's paper on the notation referred to prefixes used to indicate the "type" of information being stored. His proposal was largely concerned with decorating identifier names based upon the semantic information of what they store (in other words, the variable's "purpose"). Simonyi's notation came to be called Apps Hungarian, since the convention was used in the applications division of Microsoft. Systems Hungarian developed later in the Microsoft Windows development team. Apps Hungarian is not entirely distinct from what became known as Systems Hungarian, as some of Simonyi's suggested prefixes contain little or no semantic information (see below for examples).


title: Hungarian notation

text: Apps Hungarian notation strives to encode the logical data type rather than the physical data type; in this way, it gives a hint as to what the variable's purpose is, or what it represents.


title: Hungarian notation

text: Most, but not all, of the prefixes Simonyi suggested are semantic in nature. To modern eyes, some prefixes seem to represent physical data types, such as codice_14 for strings. However, such prefixes were still semantic, as Simonyi intended Hungarian notation for languages whose type systems could not distinguish some data types that modern languages take for granted.


title: Hungarian notation

text: While the notation always uses initial lower-case letters as mnemonics, it does not prescribe the mnemonics themselves. There are several widely used conventions (see examples below), but any set of letters can be used, as long as they are consistent within a given body of code.


title: Hungarian notation

text: It is possible for code using Apps Hungarian notation to sometimes contain Systems Hungarian when describing variables that are defined solely in terms of their type.


title: Hungarian notation

text: In some programming languages, a similar notation now called sigils is built into the language and enforced by the compiler. For example, in some forms of BASIC, codice_20 names a string and codice_21 names an integer. The major difference between Hungarian notation and sigils is that sigils declare the type of the variable in the language, whereas Hungarian notation is purely a naming scheme with no effect on the machine interpretation of the program text.


title: Hungarian notation

text: The mnemonics for pointers and arrays, which are not actual data types, are usually followed by the type of the data element itself:


title: Hungarian notation

text: While Hungarian notation can be applied to any programming language and environment, it was widely adopted by Microsoft for use with the C language, in particular for Microsoft Windows, and its use remains largely confined to that area. In particular, use of Hungarian notation was widely evangelized by Charles Petzold's ""Programming Windows"", the original (and for many readers, the definitive) book on Windows API programming. Thus, many commonly seen constructs of Hungarian notation are specific to Windows:


title: Hungarian notation

text: The notation is sometimes extended in C++ to include the scope of a variable, optionally separated by an underscore. This extension is often also used without the Hungarian type-specification:


title: Hungarian notation

text: In JavaScript code using jQuery, a codice_52 prefix is often used to indicate that a variable holds a jQuery object (versus a plain DOM object or some other value).


title: Hungarian notation

text: Most arguments against Hungarian notation are against "Systems" Hungarian notation, not "Apps" Hungarian notation. Some potential issues are:


title: Pop Idol

text: Pop Idol is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer (or "pop idol") in the UK based on viewer voting and participation. Two series were broadcast, one in 2001–2002 and a second in 2003. An immense success when it launched in 2001, Maggie Brown in "The Guardian" wrote, "the show became a seminal reality/entertainment format once on air that autumn". Series judge Simon Cowell became a major public figure in entertainment, and the show produced instant No. 1 chart hits, including for the first series winner Will Young, whose single "Evergreen" was the fastest-selling debut in UK chart history and the best-selling song of 2002. "Pop Idol" was subsequently put on an indefinite hiatus after Simon Cowell announced the launch of "The X Factor" in the UK in April 2004.


title: Pop Idol

text: The show has become an international TV franchise since, spawning multiple "Idol" series worldwide. In the meantime, a legal dispute arose with the makers of "Popstars", which eventually led to the word "pop" being excluded from the titles of all the spin-offs, such as "American Idol", "Australian Idol", "Arab Idol", "Canadian Idol", "Indonesian Idol", "Indian Idol," "New Zealand Idol", "Latin American Idol", "Idol" (Norway), "Idol" (Poland), "Idol" (Sweden), "Idols" (South Africa), "Pakistan Idol", "Bangladeshi Idol" and (same name for the Portuguese and Brazilian series).


