title: Red Digital Cinema

text: The Red One first introduced in 2007 was Red Digital Cinema's first production camera. It captures up to 120 frames per second at 2K resolution and 60 frames per second at 4K resolution. Its "Mysterium" sensor was acquisitioned for use with the proprietary RAW format called Redcode. By 2010, Red began selling upgrades to a 14 megapixel sensor called the "M-X". The Red One has been reviewed as having effectively the same quality as 35mm film. The Red One was made out of aluminum alloy, and the body alone weighs 10 lbs (4.5 kg).


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: It was used to shoot "Wanted", "Che", "The Informant", and "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". In 2010, Red released the Red Epic, which was used to shoot "The Amazing Spider-Man", "", "Prometheus", "", "The Great Gatsby" and "Beast" as well as many other feature films.


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: In 2009, Red began releasing new cameras with an updated form factor compared to the Red One. Designed with the goal of facilitating either still images or video, depending on the mounting setup, Red called the concept DSMC for "Digital Stills and Motion Capture". The first camera released for this system was Epic-X, a professional digital stills and motion capture camera with interchangeable lens mounts. After this a new camera line called Scarlet was introduced that provided lower end specifications at a more affordable price. Initially equipped with a 5K imaging sensor, upgrades were later offered to a 6K sensor with higher dynamic range called the "Red Dragon".


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: The DSMC2 family of cameras was introduced in 2015 as the new form factor for all cameras up to 2020. The Weapon 8K VV and Weapon 6K were the first two cameras announced within this line. They were followed by the Red Raven 4.5K and Scarlet-W 5K. Third-party capture formats, namely Apple ProRes and Avid DNxHD, were made available for these cameras.


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: In 2016, an 8K sensor called "Helium" was introduced with the two cameras Red Epic-W and Weapon 8K S35. In early January 2017, this was given the highest sensor score ever, 108, by the DxOMark website. Marvel Studios' "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" was the first film to be released that was shot on the Weapon. The film was shot at the camera's full 8K resolution, and featured an equivalent workflow, supplanting director David Fincher's "Gone Girl" as the film with the highest-resolution post-production workflow.


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: In 2019, Jared Land from Red announced the Red Komodo camera. In 2020, Red started to ship the "beta" stormtrooper white models of the Red Komodo to customers on the waitlist. The price for the beta cameras is $6995, with the regular black shipping models for $5,995 (body only). The Komodo camera features 6K video, super 35 sensor, an RF lens mount, a dual BP battery plate, and a global shutter.


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: In 2021, Red announced the Red V-Raptor camera, the current flagship model in Red’s lineup of cameras, and the first camera that officially belongs to the DSMC3 family of cameras. Like the Komodo, the Red V-Raptor also has an active RF lens mount, but unlike the Komodo, the V-Raptor is capable of multi-format recording.


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: Live Production states, “V-RAPTOR features a multi-format 8K sensor (40.96mm x 21.60mm) with the ability to shoot 8K large format or 6K Super 35. Joining its predecessor, the MONSTRO 8K VV sensor, this unique in-camera option for impactful visual storytelling allows shooters to leverage any of their large format or S35 lenses with the push of a button and always deliver at over 4K resolution. The V-RAPTOR far exceeds previous sensor capabilities, presenting users with the option to capture 8K full sensor at up to 120 frames per second (150fps at 2.4:1), 6K up to 160 fps (200fps at 2.4:1), and 2K (2.4:1) at an incredible 600 frames per second, while still capturing over 17 stops of dynamic range.”


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: The Red V-Raptor launched with a price tag of $24,500 (body only) and is available for purchase on their website as well as from a few other vendors.


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: Later in 2021, Red announced on their website that the Red V-Raptor XL would be released in 2022. The upcoming camera will be priced at $39,500 (likely body only) and will feature an “all-in one system, suited for studio configurations and high-end productions. Includes internal ND filter, additional aux power, interchangeable lens mount, and more.”


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: In 2017, Red announced their intentions to enter the smartphone market including planned features such as a 5.7" holographic display and integration with existing camera products. On May 18, 2018, Red announced the Hydrogen One, with a release date in August 2018. Promised features included a holographic display, spatial sound, compatibility with the Red camera program, the launch of a streaming service, and modular add-ons similar to the "Moto Mods" feature of Motorola's Moto Z. Especially the announced camera sensor module received attention, with RED founder Jannard claiming: "If you were shooting an 8K Weapon on set as your A camera, this could certainly be your B camera."


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: On release, the smartphone was a critical disappointment and was even cited as a contender for the worst technology product of 2018, arising from outdated hardware and a lack of capabilities. Similarly, the phone was a commercial flop, and in 2019, promised modular add-ons vanished from Red's website, with Jannard announcing the company was "currently in the middle of radically changing the Hydrogen program". In late 2019, the company discontinued the product line.


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: Red began selling its Redcine-X package for post-production workflow in 2009. The process of decompressing the sensor data can be sped up with a Red Rocket accelerator card. There is a downloadable SDK for working directly with the Redcode images, and another for controlling the cameras remotely.


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: Announced in 2012, the Redray Player was the first stand-alone device capable of providing 4K content to compatible 2D or 3D displays. Using a 1TB internal drive for storage, the Redray plays 4K or HD media in the Redcode format. The player uses 12-bit precision. A cinema laser projector in the same family was also announced in 2012 but never released.


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: On August 18, 2008, Red filed a lawsuit against the electronics company LG over its use of the name "Scarlet". Red accused LG "... of taking the 'Scarlet' brand name from the camera company" after Red had denied LG's request to use it.


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: On September 23, 2011, Jannard announced that his personal email account was compromised by former Arri executive Michael Bravin. A lawsuit against Arri and Bravin was filed at the end of 2011, and settled and dismissed in 2013.


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: On June 27, 2012, Red sued Wooden Camera, a manufacturer of third party accessories, for patent infringement.


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: In February 2013, Red filed for an injunction against Sony, claiming that several of its new CineAlta products, particularly the 4K-capable F65, infringed on patents the company held. They requested that Sony not only be forced to stop selling the cameras, but that they be destroyed as well. Sony filed a countersuit against Red in April 2013, alleging that Red's entire product line infringed on Sony patents. In July 2013, both parties filed jointly for dismissal, and as of July 20, 2013, the case is closed.


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: On March 2, 2017, Red filed a lawsuit against the maker of JinniMag, a third party copy of the Red Mini Mag. Videos posted on the Jinni.Tech YouTube channel have accused Red Digital Cinema Cameras of lying to their customers and possibly obtaining their patents by deceiving the USPTO.


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: In May 2019, Apple Inc. filed a lawsuit against Red.com, LLC over several patents relating to digital cinema cameras and sensor processing. Apple lost the case in November 2019. Apple argued that the patents related to REDCODE RAW were “Unpatentable”, but the judge ruled that Apple's legal team had not provided sufficient evidence to back up their claims.


title: Ministerial ranking

text: The ministerial ranking, Cabinet ranking, order of precedence in Cabinet or order of precedence of ministers is the "pecking order" or relative importance of senior ministers in the UK government.


title: Ministerial ranking

text: The ministerial ranking is said by Peter Hennessy to be decided by the Prime Minister alone and reportedly by the Cabinet Office Precedent Book as being wholly decided by the Prime Minister, "guided partly by tradition and partly by political and personal considerations". In his autobiography David Cameron said that it "...combines seniority of post and the length of time as a cabinet minister to determine the rank of everyone present".


title: Ministerial ranking

text: The Cabinet Manual states that when the Prime Minister is unable to attend Cabinet, or the chair and any deputy chair of a Cabinet committee are absent, the next most senior minister in the ministerial ranking should take the chair.


title: Ministerial ranking

text: One constitutional law academic, Rodney Brazier, has suggested that if the Prime Minister were to die suddenly, the monarch could ask the Deputy Prime Minister, or if there was no such person available, the next most senior MP in the ministerial ranking to take temporary charge of the government.


title: Ministerial ranking

text: Hennessy says that it "...matters more than one thinks in establishing the power of a Prime Minister in relation to his most senior colleagues" and Harold Wilson has been noted to be one Prime Minister to take the ranking seriously. It has been noted that it was through the ministerial ranking rather than being First Secretary that George Brown was able to exercise "...deputising duties". It has also been said that, upon his 1995 appointment as Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary, Michael Heseltine also insisted that he became number two on the ministerial ranking.


title: Ministerial ranking

text: However, David Cameron has stated that it was "something we had never bothered with" and Harold Macmillan has reportedly said that he would have preferred an order based on the traditional dignity of offices, deeming it "all rather nonsense".


title: Ministerial ranking

text: Additionally, in April 2020, when Boris Johnson was moved into intensive care with COVID-19, a government press release stated that he had asked First Secretary of State Dominic Raab "to deputise for him where necessary", but the ministerial ranking on the parliament.uk website around the time showed Rishi Sunak technically ranking above Raab.


title: 2019 Argentine general election

text: General elections were held in Argentina on 27 October 2019, to elect the president of Argentina, members of the national congress and the governors of most provinces. Former Cabinet Chief Alberto Fernández of Frente de Todos defeated incumbent president Mauricio Macri of Juntos por el Cambio, exceeding the threshold to win the presidency in a single round. Macri became the first incumbent president in Argentine history to be defeated in his reelection bid.


title: 2019 Argentine general election

text: The election of the president was conducted under the ballotage system, a modified version of the two-round system. A candidate can win the presidency in a single round by either winning 45% of the vote, or if they win 40% of the vote while finishing 10 percentage points ahead of the second-place candidate. If no candidate meets either threshold, a runoff takes place between the top two candidates. Voting is compulsory for citizens between 18 and 70 years old. Suffrage was also extended to 16- and 17-year-olds, though without compulsory voting.


