title: Jamie Noble

text: Noble made his return to WWE on the December 17, 2005 episode of "Velocity" and would later frequently team up with fellow cruiserweight Kid Kash; during June 2006, Noble and Kash debuted a gimmick, where they wore dog collars, and barked and bit and had a short face run. The pair quickly turned heel and were soon named "The Pitbulls". They then entered the hunt for the WWE Tag Team Championship. The Pitbulls was disbanded after Kash was fired from WWE on September 27, 2006.


title: Jamie Noble

text: In 2007, Noble returned to competing in the cruiserweight division and performing as an enhancement talent against Rey Mysterio and Bobby Lashley. At No Way Out, Noble competed in a cruiserweight Gauntlet Match for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. He was eliminated by his former WCW teammate, Jimmy Wang Yang.


title: Jamie Noble

text: Noble returned to television on the June 8 episode of "SmackDown!", teaming up with Chavo Guerrero and Daivari against Paul London, Brian Kendrick and Wang Yang in a losing effort. On the June 15 episode of "SmackDown!", Noble competed in a Fatal Four-Way number one contenders match for the Cruiserweight Championship, which he lost to Jimmy Wang Yang and also involved Shannon Moore and Daivari. In July, Noble was unsuccessful in a triple threat match for the Cruiserweight Championship against then Champion Guerrero and Funaki. Noble then competed in the Cruiserweight Open at The Great American Bash but was pinned by Hornswoggle. Noble would then begin a feud with Hornswoggle that would see him lose in various humiliating fashions, usually by countout. Moore would constantly use his obsession with Hornswoggle to humiliate him as well.


title: Jamie Noble

text: After his feud with Hornswoggle ended, Noble began an angle where he was easily defeated in his matches as punishment for being disrespectful to then-SmackDown! general manager, Vickie Guerrero. He was eventually placed in a match with Chuck Palumbo, which was expected to be yet another squash. Noble, however, defeated Palumbo, which began a feud between the two, as well as involving Palumbo's "friend" Michelle McCool. After his fourth win against Palumbo he came out when Chuck threatened to hurt McCool. Later in a tag team match, Palumbo attacked Noble and McCool, becoming a heel in the process. As a result of the double turn, Noble became a face character once again.


title: Jamie Noble

text: As part of the 2008 WWE Supplemental Draft, Noble was drafted to the Raw brand. Noble was then involved in a storyline where he tried to impress Layla on multiple occasions only to antagonize and be beaten by larger opponents. He started a feud with William Regal over the course of the storyline, with the two trading wins, and Layla, between them. On the September 15, 2008 episode of "Raw", the feud escalated following Noble's victory over Paul Burchill. Layla came out and told Noble it was over and she found a man worthy of her in Regal.


title: Jamie Noble

text: On the February 3 episode of "ECW" Noble asked then-ECW General Manager Theodore Long for an ECW contract and lost to The Boogeyman.


title: Jamie Noble

text: On the February 23 episode of "Raw", Noble suffered a neck injury in a match with Mike Knox, and was taken to a local hospital. His injury meant that the scheduled segment between Chris Jericho and Ricky Steamboat that was meant to take place in the ring, had to take place on the stage instead. It was later confirmed that the injury was not severe. Noble made his return about one month later.


title: Jamie Noble

text: During a match with Sheamus on the November 2, 2009 episode of "Raw", Noble sustained a back injury after falling from the top rope onto the concrete floor. On November 10, 2009, Noble announced he was retiring from professional wrestling due to the effects of the injury and several other nagging injuries sustained over his career.


title: Jamie Noble

text: Upon retiring, Noble began working as a producer. He made occasional appearances on WWE programming and wrestled sporadically at house shows, including a bout with World Heavyweight Champion at the time Daniel Bryan on January 13, 2012.


title: Jamie Noble

text: On the September 29, 2014 episode of "Raw", Noble and fellow producer Joey Mercury aligned themselves with the villainous stable The Authority. They were later named "J&J Security", with Noble and Mercury acting as bodyguards to Authority member Seth Rollins. On the November 24 episode of "Raw", Noble, along with Mercury, would wrestle their first televised matches in several years, when they teamed up with Rollins in a 3-on-2 Handicap match against John Cena and Dolph Ziggler in a losing effort. On the February 5, 2015 episode of "SmackDown", J&J Security once again teamed with Rollins, this time in a 3-on-1 handicap match against Daniel Bryan, once again in a losing effort. After weeks of tension between Rollins and The Authority, on the June 8 episode of "Raw", J&J Security stood up to Rollins, leaving him, before defeating Rollins in a 2-on-1 Handicap match following interference from Dean Ambrose. This is Noble's last match to date. However, on the June 22 episode of "Raw", after Rollins apologized to The Authority for his behaviour and Brock Lesnar returning and attacking him, J&J Security and Kane would help Rollins attack Lesnar. Noble would legitimately suffer three broken ribs from Lesnar after being thrown into the barricade during the brawl. On the July 6 episode of "Raw", Brock Lesnar viciously attacked J&J Security, whom an afraid Rollins sent to the ramp with Mercury to stop him from getting his hands on Rollins by confronting him near their (J&J Security's) new Cadillac, which Rollins had just given them as a gift of his appreciation the previous week. Noble was promptly beaten down by Lesnar and locked into a Kimura Lock submission maneuver. Following this, it was announced that both Noble and Mercury will be out of action indefinitely.


title: Jamie Noble

text: In 2017, Noble was seen backstage at Great Balls of Fire assisting Raw General Manager Kurt Angle with the rescue of Braun Strowman who had been trapped in an ambulance due to Roman Reigns crashing into it with a truck, following their ambulance match. On the May 28, 2018 episode of "Raw", Noble helped Seth Rollins walk after he was attacked by Elias. He has been involved as a security team member, in numerous pull-apart brawls on "Raw" and "SmackDown" throughout 2018 and 2020. On the May 29, 2020 episode of "SmackDown", Noble was among officials on the scene following a hit-and-run on Elias and found a seemingly inebriated Jeff Hardy, who was then arrested. On the March 12, 2021 episode of "Smackdown", Noble was seen shielding Cesaro from Rollins who attacked him.


title: Jamie Noble

text: On December 11, 2022 during the WWE Holiday Tour in Charleston, WV, Noble made a one-night-only return to competition. In his final match, Noble teamed with Braun Strowman and The Brawling Brutes (Holland/Butch) against The Bloodline (Sikoa/Zayn/The Usos). Noble picked up the victory after hitting the Gibson driver on Zayn.


