title: Optus

text: Optus's Customer Solutions and Services (CS&S) organisation is responsible for providing support to Optus Business customers. CS&S works with Optus' subsidiary Alphawest to support information technology services across Optus' large business, corporate and government client base.


title: Optus

text: Retail services are sold to customers via phone, internet or through retail outlets, especially franchise chains such as Optus World, Network Communications, Strathfield, Telechoice, and Allphones.


title: Optus

text: Other wholly owned subsidiaries of note no longer have a significant active role as individual entities. These are as follows:


title: Optus

text: Reef Networks was formed in 1999 to provide an optical fibre link between Brisbane and Cairns in Queensland. Optus gained exclusive access to this link in 2001, ahead of acquiring the organisation in 2005.


title: Optus

text: XYZed was established by Optus in 2000 to provide wholesale business-grade DSL services under an individual brand, but today provides a collection of products only as part of the Optus Wholesale & Satellite division. XYZed established a network of DSLAMs inside Telstra telephone exchanges, utilising Unconditioned Local Loop services to reach end users.


title: Optus

text: OptusNet is one of only five ISPs in Australia to provide Cable internet (the other four are BigPond, Neighbourhood Cable, TransACT and e-wire). In August 2010, OptusNet released an upgrade of its HFC network to the DOCSIS 3.0 standard, which enabled customers to access a maximum theoretical downstream bandwidth of 100 Megabits. OptusNet is also one of the few ISPs in Australia to currently provide ADSL2+ via its own DSLAMs, which it also resells to other ISPs.


title: Optus

text: Mobile network equipment is from Nortel, Nokia and Huawei and antennas are sourced from Andrews, RFS, Argus and Kathrein.


title: Optus

text: The 2G GSM 900/1800 MHz network was terminated on 3 April 2017 in Western Australia and Northern Territory. 2G GSM was completely terminated on 1 August 2017 when 2G was disconnected in Victoria, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia. To remain connected, a device that is capable of running 3G at 900 MHz is now required after 2G was completely disconnected across Australia.


title: Optus

text: In 2016, Optus signed a 10-year partnership agreement with the Australian Olympic Committee to be the official partner of the Australian Olympic Team and the Australian Paralympic Team until 2026.


title: Optus

text: In 2017, Optus won naming rights to Perth Stadium where it would be known as Optus Stadium. Optus and the Government of Western Australia agreed to a 10-year naming right worth approximately A$50 million.


title: Optus

text: Optus also has a long-term partnership with the Adelaide Crows in the AFL. Optus has been a partner of the Collingwood Magpies in the AFL Women's since 2018.


title: Optus

text: Optus is the current major sponsor for the No. 25 Walkinshaw Andretti United Holden ZB Commodore driven by Chaz Mostert


title: Optus

text: Since 2005, Optus has outsourced some customer service functions to Concentrix and 247.ai, with the outsourcer providing 800 staff operating offshore in India, supplementing Optus' 3,000-plus onshore call centre staff. Some functions have also been supplemented in the Philippines. Optus also uses 24/7 Inc. for telephone & chat based offshore support.


title: Optus

text: In October 2006, Optus announced that it would outsource 100 contracting jobs to another Singtel subsidiary, IT company NCS, in Singapore.


title: The Gold Rush

text: The Gold Rush is a 1925 American silent comedy film written, produced, and directed by Charlie Chaplin. The film also stars Chaplin in his Little Tramp persona, Georgia Hale, Mack Swain, Tom Murray, Henry Bergman, and Malcolm Waite.


title: The Gold Rush

text: Chaplin drew inspiration from photographs of the Klondike Gold Rush as well as from the story of the Donner Party who, when snowbound in the Sierra Nevada, were driven to cannibalism or eating leather from their shoes. Chaplin, who believed tragedies and comics were not far from each other, decided to combine these stories of deprivation and horror in comedy. He decided that his famous rogue figure should become a gold-digger who joins a brave optimist determined to face all the pitfalls associated with the search for gold, such as sickness, hunger, cold, loneliness, or the possibility that he may at any time be attacked by a grizzly. In the film, scenes like Chaplin cooking and dreaming of his shoe, or how his starving friend Big Jim sees him as a chicken could be seen.


title: The Gold Rush

text: "The Gold Rush" was critically acclaimed upon its release, and continues to be one of Chaplin's most celebrated works; Chaplin himself cited it several times as the film for which he most wanted to be remembered. In 1942, Chaplin re-released a version with sound effects, music, and narration, which received Academy Award nominations for Best Music Score and Best Sound Recording. In 1958, the film was voted number 2 on the prestigious Brussels 12 list at the 1958 World Expo, by a margin of only 5 votes behind Battleship Potemkin. In 1992, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


title: The Gold Rush

text: In 1953, the original 1925 version of the film entered the public domain in the United States because the claimants did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication.


title: The Gold Rush

text: Big Jim, a gold prospector during the Klondike Gold Rush, in Alaska, has just found an enormous gold deposit on his parcel of land when a blizzard strikes. The Lone Prospector gets lost in the same blizzard while also prospecting for gold. He stumbles into the cabin of Black Larsen, a wanted criminal. Larsen tries to throw the Prospector out when Jim also stumbles inside. Larsen tries to scare both out using his shotgun but is overpowered by Jim, and the three agree to an uneasy truce allowing them all to stay in the cabin.


title: The Gold Rush

text: When the storm is taking so long that food is running out, the three draw lots for who will have to go out into the blizzard to obtain something to eat. Larsen loses and leaves the cabin. While outside looking for food, he encounters Jim's gold deposit and decides to ambush him there when Jim returns.


title: The Gold Rush

text: Meanwhile, the two remaining in the cabin get so desperate that they cook and eat one of the Prospector's shoes. Later, Jim gets delirious, imagines the Prospector as a giant chicken and attacks him. At that moment, a bear enters the cabin and is killed, supplying them with food.


title: The Gold Rush

text: After the storm subsides, both leave the cabin, the Prospector continuing on to the next gold boom town while Jim returns to his gold deposit. There, he is knocked out by Larsen with a shovel. While fleeing with some of the mined gold, Larsen is killed by an avalanche. Jim recovers consciousness and wanders into the snow, having lost his memory from the blow. When he returns to the town, his memory has been partly restored and he remembers that he had found a large gold deposit, that the deposit was close to a certain cabin, and that he had stayed in the cabin with the Prospector. But he knows neither the location of the deposit nor of the cabin, and so goes out looking for the Prospector, hoping that he can lead him to the cabin.


title: The Gold Rush

text: The Prospector arrives at the town and encounters Georgia, a dance hall girl. To irritate Jack, a ladies' man who is making aggressive advances toward her and is pestering her for a dance, she instead decides to dance with "the most deplorable looking tramp in the dance hall", the Prospector, who instantly falls in love with her. After encountering each other again, she accepts his invitation for a New Year's Eve dinner, but does not take it seriously and soon forgets about it. On New Year's Eve, while waiting for her to arrive to the dinner, the Prospector imagines entertaining her with a dance of bread rolls on forks. When she does not arrive until midnight, he walks alone through the streets, desperate. At that moment, she remembers his invitation and decides to visit him. Finding his home empty but seeing the meticulously prepared dinner and a present for her, she has a change of heart and prepares a note for him in which she asks to talk to him.


title: The Gold Rush

text: When the Prospector is handed the note, he goes searching for Georgia. But at the same moment, Jim finds him and drags him away to go search for the cabin, giving the Prospector only enough time to shout to Georgia that he soon will return to her as a millionaire. Jim and the Prospector find the cabin and stay for the night. Overnight, another blizzard blows the cabin half over a cliff right next to Jim's gold deposit. The next morning the cabin is rocking dangerously over the cliff edge while the two try to escape. At last Jim manages to get out and pull the Prospector to safety right when the cabin falls off the cliff.


title: The Gold Rush

text: One year later both have become wealthy, but the Prospector never was able to find Georgia. They return to the contiguous United States on a ship on which, unknown to them, Georgia is also traveling. When the Prospector agrees to don his old clothes for a photograph, he falls down the stairs, encountering Georgia once more. After she mistakenly thinks he is a stowaway and tries to save him from the ship's crew, the misunderstanding is cleared up and both are happily reunited.


title: The Gold Rush

text: Chaplin attempted to film many of the scenes on location near Truckee, California, in early 1924. He abandoned most of this footage, which included the Lone Prospector being chased through snow by Big Jim, instead of just around the hut as in the final film, retaining only the film's opening scene. The final film was shot on the back lot and stages at Chaplin's Hollywood studio, where elaborate Klondike sets were constructed.


title: The Gold Rush

text: Lita Grey, whom Chaplin married in November 1924, was originally cast as the leading lady but was replaced by Georgia Hale due to her pregnancy; she appeared in the film as an extra.


title: The Gold Rush

text: Discussing the making of the film in the documentary series "Unknown Chaplin", Hale revealed that the marriage had collapsed during production of the film; the final scene of the original version, in which the two kiss, reflected the state of his relationship with Hale by that time.


title: The Gold Rush

text: "The Gold Rush" was a huge success in the US and worldwide. It is the fifth-highest-grossing silent film in cinema history, earning more than $4,250,001 at the box office in 1926. Chaplin proclaimed at the time of its release that this was the film for which he wanted to be remembered.


title: The Gold Rush

text: Critics generally praised the original 1925 release of "The Gold Rush." Mordaunt Hall wrote in "The New York Times:"


title: The Gold Rush

text: "Variety" also published a rave review, saying that it was "the greatest and most elaborate comedy ever filmed, and will stand for years as the biggest hit in its field, just as "The Birth of a Nation" still withstands the many competitors in the dramatic class."


title: The Gold Rush

text: "The New Yorker" published a mixed review, believing that the dramatic elements of the film did not work well alongside Chaplin's familiar slapstick:


title: The Gold Rush

text: Nevertheless, "The New Yorker" included "The Gold Rush" in its year-end list of the ten best films of 1925.