title: 2019 Argentine general election

text: There are a total of 257 seats of the Chamber of Deputies. They are elected from 24 electoral districts–the 23 provinces, plus the federal district of Buenos Aires, which elects its own executive and legislature and is represented in the national Congress like all other provinces. The number of seats are distributed in relation to the population of the province. One-third of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies are reserved for women. The 130 seats of the Chamber of Deputies up for election were elected from 24 multi-member constituencies based on the 23 provinces and Buenos Aires. Seats were allocated using the D'Hondt method of proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of 3%.


title: 2019 Argentine general election

text: The 24 seats in the Senate up for election were elected in three-seat constituencies using the closed list system. Each district is represented by three senatorial seats. Each party is allowed to register up to two candidates; one of those registered must be female. The party receiving the most votes wins two seats, and the second-placed party wins one. The third senatorial seat was established in the Constitution of 1994 in order to better represent the largest minority in each district.


title: 2019 Argentine general election

text: The 257 members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected by proportional representation in 24 multi-member constituencies based on the provinces (plus the City of Buenos Aires). Seats are allocated using the d'Hondt method with a 3% electoral threshold. In this election, 130 of the 257 seats are up for renewal for a 4-year term.


title: 2019 Argentine general election

text: The 72 members of the Senate are elected in the same 24 constituencies, with three seats in each. The party receiving the most votes in each constituency wins two seats, with the third seat awarded to the second-placed party. The 2019 elections will see one-third of Senators renewed, with eight provinces electing three Senators for a 6-year term; Buenos Aires City, Chaco, Entre Ríos, Neuquén, Río Negro, Salta, Santiago del Estero and Tierra del Fuego.


title: 2019 Argentine general election

text: The following candidates successfully registered their nominations before the limit date of 22 June 2019, and went on to compete in the Open, Simultaneous and Mandatory Primaries (PASO) on 11 August 2019.


title: 2019 Argentine general election

text: Open primary elections for the Presidency were held nationwide on 11 August. With this system, all parties run primary elections on a single ballot. All parties must take part in it, both the parties with internal factions and parties with a single candidate list. Citizens may vote for any candidate of any party, but may only cast a single vote. The most voted candidate of parties gaining 1.5% or higher of the valid votes advances to the general election.


title: 2019 Argentine general election

text: Fernández came top with 47.8% of the vote, with Macri trailing behind with 31.8%. Lavagna, del Caño, Gómez Centurión and Espert all received enough valid votes to participate in the general election.


title: 2019 Argentine general election

text: Fernández owed his victory mostly to Buenos Aires Province swinging over dramatically to support him; he carried it by over 1.6 million votes over Macri, accounting for almost all of his nationwide margin of 2.1 million votes. By comparison, Daniel Scioli only carried the province by 219,000 votes in 2015.


title: Femen

text: Femen (stylized in all caps; , Russian: Фемен) is a radical feminist activist group whose goal is to protect women's rights. The organization became internationally known for organizing controversial topless protests against sex tourism, religious institutions, sexism, homophobia, and other social, national, and international topics. Founded in Ukraine, the group is now based in France. Femen describes its ideology as being "sextremism, atheism and feminism".


title: Femen

text: The organization describes itself as "fighting patriarchy in its three manifestations – sexual exploitation of women, dictatorship and religion" and has stated that its goal is "sextremism serving to protect women's rights". Femen activists have been regularly detained by police in response to their protests.


title: Femen

text: Anna Hutsol is credited as having founded the Femen movement on 10 April 2008, after she became aware of stories of Ukrainian women duped into going abroad and then taken advantage of sexually. However, according to the 2013 documentary by Kitty Green, "Ukraine Is Not a Brothel", Femen was founded by Viktor Sviatsky. In September 2013 Inna Shevchenko responded to the documentary stating that Sviatsky "did lead the movement some time ago. ...We accepted this because we did not know how to resist and fight it. ...This is when I decided to leave Ukraine for France to build a new Femen". Femen member Inna Shevchenko discussed Sviatsky with "The Independent" in January, 2014, and, while not using the word 'founder' said: "I will never deny that he is a smart person. He was the reason why we knew each other. He was one of those smart people around us at the beginning, who were more experienced". Since 2013 Femen has been led by Inna Shevchenko.


title: Femen

text: Initially, Femen gained attention by demonstrating in skimpy or erotic clothing. For example, on 21 September 2008 in front of the Turkish embassy, a dozen Femen members were dressed as nurses with smudged makeup and high pink heels; however, at the 24 August 2009 demonstration on Ukrainian independence day, Oksana Shachko went topless. Since this approach obtained such great publicity, it rapidly became FEMEN's signature approach. While most of the protests have been confined to bare breasts, in October 2010 Shachko exposed her buttocks outside a locked toilet in a demonstration to protest the lack of public toilets in Kyiv, and four of the group members staged a similar protest in Kyiv in February 2011.


title: Femen

text: Since May 2011, a host of international news outlets have started to report about the organization's actions; this has sharply heightened FEMEN's international profile.


title: Femen

text: From late 2011, the Ukrainian Femen activists started to hold more international protests. In December 2011, three Femen activists stated that the State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus had abducted and terrorized them after they staged topless protests in Minsk. On 8 April 2013, five Femen members "topless ambushed" Russian President Vladimir Putin (accompanied by German Chancellor Angela Merkel) at the Hanover trade fair.


title: Femen

text: After Inna Shevchenko chopped down a wooden cross overlooking Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv on 17 August 2012, she stated that she had received several death threats and that her front door had been kicked in. Fearing arrest, she sought asylum in France and moved to Paris. There, in September 2012, she established a training facility for activists for Femen in France.


title: Femen

text: In late July 2013, one of the ideologists of the Femen, Viktor Sviatsky, and Hutsol were assaulted on the eve of a visit by Putin to Kyiv to celebrate the 1,025th anniversary of the Christianization of Kievan Rus'. According to Hutsol, those who attacked them "resemble those cooperating with secret services SBU and FSB".


title: Femen

text: One of the founding members, Oksana Shachko, was found dead in Paris on 24 July 2018; her death is believed to be a suicide. She was living as an independent artist separated from the group after disputes with other members.


title: Femen

text: Femen has several international branches. The Femen office in their native Kyiv was closed and the organization's leadership left Ukraine ("Fearing for their lives and freedom") in August 2013.


title: Femen

text: In October 2012, the organization stated it had about 40 activists in Ukraine, and another 100 who had joined their protests abroad, as well as twelve thousand followers via the social network Vkontakte.


title: Femen

text: In October 2013, Femen had its largest membership in France. In January 2013, Femen France counted 30 local activists. In 2010, the group comprised some 320 activists, with about 300 of the active participants being in Kyiv. In a 2010 interview, Anna Hutsol said that in addition to 20 core organizers there are 300 activists in Kyiv, as well as a social network based on vkontakte of about 20,000 persons. Female university students between 18 and 20 years old formed the backbone of the movement when it was formed in 2008, with few male members. In 2011, various sources stated that in an interview Anna Hutsol said that the movement has 150 thousand supporters. In October 2012, the organization said that it had about 40 activists in Ukraine, and another 100 who had joined their protests abroad.


title: Femen

text: Hutsol stated in July 2010: "We are working better than any news agency. We have a photographer, cinematographer, designer and content manager." In Ukraine, most of FEMEN's demonstrations are staged in Kyiv, but the organization has also held actions in cities like Odesa, Dnipro, and Zaporizhia. In April 2010 the organization contemplated becoming a political party to run for seats in the October 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election. However, it did not take part in these elections.


title: Femen

text: Femen explained its methodology of topless protesting by saying: "This is the only way to be heard in this country. If we staged simple protests with banners, then our claims would not have been noticed". The organization plans to become the biggest and the most influential movement in Europe.


title: Femen

text: Facebook initially blocked the Femen page because it suspected it was pornographic. In addition, Femen has displayed several provocative images on its Facebook page, including images of Femen activists taking a chainsaw to the heads of Vladimir Putin and Kirill I of Moscow, who were depicted covered in blood.


title: Femen

text: In 2010 and 2011, Ukrainian members had stated that their involvement in Femen had caused their families to become alienated from them. Some Femen members, including Inna Shevchenko, have also been subject to threats, kidnapping, beating and other intimidation.


title: Femen

text: Several criminal cases have been opened against the organization in Ukraine on charges of "hooliganism" and "desecration of state symbols", among others, and the group has been fined. In addition, most Femen activists are detained by the police after protesting; in one case, the State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus arrested Femen activists, "threatening them with knives and cutting their hair". According to Femen, after the early 2010 election of President Viktor Yanukovych, the Security Service of Ukraine attempted to intimidate the Femen activists.


title: Femen

text: The Ukrainian police opened a criminal case against Femen when during its 27 August 2013 raid in the movement's Kyiv office it purportedly found a TT pistol and a grenade. Femen stated that these items were planted there by the Ukrainian police as part of a conspiracy by the Russian and Ukrainian secret services to prosecute the movement, which the police denied. On 30 August 2013, Femen activist Yana Zhdanova, Anna Hutsol and Alexandra Shevchenko were called in for questioning; instead (according to a Femen statement), "fearing for their lives and freedom the activists escaped from Ukraine to Europe to continue Femen activities" (also in Ukraine [as Hutsol had stated three days before she left Ukraine]). The Kyiv office became a (not Femen-affiliated) bookstore on 23 October 2013. By early March, Hutsol said that although the regime that had criminally probed them had fallen, it was "too risky to return to Ukraine"; in a February 2014 interview, Hutsol also stated that Femen activists who had stayed in Ukraine had helped during the Euromaidan protests that ultimately toppled this regime. Femen actions did recur in Kyiv in the summer of 2014.


title: Femen

text: Femen France is the French branch of Femen. After cutting down a crucifix near Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv in August 2012, Inna Shevchenko left the country and went to Paris to set up Femen France, a training center for activists. The international training center opened on 18 September 2012.


title: Femen

text: As of early January 2013, the organization consisted of 30 local activists. The only Ukrainians regularly present were Oksana Shachko and Inna Shevchenko. On 6 March 2013, Femen activists, together with French writer Galia Ackerman, released their first book, "Femen". The book was published by Calmann-Lévy.