title: Jamie Noble

text: Gibson attended Baileysville High School in Baileysville, West Virginia, where he met his future wife, Angela England. The couple have a son, Gage, and a daughter, Paige. He has two half brothers, Cody and Dale.


title: Jamie Noble

text: On September 28, 2016, Gibson was stabbed twice outside of his West Virginia home and was hospitalized after an alleged dispute with a driver. On October 5, 2016, it was revealed that he had a collapsed lung from the stabbing.


title: Cython

text: Cython () is a programming language that aims to be a superset of the Python programming language, designed to give C-like performance with code that is written mostly in Python with optional additional C-inspired syntax.


title: Cython

text: Cython is a compiled language that is typically used to generate CPython extension modules. Annotated Python-like code is compiled to C or C++ then automatically wrapped in interface code, producing extension modules that can be loaded and used by regular Python code using the import statement, but with significantly less computational overhead at run time. Cython also facilitates wrapping independent C or C++ code into python-importable modules.


title: Cython

text: Cython is written in Python and C and works on Windows, macOS, and Linux, producing source files compatible with CPython 2.6, 2.7, and 3.3 and later versions.


title: Cython

text: Cython works by producing a standard Python module. However, the behavior differs from standard Python in that the module code, originally written in Python, is translated into C. While the resulting code is fast, it makes many calls into the CPython interpreter and CPython standard libraries to perform actual work. Choosing this arrangement saved considerably on Cython's development time, but modules have a dependency on the Python interpreter and standard library.


title: Cython

text: Although most of the code is C-based, a small stub loader written in interpreted Python is usually required (unless the goal is to create a loader written entirely in C, which may involve work with the undocumented internals of CPython). However, this is not a major problem due to the presence of the Python interpreter.


title: Cython

text: Cython has a foreign function interface for invoking C/C++ routines and the ability to declare the static type of subroutine parameters and results, local variables, and class attributes.


title: Cython

text: A Cython program that implements the same algorithm as a corresponding Python program may consume fewer computing resources such as core memory and processing cycles due to differences between the CPython and Cython execution models. A basic Python program is loaded and executed by the CPython virtual machine, so both the runtime and the program itself consume computing resources. A Cython program is compiled to C code, which is further compiled to machine code, so the virtual machine is used only briefly when the program is loaded.


title: Cython

text: Performance depends both on what C code is generated by Cython and how that code is compiled by the C compiler.


title: Cython

text: Cython is a derivative of the Pyrex language, and supports more features and optimizations than Pyrex. Cython was forked from Pyrex in 2007 by developers of the Sage computer algebra package, because they were unhappy with Pyrex's limitations and could not get patches accepted by Pyrex's maintainer Greg Ewing, who envisioned a much smaller scope for his tool than the Sage developers had in mind. They then forked Pyrex as SageX. When they found people were downloading Sage just to get SageX, and developers of other packages (including Stefan Behnel, who maintains the XML library LXML) were also maintaining forks of Pyrex, SageX was split off the Sage project and merged with codice_1 to become Cython.


title: Cython

text: Cython files have a codice_2 extension. At its most basic, Cython code looks exactly like Python code. However, whereas standard Python is dynamically typed, in Cython, types can optionally be provided, allowing for improved performance, allowing loops to be converted into C loops where possible. For example:


title: Cython

text: A sample hello world program for Cython is more complex than in most languages because it interfaces with the Python C API and codice_3 or other PEP517-compliant extension building facilities. At least three files are required for a basic project:


title: Cython

text: A more straightforward way to start with Cython is through command-line IPython (or through in-browser python console called Jupyter notebook):


title: Cython

text: which gives a 95 times improvement over the pure-python version. More details on the subject in the official quickstart page.


title: Cython

text: Cython is particularly popular among scientific users of Python, where it has "the perfect audience" according to Python creator Guido van Rossum. Of particular note:


title: Cython

text: Cython's domain is not limited to just numerical computing. For example, the lxml XML toolkit is written mostly in Cython, and like its predecessor Pyrex, Cython is used to provide Python bindings for many C and C++ libraries such as the messaging library ZeroMQ. Cython can also be used to develop parallel programs for multi-core processor machines; this feature makes use of the OpenMP library.


title: New Manila International Airport

text: New Manila International Airport (), also known as Bulacan International Airport, is an international airport under construction on the coastal areas of Bulakan, Bulacan, north of the capital Manila. The project was proposed by the San Miguel Corporation (SMC) and is set to help decongest Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), the main gateway to the capital for air travelers. The airport is a part of the flagship "Build! Build! Build!" infrastructure program of the Rodrigo Duterte administration.


title: New Manila International Airport

text: The proposed airport will be built on a coastal property as part of an envisioned township that features a residential zone, government center, seaport and an industrial zone. The ₱735.634-billion airport development will cover the passenger terminal building with airside and landside facilities as well as an airport toll road and railway.


title: New Manila International Airport

text: The groundbreaking of the new airport began on October 14, 2020, and the actual construction of the first phase of construction on the project, which includes the two runways and the terminal buildings of the new airport began on March 18, 2022. It is planned to be finished by 2026.


title: New Manila International Airport

text: As early as the 1980s, there has been recognition of the constraints to expanding the capacity of Manila International Airport (now Ninoy Aquino International Airport) and its continued ability to handle the projected growth in aircraft movements and passenger traffic.


title: New Manila International Airport

text: In May 2011, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) submitted to the Philippine government a study concerning air transport needs within the Greater Manila Area, which concluded that the development of a new gateway airport was "an urgent need" given that the runway capacity at the existing Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) was "already almost saturated." In response, the government adopted a dual airport system in May 2013, which entailed the upgrade of the facilities at Ninoy Aquino International Airport while also expanding capacity at Clark International Airport. JICA later recommended the construction of a new airport in the vicinity of Sangley Point, Cavite City and conducted a full feasibility study.


title: New Manila International Airport

text: Meanwhile, competing proposals from San Miguel Corporation headed by Ramon Ang and the All-Asia Resources and Reclamation Corporation (ARRC) venture headed by Henry Sy were submitted to the national government by 2013. However, the Aquino administration rejected the unsolicited proposals, stating that they "spark controversies" that detract from the "open, transparent bidding" they intended for the project. This would be later reversed by the succeeding administration, which expressed interest in developing multiple airports for the Greater Manila Area.


title: New Manila International Airport

text: In February 2017, San Miguel Corporation proposed the construction of an airport with two parallel runways under a BOT scheme. The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board approved the unsolicited proposal on April 26, 2018 and negotiation report on the Concession Agreement (CA) on December 21, 2018. Under the approved terms, the concession agreement includes a no government guarantee or any form of subsidy from the state.