title: The Gold Rush

text: At the 1958 Brussels World Fair, critics rated it the second greatest film in history, behind only Sergei Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin". In 1992, "The Gold Rush" was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


title: The Gold Rush

text: Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance considers "The Gold Rush" to be Chaplin's greatest work of the silent-film era. Vance writes, "The Gold Rush is arguably his greatest and most ambitious silent film; it was the longest and most expensive comedy produced up to that time. The film contains many of Chaplin's most celebrated comedy sequences, including the boiling and eating of his shoe, the dance of the rolls, and the teetering cabin. However, the greatness of "The Gold Rush" does not rest solely on its comedy sequences but on the fact that they are integrated so fully into a character-driven narrative. Chaplin had no reservations about the finished product. Indeed, in the contemporary publicity for the film, he is quoted, 'This is the picture that I want to be remembered by.'"


title: The Gold Rush

text: "The Village Voice" ranked "The Gold Rush" at No. 49 in its Top 250 "Best Films of the Century" list in 1999, based on a poll of critics. "Entertainment Weekly" voted it at No.15 on their list of "100 Greatest Movies of All Time". The film was voted at No. 97 on the list of "100 Greatest Films" by the prominent French magazine "Cahiers du cinéma" in 2008. In the 2012 "Sight & Sound" polls, it was ranked the 91st-greatest film ever made in the directors' poll. In 2015, "The Gold Rush" ranked 17th on BBC's "100 Greatest American Films" list, voted on by film critics from around the world. The film was voted at No. 25 on the list of "The 100 greatest comedies of all time" by a poll of 253 film critics from 52 countries conducted by the BBC in 2017.


title: The Gold Rush

text: In 1942, Chaplin released a new version of "The Gold Rush", modifying the original silent 1925 film by adding a recorded musical score, adding a narration which he recorded himself, and tightening the editing, which reduced the film's running time by several minutes. The film was further shortened by being run at the 24 frames per second rate of sound films. Like most silent movies it was originally shot and exhibited at a slower speed. Chaplin also changed some plot points. Besides removing the ending kiss, another edit eliminated a subplot in which the Lone Prospector is tricked into believing Georgia is in love with him by Georgia's paramour, Jack.


title: The Gold Rush

text: The new music score by Max Terr and the sound recording by James L. Fields were nominated for Academy Awards in 1943.


title: The Gold Rush

text: "The Gold Rush" was the first of Chaplin's classic silent films that he converted to sound. The 2012 Blu-ray release revealed that the reissue of "The Gold Rush" preserved most of the footage from the original film. Even the restored print of the 1925 original shows noticeable degradation of image and missing frames, artifacts not seen in the 1942 version.


title: The Gold Rush

text: In 1953, the original 1925 film may have entered the public domain in the US, as Chaplin did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication in accordance with American law at the time. As such, the film was once widely available on home video in the US. After 1995, Chaplin's estate blocked unauthorized releases of "The Gold Rush" in the United States by arguing that the film's U.S. copyright had been restored by the Uruguay Round Agreements Act. Regardless, in 2021, the original film definitively entered the public domain in the United States as 95 years had passed since its release.


title: The Gold Rush

text: In 2012, both the reconstruction of the 1925 silent version and the 1942 narrated reissue version were released on Blu-ray by the Criterion Collection. This set included a new audio commentary track by Chaplin biographer and scholar Jeffrey Vance.


title: The Gold Rush

text: The "roll dance" that the Little Tramp character performs in the film is considered one of the more memorable scenes in film history; however, Roscoe Arbuckle did something similar in the 1917 movie "The Rough House" which co-starred Buster Keaton. Curly Howard made a brief homage to the bit in the 1935 Three Stooges film "Pardon My Scotch". Anna Karina's character in "Bande à part" makes references to it before the famous dance scene. In more recent times, it was replicated by Robert Downey Jr. in his lead role as Charles Chaplin in the 1992 "Chaplin", which briefly depicts the production of the film; Johnny Depp's character in the 1993 film "Benny and Joon"; Grampa Simpson in the 1994 "The Simpsons" episode "Lady Bouvier's Lover"; and Amy Adams's character in "The Muppets". The sequence for the "hanging cabin on the edge of the cliff" (starting at 1:19 in video inserted above) has been used in two Indian movies: "Michael Madana Kama Rajan" and "Welcome".


title: Anne-Sophie Mutter

text: Anne-Sophie Mutter (born 29 June 1963) is a German violinist. She was supported early in her career by Herbert von Karajan. As an advocate of contemporary music, she has had several works composed especially for her, by Sebastian Currier, Henri Dutilleux, Sofia Gubaidulina, Witold Lutosławski, Norbert Moret, Krzysztof Penderecki, André Previn, Wolfgang Rihm, John Williams and others. Since her orchestral debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1977, Mutter has performed as a prominent soloist with numerous leading orchestras worldwide.


title: Anne-Sophie Mutter

text: Mutter was born in the German town of Rheinfelden, Baden-Württemberg which lies some east of Basel on the northern bank of the High Rhine river, across which lies the Swiss town of the same name. Her parents were Karl Wilhelm Mutter and Gerlinde Mutter and she was raised with two older brothers. While Mutter's father was a journalist, who edited a newspaper in Baden-Württemberg, her mother was the first woman in her family to graduate from college. Although no one in her family played a musical instrument, Mutter's family was passionate about classical music.


title: Anne-Sophie Mutter

text: Mutter began playing the piano at the age of five, and shortly afterwards took up the violin. At the age of six, Mutter won the National Music Prize, and in 1972, she gave her first concert with the Winterthurer Stadtorchester. Inspired by a recording of violinist Yehudi Menuhin and Wilhelm Furtwängler, she began studying with Erna Honigberger, a pupil of Carl Flesch. After Honigberger's death she continued her studies with Aida Stucki at the Winterthur Conservatory.


title: Anne-Sophie Mutter

text: Mutter's playing began to receive attention and she stopped attending school to devote herself full-time to music. Conductor Herbert von Karajan arranged for her to play with the Berlin Philharmonic. Only 13 years old at the time, she made her public debut on stage in 1976 at the Lucerne Festival, where she played Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major. In 1977, she performed at the Salzburg Festival and with the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Critics praised the level of maturity in Mutter's performance, with one reviewer of "Die Welt" writing, "“She played it ravishingly, and above all, she did not play it at all like a child prodigy. Her technique is fully mature.”


title: Anne-Sophie Mutter

text: At 15, Mutter made her first recording of the Mozart Third and Fifth violin concerti with Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic.


title: Anne-Sophie Mutter

text: In 1980, Mutter made her American debut with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. In 1985, at the age of 22, she was made an honorary fellow of the Royal Academy of Music (London) and head of its faculty of international violin studies and in 1986 an honorary member. In 1988, she made a grand tour of Canada and the United States, playing for the first time at Carnegie Hall. In 1998 she played and recorded for CD and DVD the complete set of Beethoven's Violin Sonatas, accompanied by Lambert Orkis; these were broadcast on television in many countries.


title: Anne-Sophie Mutter

text: In October 2006, on French television, Mutter appeared to indicate that she would be retiring when she turned 45, in 2008. However the following month she said that her words were "misinterpreted" and that she would continue to play as long as she felt she could "bring anything new, anything important, anything different to music".


title: Anne-Sophie Mutter

text: Though her repertoire includes many classical works, Mutter is particularly known for her performances of contemporary music. Several pieces have been specially written for or dedicated to her, including Henri Dutilleux's "Sur le même accord", Krzysztof Penderecki's Second Violin Concerto, Witold Lutosławski's "Chain 2" and the orchestral version of "Partita", and Wolfgang Rihm's "Gesungene Zeit" ("Time Chant"), "Lichtes Spiel", and "Dyade". In August 2007, she premiered Sofia Gubaidulina's Violin Concerto No. 2 "In tempus praesens." Her ex husband, conductor and composer André Previn, dedicated his Violin Concerto "Anne-Sophie" (2001) to her; they recorded the pièce with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2003 and were awarded a Grammy for the recording in 2005.


title: Anne-Sophie Mutter

text: World renowned film score composer and five times Academy Awards winner John Williams composed original music for her, including a pièce for violin, strings and harp called "Markings" (2017), a collection of arrangements of movie themes composed by him for violin and orchestra (recorded by Mutter and Williams with the Recording Arts Orchestra of Los Angeles in "Across the Stars", 2019) and Williams' second violin concerto (composed 2021, to be recorded by Mutter with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the author as conductor, in 2022). Mutter also appeared as soloist in John Williams' debut concert with the Wiener Philharmoniker on 28 and 29 January 2020, recorded by Deutsche Grammophon and released in the live album "John Williams in Vienna", which became the best-selling album of orchestral music in 2020.


title: Anne-Sophie Mutter

text: She has received various prizes, including several Grammys throughout her career and the Polar Music Prize and the Praemium Imperiale, both in 2019.


title: Anne-Sophie Mutter

text: Mutter is known for performing in strapless gowns. Mutter explained that she felt having fabric on her shoulder made it too slippery to hold her violin firmly while she was playing.


title: Anne-Sophie Mutter

text: She owns two Stradivarius violins: the Emiliani of 1703, and the Lord Dunn-Raven Stradivarius of 1710. She also owns a Finnigan-Klaembt dated 1999 and a Regazzi dated 2005.


title: Anne-Sophie Mutter

text: Throughout her career, Mutter has held many benefit concerts for various organizations such as Save the Children Japan, Save the Children Yemen, Artists against Aids, the Swiss Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Hanna and Paul Gräb Foundation’s Haus der Diakonie in Wehr-Öflingen, the Bruno Bloch Foundation, Beethoven Fund for Deaf Children, SOS Children’s Villages in Syria and others. Since March 2022, Mutter has been giving benefit concerts for Ukrainians in light of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.


title: Anne-Sophie Mutter

text: Mutter founded the Association of Friends of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation e.V. in 1997 and further established the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation in 2008, which supports young stringed instrument players and provides scholarships for talented individuals.


title: Anne-Sophie Mutter

text: In 1989, Mutter married her first husband, Detlef Wunderlich, with whom she had two children, Arabella and Richard. Wunderlich died of cancer in 1995. She dedicated her 1999 recording, "Vivaldi: The Four Seasons", to his memory. She married the pianist, composer, and conductor André Previn in 2002. The couple divorced in 2006, but continued to collaborate musically and maintained their friendship.