title: Femen

text: The international training center opened on 18 September 2012. 15 activists marched topless from the metro station Château Rouge to the Lavoir Moderne Parisien, where their new headquarters are located, and organized a press conference there.


title: Femen

text: On 3 October 2012, French activists Éloïse Bouton, Elvire Duvelle-Charles, Miyabi K., Julia Javel, Jenny Bah, Nathalie Vignes and Inna Shevchenko protested against rape by standing topless in front of the "Venus de Milo" statue in the Louvre Museum. The Femen activists shouted, "We have hands to stop rape". They stated they chose the "Venus de Milo" because it has no arms, arguing this best symbolizes a woman's helplessness and vulnerability. This protest followed an incident in Tunisia where a woman faced charges of indecency after she said she was raped by police officers.


title: Femen

text: On 15 October 2012, eight topless activists protested in front of the French Ministry of Justice at the Place Vendôme in Paris in response to the verdict in the trial of fourteen men for the gang rape of teenage girls. After a four-week trial in Fontenay-sous-Bois near Paris, four of the accused were found guilty of taking part in gang rapes, ten were acquitted. The sentences were far lighter than those recommended by the state prosecutor, who had called for prison sentences of five to seven years for eight of the men. The protesters accused the French authorities of tolerating the rape of minors.


title: Femen

text: Femen activists held protests in front of Great Mosque of Paris on 3 April 2013, to demand the release of Amina Tyler, a Femen activist in Tunisia. They also burned the Salafist flag. In September 2015 two topless Femen activists jumped onto the stage of a conservative Muslim conference in Paris.


title: Femen

text: Since late 2011, Femen has held rallies outside Ukraine. In late April 2011, the organization said it was setting up international branches in Warsaw, Zürich, Rome, Tel Aviv, and Rio de Janeiro. A demonstration by a group called RU Femen in the Russian capital, Moscow, in late April 2011 was immediately denounced as a fake offspring of Femen. Femen accused the Russian political party United Russia of having set up RU Femen. Early in 2013, Femen said that it had members in Brazil, Germany, the U.S., Canada, Switzerland, Italy, Bulgaria, and Tunisia.


title: Femen

text: On 23 January 2013, a third national Femen-group was opened officially when Alexandra Shevchenko launched Femen in Germany proposing to train and lead the group from Berlin and Hamburg bases. The German branch of Femen was founded by Irina Khanova, Hellen Langhorst, Klara Martens. An action the group took was amid the opening of the Barbie Dream House in Berlin's Alexanderplatz. Right before the pink plastic building opened, a Femen member emerged topless from a model high-heel shoe burning a Barbie doll, in protest of what was widely seen as giving girls an unrealistic view of life. The Femen member had written on her chest LIFE IN PLASTIC IS NOT FANTASTIC.


title: Femen

text: In June 2014, Femen opened a branch in Israel with 15 women. Femen notes, "our numbers are growing from week to week." The members, who range in age from 17 to 30, come from all over the country.


title: Femen

text: In August 2016, a branch of Femen launched in the United States of America, based in Seattle, Washington and led by Jordan Robson. To date, their most publicized action has been a protest held at the polling station used by Donald Trump in New York City on 8 November 2016.


title: Femen

text: Femen describes its stance as "radical feminism", and says that it is "fighting patriarchy in its three manifestations – sexual exploitation of women, dictatorship and religion". Femen has pledged to fight the sex industry and marriage agencies, the Church and its pro-life beliefs and patriarchal society, as well as those who oppose gay marriage. Femen has expressed opposition against Islamism, "Sharia law" and spoken against the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). On its official website Femen states: "Femen – is sextremism serving to protect women's rights, democracy watchdogs attacking patriarchy, in all its forms: the dictatorship, the church, the sex industry".


title: Femen

text: Femen has expressed both support for and opposition against various public figures and organizations; for example, the group lauded Pussy Riot and collaborated with Aliaa Elmahdy. In 2011, the group stated that it had enjoyed limited success in pushing its agenda. It was also criticized for failure "to provide much insight into what the concrete goals [of the organization] are".


title: Femen

text: Founder Anna Hutsol is adamantly opposed to legalizing prostitution in Ukraine and advocates for criminalization of prostitution abroad. In late May 2009, Femen proposed the introduction of criminal responsibility for the use of sex industry services. Femen protested against what they argued were moves being made by the Ukrainian government to legalize prostitution during the EURO 2012 championships. The group asked UEFA and the Ukrainian government to create a social program devoted to the problem of sex tourism and prostitution in Ukraine; to inform football fans that prostitution is illegal in Ukraine; and to take additional steps to fight against prostitution and sex tourism.


title: Femen

text: Despite Femen's objection to the sex industry, the group has fought against the prosecution of Anastasia Grishay by Ukrainian authorities (initiated by a prominent Communist member of parliament) on grounds of her involvement in pornography.


title: Femen

text: According to (founder) Hutsol "The Femen movement stands for women-related policies, not women in politics". FEMEN's leadership has very low expectations of all current mainstream Ukrainian politicians. When asked (in April 2013) if she considered German Chancellor Angela Merkel "the enemy" Alexandra Shevchenko replied: "In so far as she shakes the hand of the dictator, yes; like Yulia Tymoshenko and like Margaret Thatcher before them, she has hardly spoken out for women's rights".


title: Femen

text: Femen has protested "against the limitation of democratic liberties and freedom of the press" during Viktor Yanukovich's presidency and against (Ukrainian) government corruption.


title: Femen

text: Femen protest actions have also taken place against anti-Ukrainian policies by the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian President and Government of Russia. It also demanded "independence for the Ukrainian church".


title: Femen

text: In 2012, Femen stated that its goals were "to develop leadership, intellectual and moral qualities of young women in Ukraine" and "to build up the image of Ukraine, [a] country with great opportunities for women". In 2010, the stated goals of the organization were "to shake women in Ukraine, making them socially active; to organize in 2017 a women's revolution."


title: Femen

text: In December 2012, Femen "warned" the European Union "to stop immediately political, economic and cultural contacts with Gazprom-Kremlin's dictatorship", because "dependence on Nord Stream 1 will bring Europe to an economic collapse and the abolition of visas requirements for Russians threatens Europe with a cultural Armageddon". An 8 April 2013 "topless ambush" of Russian President Vladimir Putin (accompanied by German Chancellor Angela Merkel) at the Hanover trade fair was described by Alexandra Shevchenko as "non-violent women protesting against the most dangerous dictator in the world, it got great coverage and will hopefully inspire people in Russia as well as helping us to recruit new members".


title: Femen

text: Amina Tyler (real name Amina Sboui), a Tunisian Femen activist, was arrested on 19 May 2013 in Tunis. International protests followed for her release from detention. On 12 June 2013 a Tunisian judge convicted two French Femen members and one German Femen member after they were charged with public indecency while protesting for the release of Tyler. Pauline Hillier, Marguerite Stern and Josephine Markmann were released on 26 June 2013 after a Tunisian court lifted their prison sentence.


title: Femen

text: Amina Tyler was acquitted for contempt and defamation on 29 July 2013; but she remained jailed pending trial on a separate charge of desecrating a cemetery.


title: Femen

text: Femen had staged protests in front of the Grand Mosque of Paris burning a Tawhid flag. Amina upon release in August 2013 from detention in a Tunisian jail declared she was leaving the group in protest adding that she thought FEMEN's actions in Paris were disrespectful to the Muslim world and because she saw a lack of financial transparency in the organization.


title: Femen

text: Critics have stated Femen members are more interested in self-promotion than real reform, and that their antics are often tacky and undermine the cause of their protests. According to Ukrainian gender studies expert Tetyana Bureychak, most Ukrainian women are unimpressed by Femen. Ukrainian sociologist Oleh Demkiv has spoken out against the controversial nature of FEMEN's protests and in July 2011 he stated they "unfortunately, do not enjoy popular support, or lead to changes in Ukraine's consciousness". In February 2013 Joanna Rohozinska (from National Endowment for Democracy) stated "there is little evidence of any of Femen's protests having significant impact" and she called FEMEN's decision to set up branches in outside Ukraine "as disingenuous at best and, frankly, somewhat cowardly". Positive remarks in Ukraine about Femen came from Maria Mayerchyk (of Lviv University), who has spoken about Femen, saying that they are a "positive, radical and important phenomenon that is able to raise social issues", and Larysa Kobelianska (UN-led women's rights program) said the group has succeeded in attracting public attention to women's problems, even if by questionable means.


title: Femen

text: The group is seen more positively abroad. Naomi Westland wrote that "Western countries are more accustomed than those in the Eastern Hemisphere to seeing naked or semi-naked bodies in the media and on the streets. But in countries where nudity is taboo, the protests have more profound impact." Jeffrey Tayler noted: "Femen originated in Ukraine, born of young women who grew up without exposure to the West's culture of political correctness and who have scant respect for it; from their country's Soviet past, they know how deleterious the stifling of free speech can be. Now that they have moved to the West, Femen has courageously broken rules and enlivened the debate over religion's role in our world." Femen received a positive reception after opening their location in Paris.


title: Femen

text: In September 2013, Femen came under criticism when the Australian documentary filmmaker Kitty Green exposed a man named Victor Svyatski as the founder of the group. Svyatski was previously known as only a consultant to the movement.


title: Femen

text: Femen activists earn funding through the sale of products bearing the Femen logo. Femen also receives donations from individuals like Helmut Geier (also known as DJ under the alias DJ Hell), German businesswoman Beate Schober (who is currently residing in Ukraine), the American businessman Jed Sunden (founder of Ukrainian KP Media and former owner of "Kyiv Post" newspaper) and Ukrainian Canadians.


title: Femen

text: In March 2012 Ukrainian magazine "Focus" said that Femen activists receive royalties for foreign interviews and in the tabloids. In the magazine Anna Hutsol confirmed that a rally in Istanbul was sponsored by a Turkish company producing underwear.