title: New Manila International Airport

text: SMC president and CEO Ramon Ang said the projects, which would be wholly funded by the firm with no government guarantees or subsidies, will improve the lives of more Filipinos by promoting numerous industries and creating millions of quality jobs around the country.


title: New Manila International Airport

text: After the project's approval by NEDA, the project had its final review of the Office of the Solicitor-General (OSG) and the Department of Finance (DOF) before it undergone a Swiss challenge where other prospective companies will compete against the San Miguel Corporation proposal. As the original project proponent, SMC has the right to match any bid by its competitors. The Department of Transportation, the implementing agency for the project, aimed to finish Swiss challenge by the first quarter of 2019. The Swiss challenge period ended with no rival bids on July 31, 2019. With this, SMC was expected to be awarded the project.


title: New Manila International Airport

text: On September 18, 2019, San Miguel Corporation, through its unit, San Miguel Aerocity Inc. was awarded a deal to oversee, then hand over the project by the Department of Transportation after both firms signed a concession agreement for the building of the new airport at the ASEAN Convention Center in Clark Freeport Zone. The airport will be fully owned by the Philippine government under a build-operate-transfer program. DOTr allowed the SMC unit to build, maintain, and operate the airport without funding from the government for a set period of time. Its groundbreaking was supposed to begin in December.


title: New Manila International Airport

text: On September 1, 2020, Congress approved House Bill No. 7507, granting the San Miguel Aerocity a 50-year congressional franchise "to establish a domestic and international airport", and to "develop an adjacent airport city". Its construction was expected to begin in October of the same year. House Bill No. 7507 lapsed into law as Republic Act No. 11506 on December 20, 2020, records from the House of Representatives showed, after President Rodrigo Duterte failed to sign the bill within the 30-day period given for Malacañang's review.


title: New Manila International Airport

text: Upon its approval, some groups raised concerns about the environmental impact of the project, and that the project may intensify flooding in the areas adjacent to the airport. The presence of mangrove forests in the area were also noted. Agham, an environmental science advocacy group, advocated that the Environmental Clearance Certificate issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources be revoked. On October 8, 2019, Pamalakaya national chairman and former Anakpawis representative Fernando Hicap requested that then House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano conduct a congressional inquiry on the airport project and its potential adverse impacts. Some environmental issues remain unaddressed although SMC has clarified that some of their activities, such as the dredging of the Tullahan River in Metro Manila, may alleviate flooding issues. Engineering interventions will also be used to mitigate flooding.


title: New Manila International Airport

text: Pamalakaya-Bulacan spokesperson Rodel Alvarez also claimed that there was a lack of relocation plan for the residents and fishermen who would be potentially affected by the project. The DENR denied that local fishermen will be affected, as the lands that will be used are from private landowners. On 30 September 2020, San Miguel Corporation launched its skills and livelihood training for relocation of residents affected by the project.


title: New Manila International Airport

text: The scheduled groundbreaking in December 2019 faced a delay, which according to DOTr secretary Arthur Tugade was due to an issue over the "wording and interpretation" of the concession agreement with the SMC. The issue covered conditions on material adverse government action, which is concerned with the compensation to the concessionaire in the event the project is adversely affected by the actions of the national government, and on caps on liabilities of the government. Nevertheless, DOTr stated these delays were temporary and the project would still go on after reviews conducted by the Department of Justice (DOJ).


title: New Manila International Airport

text: In connection to the airport's development, Congress passed House Bill No. 7575 creating an economic zone and freeport covering the airport's vicinity. However, on July 1, 2022, the bill was vetoed by President Bongbong Marcos over fiscal risks, incoherence with existing laws, and the proposed economic zone's location near the Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone.


title: New Manila International Airport

text: San Miguel Corporation tapped three international firms, Groupe ADP Ingénierie, Meinhardt Group and Jacobs Engineering Group (the same builders behind Singapore Changi Airport, Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, and Charles de Gaulle Airport) to build and design the airport. The Dutch dredging firm Boskalis Westminster was selected for the development of approximately of land for the new airport. By June 2021, preparatory work was in progress, with the land development project expected to be completed by the end of 2024.


title: New Manila International Airport

text: The proposed airport will feature at least four runways, expandable to six. It will have a capacity of 200 million passengers per year when fully built, which is about six times larger than the current capacity of NAIA. The first phase of the project will include two of the four runways.


title: New Manila International Airport

text: It will also be connected to Metro Manila by an airport toll road with connections to the North Luzon Expressway and Radial Road 10. The airport will also be connected by rail to the MRT Line 7 through the MRT 7 Airport Express project.


title: The End (Beatles song)

text: "The End" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1969 album "Abbey Road". It was composed by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was the last song recorded collectively by all four Beatles, and is the final song of the medley that constitutes the majority of side two of the album. The song features one of the few drum solos recorded by Ringo Starr.


title: The End (Beatles song)

text: McCartney said, "I wanted [the medley] to end with a little meaningful couplet, so I followed the Bard and wrote a couplet." In his 1980 interview with "Playboy", John Lennon acknowledged McCartney's authorship by saying, "That's Paul again ... He had a line in it, 'And in the end, the love you get is equal to the love you give,' which is a very cosmic, philosophical line. Which again proves that if he wants to, he can think." Lennon misquoted the line; the actual words are, "And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make..."


title: The End (Beatles song)

text: Recording began on 23 July 1969, when the Beatles recorded a one-minute, thirty-second master take that was extended via overdubs to two minutes and five seconds. At this point, the song was called "Ending". The first vocals for the song were added on 5 August, additional vocals and guitar overdubs were added on 7 August, and bass and drums on 8 August, the day the "Abbey Road" cover picture was taken. Orchestral overdubs were added 15 August, and the closing piano and accompanying vocal on 18 August.


title: The End (Beatles song)

text: All four Beatles have a solo in "The End", including a Ringo Starr drum solo. Starr disliked solos, preferring to cater drumwork to whoever sang in a particular performance. His solo on "The End" was recorded with twelve microphones around his drum kit; in his playing, he said he copied part of Ron Bushy's drumming on the Iron Butterfly track "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida". The take in which Starr performed the solo originally had guitar and tambourine accompaniment, but other instruments were muted during mixing, giving the effect of a drum solo.