title: Pop Idol

text: One of the UK's top-earning TV format exports, "Pop Idol" made extensive use of premium-priced viewer interactivity, with viewers voting by telephone, mobile telephone texting (not used on series one), through the "red button" on digital television sets, or via the official website. The final of the first series of "Pop Idol" in February 2002 received the highest-ever one-night vote for a UK TV show, making the show one of ITV's most profitable. The sister show on ITV2, "Pop Idol Extra", hosted by Kate Thornton also made extensive use of mobile phone text messages to raise additional revenue. The first "Pop Idol" received very high voting figures despite allowing only telephone and Internet voting and not making use of texting or the "red button". However, the 'voting' system was effectively meaningless, as any individual was permitted to make an unlimited number of votes, the winning contestant thus being merely the one with the most persistent supporters.


title: Pop Idol

text: The Saturday night primetime show initially followed the audition process, as hopefuls sang before four judges (record producer and music executive Pete Waterman, music executive and music manager Simon Cowell, music promoter and music manager Nicki Chapman and Radio DJ and television personality Neil "Dr" Fox) at various locations around the UK. Besides the successful auditionees, the poorest "singers" were often aired due to their obvious lack of talent or presence. Poor singers often faced harsh criticisms from the judges, especially from Simon Cowell (whose controversial rantings also made him famous on "American Idol"). The judges' reactions to such performances often ranged from disgust to nearly open laughter; their style of judgement and attitude towards pop-star wannabes resulted in the controversial opinions of others about the show's setup, including that of Take That manager Nigel Martin Smith.


title: Pop Idol

text: The viewing public quickly fell in love with the format though, as viewing figures indicated. The judges' policy of speaking candidly would have to be sanitised in series 2, however, as it received condemnation from MPs.


title: Pop Idol

text: Once the first round of auditions was completed, the series moved to the Criterion Theatre, where further auditions saw the judges decide on a group of 50. Unusually, this was the final point at which the judges had direct control over the contestants' fates, as the remainder of the results would be driven solely by viewer voting.


title: Pop Idol

text: Stage 3 of the series took place in a conventional TV studio. The 50 contestants were split into five groups of ten, each of whom sang one song for the judges, accompanied only by a piano. Each judge offered their opinion, and at the end of the pre-recorded show phone lines opened for votes. Later the same evening a live show followed in which the voting results were revealed, the top two earning a place in the final ten. In series 2, a wildcard round (an innovation that originated on "American Idol") was added, in which the judges selected ten rejected contestants and gave them a second chance. In this special edition, one contestant, Susanne Manning, was selected by the viewer vote, and one, Sam Nixon, was chosen by the judges. This meant that the next stage began with twelve contestants, rather than the ten in series 1.


title: Pop Idol

text: For the final stage, the show moved to a more lavish TV set, where all remaining contestants sang on live television, accompanied by either a backing track or live band. Most editions had a theme, with contestants singing songs from a particular genre or artist (no original songs were performed at any stage in the competition). Again, the judges offered comments, but the results were decided by viewer voting. Again, a live results show was broadcast later in the evening, but this time the singer with the fewest votes was eliminated, the rest continuing to the following week until only the winner remained.


title: Pop Idol

text: Exceptions to the usual format were limited. In series 1, Darius Danesh was promoted to the live shows when Rik Waller dropped out. Danesh was third in the results for the group where Waller had won his place. Also, the first two live shows of series 2 saw two contestants leave, in order to rebalance the numbers after the addition of the two extra performers from the wildcard show.


title: Pop Idol

text: The first series was won by Will Young, with Gareth Gates coming second. Michelle McManus won the second series. All of the top three contestants from series 1 had number-one singles in the UK. Young continues to be a recording artist. Gates initially had great success as a recording artist, releasing three studio albums and seven top 5 singles. He has since moved on to a successful career in musical theatre appearing as lead in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat", as Marius in "Les Misérables", on tour and in the West End and as Claude in Hair. In 2013, he became a member of the supergroup 5th Story. Darius Danesh had two hit albums and has appeared in the West End musicals "Chicago", playing the role of Billy Flynn, and "Gone with the Wind", originating the role of Rhett Butler. He also appeared in the touring version of "Guys and Dolls" as Sky Masterson. Finalists Rosie Ribbons and Zoe Birkett have both scored chart hits, Birkett also moving on to a career in musical theatre whilst Jessica Garlick represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002. Semi-finalist Sarah Whatmore had two chart hits, despite failing to be voted into the top 10. Series 2 contestants enjoyed significantly less chart success, which many believe damaged the credibility of the show and helped hasten its demise in its home country.