title: Femen

text: A Ukrainian 1+1 journalist, who claimed (in September 2012) to have infiltrated the organization, says that its office in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, costs the movement over $2,500 per month, on top of which each member's salary was roughly per month.


title: Nutritionist

text: A nutritionist is a person who advises others on matters of food and nutrition and their impacts on health. Some people specialize in particular areas, such as sports nutrition, public health, or animal nutrition, among other disciplines. In many countries, a person can claim to be a nutritionist even without any training, education, or professional license, in contrast to a dietitian, who has a university degree, professional license, and certification for professional practice.


title: Nutritionist

text: The professional practice of being a "dietitian" (also spelled "dietician" in the US) is different from a "nutritionist". In many countries and jurisdictions, the title "nutritionist" is not subject to statutory professional regulation; thus, any person may self-title as a nutritionist or nutrition expert, even if self-taught and professionally uncertified. In the United Kingdom, Australia, parts of Canada, and most US states, a person self-titled as a "nutritionist" is not legally defined, whereas a "dietitian" is professionally certified and registered. People who have current registration with the appropriate regulatory body usually refer to themselves as "Registered dietitian", and so may use the professional designation, "RD" or "SRD".


title: Nutritionist

text: The term nutritionist may refer to a range of trained or untrained individuals – from someone who has no qualifications in nutrition to someone with a PhD in nutrition science. Within the professional field of nutrition, there is also the field of "nutrition therapy" which may be associated with practitioners of alternative medicine. Prominent examples include Gillian McKeith, Patrick Holford and Robert O. Young. A potential problem with self-proclaimed and media nutritionists, is low levels of training, the selling of supplements and herbal remedies and the use or promotion of concepts that are untested or potentially even dangerous, such as exclusion of food groups, detox and fad diets.


title: Nutritionist

text: To obtain the Nutritionist title, one must have studied at a recognized university for four years plus a year practice (internship). The nutritionists are registered at the "Conselho Regional de Nutrição" (Regional Council of Nutrition). A Nutritionist can prescribe diets, work at hospitals with clinical intervention, or in food production segment.


title: Nutritionist

text: There is variation across the country with different provinces having different regulations. The title "nutritionist" is protected by provincial law in Quebec and Nova Scotia. The term "Registered Nutritionist" or "Nutritionist" is protected in Alberta. The term “Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist” is protected by law in New Brunswick.


title: Nutritionist

text: For example, the Nova Scotia Dietetic Association is the regulatory body for professional dietitians and nutritionists in that province, authorized by legislation, the Professional Dietitians Act, "to engage in registration, quality assurance, and when necessary, the discipline of dietitians in Nova Scotia to ensure safe, ethical and competent dietetic practice." Professional requirements include a bachelor's degree in Dietetics/Nutrition from an accredited university, a program of practical training, and successful completion of a registration examination (the "Canadian Dietetic Registration Examination" or CDRE).


title: Nutritionist

text: Qualified Nutritionist: Any person who is the holder of a degree (baccalaureate, master, doctoral) in dietetics, foods, and nutrition awarded by a university or other institution recognized by the Association. Qualified Dietitian: Any person who is currently holder of a degree or a postgraduate diploma in dietetics recognized by the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine (Dietitian Board), the American Dietetic Association, Dietitians of Canada, British Dietetic Association and Dietitians Australia, for full membership or equivalent. Details can be found in the Hong Kong Nutrition Association. Job opportunities available in the Hospitals (Government or Private), private consultation companies. In Hong Kong, more and more people are taking note of the importance of balanced diets. The Government, Heart Foundation, Elderly Associations, etc., are keenly promoting in collaboration with local companies like WeCare Nutritionist and Consultants, Nestle, Anlene, etc., resulting in the urgent needs of nutritional professionals.


title: Nutritionist

text: In Morocco, "Nutritionist" is a protected title and might refer to a researcher in the field of nutrition or to a person who practices therapeutic nutrition. To hold the title of Nutritionist, a person should have carried doctoral studies in the field of nutrition and obtained a Ph.D. degree. On the other hand, the title of "Dietitian" is given to whoever carries studies in nutrition schools for three years and obtains a B.Sc. However, unlike Nutritionists, Dietitians are not given authorization to open private offices and to practice.


title: Nutritionist

text: In South Africa, nutritionists must be registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa. The Council regulates the professional titles of "Nutritionist", "Student Nutritionist", and "Supplementary Nutritionist", along with "Dietitian", "Student Dietitian", and Supplementary Dietitian". Requirements for eligibility for registration include a recognized bachelor's degree from an accredited educational institution. The undergraduate training should include the three practice areas of therapeutic nutrition, community nutrition, and food service management.


title: Nutritionist

text: "Nutritionist" is not a protected term in the UK, unlike "dietitian"; the latter must be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council. The Association for Nutrition is a registered charity that holds the UK Voluntary Register of Nutritionists (UKVRN) and is recognised by Public Health England, NHS Careers as the regulator of Registered Nutritionists in the UK, with individuals requiring a minimum of an Honours Degree in nutrition science alongside a commitment to a set of standards for ethics, conduct and performance to become allowed entry to the UKVRN and conferred the title Registered Associate Nutritionist (ANutr) or Registered Nutritionist (RNutr).


title: Nutritionist

text: Since 2002, the number of jobs for nutritionists has reportedly grown faster in the National Health Service (NHS) than in any other sector. The NHS states that "Dietitians and nutritionists have different roles and training and are regulated by different bodies." The growth of the nutritionist career could be due to an increasing focus on disease prevention, which is firmly within the remit and expertise of public health nutritionists, rather than just a focus on disease treatment and the clinical domain of dietitians.


title: Nutritionist

text: In the United States, some nutritionists are certified by the "Board for Certification of Nutrition Specialists" (BCNS), while other nutritionists are certified by the "Clinical Nutrition Certification Board" (CCN). Certified Nutrition Specialists (CNS) are professionals who have an advanced degree in nutrition from a fully accredited institution. There are three distinct certification pathways, which include the CNS for Nutrition and Health Professionals (CNS), CNS for MDs and DOs (CNS), and CNS for Scholars (CNS-S). To be award the CNS credential, Nutrition and Health Professional candidates must complete 1,000 supervised practice experience hours. They must also pass an examination that covers a spectrum of nutritional science and applied clinical topics. CNS practitioners commonly work in private, functional medicine, and integrative health practices.


title: Nutritionist

text: Registered dietitian nutritionists (RD; RDN) are health professionals qualified to provide safe, evidence-based dietary advice which includes a review of what is eaten, a thorough review of nutritional health, and a personalized nutritional treatment plan. They also provide preventive and therapeutic programs at work places, schools and similar institutions. Government regulation, especially in terms of licensing, is currently more universal for the RD or RDN than that of CCN.


title: Nutritionist

text: Certified Clinical Nutritionists (CCN) are trained health professionals who offer dietary advice on the role of nutrition in chronic disease, including possible prevention or remediation by addressing nutritional deficiencies before resorting to drugs. Quackwatch has accused the group that provides credentialing to CCNs, and its members, of promoting highly dubious medical claims including homeopathy, detoxification, and herbalism.


title: Heart Signal

text: Heart Signal (Korean: 하트시그널) is a South Korean dating reality television show distributed by Channel A. Season 1 of the show aired in 2017, followed by season 2 in 2018 and season 3 in 2020. Based on the cast members of Heart Signal, a new program named "Friends" was also produced.


title: Heart Signal

text: The reality show follows eight people living together for one month as they get to know each other and go on dates. Every night, each cast member sends an anonymous text message to another cast member to show their romantic interest. However, they are not allowed to directly confess their love. Meanwhile, a panel of celebrities and experts watches the show, analyzing the cast members' actions and trying to predict who will text who.


title: Heart Signal

text: In 2019, "Heart Signal" cast member Kang Sung-wook was sentenced to five years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman in August 2017. Fellow cast member Jang Cheon reportedly initially served as Kang's lawyer in the case but resigned after six days. Kang's sentence was reduced to 30 months in prison in 2020.


title: Heart Signal

text: "Heart Signal 2" cast member Kim Hyun-woo was arrested for drunk driving in April 2018 while the show was airing.


title: Heart Signal

text: After the cast members of "Heart Signal 3" were publicly announced, a woman accused cast member Lee Ga-heun of bullying classmates. Cast member Cheon An-na was also accused of bullying. The show's producers denied the allegations.


title: Heart Signal

text: While the show was airing, another woman told the media that cast member Kim Kang-yeol had kicked her in the stomach at a nightclub in January 2017. Kim admitted to the incident and apologized on social media.


title: Gautam Buddha Airport

text: Gautam Buddha International Airport , also known as Bhairahawa Airport, is an international airport located in Siddharthanagar (formerly and colloquially still called Bhairahawa) serving Lumbini in Lumbini Province, as well as the Butwal﹣Siddharthanagar urban agglomeration in Nepal. Since May 2022, it is Nepal's second international airport, after previously only handling domestic services.


title: Gautam Buddha Airport

text: The airport was opened as a domestic airport called Bhairahawa Airport providing flights to Kathmandu in 1958 and has since been operated by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal. In 1985, the airport was one of the targets of the Nepal bombings. In 1977, the airport was renamed Gautam Buddha Airport in honor of Gautam Buddha, who was born in neighboring village Lumbini.


title: Gautam Buddha Airport

text: First plans to develop the then domestic airport into Nepal's second international airport were developed in 2013 with the aim of operating the upgraded airport by 2017 in order to relieve the congested Tribhuvan International Airport.


title: Gautam Buddha Airport

text: The project was financed by a loan and grant aid from the Asian Development Bank. The contract to upgrade the airport was awarded to the Chinese company Northwest Civil Aviation Airport Construction Group in October 2014.