title: The End (Beatles song)

text: McCartney, George Harrison and Lennon perform a rotating sequence of three, two-bar guitar solos. The idea for a guitar instrumental over this section was Harrison's, and Lennon suggested that the three of them each play a section. The solos begin approximately 53 seconds into the song. Geoff Emerick, the Beatles' recording engineer, later recalled: "John, Paul and George looked like they had gone back in time, like they were kids again, playing together for the sheer enjoyment of it. More than anything, they reminded me of gunslingers, with their guitars strapped on, looks of steely-eyed resolve, determined to outdo one another. Yet there was no animosity, no tension at all – you could tell they were simply having fun."


title: The End (Beatles song)

text: The first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, then the sequence repeats twice. Each has a distinctive style which McCartney felt reflected their personalities. Immediately after Lennon's third solo, the piano chords of the final line "And in the end ..." begin. Then the orchestration arrangement takes over with a humming chorus and Harrison playing a final guitar solo that ends the song.


title: The End (Beatles song)

text: "The End" was initially intended to be the final track on "Abbey Road", but it ended up being followed by "Her Majesty". Although "The End" stands as the last known new recording involving all four members of the Beatles, one additional song, "I Me Mine", was recorded by three members of the group (Lennon being absent due to having privately left in September 1969) in January 1970 for the album "Let It Be".


title: The End (Beatles song)

text: The 1996 compilation album "Anthology 3" contains a remixed version of "The End", restoring tambourine and guitar overdubs mixed out of the original, and edited to emphasise the guitar solos and orchestral overdub. The track is followed by a variant on the long piano chord that ends "A Day in the Life", concluding the compilation. The drum solo was later used at the beginning of "Get Back" on the 2006 album "Love".


title: The End (Beatles song)

text: The song commences in A major, with an initial I–IV–II–V–I structure matching the vocals on "Oh, yeah, all right!" This is followed by a iv dim–I pattern (Ddim to A chord) on "dreams tonight." During this, the accompanying bass and one guitar move chromatically from A to B and D, while the second guitar harmonises a minor third higher to reach F. An eight-bar drum solo as a final statement of recognition to their "steady, solid drummer" ends with a crescendo of eighth notes and bass and rhythm guitar in seventh chords to the chant "Love you." The sequential three guitar solos rotate through I (A chord)–IV (D chord) changes in the key of A in a mix of "major and minor pentatonic scales with slides, double-stops, repeated notes, low-bass string runs and wailing bends". Gould terms these live studio takes "little character sketches":


title: The End (Beatles song)

text: Paul opens with a characteristically fluid and melodically balanced line that sounds a high A before snaking an octave down the scale; George responds by soaring to an even higher D and sustaining it for half a bar before descending in syncopated pairs of 16th notes; John then picks upon the pattern of George's 16ths with a series of choppy thirds that hammer relentlessly on the second and flattened seventh degrees of the scale. The second time through, Paul answers John's bluesy flattened 7ths with bluesy minor thirds and then proceeds to echo George's earlier line, spiraling up to that same high D; George responds with some minor thirds of his own, while mimicking the choppy rhythm of John's part; John then drops two octaves to unleash a growling single-note line. On this final two-bar solo, Paul plays almost nothing but minor thirds and flattened sevenths in a herky-jerky rhythm that ends with a sudden plunge to a low A; George then reaches for the stars with a steeply ascending line that is pitched an octave above any notes heard so far; and John finishes with a string of insistent and heavily distorted 4ths, phrased in triplets, that drag behind the beat and grate against the background harmony.


title: The End (Beatles song)

text: The final "Ah" is in C with a spiritually evocative Plagal cadence IV–I (F–C chord) on piano while the voices do an F to E shift. "And in the end the love you take" is in A major, but the G/A chord supporting the word "love" begins to dissolve our certainty that we are in A, by adding a VII. The next line shifts us to the fresh key of C, with a iv (F) chord that threatens the dominance of the departing A key's F: "Is eq-ual" (supported successively by IV (F)–iii (Em) chords with an A–G bass line) "to the love" (supported successively by ii (Dm)–vi (Am)–ii (Dm) chords with a F–E bass line) "you make" (supported by a V (G) chord). The final bars in the key of C involve a I–II–III rock-type progression and a IV–I soothing cadence that appear to instinctively reconcile different musical genres.


title: The End (Beatles song)

text: Richie Unterberger of AllMusic considered "The End" to be "the group's take on the improvised jamming common to heavy rock of the late '60s, though as usual The Beatles did it with far more economic precision than anyone else." John Mendelsohn of "Rolling Stone" said it was "a perfect epitaph for our visit to the world of Beatle daydreams: 'The love you take is equal to the love you make.'"


title: Rebecca Staab

text: Staab won the Miss Nebraska USA title and competed in the Miss USA 1980 pageant that year, where she placed in the Top 12.


title: Rebecca Staab

text: Before becoming an actress, Staab was a model for the Ford Agency. She made her television debut on "Guiding Light" in 1985 and appeared in several other shows over the years, including "Beverly Hills 90210, The Wonder Years, Seinfeld, Dharma & Greg, Columbo, NCIS, The Mentalist", "Desperate Housewives", "Live Shot", "Port Charles", and "The Young and the Restless".