title: Pop Idol

text: Immediately after the second series of "Pop Idol", the same set was used to host "World Idol", in which winners of various "Idol" series around the world, including original "Pop Idol" winner Will Young, "American Idol" winner Kelly Clarkson and "Australian Idol" winner Guy Sebastian, competed in a one-off competition, complete with a large judging panel featuring one judge from each country (Simon Cowell officially representing American Idol, with Pete Waterman the "official" UK judge). The surprise winner was Norway's Kurt Nilsen, who proceeded to minor UK chart success. Cowell was strongly critical of "World Idol", and it is highly unlikely to be staged again.


title: Pop Idol

text: After the second series of "Pop Idol", ITV put the show on indefinite hiatus when in April 2004 judge and music executive Simon Cowell announced the launch of his own show, "The X Factor", which he and his record label (Syco) held the rights to. In September 2004, "Pop Idol" creator Simon Fuller filed a lawsuit against "The X Factor" producers claiming that the format was copied from his own show. The case was eventually settled out of court in November 2005, and as part of the settlement, Simon Fuller was made a joint partner in "The X Factor" show, and Simon Cowell was obliged to stay on as a judge on "American Idol" for a further five years.


title: Pop Idol

text: ITV's licence to produce "Pop Idol" has since expired, meaning that other channels could theoretically acquire the series. Despite rumours (see below), no broadcaster has since acquired the rights to the format in the UK.


title: Pop Idol

text: Despite running for only two series, "Pop Idol"s impact was immense and led 19 Entertainment and FremantleMedia to roll the format out globally; currently there are over 50 versions in 110 countries, including, notably, "American Idol", on which Cowell as a judge until 2010, before launching "The X Factor USA" in 2011.


title: Pop Idol

text: Following the completion of the series, the official "Pop Idol" companion book published percentages of votes for each contestant every week. In some circumstances, the book suggested that the bottom 2 or 3 contestants were not the same as announced by the show hosts. It is not known if the incorrect result was announced, or if the book merely made a typing error. However, the contestant deemed to have had the lowest percentage was always eliminated on that week, meaning the overall result of the show was not changed.


title: Pop Idol

text: "Pop Idol" was released as a video game developed by Codemasters for the PlayStation 2 and Game Boy Advance it was also released for the PC on 30 October 2003. The player creates his/her own singer, then they must sing their way through the auditions, theatre stages, heats, and then the finals. The game increases in difficulty as the player progresses through the competition. With each stage of the finals, one or two players with the least public vote tally are eliminated. The gameplay mainly consists of lining up a moving symbol with a fixed object in the centre of the screen and pressing the corresponding symbol on the game's controller. If the player presses it when the symbol is in the middle of the circle, their singer sings a good note. If he or she presses it when it is not in the circle, or mistimes their press, the singer sings a bad note.


title: Pop Idol

text: The "Idol" format has been launched in dozens of nations worldwide, and there have been many imitations of the programme.


title: Pop Idol

text: A "World Idol" international television special was held in December 2003, featuring national first series "Idol" contest winners competing against each other; viewers worldwide voted "Norwegian Idol's" Kurt Nilsen "World Idol".


title: Pop Idol

text: The similar "Popstars" format preceded "Pop Idol", and was succeeded in Britain by one series of "" and fifteen series of "The X Factor" as of 2018. After "Popstars" producers threatened legal action, a deal was struck that, among other clauses, does not allow the use of the word "pop" in the title of "Pop Idol" editions outside of the UK.


title: Christopher W. Grady

text: Christopher Watson Grady (born November 28, 1962) is a United States Navy admiral who serves as the 12th vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff since December 20, 2021. He most recently served as the commander of United States Fleet Forces Command and United States Naval Forces Northern Command from May 2018 to December 2021, with additional duties as commander of United States Naval Forces Strategic Command and Joint Force Maritime Component Commander from February 2019. He previously served as commander of the United States Sixth Fleet, commander of Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO, deputy commander of United States Naval Forces Europe - Naval Forces Africa and Joint Force Maritime Component Commander Europe from October 2016 to March 2018.


title: Christopher W. Grady

text: A 1984 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Grady was commissioned into the Navy via the Naval Reserve Officers' Training Corps program. Grady is currently the Navy's "Old Salt", designating the longest-serving surface warfare officer on active duty in the U.S. Navy, having received the title and accompanying trophy from Admiral Philip S. Davidson on April 30, 2021.