title: Gautam Buddha Airport

text: In January 2015, prime minister Sushil Koirala laid the foundation stone of the new airport with the aim of beginning operations at the airport December 2017. It was planned to have a runway and sixteen international parking bays. In 2017, the upgradation works were delayed for more than six months and the deadline of the completion was extended to 2019 due to the 2015 Nepal earthquake and the 2015 Nepal blockade. In July 2019, the project's deadline was extended and the expansion was expected to be completed by December 2019. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal, the opening of the airport was postponed again in July 2020 to March 2021. In June 2021, the opening was again postponed until early 2022, as final tests could not take place during monsoon season.


title: Gautam Buddha Airport

text: In late 2021, the calibration flights were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal, resulting in further postponement of the opening of the airport. These flights took place in February 2022.


title: Gautam Buddha Airport

text: In March 2022, it was announced that Jazeera Airways would be the first international airline to serve the airport.


title: Gautam Buddha Airport

text: On 21 April 2022, the newly built 3,000 m runway was opened while the old one was put into use as a taxiway.


title: Gautam Buddha Airport

text: The airport was officially opened with the arrival of the first international flight by Jazeera Airways on 16 May 2022.


title: Gautam Buddha Airport

text: As by November 2022, only one international carrier served the airport, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) forced any airline operating more than three flights a day from Nepal's other international airport, Tribhuvan International Airport to also operate from Gautam Buddha Airport. This sparked a controversy, as CAAN canceled flights by Nepal Airlines as the airline did not comply with this ruling.


title: Gautam Buddha Airport

text: The airport has one runway designated 10/28 with an Asphalt concrete (Bituminous Paved) surface measuring . It has an east-west orientation with a designation of 10/28 and a 200 meters Runway End Safety Area (RESA) on both side. It features a 1,500-meter x 23 meters parallel taxiway (10-28) used previously for the domestic airplanes.


title: Gautam Buddha Airport

text: Advanced navigational aids and airport lighting for safety and navigation is installed. There are two non-precision approach available at the Gautam Buddha Airport; VHF omnidirectional range along a distance measuring equipment (DVOR/DME) and Required Area Navigation (RNAV/RNP). A non-directional (radio) beacon (NDB) is installed at the northern side of the airport. One Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcasting (ADS-B) Sensor has been installed by CAAN at Bhairahawa to extend the surveillance coverage within the local airspace. There is an instrument landing system available to allow aircraft landing even in reduced visibility. The airport also possesses a visual guidance system which gives visual information to the pilot attempting to park the aircraft at the airport parking bay.


title: Gautam Buddha Airport

text: The airport consists of two public terminals at the airport, one for international traffic and one for domestic traffic. During the upgrade to an international airport, but before the opening of it, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation announced to build a new 35,000m² international terminal for the airport. The current terminal would be used as domestic terminal afterwards. The Government of Nepal sought suggestions on different designs for terminals of Gautam Buddha International Airport through social media. The new terminal would have 4 Sky-bridges, which the current terminal is lacking.


title: Gautam Buddha Airport

text: The airport is located near Feeder Road 44, which was enlarged in 2018 to ease access to the airport.


title: Gautam Buddha Airport

text: Ground vehicles used here will be fully electric. Currently there are nine fast charging stations installed in this airport. There are plans to make the airport fully solar powered, making it after Cochin International Airport only the second airport worldwide to do so.


title: Bennett Foddy

text: Bennett Foddy is an Australian video game designer based in New York. Raised in Australia and trained as a moral philosopher on topics of drug addiction, Foddy was a bassist in the electronic music group Cut Copy and a hobbyist game designer while he finished his dissertation. During his postdoctoral research at Princeton University and time on staff at Oxford University, Foddy developed games of very high difficulty including "QWOP" (2008), which became an Internet sensation at the end of 2010 with the rise of new online social sharing tools. He later became an instructor at the NYU Game Center. His most famous game aside from "QWOP" is "Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy", a philosophical, physics-based platform game released in 2017.


title: Bennett Foddy

text: Bennett Foddy was raised in Australia. His parents were academics. He studied philosophy in college and was working as a research assistant in the field when his childhood friend, Dan Whitford, started the Australian electronic group Cut Copy. Whitford was the sole writer for the first album but reached out to friends to expand the band. Foddy played bass, despite having little experience. When his duties to the band conflicted with his philosophy studies, he chose the latter. Foddy enrolled in a doctoral degree in philosophy in late 2003 at the University of Melbourne with an interest in cognitive science and human addiction and left Cut Copy in 2004. He also said that the touring life of waiting and partying did not fit his personality.


title: Bennett Foddy

text: Foddy has said that his best design work happened while he was procrastinating from other work. He taught himself to program and design games in 2006 from online tutorials while working on his philosophy dissertation. In his first Flash game, "Too Many Ninjas" (2007), players defended their immobile ninja avatar against oncoming ninjas. The game mainly relies on reflexes and a small set of buttons. Its positive press encouraged Foddy to continue the pursuit, but Foddy hid this hobby from his colleagues to avoid the philosophy field's stigma against philosophers who do not wholly dedicate themselves to their philosophy work.


title: Bennett Foddy

text: He moved to the United States as a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University from 2007 to 2010. Foddy wrote philosophy papers and lectured on topics of drug addiction. Meanwhile, he developed another simple game, "QWOP", for release in 2008, in which the player uses the four keyboard keys of the game's title to control the muscles of an Olympic sprinter. It was a modest success at release, but became an Internet sensation and one of his most recognisable titles following its popularisation on burgeoning websites Stumbleupon, Reddit, and YouTube in late 2010. "QWOP" enjoyed attention uncommon for indie games of its size. "Kill Screen" included the title in its 2011 Museum of Modern Art event and it appeared on the American television show "The Office" in 2012. As his postdoctoral work ended, Foddy's game design career outshined his philosophy career with the help of "QWOP", but before he came to choose the former, Foddy served as the deputy director of Oxford University's Institute for Science and Ethics.


title: Bennett Foddy

text: Foddy did not intend for "QWOP" to connect with his philosophy work, but he saw similarities between his use of reward–punishment cycles and the motivations behind addiction. For a time, he also worked on ascertaining the existence of game addiction and considered the intrinsic values of in-game rewards. Foddy later came to describe his game design aspirations as "literary", building atop a lineage of predecessors. In content, "QWOP" is based on the 1980s arcade game "Track & Field". Foddy's childhood gaming experiences became touchstones for the themes he would develop in "QWOP" and which would recur throughout his next titles. Foddy sought to recreate the vexing difficulty of games from his youth and the range of emotions they pique. He also wanted to create the "immediacy" of direct-to-TV video game appliances, which lacked the software load times characteristic of console games. Though several of his games prominently feature rhythm, it was not a consideration in his design.


title: Bennett Foddy

text: His next game, "GIRP" (2011), is a rock climbing simulator in which the player presses keyboard keys assigned to rocks on a wall to flex and ascend its surface. "Wired" described the free game as "masochistically difficult", with the effect of making the player's keyboard similar to the physical skill game of "Twister", in which the player grips the keyboard like the avatar grips the rock face. Like "QWOP", both titles have awkward controls that push the player to embody the avatar once the controls are internalised. "GIRP" is designed for players to set their own goals, such as their own maximum height, or once they reach the top, their own fastest score, rather than publicly comparing against an online leaderboard.


title: Bennett Foddy

text: As New York University expanded its Game Center into Brooklyn in late 2013, Foddy taught his first studio class in game design. A colleague highlighted Foddy's expertise on "game feel": his use of in-game physics to create tension. Foddy created many other small games, including a 16-player chess deathmatch ("Bennett Foddy's Speed Chess", 2013) and a maze of optical illusions ("Zebra", 2016).


title: Bennett Foddy

text: Foddy also expressed an interest in games history, particularly the English and European games not widely known in the United States. In 2014, his Indiecade presentation linked older, independently developed video games into the historical lineage of indie game development as it was contemporaneously known. In 2016, Foddy co-developed "Multibowl", a competitive minigame compilation of scenes from 1980s and 1990s video games. Similar to the microgames of "WarioWare", Foddy presents two-player, 30-second challenge scenarios culled from 230 commercial games, with a point awarded to the player who first completes the scenario's objective. Foddy was spurred by his interest in video game history and the accessibility of video game emulators. He privileged original titles in his selections. The game exhibited at XOXO and Fantastic Arcade, and will not receive a public release to avoid legal issues.


title: Bennett Foddy

text: "Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy" released in late 2017. The player is tasked with scaling a mountain as a man stuck inside a cauldron using only a hammer. "Wired" described the game as both "uproariously, darkly funny" and "challenging to the point of impossibility". Foddy narrates the title on the topic of failure. The game was popular with video game streamers and nominated for the Independent Games Festival's top prize.


title: Stilt house

text: Stilt houses (also called pile dwellings or lake dwellings) are houses raised on stilts (or piles) over the surface of the soil or a body of water. Stilt houses are built primarily as a protection against flooding; they also keep out vermin. The shady space under the house can be used for work or storage.


title: Stilt house

text: Houses where permafrost is present, in the Arctic, are built on stilts to keep permafrost under them from melting. Permafrost can be up to 70% water. While frozen, it provides a stable foundation. However, if heat radiating from the bottom of a home melts the permafrost, the home goes out of level and starts sinking into the ground. Other means of keeping the permafrost from melting are available, but raising the home off the ground on stilts is one of the most effective ways.


title: Stilt house

text: Raised rectangular houses are one of the cultural hallmarks of the Austronesian peoples and are found throughout the regions in Island Southeast Asia, Island Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia settled by Austronesians. The structures are raised on piles, usually with the space underneath also utilized for storage or domestic animals. The raised design had multiple advantages, they mitigate damage during flooding and (in very tall examples) can act as defensive structures during conflicts. The house posts are also distinctively capped with larger-diameter discs at the top, to prevent vermin and pests from entering the structures by climbing them. Austronesian houses and other structures are usually built in wetlands and alongside bodies of water, but can also be built in the highlands or even directly on shallow water.