title: Rebecca Staab

text: Staab has most recently been seen in several Hallmark Channel television films, and currently has a recurring role in their "Chronicle Mysteries" series.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a prestigious public research university in Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia after Uppsala University, and ranks as one of the top universities in the Nordic countries, Europe and the world.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: Its establishment sanctioned by Pope Sixtus IV, the University of Copenhagen was founded by Christian I of Denmark as a Catholic teaching institution with a predominantly theological focus. In 1537, it was re-established by King Christian III as part of the Lutheran Reformation. Up until the 18th century, the university was primarily concerned with educating clergymen. Through various reforms in the 18th and 19th century, the University of Copenhagen was transformed into a modern, secular university, with science and the humanities replacing theology as the main subjects studied and taught.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: The University of Copenhagen consists of six different faculties, with teaching taking place in its four distinct campuses, all situated in Copenhagen. The university operates 36 different departments and 122 separate research centres in Copenhagen, as well as a number of museums and botanical gardens in and outside the Danish capital. The University of Copenhagen also owns and operates multiple research stations around Denmark, with two additional ones located in Greenland. Additionally, The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences and the public hospitals of the Capital and Zealand Region of Denmark constitute the conglomerate Copenhagen University Hospital.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: A number of prominent scientific theories and schools of thought are namesakes of the University of Copenhagen. The famous Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics was conceived at the Niels Bohr Institute, which is part of the university. The Department of Political Science birthed the Copenhagen School of Security Studies, which is also named after the university. Others include the Copenhagen School of Theology and the Copenhagen School of Linguistics.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: As of October 2022, 10 Nobel laureates and 1 Turing Award laureate have been affiliated with the University of Copenhagen as students, alumni or faculty. Alumni include one president of the United Nations General Assembly and at least 24 prime ministers of Denmark. The University of Copenhagen fosters entrepreneurship, and between 5 and 6 start-ups are founded by students, alumni or faculty members each week.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: The University of Copenhagen was founded on 1 June 1479 and is the oldest university in Denmark. In 1475, Christian I of Denmark received a papal bull from Pope Sixtus IV with permission to establish a university in Denmark. The bull was issued on 19 June 1475 as a result of the visit to Rome by Christian I's wife, Dorothea of Brandenburg, Queen of Denmark.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: On 4 October 1478 Christian I of Denmark issued a royal decree by which he officially established the University of Copenhagen. In this decree, Christian I set down the rules and laws governing the university. The royal decree elected magistar Peder Albertsen as vice chancellor of the university, and the task was his to employ various learned scholars at the new university and thereby establish its first four faculties: theology, law, medicine and philosophy. The royal decree made the University of Copenhagen enjoy royal patronage from its very beginning. Furthermore, the university was explicitly established as an autonomous institution, giving it a great degree of juridical freedom. As such, the University of Copenhagen was to be administered without royal interference, and it was not subject to the usual laws governing the Danish people.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: The University of Copenhagen was dissolved in about 1531 as a result of the spread of Protestantism. It was re-established in 1537 by King Christian III after the Lutheran Reformation. The king charged Johannes Bugenhagen, who came from Wittenberg to Copenhagen to take up a chair of theology, with the drawing up of a new University Charter. The resulting Charter was issued in 1539. Between 1675 and 1788, the university introduced the concept of degree examinations. An examination for theology was added in 1675, followed by law in 1736. By 1788, all faculties required an examination before they would issue a degree.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: In 1807, the British Bombardment of Copenhagen destroyed most of the university's buildings. By 1836, however, the new main building of the university was inaugurated amid extensive building that continued until the end of the century. The University Library (now a part of the Royal Library), the Zoological Museum, the Geological Museum, the Botanic Garden with greenhouses, and the Technical College were also established during this period.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: Between 1842 and 1850, the faculties at the university were restructured. Starting in 1842, the University Faculty of Medicine and the Academy of Surgeons merged to form the Faculty of Medical Science, while in 1848 the Faculty of Law was reorganised and became the Faculty of Jurisprudence and Political Science. In 1850, the Faculty of Mathematics and Science was separated from the Faculty of Philosophy. In 1845 and 1862 Copenhagen co-hosted Nordic student meetings with Lund University.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: The first female student was enrolled at the university in 1877. The university underwent explosive growth between 1960 and 1980. The number of students rose from around 6,000 in 1960 to about 26,000 in 1980, with a correspondingly large growth in the number of employees. Buildings built during this time period include the new Zoological Museum, the Hans Christian Ørsted and August Krogh Institutes, the campus centre on Amager Island, and the Panum Institute.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: The new university statute instituted in 1970 involved democratisation of the management of the university. It was modified in 1973 and subsequently applied to all higher education institutions in Denmark. The democratisation was later reversed with the 2003 university reforms. Further change in the structure of the university from 1990 to 1993 made a Bachelor's degree programme mandatory in virtually all subjects.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: Also in 1993, the law departments broke off from the Faculty of Social Sciences to form a separate Faculty of Law. In 1994, the University of Copenhagen designated environmental studies, north–south relations, and biotechnology as areas of special priority according to its new long-term plan. Starting in 1996 and continuing to the present, the university planned new buildings, including for the University of Copenhagen Faculty of Humanities at Amager (Ørestaden), along with a Biotechnology Centre. By 1999, the student population had grown to exceed 35,000, resulting in the university appointing additional professors and other personnel.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: In 2003, the revised Danish university law removed faculty, staff and students from the university decision process, creating a top-down control structure that has been described as absolute monarchy, since leaders are granted extensive powers while being appointed exclusively by higher levels in the organization.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: In 2005, the Center for Health and Society (Center for Sundhed og Samfund – CSS) opened in central Copenhagen, housing the Faculty of Social Sciences and Institute of Public Health, which until then had been located in various places throughout the city. In May 2006, the university announced further plans to leave many of its old buildings in the inner city of Copenhagen, an area that has been home to the university for more than 500 years. The purpose of this has been to gather the university's many departments and faculties on three larger campuses in order to create a bigger, more concentrated and modern student environment with better teaching facilities, as well as to save money on rent and maintenance of the old buildings. The concentration of facilities on larger campuses also allows for more inter-disciplinary cooperation; for example, the Departments of Political Science and Sociology are now located in the same facilities at CSS and can pool resources more easily.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: In January 2007, the University of Copenhagen merged with the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University and the Danish University of Pharmaceutical Science. The two universities were converted into faculties under the University of Copenhagen, and were renamed as the Faculty of Life Sciences and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. In January 2012, the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the veterinary third of the Faculty of Life Sciences merged with the Faculty of Health Sciences forming the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences – and the other two thirds of the Faculty of Life Sciences were merged into the Faculty of Science.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: The university has four main campus areas that are located in the Capital Region (three in Copenhagen and one in Frederiksberg):


title: University of Copenhagen

text: The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences and the Faculty of Science also use the Taastrup Campus, which is located in Taastrup on the western outskirts of Copenhagen. The Faculty of Science also has facilities in Helsingør, Hørsholm and Nødebo.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: The university is governed by a board consisting of 11 members: 6 members recruited outside the university form the majority of the board, 2 members are appointed by the scientific staff, 1 member is appointed by the administrative staff, and 2 members are appointed by the university students. The rector, the prorector and the director of the university are appointed by the university board. The rector in turn appoints directors of the different parts of the central administration and deans of the different faculties. The deans appoint heads of 50 departments. There is no faculty senate and faculty is not involved in the appointment of rector, deans, or department heads. Hence the university has no faculty governance, although there are elected Academic Boards at faculty level who advise the deans. , the governing body manages an annual budget of about DKK 8.9 billion.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: The university is organized into six faculties and about 100 departments and research centres. The university employs about 5,600 academic staff and 4,400 technical and administrative staff. The six faculties are:


title: University of Copenhagen

text: The total number of enrolled students is about 40,000, including about 23,000 undergraduate students and 17,000 graduate students. The university has an international graduate talent programme which provides grants for international Ph.D., students and a tenure track carrier system. It operates about fifty master's programmes taught in English, and has arranged about 150 exchange agreements with other institutions and 800 Erasmus agreements. Each year there are about 1,700 incoming exchange students, 2,000 outbound exchange students and 4,000 international degree-seeking students. About 3,000 PhD students study there each year.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: Most university students stay in privately owned dormitories ("kollegier" in Danish) or apartments in Copenhagen. There are five dormitories that are partially administered by the university; however, only students who have passed at least two years of studies are considered for admission. These are normally referred to as the "old dormitories", and they consist of: Regensen, Elers' Kollegium, Borchs Kollegium, Hassagers Kollegium, and Valkendorfs Kollegium. The University of Copenhagen also offers Carlsberg Foundation researcher apartments for a duration of 6 months to 3 years for visiting research and academic research staff who affiliated with research projects funded by the Carlsberg Foundation.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: The Housing Foundation Copenhagen is a separate commercial entity to the University of Copenhagen run by Chairman Erik Bisgaard Madsen and a board of directors. The Housing Foundation Copenhagen provides short-term housing exclusively for university international students ( sometimes Danish students), university staff and guest researchers. Their central office is based at South Campus. The Housing Foundation Copenhagen has revieved considerable "criticism" for the exploitation of international students for business profits and poor living conditions, and most recently the refusal of shortening contracts for many international students affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: The university's oldest known seal dates from a 1531 letter, it depicts Saint Peter with a key and a book. In a circle around him is the text


title: University of Copenhagen

text: When the university was re-established by Christian III in 1537 after the Protestant Reformation, it received a new seal, showing king Christian III with crown, sceptre, and globus cruciger above a crowned coat of arms vertically divided between halved versions of the coat of arms of Denmark (to the viewer's left, "dexter") and the coat of arms of Norway (to the viever's right, "sinister"). The text is


title: University of Copenhagen

text: The 1537 seal is very similar to the current seal, which was made in 2000 and is shown at the top of this page. The text is different and the crowned shield shows the coat of arms of Denmark (as has been the case since 1820, when the heraldic reference to Norway was removed). The text is


title: University of Copenhagen

text: The 2021 CWTS Leiden Ranking ranks the University of Copenhagen as the best university in Denmark and best in Continental Europe, 4th in Europe (after Oxford, UCL and Cambridge) and 27th in the world.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: The 2021 Academic Ranking of World Universities published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranked the University of Copenhagen as the best university in Denmark and Scandinavia, 7th in Europe and 30th in the world. In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2021, the University of Copenhagen is ranked first in Denmark and 84th in the world. In the 2021 QS World University Rankings list, the University of Copenhagen is ranked 76th in the world. In the 2021 U.S. News & World Report's Best Global Universities Rankings list, the University of Copenhagen is ranked first in Denmark and 34th in the world.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: The international standing of University of Copenhagen has recently been questioned due to the lack of faculty governance since the change of the Danish academic system in the early 2000s. Tenure does not exist in Denmark, and the university managers have put the reputation at risk by e.g. the illegal dismissal of the internationally prominent geoscientist, Hans Thybo.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: The university cooperates with universities around the world. In January 2006, the University of Copenhagen entered into a partnership of ten top universities, along with the: Australian National University, ETH Zürich, National University of Singapore, Peking University, University of California, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, University of Tokyo and Yale University. The partnership is referred to as the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU).


title: University of Copenhagen

text: The Department of Scandinavian Studies and Linguistics at University of Copenhagen signed a cooperation agreement with the Danish Royal School of Library and Information Science in 2009.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: The university hosts the annual Aging Research and Drug Discovery conference in cooperation with Columbia University.


title: University of Copenhagen

text: Over the course of its history, a sizeable number of University of Copenhagen alumni have become notable in their fields, both academic, and in the wider world.


title: Wellington College, Berkshire

text: Wellington College is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) in the village of Crowthorne, Berkshire, England. Wellington is a registered charity and currently educates roughly 1,200 pupils, between the ages of 13 and 18, per annum. The college was built as a national monument to the first Duke of Wellington (1769–1852), in whose honour it is named. Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone in 1856 and inaugurated the School's public opening on 29 January 1859.


title: Wellington College, Berkshire

text: Many former Wellington pupils fought in the trenches during the First World War, a conflict in which 707 of them lost their lives, many volunteering for military service immediately after leaving school. A further 501 former pupils were killed in action in the Second World War.


title: Wellington College, Berkshire

text: The school is a member of the Rugby Group of 18 British public schools and is also a member of the G20 Schools group.


title: Wellington College, Berkshire

text: Wellington College was granted a royal charter in 1853 as ""The Royal and Religious Foundation of the Wellington College"", and was opened in 1859. Its first Master, which is the title of the headmaster, was Edward White Benson, who later became Archbishop of Canterbury. The college's Visitor is H.M. the Queen.


title: Wellington College, Berkshire

text: Originally, the school educated sons of deceased officers who had held commissions in the Army. In 1952 a Supplementary Royal Charter extended the privilege of eligibility to the orphan sons of deceased officers of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force. By the 1960s, the school was considering becoming co-educational, but for some years the lack of financial resources prevented it from doing so. The first girls were admitted into the Sixth Form in the 1970s, and the school became fully co-educational in 2005. A recent change to the scheme of reduced fees early in 2006 extended the privilege to the orphan children of deceased servicemen or servicewomen of His Majesty's Armed Forces irrespective of rank, and to the orphan children of persons who, in the sole opinion of the Governors, have died in acts of selfless bravery. However, only a minority of the children at the school now come from military families.


title: Wellington College, Berkshire

text: On 6 September 2013, readers of "The Week" magazine voted Wellington College "The Most Forward-Thinking School in the UK", and four days later "Tatler" magazine chose Wellington College as the "Best Senior School in Britain", at its Schools Awards evening in London.


title: Wellington College, Berkshire

text: Wellington has sponsored the founding of a new independent state school in Wiltshire, The Wellington Academy, which opened in 2009.


title: Wellington College, Berkshire

text: Wellington is in partnership with Wellington College International Tianjin, in the city of Tianjin in mainland China, modelled on the buildings and ethos of the college, and which opened in August 2011. Wellington is also partnered with Wellington College International Shanghai and Huili School Shanghai in the city of Shanghai, and Wellington College International Hangzhou and Huili School Hangzhou in the city of Hangzhou (also in mainland China), and Wellington College International Bangkok in Thailand.


title: Wellington College, Berkshire

text: The college buildings were designed by John Shaw, Jr., who had previously worked as an architect for Eton College. For its time, the design of the College was unusual compared to the popular form, but Prince Albert, who assisted in choosing the architect, was more interested in Shaw's classical approach, having already seen the architect's design for the old Royal Naval School in New Cross, London. The main buildings were designed in a style loosely termed "French Grand Rococo". The chapel, notably only half its originally intended size, was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott. There have been several modern buildings, the best of which follow Shaw's grand rococo style: for example, the new Nicholson modern foreign-languages building.