title: The Station Agent

text: The Station Agent is a 2003 American independent psychological comedy-drama film written and directed by Tom McCarthy in his directorial debut. It stars Peter Dinklage as a man who seeks solitude in an abandoned train station in the Newfoundland section of Jefferson Township, New Jersey. It also stars Patricia Clarkson, Michelle Williams, Bobby Cannavale and John Slattery. For his writing achievement, McCarthy won the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay, the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award while the film itself also won the John Cassavetes Award.


title: The Station Agent

text: Finbar McBride, a quiet, withdrawn man with dwarfism, is a nihilist who has a deep love of railroads. He works in a Hoboken, New Jersey model train hobby shop owned by his elderly and similarly taciturn friend Henry Styles. Because he feels ostracized by a public that tends to view him as peculiar due to his size, Fin keeps to himself.


title: The Station Agent

text: When Henry dies unexpectedly, Fin is told that the hobby shop is to be closed. However, he also learns that Henry has bequeathed him a piece of rural property with an abandoned train depot on it. He moves into the old building hoping for a life of solitude, but he quickly finds himself reluctantly becoming enmeshed in the lives of his neighbors. Joe Oramas, a Cuban American, is operating his father's roadside snack truck while the elder man recovers from an illness, and Olivia Harris is an artist trying to cope with the sudden death of her young son two years earlier and the ramifications it has had on her marriage to David, from whom she is separated; Olivia's initial and secondary meetings with Fin almost get him killed when she is distracted while driving her car. Cleo is a young girl who shares Fin's interest in trains and wants him to lecture her class about them. Emily is the local librarian, a young woman dismayed to discover she is pregnant by her ne'er-do-well boyfriend.


title: The Station Agent

text: Joe, relentlessly upbeat and overly talkative, soon cracks through Fin's reserve. The two begin to take daily walks along the tracks, and after Olivia gives Fin a movie camera, Joe drives alongside a passing train so that Fin can film it. Joe and Fin sleepover at Olivia's house after watching the footage and the next morning a flustered, unannounced David is greeted by the two of them. The three forge a tentative friendship that is threatened when Olivia descends into a deep depression, disappearing from the town. Meanwhile, Emily seeks solace in Fin, who slowly is realizing interaction with other humans may not be as unpleasant as he thought. Fin tries to protect Emily from her boyfriend at a bar, but he pushes Fin aside, causing Fin to lapse back into his asocial behaviour. Emily later comes to apologize, and after she and Fin share a kiss, she spends the night with Fin after asking if she can "just sleep" there. Cleo asks Fin if Olivia is coming back, to which he replies that he doesn't know. He decides to keep an eye on Olivia's house, but when he spots her fighting on the phone with David and he goes up on the porch, Olivia angrily tells him to leave. Fin spends the night drinking and, collapsing on the track, is passed over by a train, undamaged but for his pocket watch. As if feeling blessed by his gift of life (and symbolically upon his watch getting destroyed in the train mishap), Fin walks up to Olivia's home only to find she has attempted suicide. Olivia reveals that David is having another baby with a different woman. Fin takes care of Olivia's home while she recuperates in the hospital. Fin picks up the courage to talk to school kids about trains.


title: The Station Agent

text: Olivia, Joe, and Fin share a meal at Olivia's house, their conversation filled with some small talk and reconciliation. Olivia and Joe tease Fin about Emily, suggesting he go seek her again.


title: The Station Agent

text: According to writer-director Tom McCarthy's commentary on the DVD release of the film, it was shot on a shoestring budget in a limited amount of time. Locations used included Lake Hopatcong, Dover, Hibernia, Rockaway Township, Rockaway Borough, Hoboken, Newfoundland and Oak Ridge, New Jersey, as well as Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The Newfoundland station, originally built by the New Jersey Midland Railway in 1872, is located in Newfoundland, New Jersey, on the active New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway.


title: The Station Agent

text: The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival and the San Sebastián Film Festival before going into limited release in the US on October 3, 2003. Playing in three theaters, it grossed $57,785 on its opening weekend with an average of $19,261 per theater and ranking 55th at the box office. The film's widest release was 198 theaters and it ended up earning $5,739,376 domestically and $2,940,438 internationally for a total of $8,679,814, well above its estimated $500,000 production budget.


title: The Station Agent

text: The film received a very positive response from critics. It has a rating of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 160 reviews with an average rating of 8.00/10. The website's critical consensus states, "A sweet and quirky film about a dwarf, a refreshment stand operator, and a reclusive artist connecting with one another." The film also has a score of 81 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 36 reviews.


title: The Station Agent

text: Elvis Mitchell of "The New York Times" observed, "Tom McCarthy has such an appreciation for quiet that it occupies the same space as a character in this film, a delicate, thoughtful and often hilarious take on loneliness . . . it's the kind of appetizing movie you want to share with others."


title: The Station Agent

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" said, "[T]his is a comedy, but it's also sad, and finally, it's simply a story about trying to figure out what you love to do and then trying to figure out how to do it . . . It is a great relief . . . that "The Station Agent" is not one of those movies in which the problem is that the characters have not slept with each other and the solution is that they do. It's more about the enormous unrealized fears and angers that throb beneath the surfaces of their lives."


title: The Station Agent

text: Ruthe Stein of the "San Francisco Chronicle" called it "as touching and original a movie as you're likely to see this year" and "a remarkably assured first film."


title: The Station Agent

text: Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" said, "Tom McCarthy has a gift for funny and touching nuances . . . The three actors could not be better. Huge feelings are packed into this small, fragile movie. It's something special."


title: The Station Agent

text: James Christopher of "The Times" stated, "The brilliance of Peter Dinklage's performance as the ironclad loner is that he doesn’t much care. Yet there’s something deeply affecting about his stoicism and suspicion that has nothing to do with artificial sweeteners, Disney sentiment, or party political broadcasts on behalf of dwarfs. Dinklage just gets on with his performance like an actor who can't understand why he's got the lead role. It's this tension between the film and the unwilling Romeo that makes "The Station Agent" such a hypnotic watch."


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: The 2010 Chile earthquake and tsunami () occurred off the coast of central Chile on Saturday, 27 February at 03:34 local time (06:34 UTC), having a magnitude of 8.8 on the moment magnitude scale, with intense shaking lasting for about three minutes. It was felt strongly in six Chilean regions (from Valparaíso in the north to Araucanía in the south) that together make up about 80 percent of the country's population. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) the cities experiencing the strongest shaking—VIII ("Severe") on the Mercalli intensity scale (MM)—were Concepción, Arauco, and Coronel. According to Chile's Seismological Service, Concepción experienced the strongest shaking at MM IX ("Violent"). The earthquake was felt in the capital Santiago at MM VII ("Very strong") or MM VIII. Tremors were felt in many Argentine cities, including Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Mendoza, and La Rioja. Tremors were felt as far north as the city of Ica in southern Peru (approx. away).


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: The earthquake triggered a tsunami which devastated several coastal towns in south-central Chile and damaged the port at Talcahuano. Tsunami warnings were issued in 53 countries, and the wave caused minor damage in the San Diego area of California and in the Tōhoku region of Japan, where damage to the fisheries business was estimated at ¥6.26 billion (US$66.7 million). The earthquake also generated a blackout that affected 93 percent of the Chilean population and which went on for several days in some locations. President Michelle Bachelet declared a "state of catastrophe" and sent military troops to take control of the most affected areas. According to official sources, 525 people lost their lives, 25 people went missing and about 9% of the population in the affected regions lost their homes.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: On 10 March, Swiss Reinsurance Co. estimated that the Chilean quake would cost insurance companies between 4 and 7 billion dollars. The rival German-based Munich Re AG made the same estimate. Earthquake's losses to the economy of Chile are estimated at US$15–30 billion.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: According to the USGS, the epicenter of the earthquake was about off the coast of Pelluhue, a town in the Maule Region. This is about west of the village of Chovellén, southwest of the town of Pelluhue and at a point approximately away from the following four provincial capitals: Talca (to the north-east), Linares (to the east), Chillán (to the south-east) and Concepción (to the south). Chile's Seismological Service located the quake's epicenter at about off the coast of Ñuble Region in the Biobío Region. This is north of Concepción and south-west of Talca.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: The earthquake took place along the boundary between the Nazca and South American tectonic plates at a location where they converge at a rate of eighty millimeters (3 in) a year. This earthquake was characterized by a thrust-faulting focal mechanism, caused by the subduction of the Nazca plate beneath the South American Tectonic Plates. The end-regions of the rupture zone coincided with the Andean oroclines of Maipo (33° S) and Arauco (37° S). This has been interpreted as suggesting a link between upper plate (South American plate) structure and rupture length.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: Chile has been at a convergent plate boundary that generates megathrust earthquakes since the Paleozoic era (500 million years ago). In historical times the Chilean coast has suffered many megathrust earthquakes along this plate boundary, including the strongest earthquake ever measured, the 1960 Valdivia earthquake. More recently, the boundary ruptured during the 2007 Tocopilla earthquake in northern Chile.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: The segment of the fault zone which ruptured in this earthquake was estimated to be over long with a displacement of almost 10 meters, or 120 years of accumulated plate movement. It lay immediately north of the segment which ruptured in the great earthquake of 1960. Preliminary measurements show that the entire South American Plate moved abruptly westward during the quake. A research collaborative of Ohio State and other institutions have found, using GPS, that the earthquake shifted Santiago 28 cm (11 in) to the west-southwest and moved Concepción at least to the west. The earthquake also shifted other parts of South America from the Falkland Islands to Fortaleza, Brazil. For example, it moved Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires about 2.5 cm (1 in) to the west. Several cities south of Cobquecura were also raised by up to 3 meters. The maximum recorded peak ground acceleration was at Concepcion, with a value of 0.65 "g" (6.38 m/s).