title: Stilt house

text: Building structures on pilings is believed to be derived from the design of raised rice granaries and storehouses, which are highly important status symbols among the ancestrally rice-cultivating Austronesians. The rice granary shrine was also the archetypal religious building among Austronesian cultures and was used to store carvings of ancestor spirits and local deities. While rice cultivation wasn't among the technologies carried into Remote Oceania, raised storehouses still survived. The "pataka" of the Māori people is an example. The largest "pataka" are elaborately adorned with carvings and are often the tallest buildings in the Māori "pā". These were used to store implements, weapons, ships, and other valuables; while smaller "pataka" were used to store provisions. A special type of "pataka" supported by a single tall post also had ritual importance and were used to isolate high-born children during their training for leadership.


title: Stilt house

text: The majority of Austronesian structures are not permanent. They are made from perishable materials like wood, bamboo, plant fiber, and leaves. Because of this, archaeological records of prehistoric Austronesian structures are usually limited to traces of house posts, with no way of determining the original building plans. Indirect evidence of traditional Austronesian architecture, however, can be gleaned from their contemporary representations in art, like in friezes on the walls of later Hindu-Buddhist stone temples (like in reliefs in Borobudur and Prambanan). But these are limited to the recent centuries. They can also be reconstructed linguistically from shared terms for architectural elements, like ridge-poles, thatch, rafters, house posts, hearth, notched log ladders, storage racks, public buildings, and so on. Linguistic evidence also makes it clear that stilt houses were already present among Austronesian groups since at least the Late Neolithic.


title: Stilt house

text: Arbi "et al." (2013) have also noted the striking similarities between Austronesian architecture and Japanese traditional raised architecture ("shinmei-zukuri"). Particularly the buildings of the Ise Grand Shrine, which contrast with the pit-houses typical of the Neolithic Yayoi period. They propose significant Neolithic contact between the people of southern Japan and Austronesians or pre-Austronesians that occurred prior to the spread of Han Chinese cultural influence to the islands. Rice cultivation is also believed to have been introduced to Japan from a para-Austronesian group from coastal eastern China. Waterson (2009) has also argued that the architectural tradition of stilt houses in eastern Asia and the Pacific is originally Austronesian, and that similar building traditions in Japan and mainland Asia (notably among Kra-Dai and Austroasiatic-speaking groups) correspond to contacts with a prehistoric Austronesian network.


title: Stilt house

text: In South Asia, stilt houses are very common in Northeast India, specifically the Brahmaputra Valley regions of Assam, which is extremely prone to regional flooding from the Brahmaputra. These houses are known as "chang ghar" in Assamese, and as "kare okum" in Mising; chang ghar are traditionally built by the Mising people, who live along the Brahmaputra. Unlike many forms of traditional architecture, including stilt architecture, in South and Southeast Asia, the construction of chang ghar is making a resurgence and increasing in popularity, as a result of climate change increasing regular flooding in Assam, and the stilts of the chang ghar is adapted to flooding in the first place. The height of the stilts of the chang ghar is determined by the height of the water during the last major flood.


title: Stilt house

text: Stilt houses are also popular in Kerala in the Kerala Backwaters, another regions with high rainfall and regular flooding from monsoons. Although stilt houses in the Kerala Backwaters have been a traditional method of house construction for many years, following the disastrous 2018 floods in Kerala, many more stilt houses have been constructed recently and utilize concrete as well as timber for their pillars.


title: Stilt house

text: Stilt houses in China known as "guījiǎfángwū" () because Chinese stilt house structures inspired from a turtle and built over water surface (e.g. rivers).


title: Stilt house

text: In the late 20th century, stilt houses in extremely calm ocean water became a popular form of tourist lodging known as overwater bungalows; the trend began in French Polynesia and quickly spread to other tourist locations, especially in tropical locales.


title: Stilt house

text: Stilt houses were also built by Amerindians in pre-Columbian times. "Palafitos" are especially widespread along the banks of the tropical river valleys of South America, notably the Amazon and Orinoco river systems. Stilt houses were such a prevalent feature along the shores of Lake Maracaibo that Amerigo Vespucci was inspired to name the region "Venezuela" (little Venice). As the costs of hurricane damage increase, more and more houses along the Gulf Coast are being built as or converted to stilt houses.


title: Stilt house

text: Stilt houses are also still common in parts of the Mosquito Coast in northeastern Nicaragua, and in northern Brazil as well as the bayou parts of the Southern United States.


title: Stilt house

text: Stilted granaries are also a common feature in West Africa, e.g., in the Malinke language regions of Mali and Guinea.


title: Stilt house

text: In the Neolithic, the Copper Age and the Bronze Age, stilt-house settlements were common in the Alpine and Pianura Padana (Terramare) regions. Remains have been found at the Ljubljana Marsh in Slovenia and at the Mondsee and Attersee lakes in Upper Austria, for example.


title: Stilt house

text: Early archaeologists like Ferdinand Keller thought they formed artificial islands, much like the Irish and Scottish crannogs, but today it is clear that the majority of settlements were located on the shores of lakes and were only inundated later on.


title: Stilt house

text: Reconstructed stilt houses are shown in open-air museums in Unteruhldingen and Zürich (Pfahlbauland). In June 2011, the prehistoric pile dwellings in six Alpine states were designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. A single Scandinavian pile dwelling, the Alvastra stilt houses, has been excavated in Sweden. Herodotus has described in his "Histories" the dwellings of the "lake-dwellers" in Paeonia and how those were constructed.


title: Stilt house

text: In the Alps, similar buildings, known as raccards, are still in use as granaries. In England, granaries are placed on staddle stones, similar to stilts, to prevent mice and rats getting to the grain.


title: Stilt house

text: In Italy there are several stilt-houses settlements, for example the one on the Rocca di Manerba del Garda.


title: STUN

text: STUN (Session Traversal Utilities for NAT; originally Simple Traversal of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) through Network Address Translators) is a standardized set of methods, including a network protocol, for traversal of network address translator (NAT) gateways in applications of real-time voice, video, messaging, and other interactive communications.


title: STUN

text: STUN is a tool used by other protocols, such as Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE), the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), and WebRTC. It provides a tool for hosts to discover the presence of a network address translator, and to discover the mapped, usually public, Internet Protocol (IP) address and port number that the NAT has allocated for the application's User Datagram Protocol (UDP) flows to remote hosts. The protocol requires assistance from a third-party network server (STUN server) located on the opposing (public) side of the NAT, usually the public Internet.


title: STUN

text: STUN was first announced in RFC 3489; the title was changed in a specification of an updated set of methods published as RFC 5389, retaining the same acronym.


title: STUN

text: STUN was first announced in RFC 3489. The original specification specified an algorithm to characterize NAT behavior according to the address and port mapping behavior. This algorithm is not reliably successful and only applicable to a subset of NAT devices deployed. The algorithm consists of a series of tests to be performed by an application. When the path through the diagram ends in a red box, UDP communication is not possible and when the path ends in a yellow or green box, communication is possible. The methods of RFC 3489 proved too unreliable to cope with the plethora of different NAT implementations and application scenarios encountered in production networks. The STUN protocol and method were updated in RFC 5389, retaining many of the original specifications as a subset of methods, but removing others.


title: STUN

text: The title was changed in a specification of an updated set of methods published as RFC 5389, retaining the same acronym.


title: STUN

text: STUN is a tool for communications protocols to detect and traverse network address translators that are located in the path between two endpoints of communication. It is implemented as a light-weight client–server protocol, requiring only simple query and response components with a third-party server located on the common, easily accessible network, typically the Internet. The client side is implemented in the user's communications application, such as a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone or an instant messaging client.


title: STUN

text: The basic protocol operates essentially as follows: The client, typically operating inside a private network, sends a "binding request" to a STUN server on the public Internet. The STUN server responds with a "success response" that contains the IP address and port number of the client, as observed from the server's perspective. The result is obfuscated through exclusive or (XOR) mapping to avoid translation of the packet content by application layer gateways (ALGs) that perform deep packet inspection in an attempt to perform alternate NAT traversal methods.


title: STUN

text: STUN messages are sent in User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets. Since UDP does not provide reliable transport, reliability is achieved by application-controlled retransmissions of the STUN requests. STUN servers do not implement any reliability mechanism for their responses. When reliability is mandatory, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) may be used, but induces extra networking overhead. In security-sensitive applications, STUN may be transported and encrypted by Transport Layer Security (TLS).


title: STUN

text: An application may automatically determine a suitable STUN server for communications with a particular peer by querying the Domain Name System (DNS) for the "stun" (for UDP) or "stuns" (for TCP/TLS) server (SRV) resource record, e.g., _stun._udp.example.com. The standard listening port number for a STUN server is 3478 for UDP and TCP, and 5349 for TLS. Alternatively, TLS may also be run on the TCP port if the server implementation can de-multiplex TLS and STUN packets. In case no STUN server is found using DNS lookups, the standard recommends that the destination domain name should be queried for address records (A or AAAA), which would be used with the default port numbers.


title: STUN

text: In addition to using protocol encryption with TLS, STUN also has built-in authentication and message-integrity mechanisms via specialized STUN packet types.


title: STUN

text: When a client has evaluated its external address, it can use this as a candidate for communicating with peers by sharing the external NAT address rather than the private address, which is not reachable from peers on the public network.


title: STUN

text: If both communicating peers are located in different private networks, each behind a NAT, the peers must coordinate to determine the best communication path between them. Some NAT behavior may restrict peer connectivity even when the public binding is known. The Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) protocol provides a structured mechanism to determine the optimal communication path between two peers. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) extensions are defined to enable the use of ICE when setting up a call between two hosts.


title: STUN

text: Network address translation is implemented via a number of different address and port mapping schemes, none of which is standardized.


title: STUN

text: STUN is not a self-contained NAT traversal solution applicable in all NAT deployment scenarios and does not work correctly with all of them. It is a tool among other methods and it is a tool for other protocols in dealing with NAT traversal, most notably Traversal Using Relay NAT (TURN) and Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE).