title: Christopher W. Grady

text: Christopher Grady was born in Portsmouth, Virginia and raised in Newport, Rhode Island. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, and was commissioned an ensign in the United States Navy through the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps program in 1984. Grady is a distinguished graduate of Georgetown University, where he earned a Master of Arts in National Security Studies while concurrently participating as a fellow in Foreign Service at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He is also a distinguished graduate of the National War College, earning a Master of Science in National Security Affairs.


title: Christopher W. Grady

text: Grady's initial sea tour was aboard USS "Moosbrugger" (DD 980), where he served as combat information center officer and anti-submarine warfare officer. As a department head, he served as weapons control officer and combat systems officer in . He was the commanding officer of Mine Counter Measure Rotational Crew Echo in , and deployed to the Persian Gulf in command of . Grady then commanded deploying as part of NATO's Standing Naval Forces Mediterranean. He then commanded Destroyer Squadron 22, deploying to the Persian Gulf as sea combat commander for the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group (TRCSG) in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.


title: Christopher W. Grady

text: Ashore, Grady first served on the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and then as naval aide to the chief of naval operations. He also served on the staff of the chief of naval operations as assistant branch head, Europe and Eurasia Politico-Military Affairs Branch (OPNAV N524). He then served as executive assistant to the navy's Chief of Legislative Affairs. Next, he served as the deputy executive secretary of the National Security Council in the White House. He then went on to serve as the executive assistant to the chief of naval operations.


title: Christopher W. Grady

text: Grady's flag assignments include the Director of the Maritime Operations Center (N2/3/5/7), commander, United States Pacific Fleet; Commander, Carrier Strike Group 1 and the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group, where he deployed for nearly ten months to the Western Pacific and the Persian Gulf conducting combat operations in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. He was then commander of Naval Surface Force Atlantic.


title: Christopher W. Grady

text: As a vice admiral, he commanded the United States Sixth Fleet from October 28, 2016 to March 1, 2018, relinquishing command to Vice Admiral Lisa Franchetti. On October 31, 2017, the United States Senate confirmed Grady's reappointment to the rank of vice admiral and assignment as the assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.


title: Christopher W. Grady

text: On February 28, 2018, Grady was nominated by President Donald Trump for appointment to the rank of admiral and assignment as commander of United States Fleet Forces Command, and confirmed by the Senate on March 22, 2018. He assumed command of USFFC and Naval Forces Northern Command on May 4, 2018 and of commander, Naval Forces Strategic Command (NAVSTRAT) and United States Strategic Command Joint Force Maritime Component Command (JFMCC) on February 1, 2019.


title: Christopher W. Grady

text: On November 1, 2021, he was nominated by President Joe Biden to succeed retiring General John E. Hyten as the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A nomination hearing was scheduled for December 2, 2021, but it was postponed in favor of Senate negotiations on the 2022 NDAA. He was confirmed by voice vote on December 16, 2021, and was sworn in on December 20, 2021.


title: Christopher W. Grady

text: In addition to the below, the University of Notre Dame Alumni Board presented Grady with the Rev. William Corby, C.S.C., Award on September 28, 2019. Established in 1985, the award is conferred on alumni who have distinguished themselves in military service.


title: PokerStars

text: PokerStars is an online poker cardroom that was a part of The Stars Group until it was sold to Flutter Entertainment on May 5, 2020. It can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for the Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It is the largest real money online poker site in the world, controlling over two-thirds of the total online poker market.


title: PokerStars

text: A PokerStars.com online satellite tournament produced the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) champion, Chris Moneymaker. As the first person to become a world champion by qualifying at an online poker site, Moneymaker's 2003 win was an important factor in catalyzing the poker boom of the mid-2000s. The press has called this the "Moneymaker effect."


title: PokerStars

text: PokerStars launched its beta play-money-only site on September 11, 2001. The company began offering real money wagering on December 12, 2001. PokerStars was originally a Costa Rican company, Rational Enterprises, which was majority owned by the Israeli Scheinberg family. The company was subsequently moved to Onchan, Isle of Man. The move was driven by the establishment of a 0% corporate tax rate and the removal of rules barring companies from accepting casino and poker bets from the United States. PokerStars holds numerous licences in other jurisdictions (see Regulated Markets below). In February 2012, PokerStars acquired a European Union license granted by the Malta Lotteries and Gaming Commission.


title: PokerStars

text: While privately owned, PokerStars had been the subject of financial media speculation regarding a possible initial public offering or merger with a publicly listed company. Analysts estimated its market value would have been approximately US$2 billion in 2006, which would have made the company one of the world's largest privately held gambling companies. PokerStars overtook PartyPoker as the world's largest online poker room after the U.S. Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. Many sites, including PartyPoker, immediately suspended business with U.S. gamblers, while others, including PokerStars, did not.