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: The locality of Tirúa south of Concepción recorded a 180 cm uplift relative to sea level as result of the earthquake. This is the highest known uplift of the coast resulting from the earthquake. This uplift made a large islet emerge at the mouth of Lebu River.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: This was the strongest earthquake affecting Chile since the magnitude 9.5 1960 Valdivia earthquake (the most energetic earthquake ever measured), and it was the strongest earthquake worldwide since the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and until the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. It is tied with the 1906 Ecuador–Colombia and 1833 Sumatra earthquakes as the sixth strongest earthquake ever measured, approximately 500 times more powerful than the 7.0 M earthquake in Haiti one month prior in January 2010.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: An aftershock of 6.2 was recorded 20 minutes after the initial quake. Two more aftershocks of magnitudes 5.4 and 5.6 followed within an hour of the initial quake. The USGS said that "a large vigorous aftershock sequence can be expected from this earthquake". By 6 March UTC, more than 130 aftershocks had been registered, including thirteen above magnitude 6.0.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: Shortly after the mainshock seismologists installed a dense network of seismometers along the whole rupture area. This network captured 20,000 aftershocks in the 6 months after the mainshock and shows a detailed picture of the structure of the Chilean margin. Seismicity is focused in the depth range 25–35 km and in a deeper band of between 45 and 50 km depth. Around 10.000 aftershocks occurred in the region of two large aftershocks in the Pichilemu region.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: A 6.9-magnitude offshore earthquake struck approximately 300 kilometers southwest of, and less than 90 minutes after, the initial shock; however, it is not clear if that quake was related to the main shock. A separate earthquake of magnitude 6.3 occurred in Salta, Argentina, at 15:45 UTC on 27 February, at a depth of ; two people were injured and one died in Salta. This earthquake was followed on 1 March at 06:32 UTC by a magnitude 4.9 aftershock. Four other earthquakes above M5.0, some possible aftershocks, also occurred near the border in Argentina following the Chile earthquake; a magnitude 5.0 earthquake occurred in Mendoza on 28 February, a M5.3 earthquake in Neuquen and a M5.2 in San Juan on 2 March, and a M5.1 quake in Mendoza on 4 March.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: Another strong earthquake occurred on 4 March, at 22:39 UTC in Antofagasta in northern Chile, with a magnitude of 6.3.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: Minor quakes generated by the main one could be felt as far away as São Paulo, Brazil, located about away from Concepción. Since the major earthquake, and as of 15 March, at least four to forty >M5.0 earthquakes have been recorded daily in the vicinity of the main earthquake, including four above magnitude 6.0 between 3 March and 6 March.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: On 5 March, two aftershocks above M6.0 were reported. The first was a 6.3-magnitude off the coast of the Biobío Region. The second was near the epicenter of the original quake at 08:47 local time with a magnitude of 6.6.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: On 11 March, the March 2010 Chile earthquake (magnitude 6.9, treated by some as an aftershock of the February 2010 earthquake) was reported, followed quickly by further aftershocks measuring 6.7 and 6.0. The epicenter of the 6.9 quake was in Pichilemu, O'Higgins Region.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: On 15 March, two aftershocks of the February 2010 earthquake were reported, one at magnitude 6.2 at 08:08:28 local time offshore Maule, and another at magnitude 6.7 with the epicenter located offshore the Biobío Region, near Cobquecura, at 23:21:58 local time. This tremor was followed by two minor aftershocks, one occurring 45 minutes later, measuring M5.5. No tsunami was reported and there were no tsunami warnings issued.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: On 17 March, at 14:38:37 local time, an earthquake of magnitude 5.2 was recorded in Aisén, in Southern Chile. Another magnitude 5.2 earthquake was recorded in Los Lagos the next day. On 26 March, at 10:52:06 local time, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake hit the Atacama region, in Northern Chile.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: The Biobio Region of Chile had strong aftershocks of this earthquake. The first one was a magnitude 6.7 M earthquake that struck off the coast of Biobío, Chile, at 23:21 on 15 March 2010 at the epicenter, at a depth of . The second earthquake struck on land in the region at 22:58 (UTC) on 2 April 2010 at 5.9 M and at a depth of 39 km. The third struck on 10:03 (UTC) on 23 April 2010 at 6.2 M. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that historical data indicates that this quake would not generate a tsunami but still advised of the possibility. On 3 May, at 19:09 a 6.4 M earthquake magnitude struck off Biobío, Chile, at the epicenter, at a depth of . The epicenter was south of Lebu. On 14 July 2010, another 6.5 magnitude earthquake occurred in the area.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: On 2 January at 17:20:18 local time, a 7.1 magnitude aftershock occurred 70 kilometers northwest of Temuco, Chile. On Lautaro, Cañete, Nueva Imperial, Traiguén and Carahue the quake was felt at intensity VI ("Strong") of the Mercalli intensity scale. In Temuco it was perceived at intensity V ("Moderate"). In Talcahuano, Concepción, Chillán, Osorno and Valdivia it shook at intensity IV ("Light"). According to the USGS the earthquake's epicenter was located on the ground, east of the coastal town of Tirúa in the Araucanía Region. However, according to the University of Chile's Seismological Service, the seismic event was located 134 kilometers off the coast of Tirúa, measuring a magnitude 6.9 M. The University of Chile also reported that the localities who received the strongest shaking (VI) were Curanilahue, Lebu and Tirúa. In Concepción, Talcahuano and Temuco it was felt at intensity V, and in Chillán and Valdivia at intensity IV.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: A magnitude 6.2 M aftershock struck the coast of Biobío, Chile at a shallow depth of 15.1 km (9.4 mi) on 1 June 2011 at 08:55 local time (12:55  UTC). It was centered just offshore Arauco Province near a moderately populated area, with most structures in its vicinity reported to be resistant to earthquake shaking. Strong shaking registering at VI on the Mercalli intensity scale was felt in Lebu, just 7 km (4 mi) south of the epicenter, lasting for approximately one minute. Some residents in coastal areas panicked and evacuated their homes. The earthquake was followed by a moderate magnitude 5.1 M tremor that occurred about 52 minutes later to the northeast of the main shock epicenter at an estimated depth of 26.9 km (16.7 mi). Initial estimates from the USGS placed its intensity at a magnitude of 6.4 M.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: Seismologists estimate that the earthquake was so powerful that it may have shortened the length of the day by 1.26 microseconds and moved the Earth's figure axis by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 cm). Precise GPS measurement indicated the telluric movement moved the entire city of Concepción to the west. The capital Santiago experienced a displacement of almost west, and even Buenos Aires, about from Concepción, shifted . It is estimated that Chile's territory could have expanded as a result.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: The earthquake also caused seiches to occur in Lake Pontchartrain to the north of New Orleans, United States, located nearly from the epicenter of the quake.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: People were found dead after the earthquake struck, mostly under buildings and inside cars. Many people were also seriously injured. Most injuries were reported in Santiago and Maule.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: According to an Associated Press Television News cameraman, some buildings collapsed in Santiago and there were power outages in parts of the city. A fire was reported in a chemical plant on the outskirts of Santiago and caused the evacuation of the neighborhood. Santiago's International Airport seemed to have been damaged and the airport authority closed off all flight operations for 24 hours from around 12:00 UTC. On Sunday, 28 February, Ricardo Ortega, head of the Chilean Air Force, said commercial airline services had been partially re-established and aircraft were being allowed to land in Santiago.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: Santiago's national Fine Arts Museum was badly damaged and did not reopen until 9 March 2010. An apartment building's two-story parking lot collapsed, wrecking 68 cars. According to one health official, three hospitals in Santiago collapsed, and a dozen more south of the capital also suffered significant damage.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: In Valparaíso, a tsunami wave of 1.29 m was reported. The port of Valparaíso was ordered to close due to the damage caused by the earthquake. The port started to resume limited operations on 28 February. In Viña del Mar, a touristic city and part of Greater Valparaíso, several buildings were structurally damaged, principally in the district Plan de Viña.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: Many cities in the Maule region were seriously affected by the earthquake which triggered more than 1000 landslides, a significant contributor to earthquake fatalities. Mapped from satellite images, most landslides occurring in the Principal Andean Cordillera and a constrained area on the Arauco Peninsula. Curanipe, only 8 km (5 mi) from the epicenter, was hit by a tsunami after the earthquake and still remained isolated from outside as of 28 February. A surfer said the tsunami "...was like the one in Thailand, a sudden rise of water. One could not estimate the dimension of the wave, because it was advancing foam. There were 10 to 15 rises, the last one being at 08:30 in the morning." In Talca, the capital of the Maule region, many dead were trapped in the rubble. The administrative building was uninhabitable, and the authorities had to be set up in the parade ground. All but two of the local hospital's thirteen wings were in ruins. Dr. Claudio Martínez was quoted as saying, "We're only keeping the people in danger of dying." Hospital staff attempted to transport some patients to Santiago on Sunday morning, but roads were blocked.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: Damaged buildings and fires were reported in Concepción. Rescue teams had difficulty accessing Concepción because of the damaged infrastructure. The fifteen-story residential building "Alto Río" toppled, lay on the ground horizontally, and trapped many of the residents. As the building was newly completed, 19 of the apartments were occupied and 36 were of unknown occupancy. A 2.34 m (7.68 ft) tsunami wave hit Talcahuano, a port city and part of the Concepción conurbation. The tsunami caused serious damage to port facilities and lifted boats out of the water. In the fishing town of Dichato, of 7,000 residents, it was the third tsunami wave that ended up being the most damaging.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: Dilapidated buildings could be seen on the streets of Temuco, about 400 km (250 mi) from the epicenter. The adobe of some buildings fell. Façades fell in pieces and crushed cars. Two people were reported dead because of not having been able to escape from a nightclub. On 27 February, it was reported that "to find an open business is almost impossible" ("Encontrar un negocio abierto es casi imposible"). Further south, in the city of Valdivia damages to houses were restricted to areas of poor soil quality, chiefly former wetlands and artificial fills. Some pavements near the rivershore in Valdivia cracked and collapsed much like in the 1960 earthquake. Overall damages in Valdivia were few and highly localized. A survey showed that 434 persons in Valdivia had their homes damaged by the earthquake.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: The earthquake also triggered more than 1,000 landslides mapped from satellite images with most landslides occurring in the Principal Andean Cordillera and a constrained area on the Arauco Peninsula Landslides are a significant contributor to earthquake fatalities. In Chile, 370,000 homes were damaged. The final death toll of 525 victims and 25 people missing was announced by authorities in January 2011. This is down from early reports on 3 March of 802 people dead.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: The Chilean National Emergency Office ("Oficina Nacional de Emergencia") estimated that the intensity of the earthquake was 9 on the Mercalli intensity scale in the Biobío Region and 8 in Santiago. USGS put the intensity in Talcahuano at MM VIII, in Santiago and Concepción at MM VII and in Valparaíso at MM VI.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: On 10 March, Swiss Reinsurance Co. estimated that the Chilean quake would cost the insurance industry between 4 and 7 billion dollars. The same estimate was echoed by the rival German-based Munich Re AG.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: The records of deaths were reported by a number of different agencies at different figures immediately after the earthquake. The official total is 525 dead, 25 missing not all of which are identified in the table below.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: The table below shows the percentage of the regional population whose homes were destroyed or were severely damaged by the earthquake and tsunami in the six most affected regions. The data were collected between May and June 2010.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: South of Araucanía Region, in the city of Valdivia, 35 houses were destroyed and 44 others were damaged.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: Despite President Michelle Bachelet's earlier statement that Chile would only ask for international aid once it had assessed the extent of the damage, leaders of many countries and intergovernmental organizations, including the United Nations and European Union, responded to the earthquake and sent messages of condolence to the government and people of Chile over the loss of life and property. Argentina, Mexico, the United States, United Kingdom, People's Republic of China, Singapore, Haiti, and Pakistan were among the countries that responded earliest following the quake. Appeals for humanitarian aid were issued by the UK-based Oxfam, Save the Children, and others.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: Chilean television host Don Francisco led a telethon called "Chile helps Chile" with the goal of raising 15 billion pesos (about US$29 million) needed to build 30,000 emergency houses ("mediaguas"). The charity event, which ran for 24 hours in Santiago starting on Friday 5 March at 22:00, was summoned by the government and organized by several Chilean NGOs. At 23:00 on Saturday the goal was doubled, collecting 30.2 billion pesos (about US$58 million).