title: STUN

text: STUN works with three types of NAT: full cone NAT, restricted cone NAT, and port restricted cone NAT. In the cases of restricted cone or port restricted cone NATs, the client must send out a packet to the endpoint before the NAT will allow packets from the endpoint through to the client. STUN does not work with symmetric NAT (also known as bi-directional NAT) which is often found in the networks of large companies. Since the IP address of the STUN server is different from that of the endpoint, in the symmetric NAT case, the NAT mapping will be different for the STUN server than for an endpoint. TURN offers better results with symmetric NAT.


title: Newton's method in optimization

text: In calculus, Newton's method is an iterative method for finding the roots of a differentiable function , which are solutions to the equation . As such, Newton's method can be applied to the derivative of a twice-differentiable function to find the roots of the derivative (solutions to ), also known as the critical points of . These solutions may be minima, maxima, or saddle points; see section "Several variables" in Critical point (mathematics) and also section "Geometric interpretation" in this article. This is relevant in optimization, which aims to find (global) minima of the function .


title: Newton's method in optimization

text: The central problem of optimization is minimization of functions. Let us first consider the case of univariate functions, i.e., functions of a single real variable. We will later consider the more general and more practically useful multivariate case.


title: Newton's method in optimization

text: Newton's method attempts to solve this problem by constructing a sequence formula_3 from an initial guess (starting point) formula_4 that converges towards a minimizer formula_5 of formula_6 by using a sequence of second-order Taylor approximations of formula_6 around the iterates. The second-order Taylor expansion of around formula_8 is


title: Newton's method in optimization

text: The next iterate formula_10 is defined so as to minimize this quadratic approximation in formula_11, and setting formula_12. If the second derivative is positive, the quadratic approximation is a convex function of formula_11, and its minimum can be found by setting the derivative to zero. Since


title: Rise of Nations

text: Rise of Nations is a real-time strategy video game developed by Big Huge Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios in May 2003. The development was led by veteran game designer Brian Reynolds, of "Civilization II" and "Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri". The game has taken several concepts from turn-based strategy games such as territories and attrition warfare. "Rise of Nations" features 18 civilizations, playable through eight ages of world history.


title: Rise of Nations

text: "Rise of Nations: Extended Edition" is a re-release of the main game and its expansion. It released for Steam on June 12, 2014, and for the Windows 10 Store on September 14, 2017, with Xbox Live achievements and cross-play with the Steam version. Graphical changes to the game include updated textures, lighting and water. Other changes to the game include Steamworks integration which adds cloud saves, Steam Trading Cards, achievements, Twitch integration and multiplayer with Elo ranked matches to the game. "Extended Edition" is developed by SkyBox Labs.


title: Rise of Nations

text: The core of "Rise of Nations"'s gameplay centers around the concept of "territory". The area near the player's settlements is considered their territory, and players may only construct buildings within their territory or that of an ally (with the exception of the Lakota). A nation's borders can be expanded by the creation and expansion of cities and forts, a technology tree, and obtaining access to certain rare resources. Other technologies and resources cause enemy units within a nation's borders to suffer attrition over time, which can eventually destroy an unsupplied invasion force.


title: Rise of Nations

text: People in "Rise of Nations" gather resources, or build or repair damaged buildings. All of the six resource types in "Rise of Nations" are infinite in supply.


title: Rise of Nations

text: Any of the game's nations can be played during any age, regardless of that nation's fate throughout actual history. Each of the 18 civilizations in "Rise of Nations" has 4 to 8 unique units. Some unique units are based on units that those nations would have, if they were not destroyed in real-life. For example, the Native American nations (the Aztecs, Maya, and Inca) have unique units in the Modern and Information ages which resemble real-world Iberian-South American guerrillas. There are 4 end conditions: capture, territorial superiority, wonder victory, or score victory.


title: Rise of Nations

text: Gameplay focuses heavily on creating a balance between offense, defense, and economy. Generalship is also needed in this game like most RTS games; this includes a knowledge of the troops and what they are good at fighting. For example, pikemen are better than cannon at killing cavalry. Terrain plays a major part in this game and knowing the terrain is an important asset in battle. Generals can also be created from a fort to aid an army.


title: Rise of Nations

text: Five tactical formations are also available, including the ability to compress or expand the line of battle. When a formation is chosen, the selected units automatically reposition themselves accordingly, typically with faster moving units in the front and slower moving, vulnerable units in the rear.


title: Rise of Nations

text: In a manner similar to chess, slight strategic mistakes early in the game can turn into major tactical problems later on. For example, if a player starts with the nomad setting where no city is built at the start, it is wise to scout for an area that has resources before building a city, for without resources there is no army and the player will lose.


title: Rise of Nations

text: A single-player campaign, "Conquer the World", is included in the game. It is comparable to the board game "Risk", except that attacks are resolved with a real-time battle, which can last as long as 90 minutes depending upon the scenario. The player can also purchase reinforcements or bonus cards and engage in diplomacy with other nations. Bonus cards and reinforcement cards must be deployed from the Map screen. If the Player attacks a Nation's capital from the Map screen and wins, all of the territory belonging to that Nation come under the control of the Player and that Nation is eliminated. The campaign starts at the Ancient Age and progresses slowly over the course over the campaign to end at the Information Age (present day). During a battle it may be possible to advance to the next available age and upgrade units for the battle.


title: Rise of Nations

text: There are more than 100 different units in "Rise of Nations", ranging from the Ancient Age Hoplite to the Information Age Stealth Bomber. Military units are created at certain structures: the Barracks, Stable/Auto Plant, Siege Factory/Factory, Dock/Shipyard/Anchorage, Airbase, Missile silo, and Fort/Castle/Fortress/Redoubt.


title: Rise of Nations

text: Most Infantry units operate in squads of three, and when a player builds an infantry unit, three soldiers are produced, rather than just one soldier. Exceptions to this rule are: Scout and Special Forces units, armed civilians, flamethrowers, and machine gunners.


title: Rise of Nations

text: Unit types, such as Light Infantry, Heavy Infantry, and Ranged Cavalry, can be upgraded as the player advances through the ages. These upgrades usually represent revolutionary changes in their particular field. For example, the Arquebusier of the Gunpowder Age becomes the Musketeer of the Enlightenment Age, representing the great advantage of flintlock muskets over the earlier matchlock muskets and showing increased attack power and reload speed. Also, each nation gets its own set of unique units. For example, the Greeks can build Companion cavalry; the Russians can build Red Guards infantry and T-80 tanks; the British can build Longbowmen, Highlanders, and Avro Lancaster Bombers; and the Germans get the Tiger and Leopard tanks. In the "Thrones and Patriots" expansion pack, the Americans can build various Marine units.


title: Rise of Nations

text: Because of the wide variety of units in the game, players have the opportunity to create an army customized to their tastes. Most units have a cost that is roughly equal to that of their peers. Additionally, most units use only two resource types, making the creation of diverse armies easier and almost required. Terraced costs further contribute to the incentive for a diverse army, as each additional unit a player creates of a single type will cost slightly more than the last.


title: Rise of Nations

text: Wonders are important buildings in the game. They are real-life structures ranging from the Colossus and the Pyramids to the Supercollider and Space Program. They provide various benefits such as improving resource gathering or making units cheaper. Building wonders can also allow a player to win the game if 'wonder victory' is chosen as a custom setting of the game, as each wonder is worth a preset number of "Wonder Points". Wonders can be built starting in the Classical Age. The only exception is the Egyptians, who can make wonders an age earlier. As you progress in the game the wonders become more expensive, but generate more points. For example, the Supercollider is worth eight times as much as the Pyramids in terms of Wonder Points.


title: Rise of Nations

text: GameSpy originally used to host the game but currently does not host the game on their servers. The LAN networking, implemented on both platforms, provides a system for people on the same network to play together. There is also a Direct-IP option, allowing non-networked players to connect without the use of GameSpy. Cross-platform play is not supported between Windows and Mac users.


title: Rise of Nations

text: 38 Studios acquired the rights to "Rise of Nations" and "Rise of Legends", when it acquired Big Huge Games in 2009. After 38 Studios filed for bankruptcy in 2012 its rights to "Rise of Nations" were sold at an auction to Microsoft.


title: Rise of Nations

text: On April 28, 2004, Big Huge Games released "Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots", an expansion pack. Later that year, a Gold edition of "Rise of Nations" was released, which included both the original and the expansion.


title: Rise of Nations

text: In May 2006, Big Huge Games released "Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends", a fantasy-themed spin-off with similar gameplay.


title: Rise of Nations

text: 38 Studios bought Big Huge Games at the time it acquired Rise of Nations IP. When 38 Studios went bankrupt, at the auction, Microsoft bought the IP back and charged SkyBox Labs to do the extended edition. "Rise of Nations" and its expansion pack has been revitalized under the name "Rise of Nations: Extended Edition" and was released on June 12, 2014, on Steam. "Extended Edition" features a high definition graphics upgrade, multiplayer ranked matches, and Twitch integration. The core of the game remains untouched.


title: Rise of Nations

text: "Rise of Nations" received "generally favorable reviews", just one point shy of "universal acclaim", according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.


title: Rise of Nations

text: "Rise of Nations" won "PC Gamer US"s 2003 "Best Real-Time Strategy Game" award, and was a runner-up in the magazine's "Best Game of 2003" category, which went to "". The publication's William Harms called it "a blueprint for the genre's future" and "how RTS games should be made from here on out". "Computer Games Magazine" named "Rise of Nations" the fifth-best computer game of 2003, and presented it with an award for "Best Interface". The editors wrote that the game "succeeds in a big way, and is about as addictive as they come." The editors of "Computer Gaming World" nominated "Rise of Nations" for their 2003 "Strategy Game of the Year" award, but it lost to "".


title: Rise of Nations

text: "Rise of Nations" and its expansion pack "" have received combined sales of over 1 million copies. In the United States, "Rise of Nations" sold 420,000 copies and earned $15.9 million by August 2006, after its release in May 2003. It was the country's 35th best-selling computer game between January 2000 and August 2006. Combined sales of all "Rise of Nations"-related games released between January 2000 and August 2006 had reached 700,000 units in the United States by the latter date.