title: PokerStars

text: In December 2009, PokerStars set the world record for the biggest online tournament. The tournament entry fee was $1, and the number of entrants reached 149,196. They broke that record in December 2011, when 200,000 players played in a $1 buy-in tournament with a first prize of $50,000. PokerStars was so busy during the early stages of the tournament, all tournaments had to be stopped for 20 minutes because the heavy traffic crashed their servers. This record had been broken again in June 2013, with 225,000 participants. The buy-in was $1 and went completely into the prize pool, with no rake.


title: PokerStars

text: In January 2012, PokerStars introduced a downloadable mobile client for iOS from iTunes. In February 2012, the company also introduced a client for Android.


title: PokerStars

text: In July 2012, PokerStars bought its former competitor, Full Tilt Poker. The $731 million deal settled a civil lawsuit with the Department of Justice while giving ownership of Full Tilt Poker's assets to PokerStars.


title: PokerStars

text: In June 2014, The Stars Group, then known as Amaya Inc, agreed to buy PokerStars and its parent company for $4.9 billion in cash. The deal was completed on August 1, 2014.


title: PokerStars

text: As of April 2016, they have reached an agreement with Netent to add desktop and mobile gambling games to its poker lobby in New Jersey and other locations.


title: PokerStars

text: In February 2017, Microgaming announced a partnership with PokerStars, owned by parent company for the integration of its Quickfire platform.


title: PokerStars

text: In July 2017, PokerStars agreed to a deal with bankruptcy administrators to acquire some of rival PKR.com's assets and in doing so will reimburse 60,000 PKR players 100% of their final balances.


title: PokerStars

text: In December 2017, PokerStars unveiled a brand new player tournament called the PokerStars Players No Limit Hold'em Championship, which is to be held in January 2019. The tournament is expected to become one of the biggest events in the annual poker calendar with a twenty-five thousand dollar buy in and a $1 million bonus for the eventual winner.


title: PokerStars

text: In March 2018, The Stars Group reached an agreement with gaming company Sugal & Damani to support the launch of its PokerStars brand in India.


title: PokerStars

text: In September 2018, PokerStars revealed PokerStars VR, a fully immersive virtual reality poker experience.


title: PokerStars

text: In 2019, PokerStars agreed with Paddy Power Betfair to create the world's largest gambling and betting companies.


title: PokerStars

text: In 2021, Pokerstars entered into a partnership with Red Bull Racing, sponsoring their Formula 1 team, with the brand to appear on Red Bull's new cars for the next few seasons, as well as on the suits of Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez.


title: PokerStars

text: In January 2022, PokerStars announced an extended multi-year partnership deal with Red bull racing. The deal included PokerStars’ branding on the RB18 and race suits. The company stated they aim to provide fans “new and unique ways” to watch the sport in addition to increase technological advancements.


title: PokerStars

text: In April 2022, Pokerstars launched their peer-to-peer betting exchange which allowed customers to enter their own odds and bet against other customers.


title: PokerStars

text: In December 2022, Pokerstars announced that Michigan and New Jersey players would be unable to access their servers on December 12 and December 13 for a “major upgrade of the site” . This upgrade is to allow Michigan and New Jersey poker players to play together, as both states are participants in the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA). Pokerstars stated, “The upgrade is a necessary milestone to bring more games, bigger prize pools and guarantees in poker tournaments so New Jersey and Michigan poker players can compete against one another in the near future."


title: PokerStars

text: PokerStars offers multiple poker variations: Texas hold 'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo (8 or Better), Courchevel, Stud, Stud Hi/Lo (8 or Better), Razz, Five-card draw, 2-7 Triple Draw & 2-7 Single Draw, Badugi, HORSE, HOSE, Mixed Hold'em, Mixed Omaha Hi/Lo, Triple Stud and 8-Game Mix. PokerStars also offers "Mixed Games," which rotate through several of these games.


title: PokerStars

text: PokerStars launched Zoom Poker in March 2012, with an official launch in May 2012. Zoom Poker is a fast fold ring game poker format where opponents change after every hand. The aim of Zoom poker is to offer players more hands of poker than in a regular ring game. In January 2013 PokerStars rolled out Zoom Poker Tournaments due to popular demand for the fast fold variant


title: PokerStars

text: The site's weekly "Sunday Million" tournament has a guaranteed $1 million prize pool and a $215 buy-in. The Sunday Million is the biggest weekly online poker tournament. On March 7, 2011, The 5th Anniversary Sunday Million broke records, with 59,128 players creating a total prize pool of $11,825,600.