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: The Chilean NGO Un Techo para Chile constructed 23,886 transitional houses for families affected by the earthquake.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: Nearly half the places in the country were declared "catastrophe zones", and curfews were imposed in some areas of looting and public disorder. On 28 February 2010, a day after the earthquake, some affected cities were chaotic, with extensive looting of supermarkets in Concepción. Items stolen included not only food and other necessities, but also electronic goods and other durable merchandise. To control vandalism, a special force of "carabineros" (police) was sent to disperse rioters with tear gas and water cannons. However, measures were taken late. The outgoing president didn't want to remind people of the Dictatorship years by militarizing the streets, thus failed to provide assistance on time to the city. When the situation became unsustainable and all sectors of the population were demanding actions, the government authorized the use of the military to control the affected cities. Despite these and other government acts (including the curfews), pillaging continued in both urban and rural areas of the affected zones. Reportedly, military police arrested 160 in Concepción on 1 and 2 March.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: In Concepción, despite the militarization of the zone, mobs continued to steal from supermarkets and went as far as to set one store ablaze. The government warned looters they would face the full weight of the law, as penalties for stealing are increased under a state of catastrophe. A week after the quake the police—tipped by neighbors—arrested three people with massive quantities of looted goods stashed in their homes. Other looted goods such as mattresses, furniture, television sets and other electronic appliances were abandoned in the streets of Concepción during the following days.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: According to the BBC on 5 March, the city and fishing port of Talcahuano, which lies but a few kilometers down the coast from Concepción, has been left largely to fend for itself. Neighbourhood vigilante groups, including one led by a public works employee with a gun license, and the few police present allow such behavior as residents' siphoning fuel from tanks at a petrol station, but step in if someone starts to attack a cash machine. One man stated, "I've personally saved dozens of people from attack in this apartment block."


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: Chileans living in regions not affected by the earthquake (including those living abroad) also grieved, as they sought to learn more regarding kinsmen and friends affected by the earthquake. In the hardest-hit zones there was no communication with the exterior because of the failure of electricity and the destruction of telephone lines.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: In the prison of El Manzano in Concepción, a prison riot began after a failed escape attempt by the inmates. Different parts of the prison were set afire and the riot was brought under control only after the guards shot into the air and received help from military units.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: By 1 March, prison guards in a prison in Chillán had recaptured 36 of 203 prisoners who had escaped following the earthquake. During their escape, prisoners burned seven houses close to the prison. A witness in Chillán asserted that he had been robbed by prisoners with a machine gun who had also forced his girlfriend to kiss them. Another witness alleged sexual molestation by around twenty men who were believed to be escaped prisoners. The leading Chilean newspaper "El Mercurio" described the situation in Chillán as reminiscent of the "Wild West".


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: Four hours after the earthquake, when the death count was still low, President Bachelet gave a press conference in which she informed the population of the situation and stated that Chile did not yet need international aid.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: However, about two million people were affected by the quake with more than 500,000 houses uninhabitable. In many cities, people slept in tents, in parks or simply on the streets for fear of aftershocks. The government began distributing food and other vital aid around the country.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: On 28 February, President Bachelet said that her government had reached an agreement with the major supermarkets which would allow them to give away basic foodstuffs in stock to people affected by the earthquake.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: By 28 February, the Santiago Metro rapid-transit network was already partially up and running and expected to be fully operative on the following day, 1 March.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: On 4 March, President-elect Sebastián Piñera, who assumed office on 11 March, was quoted as saying that his goals were "to cope with the emergency needs of citizens, find people who are still missing, provide prompt and timely assistance to the sick and wounded, and restore law and order so that people can return to peace."


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: Authorities of the central port city of San Antonio speaking on 3 March 2010, stated that the port had returned to eighty percent of capacity. On the same date, Raul Maturana, a spokesman for the Federation of Port Workers' union, stated that the port of Valparaíso was operating normally. However, ports in southern Chile, which were closer to the epicenter, remained closed.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: On 4 March, President Bachelet said that Chile would need international loans and three to four years to rebuild.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: On 10 March the National Commission for Agricultural emergencies (CNEA) assured that milk and wheat prices would not rise, despite fears of lack of fuel supply for transport and harvest of these products. In the same CNEA report the mill associations of central and southern Chile are said to have expressed that they had currently no production difficulties. Despite this on 11 March newspaper La Segunda cited the president of the bakeries association complaining on unjustified price rises for flour, who said of cases of price rises of 10 to 20%.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: The earthquake affected production at the Compañía de Cervecerías Unidas (CCU) and Cervecería Chile factories that together have a 90% share of the Chilean beer market. With an average annual per capita consumption of 36 liters, scarcity caused prices to rise from 990–1500 to 2000 Chilean pesos per litre. CCU responded by increasing capacity of their plant in Temuco that did not suffer major damage during the earthquake and by importing beer from their factories in Argentina. 50 trucks with beer are reported to have reached Santiago from Argentina. In March 2010, ten CCU executives said that the country will not run out of beer and that within two to three months production levels would be normalized. Liquor store owners expressed complaints regarding a beer rationing scheme implemented by CCU. The scarcity favored consumption of "premium beers" like Kunstmann and Paceña.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: A tsunami warning was first declared for Chile and Peru, and a tsunami watch for Ecuador, Colombia, Antarctica, Panama and Costa Rica. The warning was later extended to a Pacific Ocean-wide warning, covering all coastal areas on the Pacific Ocean except the west coast of the United States, British Columbia, and Alaska. Hawaiian media reported that tsunami warning sirens first sounded at 06:00 local time. The U.S. Tsunami Warning Center issued advisories about potential tsunami of less than striking the Pacific Ocean coastline between California and most of Alaska late in the afternoon or through the evening 12 or more hours after the initial earthquake. Although the earthquake killed far fewer people than the Haitian earthquake less than 7 weeks prior, it was still devastating. The tsunami warning was cancelled for all countries except Japan and Russia in PTWC Bulletin 18 of 00:12 UTC on 28 February 2010.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: The U.S. National Weather Service's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning throughout a huge swathe of the Pacific region, including Antarctica. In the Americas, the warning extended to Chile (including Easter Island), Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Panama. A warning was also issued for the Oceania and Pacific Islands nations and territories of American Samoa, Australia, the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia (including the FSM states of Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei and Yap), Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Hawaii, Jarvis Island, Johnston Island, the Kermadec Islands, Kiribati, Marcus Island, the Marshall Islands, Midway Island, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Islands, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Wallis and Futuna and Wake Island. Tsunami warnings were also in effect as far away as East and Southeast Asia including Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Russia and Taiwan.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: Coastal areas of Canada's westernmost province British Columbia was under a tsunami advisory, and this was the most alarming advisory as the earthquake occurred during the same time as the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. No large wave was expected to strike British Columbia, but strong local ocean currents combined with a wave put low-lying coastal regions at risk of flooding. The first wave was expected to reach southern British Columbia at 15:11 local time. Residents were advised to avoid beaches, harbors and marinas.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: A tsunami advisory was also issued for coastal areas of California, Oregon, Washington and southern Alaska in the United States. This tsunami advisory was canceled as of 07:13


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: Russian authorities lifted a tsunami alert for the Kamchatka coast, after the arrival of a 0.8 m (2.6 ft) surge that caused no damage. The tsunami was also reported to be small along the Japanese coast, and passed without incident. Many coastal areas in Japan had been evacuated as a precaution.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: The projections use DART (Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis) gauges spread along the sea floor, which is a fairly new technology. Initial deep sea readings showed wave height of 25 centimeters, which is huge for deep water, according to Gerard Fryer of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. He went on to say, "although it was huge, we didn't quite know what it meant because we haven't much experience with those. As we get more under our belts, we'll get better."