title: Wellington College, Berkshire

text: The college was used as a filming location for the Netflix series "The Crown" as a stand-in for Kensington Palace (designed by Sir Christopher Wren) in both season 2, episode 10, and season 3, episode 10. One of the college's original mottos "Heroum Filii" is visible in a scene of the Queen arriving at the palace and the college's official motto, "Virtutis Fortuna Comes", is visible in a scene of the Queen leaving the palace.


title: Wellington College, Berkshire

text: Wellington College stands on a estate in South-East England, near Reading and Sandhurst. The grounds of the college include a 9-hole golf course, extensive woodland, and many playing fields, particularly those for cricket and rugby. The woodland area of the college is listed as a local nature reserve called Edgbarrow Woods. The grounds also contain a Site of Special Scientific Interest, Wellington College Bog.


title: Wellington College, Berkshire

text: In 2019, 57% of pupils scored A*-A for their A-Levels examination, whereas 83% scored A*-A for their GCSEs. The school had an average IB score of 40.2.


title: Wellington College, Berkshire

text: Wellington College was one of the 21 founding members of the Rugby Football Union, and pupils at the school have historically played schoolboy rugby to the highest standard. In 2008, the College became the first school to win the Daily Mail Cup at both U15 and U18 level in the same year, beating Millfield School and St Benedict's School, Ealing in their respective finals at Twickenham on 2 April 2008. In 2014/15 Wellington College 1st XV won the Rugby World School Team of the Year award, in addition to the National Rugby Awards Team of the Year Prize. A number of Old Wellingtonians play professional rugby union, including: James Haskell (England), Paul Doran-Jones (England), Max Lahiff (Bath Rugby), Max Evans and Thom Evans (Scotland), Sam Aspland-Robinson (Harlequins), Rory Brand (London Irish), Max Lahiff (Bristol Bears), and Madison Hughes (USA 7s).


title: Wellington College, Berkshire

text: The school has one of only around 20 racquets courts in the UK, one of 27 real tennis courts in the UK and until recently three Eton Fives courts, now a café bar as part of the sports club.


title: Wellington College, Berkshire

text: Wellington College has been named as number one golf college in the UK on a few occasions with wins in 2009 at St Andrews and 2012 at Carnoustie in the Independent Schools Golf Association National Finals.


title: Wellington College, Berkshire

text: The school has been the subject of reports on bullying. In response to criticism, in 2006, it introduced 'well-being lessons' to the curriculum, in conjunction with a team at Cambridge University.


title: Wellington College, Berkshire

text: In 2005 the school was one of fifty of the country's leading independent schools found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel, exposed by "The Times" newspaper, which had allowed them to drive up fees for thousands of parents. Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 and all agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling three million pounds into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information was shared. However, Mrs Jean Scott, the head of the Independent Schools Council, said that independent schools had always been exempt from anti-cartel rules applied to business, were following a long-established procedure in sharing the information with each other, and were unaware of the change in the law (on which they had not been consulted). She wrote to John Vickers, the OFT director-general, saying, "They are not a group of businessmen meeting behind closed doors to fix the price of their products to the disadvantage of the consumer. They are schools that have quite openly continued to follow a long-established practice because they were unaware that the law had changed."


title: Wellington College, Berkshire

text: There are 17 houses at Wellington. The vast majority are composed of boarders with a small number of day pupils also, although two, Wellesley and Raglan, are day-pupil exclusive. Each house is either an 'in-house' or an 'out-house': in-houses are located within the main school buildings and quads while out-houses are located elsewhere on the college grounds. Each house has aspects distinguishing it from other houses, such as its own colours, insignia, and crest (with the crest of each house being incorporated into one of each of the stained glass windows of the college chapel). Each house was named in honour of a significant figure in history, usually although not exclusively figures associated with the Duke of Wellington.


title: Wellington College, Berkshire

text: The Orange, Combermere, Hopetoun, and Anglesey were all formerly boys' houses but converted to girls' houses between 2005 and 2011.


title: Wellington College, Berkshire

text: The Old Wellingtonian Society is the alumni society for the college and was founded in 1890. The Old Wellingtonian Society was set up to further the interests of the college and its past and present members, and to keep former pupils in touch with each other and with the school.


title: Más (Breaking Bad)

text: "Más" is the fifth episode of the third season of the American television drama series "Breaking Bad", and the 25th overall episode of the series. Written by Moira Walley-Beckett and directed by Johan Renck, it aired on AMC in the United States and Canada on April 18, 2010.


title: Más (Breaking Bad)

text: In a flashback it is revealed that when Walt gave Jesse his savings to buy an RV, he instead spent nearly all of it partying the night away at a strip club with Combo and Skinny Pete. The following morning, Jesse panics when he realizes that he only has $1,400 left to buy an RV, but Combo bails him out by selling him his mother's RV for the remainder of the money.


title: Más (Breaking Bad)

text: Back in the present, Jesse is furious that Walt received the other half of his payment for the meth and calls him to demand it. Walt denies making any sort of deal for half of the profits, but nevertheless tells Jesse that he does not have his permission to cook his formula. Meanwhile, Hank is still searching tirelessly for the "rolling meth lab" RV. He learns that his friend and partner, Steve Gomez, is being sent to El Paso in his stead. Hank is left dismayed by this news but nevertheless remains committed to his work. He returns home and has an argument with Marie after she shows concern for his well-being, feeling that he is being accused by those around him for simply doing his job.


title: Más (Breaking Bad)

text: Walt goes to see Gus Fring at Los Pollos Hermanos, admonishing him for giving him Jesse's half of the money in an attempt to lure Walt into Gus' employ. Gus apologizes for the transparency of the ploy, then asks Walt to take a drive with him. In a final attempt to get Walt to accept the offer, Gus drives him to his meth lab which is discreetly housed within an industrial laundry facility. Walt is impressed by the lab and the equipment within but nevertheless declines the offer again, saying that his time in the meth business has cost him his family and he cannot afford to make another bad decision. Gus firmly tells him that a man provides for his family, regardless of whether or not his family appreciates him for it.