title: PokerStars

text: World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) has been running since 2002 and is regarded as the online equivalent of the World Series of Poker. The WCOOP tournament series is the largest online poker series and pays out the largest prizes in online poker. The WCOOP 2010 Main Event champion Tyson "POTTERPOKER" Marks won $2.2 Million, the largest online tournament prize in history.


title: PokerStars

text: Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) was established in 2009 and has since become the most popular online tournament series. Unlike WCOOP, there are three different buy-in stakes in the SCOOP events: Low, Medium (10x Low stake) and High (100x Low stake).


title: PokerStars

text: Micro Millions was launched in March 2012 as a tournament series designed for recreational and micro-stakes players offering a low buy-in tournament schedule and large guaranteed cash prizes. PokerStars guaranteed $5 million in prize pools for the second installment of MicroMillions.


title: PokerStars

text: PokerStars sponsors various live poker tours such as the European Poker Tour (EPT), Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT), Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT), UK and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT), Estrellas Poker Tour (ESPT), Eureka Poker Tour, Italian Poker Tour (IPT), Czech-Slovak Poker Tour (CSPT), Australia & New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT), France Poker Series (FPS), Belgian Poker Series (BPS), Russian Poker Series (RPS) and Brazilian Series of Poker (BSOP).


title: PokerStars

text: Pokerstars VR is a free-play poker game for Oculus and Steam VR platforms that was released in 2018. It allows players to get free chips and use them to play Texas hold 'em as well as roulette, blackjack, slots, and sports betting, although the winnings cannot be transferred into real money. Players can use store credits to buy cosmetics and props for use in games. As of February 2022 it was the 14th most popular game on Meta Quest.


title: PokerStars

text: Pokerstars.net is a company website offering only free play games. The pokerstars.net domain is used primarily in their TV advertisements since there are no real money games available at this website. This avoids any legal issues or censorship of using their pokerstars.com domain which allows real money games.


title: PokerStars

text: PokerStars.tv is the online source for PokerStars TV shows, commercials and event highlight shows – with commentary and expert analysis available in up to 7 languages. The content available includes live cards-up coverage of the biggest PokerStars tournaments, TV shows such as The Million Dollar Challenge and PokerStars Big Game and online tournament highlights from WCOOP and SCOOP.


title: PokerStars

text: PokerStars sponsors a team of professional players known as Team PokerStars Pro. The team includes Chris Moneymaker, Fatima Moreira de Melo, Liv Boeree, Jake Cody, Andre Akkari, Leo Fernandez, Lex Veldhuis, Jason Somerville, Kevin Martin.


title: PokerStars

text: PokerStars also has had a Celebrity team and a Sports team, called respectively "Friends of PokerStars" and "SportStars". These have included Jamaican Olympic gold medal winner and World record holder Usain Bolt and American actor / comedian Kevin Hart. Former associated celebrities include World Cup winning Brazilian striker Ronaldo, tennis pro Rafael Nadal, former tennis champion Boris Becker, FIFA World Cup-winning Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo, Dutch field hockey Olympic Gold medalist Fatima Moreira de Melo, Norwegian cross-country skier Petter Northug, Swedish cross-country skier Marcus Hellner, quantitative analyst and author of the 'Chen Formula' for Texas Hold'em Bill Chen, Brazilian auto racer and race team owner Gualter Salles and French rugby union international Sébastien Chabal.


title: PokerStars

text: PokerStars.com and PokerStars.eu operate worldwide under a license from the Maltese government. PokerStars also operates under separate government licenses in Denmark, France, Italy, Belgium, Spain and Estonia. In October 2008, PokerStars launched PokerStars.it, exclusively for Italian players, which offers real money tournaments in euros in addition to the usual play money games. PokerStars offers some ring games and tournaments on its main PokerStars.com site in euros. In March 2010, the site began allowing users to keep their real-money accounts in British pounds and Canadian dollars as well as U.S. dollars and euros.


title: PokerStars

text: In June 2016 PokerStars ceased to allow real-money online poker in Israel. The decision is thought to have been made after recent pressure from the country's banking regulator on financial institutions demanding they stop processing online gambling transactions.