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: Some 30 minutes after the first shock, consecutive tsunamis hit coastal towns, among which Constitución suffered the hardest damage; subsequently, a tsunami amplitude of up to high was recorded in the sea at Valparaíso. A wave amplitude of was recorded at Talcahuano in the Biobío Region. Robinson Crusoe Island, the largest of the Juan Fernández Islands, was struck by a large wave which led to the deaths of four people on the island, with eleven people reported as missing, according to Provincial Governor Ivan De La Maza. President Bachelet is reported to have sent an aid mission to the remote island.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: As a precaution against the coming tsunami, partial evacuation was ordered in Easter Island, about 3,510 km (2,180 mi) away from the coast of Chile. The tsunami wave arrived in Easter Island at 12:05 UTC, measuring 0.35 m (1.15 ft).


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: On 27 February, defense minister Francisco Vidal said that the Chilean Navy had made a mistake by not immediately issuing a tsunami warning after the earthquake, a step that could have helped coastal villagers flee to higher ground sooner. However, an alarm was later sounded by port captains and saved some lives. Mariano Rojas Bustos, then head of Chile's oceanographic service SHOA, which is part of the country's navy, was later fired for the organization's failure to provide clear warnings about the tsunami.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: Initially, the New Zealand Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management (CDEM) said they did not expect a tsunami to reach New Zealand, but later issued a warning stating that waves of up to high were likely for the eastern and later the entire New Zealand coast. By 19:55 UTC (08:40 local), CDEM reported wave activity of in the Chatham Islands, and surges were reported there later in the morning. A surge high hit the South Island's Banks Peninsula, while surges up to high were reported in the northern North Island. By mid afternoon (local time), Civil Defence had downgraded the tsunami warning to an alert, while still advising that sea levels could change quickly for up to 24 hours from the initial surge.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: The U.S. Antarctic Program's coastal station along the Antarctic Peninsula, Palmer Station, went on a tsunami alert shortly after the earthquake struck Chile. To prepare for a possible tsunami, station personnel removed all Zodiac boats from the water and moved any materials from low-lying areas that waves could have swept away. Personnel also retreated to the station's highest building, GWR, while the tsunami warning was in effect, Ellis said. Palmer personnel developed a tsunami emergency plan following the 2004 earthquake in the Indian Ocean that created a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in 14 countries. While no noticeable tsunami occurred at Palmer, the station tide monitor displayed bumps of several centimeters, signifying that a small wave had indeed reached the shores of Anvers Island.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: The Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Center (JATWC) sent out tsunami warnings for New South Wales, Queensland, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, Tasmania, and Victoria. The organization warned of the possibility of dangerous waves, strong ocean currents and foreshore flooding to occur on the east coast of Australia for several hours on Sunday.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: A wave measuring up to high struck portions of French Polynesia between 15:50 to 17:50 UTC with no reports of injuries . A wave 4 meters high is reported to have struck Hiva Oa in the Marquesas Islands. The first waves were expected to hit the main island of Tahiti at approximately 16:50 UTC (07:50 local). Cars and other automobiles were banned from roads closer than from the Pacific Ocean.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: The first wave was expected to reach American Samoa, which is still recovering from the 2009 Samoa earthquake and tsunami, at 08:51 local time. Lieutenant Governor Ipulasi Aitofele Sunia urged residents not to rush to A'oloau, a high elevation area on Tutuila, as it could cause traffic jams, putting safety at risk. Many coastal towns, including the main city of Pago Pago, had already been heavily damaged in the 2009 tsunami. The first wave arrived on Pago Plaza at 21:58 UTC.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) issued an advisory that tsunami wave(s)


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: United States Senators Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka issued a joint press release announcing the first tsunami evacuation in Hawaii since 1994. Warning sirens were sounded throughout the state, as hotels in Waikiki evacuated tourists at 6 a.m. People in tall buildings were encouraged to move above the third floor. Waves measuring 2.7 metres high were originally predicted to strike Hilo Bay on the Big Island of Hawai'i at 11:05 local time (21:05 GMT), but by 11:18, major receding and waves had not been reported on the shoreline. By 11:40, several waves hit the islands amounting to raising and lowering of the sea near the coast, and a fourth wave hit around 13:12. The tsunami warning for Hawaii was canceled in the early afternoon on Saturday, 27 February.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: At around 23:00 UTC (15:00 local), a tsunami warning was issued for coastal British Columbia. Extra precautions were already in place due to the 2010 Winter Olympics being held in Vancouver at the time.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: Small waves were expected in Southern California, and receding was reported at Long Beach. Minor damage was reported on some coastal areas. The tsunami damaged navigation buoys at Ventura. Additionally, a boat was torn loose from its mooring and minor erosion occurred within Ventura Harbor. Damage to docks and pilings in the area was moderate.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: In Guerrero, surges of between 30 cm and 1 meter and receding of up to 10 m were reported, and three small vessels were sunk at Tecpán de Galeana. The state tourism authorities announced they would be sending a letter to the CNN news network to protest the "alarming" way in which it had forecast a tsunami for the major tourist destination of Acapulco.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: Argentina has sent construction teams to Chiloé Island to help reconstruct some of the washed away coastal buildings. In July 2010, the government of Argentina released a statement that they would lend $300 million to Chile for reconstruction efforts using Argentine goods.


title: 2010 Chile earthquake

text: The following data, published by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and the National Tsunami Warning Center, lists measured and reported values of the tsunami when it arrived at specific places. Some data is taken from the Chilean Army.


title: Ragini MMS

text: Ragini MMS is a 2011 Indian found footage horror film directed by Pawan Kripalani and produced by Jeetendra and Shobha Kapoor of Balaji Telefilms. It was released on 13 May 2011 (Friday the 13th). The film is inspired by the 2007 American supernatural horror film "Paranormal Activity" and is partly based on the real story of a girl from Delhi named Deepika.


title: Ragini MMS

text: The whole movie is shot like a homemade movie, starting with Uday arriving at Ragini's home. After asking Uday where they were heading and getting no response, Ragini's friend Pia gets upset and wants Uday to leave their house immediately. Uday pays no heed to her, wakes Ragini up from her sleep, and tells her to get ready for their weekend getaway. They then travel the whole day by car and arrive at Uday's 'house'- a mysterious abandoned place at a deserted location. Ragini's mom calls her to ask about her whereabouts, but Ragini lies and cuts the call. It is revealed that Uday is involved in the hideous business of making and selling sex tapes of innocent girls. This time, he has Ragini, who thinks that he loves her, but in reality he is misusing her trust to make money. They try to eat dinner that they brought with them, but gets thrown out after seeing insects. They move to the bedroom in an attempt to have sex but are interrupted by Pia and her boyfriend Vishal visiting them. Furious by their visit, Uday tells Ragini to get rid of them, but end up staying for a while. After sometime, Vishal asks Uday for the way to the bathroom and Uday tells him. Seeing that the corridor leading to the bathroom is dark, Vishal tells Uday that a woman previously lived in the house. She was called a witch by her family who killed her, following which her spirit murdered her entire family and since then has been haunting the house. Uday laughs at this preposition thinking that it's a joke and walks away. Vishal hesitantly makes his way back to the living room but senses someone behind him. He then finds a door, opens it, and goes through. Someone knocks on the main door. When Uday opens, Vishal stumbles in as if he fell down and has a wound on his neck. Sensing that something is wrong with the house, Pia and Vishal leave in a hurry. Afterwards, Uday turns on the cameras without informing Ragini and handcuffs her to the bed. They are about to have sex but Uday is pulled away by his hair by someone and gets a scratch on his neck. He checks the whole house during which the same door opens inexplicably (which Vishal had gone through). However, Uday closes it and leaves, but the door opens up again. Now afraid on returning to the bedroom, he checks the room and house thoroughly but finds no one. They hear some strange sounds and Uday says in Marathi, "I am not a witch". He again goes out to check the source of the noise. He returns in a strange, frightful condition and is blood-stained. Ragini instantly asks him to open up her hands but Uday is scared and unable to think. She is terribly frightened by the thought of some provoked evil spirit at this hour of night and begs Uday to unlock the handcuffs. While searching for the keys, Uday eventually drops his bag which was covering the camera which Ragini sees. She eventually finds out that Uday was filming a sex tape with her, to which she reacts with terror, shock and anger. Meanwhile, Uday tries to open her handcuffs with other items but suddenly he becomes paranoid. Suddenly, Uday picks up a pointed object and stabs himself in the neck and dies. Terrified, Ragini screams for help but no one hears her. She tries to search for the keys in vain. She tries to break the bed post but fails. The whole night and the next day passes and she stays tied unable to open her cuffs. She then finds a piece of glass and cuts her hand to use the blood as a lubricant to break free. Once released, she tries to escape from the house, but the doors keep closing on her. She screams for help and some guys who are passing by are unable to help her as they can't enter the house due to locked doors and window bars. She is pulled into the same closet door where she finds a dead body. Somehow, she makes a run for the car. Upon finding it, she sees Vishal's dead body. She breaks open the car's window, pulls Vishal's body out but could not start the car. She again runs through the jungle and hides in a spot where she finds Pia's body. Eventually the spirit pulls her by her hair and back into the house. She sits there and the spirit hangs her to a wall for many days. The film ends in a way that is left for interpretation. In the end, it is shown that a guy found Ragini unconscious and she had to undergo psychiatric treatment for 10 months. The story is open ended and acts as a warning for naive girls to be extra cautious when dealing with shady people.


title: Ragini MMS

text: The film was originally titled "Raginni MMS" but a numerologist advised Ekta Kapoor to change it to "Ragini MMS". The film took only 25 days to shoot. A total of six cameras were used to shoot the film including a Canon 7D, an Arri Alexa and a Handycam. The size of the total footage shot was around 2.5 terabytes.


title: Ragini MMS

text: The film had a midnight première on 13 May 2011 in Pune. The film opened to a very good response in its first week, grossing 77.5 million. It was steady during its second week and grossed 99.4 million at the end of its second week. The film recovered its cost within two days of release.


title: Ragini MMS

text: Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama gave it 4/5 stars and called it a "creepy, spine-chilling date movie" saying, "Ragini MMS amalgamates components of horror, paranormal and sex seamlessly. It titillates, it petrifies, but most importantly, it tells you a story which is daunting, imaginative and unconventional."