title: Rise of Nations

text: "Rise of Nations" was shown in 2008 to improve a variety of "critical cognitive skills", most prominently working memory and task-switching ability, in older adults.


title: Sharbani Mukherjee

text: Sharbani Mukherjee (alternate name: Sharbani Mukherji) is an Indian actress working in Hindi and Malayalam language films.


title: Sharbani Mukherjee

text: She is the daughter of Rono Mukerji and thus part of the Mukherjee-Samarth family. Her paternal uncle is Deb Mukherjee, while her late paternal uncles were Joy Mukherjee and Shomu Mukherjee. Her paternal grandfather, Sashadhar Mukherjee, was a filmmaker. His wife Satirani Devi was the sister of Ashok Kumar, Anoop Kumar and Kishore Kumar. Her cousins are actresses Rani Mukerji, Kajol and Tanisha, director Ayan Mukerji and noted MIT algebraic geometer Davesh Maulik. Her brother Samrat Mukerji is also a Bollywood and Bengali actor.


title: Sharbani Mukherjee

text: Sharbani made her debut with the hit film "Border". She was featured opposite Samir Soni in the song "Ghar Aaja Sonia", sung by Shazia Mansoor. She has also acted in various ads. By 2008 she shifted her focus into Mollywood, her debut Malayalam film "Raakilipattu" was released after 7 years of production. She played the lead role in the film "Sufi Paranja Katha".


title: Blindness (2008 film)

text: Blindness is a 2008 English-language thriller film about a society that suffers an epidemic of blindness. The film is an adaptation of the 1995 novel of the same name by the Portuguese author José Saramago. The film was written by Don McKellar and directed by Fernando Meirelles, starring Julianne Moore as the doctor's wife and Mark Ruffalo as the doctor. Saramago originally refused to sell the rights for a film adaptation, but the producers were able to acquire it with the condition that the film would be set in an unnamed and unrecognizable city. "Blindness" premiered as the opening film at the Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2008, and was released in Canada as part of the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2008.


title: Blindness (2008 film)

text: The film begins with a young professional suddenly going blind in his car while at an intersection, with his field of vision turning white. A seemingly kind passerby offers to drive him home. However, he then steals the blind man's car. When the blind man's wife returns home, she takes him to an ophthalmologist who can identify nothing wrong and refers him for further evaluation.


title: Blindness (2008 film)

text: The next day, the doctor goes blind, and recognizes that the blindness must be caused by a communicable disease. Around the city, more citizens are struck blind, causing widespread panic, and the government organizes a quarantine for the blind in a derelict asylum. When a hazmat crew arrives to pick up the doctor, his wife lies that she has also gone blind in order to accompany him.


title: Blindness (2008 film)

text: In the asylum, the doctor and his wife are first to arrive and agree they will keep her sight a secret. They are joined by several others, including the driver, the thief, and other patients of the doctor. At this point, the "white sickness" has become international, with hundreds of cases reported every day. The government is resorting to increasingly ruthless measures to try to deal with the epidemic, including refusing aid to the blind.


title: Blindness (2008 film)

text: As more blinded people are crammed into what has become a concentration camp, overcrowding and lack of outside support cause hygiene and living conditions to quickly degrade. The doctor serves as the representative of his ward, and his sighted wife does what she can to assist her fellow inmates without revealing her ability. Anxiety over the availability of food undermines morale and introduces conflict between the prison's wards, as the soldiers who guard the camp become increasingly hostile.


title: Blindness (2008 film)

text: A man with a handgun appoints himself "king" of his ward, and takes control of the food deliveries, first demanding the other wards' valuables, and then for the women to have sex with their men. In an effort to obtain necessities, several women reluctantly submit to being raped. One of the women is killed by her assailant, and the doctor's wife retaliates, killing the "king" with a pair of scissors. Independently, other raped women sneak to the dead king's ward and set it on fire, which rapidly engulfs the building, with many inmates dying in the ensuing chaos. The survivors who escape the building discover that the guards have abandoned their posts, and they venture out into the city.


title: Blindness (2008 film)

text: Society has collapsed, with the city's population reduced to an aimless, zombie-like struggle to survive. The doctor's wife leads her husband and a few others from their ward in search of food and shelter. She discovers a well-stocked basement storeroom beneath a grocery store, barely escaping with aid from her husband when the throng around her smell the fresh food she is carrying.


title: Blindness (2008 film)

text: The doctor and his wife invite their new "family" to their apartment, where they establish a mutually supportive long-term home. Then, just as suddenly as his sight had been lost, the driver – the first man to lose their sight – recovers his sight, indicating that the body had fought off the disease, and that the blindness is ultimately temporary. They celebrate and their hope is restored.


title: Blindness (2008 film)

text: Meirelles chose an international cast. Producer Niv Fichman explained Meirelles' intent: "He was inspired by [Saramago's] great masterwork to create a microcosm of the world. He wanted it cast in a way to represent all of humanity."


title: Blindness (2008 film)

text: The rights to the 1995 novel "Blindness" were closely guarded by author José Saramago. Saramago explained, "I always resisted because it's a violent book about social degradation, rape, and I didn't want it to fall into the wrong hands." Director Fernando Meirelles had wanted to direct a film adaptation in 1997, perceiving it as "an allegory about the fragility of civilization". Saramago originally refused to sell the rights to Meirelles, Whoopi Goldberg, or Gael García Bernal. In 1999, producer Niv Fichman and Canadian screenwriter Don McKellar visited Saramago in the Canary Islands; Saramago allowed their visit on condition that they not discuss buying the rights. McKellar explained the changes he intended to make from the novel and what the focus would be, and two days later he and Fichman left Saramago's home with the rights. McKellar believed they had succeeded where others had failed because they properly researched Saramago; he was suspicious of the film industry and had therefore resisted other studios' efforts to obtain the rights through large sums of money alone. Conditions set by Saramago were for the film to be set in a country that would not be recognizable to audiences, and that the canine in the novel, the Dog of Tears, should be a big dog.


title: Blindness (2008 film)

text: Meirelles originally envisioned doing the film in Portuguese similar to the novel's original language, but instead directed the film in English, saying, "If you do it in English you can sell it to the whole world and have a bigger audience." Meirelles set the film in a contemporary large city, seemingly under a totalitarian government, as opposed to the novel that he believed took place in the 1940s (actually, the book is more likely to take place in the 80s or later, as evident by the fact that the characters stumble upon a store with modern appliances like microwave ovens and dishwashers, and referral to AIDS as a feared disease). Meirelles chose to make a contemporary film so audiences could relate to the characters. The director also sought a different allegorical approach. He described the novel as "very allegorical, like a fantasy outside of space, outside the world", and he instead took a naturalistic direction in engaging audiences to make the film less "cold."


title: Blindness (2008 film)

text: Don McKellar said about adapting the story, "None of the characters even have names or a history, which is very untraditional for a Hollywood story. The film, like the novel, directly addresses sight and point of view and asks you to see things from a different perspective." McKellar wrote the script so audiences would see the world through the eyes of the protagonist, the doctor's wife. He sought to have them question the humanity of how she observes but does not act in various situations, including a rape scene. He consulted Saramago about why the wife took so long to act. McKellar noted, "He said she became aware of the responsibility that comes with seeing gradually, first to herself, then to her husband, then to her small family, then her ward, and finally to the world where she has to create a new civilization." The screenwriter wrote out the "actions and circumstances" that would allow the wife to find her responsibility. While the completed script was mostly faithful to the novel, McKellar went through several drafts that were not. One such saw him veer away from the novel by creating names and backstories for all the characters. Another significantly changed the chronology. Only after these abortive attempts did McKellar decide to cut the backstories and focus primarily on the doctor and his wife. He attempted to reconnect with what originally drew him to the novel: what he called its "existential simplicity". The novel defines its characters by little more than their present actions; doing the same for the adaptation became "an interesting exercise" for McKellar.


title: Blindness (2008 film)

text: McKellar attended a summer camp for the blind as part of his research. He wanted to observe how blind people interacted in groups. He discovered that excessive expositional dialogue, usually frowned upon by writers, was essential for the groups. McKellar cut one of the last lines in the novel from his screenplay: "I don't think we did go blind, I think we are blind. Blind but seeing. Blind people who can see, but do not see." McKellar believed viewers would by that point have already grasped the symbolism and didn't want the script to seem heavy-handed. He also toned down the visual cues in his screenplay, such as the "brilliant milky whiteness" of blindness described in the novel. McKellar knew he wanted a stylistically adept director and didn't want to be too prescriptive, preferring only to hint at an approach.


title: Blindness (2008 film)

text: Meirelles chose São Paulo as the primary backdrop for "Blindness", though scenes were also filmed in Osasco, São Paulo, Brazil; Guelph, Ontario, Canada; and Montevideo, Uruguay. With all the characters aside from Julianne Moore's character being blind, the cast was trained to simulate blindness. The director also stylized the film to reflect the lack of point of view that the characters would experience. Meirelles said several actors he talked to were intimidated by the concept of playing characters without names: "I offered the film to some actors who said, 'I can't play a character with no name, with no history, with no past. With Gael (García Bernal), he said, 'I never think about the past. I just think what my character wants.'"


title: Blindness (2008 film)

text: By September 2006, Fernando Meirelles was attached to "Blindness", with the script being adapted by Don McKellar. "Blindness", budgeted at $25 million as part of a Brazilian and Canadian co-production, was slated to begin filming in summer 2007 in the towns of São Paulo and Guelph. Filming began in early July in São Paulo and Guelph. Filming also took place in Montevideo, Uruguay. São Paulo served as the primary backdrop for "Blindness", as it is a city mostly unfamiliar to North American and European audiences. With its relative obscurity, the director sought São Paulo as the film's generic location. Filming continued through autumn of 2007.