title: Ragini MMS

text: Ankur Pathak from Rediff.com gave the film 3.5/5 stars and said "Ekta Kapoor's new film is terrifyingly real, and immensely watchable for the cold fright it inspires. She must be lauded for relying on young actors, and believing in the risky attempt of largely untouched storytelling."


title: Ragini MMS

text: Nikhat Kazmi from the "Times of India" gave the film 3.5/5 stars as well. She said "...Ragini MMS makes a heady cocktail of sex and horror that's so very different from run-of-the-mill Bollywood."


title: Ragini MMS

text: Shubha Shetty-Saha gave the film a good review of 3/5 and said "some scenes were so scary, that I actually wanted to run out of the theatre."


title: Ragini MMS

text: Mayank Shekhar from the "Hindustan Times" gave the film 2/5 stars, while Pankaj Sabnani from Glamsham gave the film an average review of 2.5/5 saying "Ragini MMS isn't worth 'circulating', if you have a large appetite for horror."


title: Ragini MMS

text: Aniruddha Guha from "DNA" gave the film 2/5 saying, "Watch Ragini MMS only if you dig cheap thrills. But don't worry about losing sleep thereafter."


title: Ragini MMS

text: The music is composed by S. D. Burman, Shamir Tandon, Faizan Hussain, Agnel Roman, and Bappi Lahiri. The soundtrack for the film was released on 19 April 2011. It consists of only four songs, including the hit song ""Raat Akeli Hai"" from the 1967 film, Jewel Thief. Erik Satie's "Gymnopedie No. 1" is also heard in pieces in this film.


title: Ragini MMS

text: The movie was released on VCD and DVD. Satellite distribution rights were given to Hindi general entertainment channel Sahara One.


title: Ragini MMS

text: A sequel to the movie, "Ragini MMS 2" was made and released on 21 March 2014. Continuing the story, the sequel focused on a film crew who went back to the haunted house to shoot a film on the infamous Ragini MMS scandal. It was directed by Bhusan Patel.


title: Castile soap

text: Castile soap is an olive oil based hard soap made in a style similar to that originating in the Castile region of Spain.


title: Castile soap

text: The origins of Castile soap go back to the Levant, where Aleppo soap-makers have made hard soaps based on olive and laurel oil for millennia.


title: Castile soap

text: It is commonly believed that the Crusaders brought Aleppo soap back to Europe in the 11th century, based on the claim that the earliest soap made in Europe was just after the Crusades, but in fact, the Greeks knew about soap in the first century AD and Zosimos of Panopolis described soap and soapmaking in c. 300 AD. Following the Crusades, production of this soap extended to the whole Mediterranean area.


title: Castile soap

text: Early soap-makers in the Mediterranean area did not have easy access to laurel oil and therefore dropped it from their formulations, thereby creating an olive-oil soap now known as Castile soap.


title: Castile soap

text: Castile soap is so called because it was produced on a large scale in the territories of the Crown of Castile, from where it was exported to numerous places in Europe, mainly during the Modern Age. Although the Crown of Castile was not the only producer of this type of soap, it was its producer par excellence.


title: Castile soap

text: In the 17th century, the soap caused controversy in England, since it supplanted the unnamed local soap after the Spanish Catholic manufacturers purchased the monopoly on the soap from the cash-strapped Carolinian government. Its ties to Catholicism caused a public-relations campaign to be established, featuring washerwomen showing how much more effective local soaps were than Castile soap. The sale of a monopoly in Protestant England to a Catholic company caused a great uproar, ending with the Castile soap company eventually being stripped of the monopoly.


title: Castile soap

text: Importations of "Castile soap" through Antwerp appear in the London port books of 1567–1568, though the "Oxford English Dictionary" has no references to "Castile soap" earlier than 1616. In his article "A short history of soap", John Hunt maintains that "barilla" (an impure form of sodium carbonate obtained from halophyte plant ashes that were high in sodium) was boiled with locally available olive oil, rather than tallow.


title: Castile soap

text: Adding brine to the boiled liquor made the soap float to the surface, where the soap-boiler could skim it off, leaving the excess lye and impurities to settle out. While Aleppo soap tends to be green, this produced what was probably the first white hard soap, which hardened further as it aged, without losing its whiteness, forming "jabón de Castilla".


title: Castile soap

text: Apothecaries knew the product by the Latin names of "sapo hispaniensis" (Spanish soap) or of "sapo castilliensis" (Castilian soap).


title: Castile soap

text: Some manufacturers have redefined Castile soap to use little to no olive oil. This undercuts the vendors who sell real olive oil soap.


title: Tony Pollard (American football)

text: Tony Randall Pollard (born April 30, 1997) is an American football running back for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Memphis, and was drafted by the Cowboys in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft.


title: Tony Pollard (American football)

text: Pollard attended Melrose High School, where he played high school football. As a senior, he was a two-way starter at wide receiver and cornerback on the high school football team. He helped the team reach the playoffs, while making over 1,200 receiving yards, 20 touchdowns and being named All-District 16-AAA.


title: Tony Pollard (American football)

text: Pollard accepted a football scholarship from the University of Memphis. As a redshirt freshman, he appeared in 13 games, of which he started seven. He registered 29 receptions for 298 yards (10.3-yard avg.), 31 carries for 159 yards (5.1-yard avg.) and three touchdowns. He finished among the national leaders in kickoff return average (28.1 yards). He had two returns for touchdown and was named the American Athletic Conference's Special Teams Player of the Year.


title: Tony Pollard (American football)

text: As a sophomore, he posted 36 receptions for 536 yards (14.9-yard avg.) and 30 carries for 230 yards (7.7-yard avg.) and six touchdowns. He led the nation with a school-record 40-yard average per kickoff return (22 for 881 yards) and four returns for touchdowns. He repeated as the American Athletic Conference's Special Teams Player of the Year.


title: Tony Pollard (American football)

text: As a junior, even though he shared the backfield with Darrell Henderson, he totaled 78 receptions for 552 yards (7.1-yard avg.), 39 carries for 458 yards (11.7-yard avg.), ten touchdowns with one kickoff return for a touchdown. In the 2018 Birmingham Bowl against Wake Forest, he recorded 318 all-purpose yards (209 on kickoff returns) and one rushing touchdown.


title: Tony Pollard (American football)

text: Pollard was considered one of the best kickoff return specialists in college football, tying a FBS record with seven career kick-return touchdowns, 87 kickoff returns (second in school history), 2,616 kickoff return yards (second in school history), 30.1 kick-return average (school record) and 4,680 all-purpose yards (second in school history).


title: Tony Pollard (American football)

text: On January 11, 2019, Pollard declared for the 2019 NFL Draft. Just six days later, on January 17, 2019, Pollard was added to the 2019 North Senior Bowl roster.


title: Tony Pollard (American football)

text: Pollard was selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the fourth round (128th overall) in the 2019 NFL Draft.


title: Tony Pollard (American football)

text: He had 13 carries for 24 yards in his NFL debut in Week 1 against the New York Giants in the 35–17 victory. During Week 3 against the Miami Dolphins, Pollard posted his first career 100+-yard game as he finished with 103 rushing yards on 13 carries and a touchdown as the Cowboys won 31–6. During Week 15 against the Los Angeles Rams, Pollard finished with 131 rushing yards on 12 attempts, including a 44-yard touchdown as the Cowboys won 44–21. Overall, in his rookie season, he finished with 86 carries for 455 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns to go along with 15 receptions for 107 receiving yards and one receiving touchdown.


title: Tony Pollard (American football)

text: Pollard continued his role as a backup to Ezekiel Elliott to go along with some kickoff return duties in the 2020 season. In Week 15 against the San Francisco 49ers, Pollard recorded 132 yards from scrimmage and two rushing touchdowns during the 41–33 win. Overall, he appeared in all 16 games, of which he started two, in the 2020 season. He finished with 101 carries for 435 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns to go along with 28 receptions for 193 receiving yards and one receiving touchdown.


title: Tony Pollard (American football)

text: In Week 2, against the Los Angeles Chargers, Pollard totaled 137 scrimmage yards in the 20–17 victory. In Week 5, against the New York Giants, Pollard totaled 103 scrimmage yards in the 44–20 victory.


title: Tony Pollard (American football)

text: In Week 5, against the Los Angeles Rams, Pollard had a 57-yard rushing touchdown. In Week 8, against Chicago, Pollard had 13 carries for 141 yards and three rushing touchdowns in the 49-29 win, and was named Ground Player of the Week.


title: Fortepiano

text: A fortepiano , sometimes referred to as a pianoforte, is an early piano. In principle, the word "fortepiano" can designate any piano dating from the invention of the instrument by Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1698 up to the early 19th century. Most typically, however, it is used to refer to the mid-18th to early-19th century instruments for which composers of the Classical era, especially Haydn, Mozart, and the younger Beethoven wrote their piano music. Starting in Beethoven's time, the fortepiano began a period of steady evolution, culminating in the late 19th century with the modern grand. The earlier fortepiano became obsolete and was absent from the musical scene for many decades. In the 20th century the fortepiano was revived, following the rise of interest in historically informed performance. Fortepianos are built for this purpose in specialist workshops.


title: Fortepiano

text: The fortepiano has leather-covered hammers and thin, harpsichord-like strings. It has a much lighter case construction than the modern piano and, except for later examples of the early nineteenth century (already evolving towards the modern piano), it has no metal frame or bracing. The action and hammers are lighter, giving rise to a much lighter touch, which in well-constructed fortepianos is also very expressive.


title: Fortepiano

text: The range of the fortepiano was about four octaves at the time of its invention and gradually increased. Mozart wrote his piano music for instruments of about five octaves. The piano works of Beethoven reflect a gradually expanding range; his last piano compositions are for an instrument of about six and a half octaves. (The range of most modern pianos, attained in the 19th century, is 7⅓ octaves.)


title: Fortepiano

text: Fortepianos from the start often had devices similar to the pedals of modern pianos, but these were not always pedals; sometimes hand stops or knee levers were used instead.


title: Fortepiano

text: Like the modern piano, the fortepiano can vary the sound volume of each note, depending on the player's touch. The tone of the fortepiano is quite different from that of the modern piano, however, being softer with less sustain. Sforzando accents tend to stand out more than on the modern piano, as they differ from softer notes in timbre as well as volume, and decay rapidly.


title: Fortepiano

text: Fortepianos also tend to have quite different tone quality in their different registers – slightly buzzing in the bass, "tinkling" in the high treble, and more rounded (closest to the modern piano) in the mid range. In comparison, modern pianos are rather more uniform in tone through their range.


title: Fortepiano

text: The piano was invented in 1698 by harpsichord maker Bartolomeo Cristofori in Florence. The first reliable record of a piano appears in the inventory of the Medici family (who were Cristofori's patrons), dated 1700. Cristofori continued to develop the instrument until the 1720s, the time from which the surviving three Cristofori instruments date.


title: Fortepiano

text: Cristofori is perhaps best admired today for his ingenious piano action, which in some ways was more subtle and effective than that of many later instruments. However, other innovations were also needed to make the piano possible. Merely attaching the Cristofori action to a harpsichord would have produced a very weak tone. Cristofori's instruments instead used thicker, tenser strings, mounted on a frame considerably more robust than that of contemporary harpsichords. As with virtually all later pianos, in Cristofori's instruments the hammers struck more than one string at a time; Cristofori used pairs of strings throughout the range.


title: Fortepiano

text: Cristofori was also the first to incorporate a form of soft pedal into a piano (the mechanism by which the hammers are made to strike fewer than the maximum number of strings; Cristofori's was a hand stop). It is not clear whether the modern soft pedal descends directly from Cristofori's work or arose independently.


title: Fortepiano

text: Cristofori's invention soon attracted public attention as the result of a journal article written by Scipione Maffei and published 1711 in "Giornale de'letterati d'Italia" of Venice. The article included a diagram of the action, the core of Cristofori's invention. This article was republished 1719 in a volume of Maffei's work, and then in a German translation (1725) in Johann Mattheson's "Critica Musica". The latter publication was perhaps the triggering event in the spread of the fortepiano to German-speaking countries (see below).


title: Fortepiano

text: Cristofori's instrument spread at first quite slowly, probably because, being more elaborate and harder to build than a harpsichord, it was very expensive. For a time, the piano was the instrument of royalty, with Cristofori-built or -styled instruments played in the courts of Portugal and Spain. Several were owned by Queen Maria Barbara of Spain, who was the pupil of the composer Domenico Scarlatti. One of the first private individuals to own a piano was the castrato Farinelli, who inherited one from Maria Barbara on her death.


title: Fortepiano

text: The first music specifically written for piano dates from this period, the "Sonate da cimbalo di piano" (1732) by Lodovico Giustini. This publication was an isolated phenomenon; James Parakilas conjectures that the publication was meant as an honor for the composer on the part of his royal patrons. Certainly there could have been no commercial market for fortepiano music while the instrument continued to be an exotic specimen.


title: Fortepiano

text: It appears that the fortepiano did not achieve full popularity until the 1760s, from which time the first records of public performances on the instrument are dated, and when music described as being for the fortepiano was first widely published.


title: Fortepiano

text: It was Gottfried Silbermann who brought the construction of fortepianos to the German-speaking nations. Silbermann, who worked in Freiberg in Germany, began to make pianos based on Cristofori's design around 1730. (His previous experience had been in building organs, harpsichords, and clavichords.) Like Cristofori, Silbermann had royal support, in his case from Frederick the Great of Prussia, who bought many of his instruments.


title: Fortepiano

text: Silbermann's instruments were famously criticized by Johann Sebastian Bach around 1736, but later instruments encountered by Bach in his Berlin visit of 1747 apparently met with the composer's approval. It has been conjectured that the improvement in Silbermann's instruments resulted from his having seen an actual Cristofori piano, rather than merely reading Scipione Maffei's article. The piano action Maffei described does not match that found in surviving Cristofori instruments, suggesting that Maffei either erred in his diagram (he admitted having made it from memory) or that Cristofori improved his action during the period following Maffei's article.


title: Fortepiano

text: Silbermann is credited with the invention of the forerunner of the sustain pedal, which removes the dampers from all the strings at once, permitting them to vibrate freely. Silbermann's device was in fact only a hand stop, and thus could be changed only at a pause in the music. Throughout the Classical era, even when the more flexible knee levers or pedals had been installed, the lifting of all the dampers was used primarily as a coloristic device.


title: Fortepiano

text: The fortepiano builders who followed Silbermann introduced actions that were simpler than the Cristofori action, even to the point of lacking an escapement (the device that permits the hammer to fall to rest position even when the key has been depressed). Such instruments were the subject of criticism (particularly, in a widely quoted 1777 letter from Mozart to his father), but were simple to make and were widely incorporated into square pianos.


title: Fortepiano

text: One of the most distinguished fortepiano builders in the era following Silbermann was one of his pupils, Johann Andreas Stein, who worked in Augsburg, Germany. Stein's fortepianos had (what we, or Cristofori, would call) "backwards" hammers, with the striking end closer to the player than the hinged end. This action came to be called the "Viennese" action, and was widely used in Vienna, even on pianos up to the mid 19th century. The Viennese action was simpler than the Cristofori action, and very sensitive to the player's touch. According to Edwin M. Ripin (see references below), the force needed to depress a key on a Viennese fortepiano was only about a fourth of what it is on a modern piano, and the descent of the key only about half as much. Thus playing the Viennese fortepiano involved nothing like the athleticism exercised by modern piano virtuosos, but did require exquisite sensitivity of touch.


title: Fortepiano

text: Stein put the wood used in his instruments through a very severe weathering process, and this included the generation of cracks in the wood, into which he would then insert wedges. This gave his instruments a considerable longevity, on which Mozart commented, and there are several instruments surviving today.


title: Fortepiano

text: Stein's fortepiano business was carried on in Vienna with distinction by his daughter Nannette Streicher along with her husband Johann Andreas Streicher. The two were friends of Beethoven, and one of the composer's pianos was a Streicher. Later on in the early 19th century, more robust instruments with greater range were built in Vienna, by (for example) the Streicher firm, which continued through two more generations of Streichers. Composer Johannes Brahms had also preferred pianos by Streicher.


title: Fortepiano

text: Another important Viennese builder was Anton Walter, a friend of Mozart who built instruments with a somewhat more powerful sound than Stein's. Although Mozart admired the Stein fortepianos very much, as the 1777 letter mentioned above makes clear, his own piano was a Walter. Haydn also owned Walter piano, and even Beethoven expressed a wish to buy one. The fortepianos of Stein and Walter are widely used today as models for the construction of new fortepianos, discussed below. Still another important builder in this period was Conrad Graf (1782–1851), who made Beethoven's last piano. Graf was one of the first Viennese makers to build pianos in quantity, as a large business enterprise. His instruments were played by Chopin, Mendelssohn and Schumann.


title: Fortepiano

text: Prominent piano makers among the French during the era of the fortepiano included Erard, Pleyel (Chopin’s favorite maker) and Boisselot (Liszt’s favorite).


title: Fortepiano

text: The English fortepiano had a humble origin in the work of Johannes Zumpe, a maker who had immigrated from Germany and worked for a while in the workshop of the great harpsichord maker Burkat Shudi. Starting in the middle to late 1760s, Zumpe made inexpensive square pianos that had a very simple action, lacking an escapement, (sometimes known as the 'old man's head'). Although hardly a technological advancement in the fortepiano, Zumpe's instruments proved very popular (they were imitated outside England), and played a major role in the displacement of the harpsichord by the fortepiano. These square pianos were also the medium of the first public performances on the instrument in the 1760s, notably by Johann Christian Bach.


title: Fortepiano

text: Americus Backers, with John Broadwood and , two of Shudi's workmen, produced a more advanced action than Zumpe's. This "English grand action" with an escapement and check enabled a louder, more robust sound than the Viennese one, though it required deeper touch and was less sensitive. The early English grand pianos by these builders physically resembled Shudi harpsichords; which is to say, very imposing, with elegant, restrained veneer work on the exterior. Unlike contemporary Viennese instruments, English grand fortepianos had three strings rather than two per note.


title: Fortepiano

text: John Broadwood married the master's daughter (Barbara Shudi, 1769) and ultimately took over and renamed the Shudi firm. The Broadwood company (which survives to this day) was an important innovator in the evolution of the fortepiano into the piano. Broadwood, in collaboration with Jan Ladislav Dussek, a noted piano virtuoso active in London in the 1790s, developed pianos that gradually increased the range to six octaves. Dussek was one of the first pianists to receive a 5½ foot piano, and in 1793 he wrote the first work for piano "with extra keys", a piano concert (C 97). The firm shipped a piano to Beethoven in Vienna, which the composer evidently treasured.


title: Fortepiano

text: From the late 18th century, the fortepiano underwent extensive technological development and thus evolved into the modern piano; for details, see Piano. The older type of instrument ceased to be made. In the late 19th century, the early music pioneer Arnold Dolmetsch built three fortepianos. However, this attempted revival of the fortepiano was evidently several decades ahead of its time, and did not lead to widespread adoption of the instrument.


title: Fortepiano

text: In the second half of the 20th century, a great upsurge of interest occurred in period instruments, including a revival of interest in the fortepiano. Old instruments were restored, and many new ones were built along the lines of the old. This revival of the fortepiano closely resembled the revival of the harpsichord, though occurring somewhat later in time. Among the more prominent modern builders have been (in the United States) Philip Belt, Margaret F. Hood and Rodney Regier; and Paul McNulty.


title: Fortepiano

text: The reintroduction of the fortepiano has permitted performance of 18th- and early 19th-century music on the instruments for which it was written, yielding new insights into this music; for detailed discussion, see Piano history and musical performance. More and more music schools start fortepiano study courses. There are several fortepiano competitions, including the MAfestival Brugge and the International Chopin Competition on Chopin era instruments, organized by the Warsaw Chopin Institute.