title: Más (Breaking Bad)

text: Skyler keeps enjoying her affair with Ted Beneke and is later told by Marie of Hank's change in behavior. Her sister claims that "death changes people", prompting Skyler to reconsider her affair and her opinion about Walt. After finding his money in the house, Skyler speaks with her divorce attorney and confides in her about the fact that she is currently sleeping with her boss, Ted Beneke, as well as her doubts on whether Walt did "what he did" for the family. Her attorney encourages Skyler to leave him immediately, for the longer she stays with Walt, the more culpable she becomes towards his crimes. Skyler remains hesitant. However, when she gets home, she is surprised to find that Walt has packed his things and left and that he has also signed the divorce contract, having finally accepted Gus' offer to continue his work in the meth business.


title: Más (Breaking Bad)

text: Walt meets with Jesse in Saul's office and hands over Jesse's other half of the payment. However, he coldly tells Jesse that it will be the last money he will ever make in the meth business, as Gus was only using Jesse to get Walt working for him. Jesse is further enraged when Saul goes over to Walt's side, re-negotiating a money-laundering deal to secure himself a cut of Walt's profits. Jesse tells them that this won't stop him from cooking, then leaves the office in a fury. He picks up a broken piece of a curb and tosses it into Walt's newly-replaced front windshield.


title: Más (Breaking Bad)

text: Hank's search for the RV leads him to the doorstep of Combo's mother, who never reported her RV stolen after Combo sold it to Jesse. Hank searches Combo's room and finds a picture of Combo and Jesse during their night at the strip club, thereby leading Hank to now set his sights on Jesse.


title: Más (Breaking Bad)

text: The episode was written by Moira Walley-Beckett, and directed by Johan Renck; it aired on AMC in the United States and Canada on April 18, 2010.


title: Más (Breaking Bad)

text: Donna Bowman of "The A.V. Club" gave, "Más" an "A" rating, commending its "clever, touching, and often jaw-dropping turning point for Season 3. Seth Amitin similarly gave it a 9.9/10 score, writing "Everything about "Mas" was great, from start to finish."


title: Más (Breaking Bad)

text: Stephen Glass writes in the essay "Better Than Human," that Jesse's act of shattering the windshield on Walt's Pontiac Aztek symbolized the shattering of Walt's pride in the fact that people admire him.


title: Más (Breaking Bad)

text: Susan Johnston refers to the episode in her essay "Family Man: Walter White and the Failure of Fatherhood."


title: Más (Breaking Bad)

text: The episode's original broadcast was viewed by 1.61 million people, which was an increase from the 1.46 million of the previous episode, "Green Light".


title: Sensory nervous system

text: The sensory nervous system is a part of the nervous system responsible for processing sensory information. A sensory system consists of sensory neurons (including the sensory receptor cells), neural pathways, and parts of the brain involved in sensory perception. Commonly recognized sensory systems are those for vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell, and balance. Senses are transducers from the physical world to the realm of the mind where people interpret the information, creating their perception of the world around them.


title: Sensory nervous system

text: The receptive field is the area of the body or environment to which a receptor organ and receptor cells respond. For instance, the part of the world an eye can see, is its receptive field; the light that each rod or cone can see, is its receptive field. Receptive fields have been identified for the visual system, auditory system and somatosensory system.


title: Sensory nervous system

text: Sensory systems code for four aspects of a stimulus; type (modality), intensity, location, and duration. Arrival time of a sound pulse and phase differences of continuous sound are used for sound localization. Certain receptors are sensitive to certain types of stimuli (for example, different mechanoreceptors respond best to different kinds of touch stimuli, like sharp or blunt objects). Receptors send impulses in certain patterns to send information about the intensity of a stimulus (for example, how loud a sound is). The location of the receptor that is stimulated gives the brain information about the location of the stimulus (for example, stimulating a mechanoreceptor in a finger will send information to the brain about that finger). The duration of the stimulus (how long it lasts) is conveyed by firing patterns of receptors. These impulses are transmitted to the brain through afferent neurons.


title: Sensory nervous system

text: Most sensory systems have a quiescent state, that is, the state that a sensory system converges to when there is no input.


title: Sensory nervous system

text: This is well-defined for a linear time-invariant system, whose input space is a vector space, and thus by definition has a point of zero. It is also well-defined for any passive sensory system, that is, a system that operates without needing input power. The quiescent state is the state the system converges to when there is no input power.


title: Sensory nervous system

text: It is not always well-defined for nonlinear, nonpassive sensory organs, since they can't function without input energy. For example, a cochlea is not a passive organ, but actively vibrates its own sensory hairs to improve its sensitivity. This manifests as otoacoustic emissions in healthy ears, and tinnitus in pathological ears. There is still a quiescent state for the cochlea, since there is a well-defined mode of power input that it receives (vibratory energy on the eardrum), which provides an unambiguous definition of "zero input power".


title: Sensory nervous system

text: Some sensory systems can have multiple quiescent states depending on its history, like flip-flops, and magnetic material with hysteresis. It can also adapt to different quiescent states. In complete darkness, the retinal cells become extremely sensitive, and there is noticeable "visual snow" caused by the retinal cells firing randomly without any light input. In brighter light, the retinal cells become a lot less sensitive, and consequently visual noise decreases.


title: Sensory nervous system

text: Quiescent state is less well-defined when the sensory organ can be controlled by other systems, like a dog's ears that turn towards the front or the sides as the brain commands. Some spiders can use their nets as a large touch-organ, like weaving a skin for themselves. Even in the absence of anything falling on the net, hungry spiders may increase web thread tension, so as to respond promptly even to usually less noticeable, and less profitable prey, such as small fruit flies, creating two different "quiescent states" for the net.


title: Sensory nervous system

text: Things become completely ill-defined for a system which connects its output to its own input, thus ever-moving without any external input. The prime example is the brain, with its default mode network.


title: Sensory nervous system

text: While debate exists among neurologists as to the specific number of senses due to differing definitions of what constitutes a sense, Gautama Buddha and Aristotle classified five ‘traditional’ human senses which have become universally accepted: touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. Other senses that have been well-accepted in most mammals, including humans, include nociception, equilibrioception, kinaesthesia, and thermoception. Furthermore, some nonhuman animals have been shown to possess alternate senses, including magnetoreception and electroreception.


title: Sensory nervous system

text: The initialization of sensation stems from the response of a specific receptor to a physical stimulus. The receptors which react to the stimulus and initiate the process of sensation are commonly characterized in four distinct categories: chemoreceptors, photoreceptors, mechanoreceptors, and thermoreceptors. All receptors receive distinct physical stimuli and transduce the signal into an electrical action potential. This action potential then travels along afferent neurons to specific brain regions where it is processed and interpreted.


title: Sensory nervous system

text: Chemoreceptors, or chemosensors, detect certain chemical stimuli and transduce that signal into an electrical action potential. The two primary types of chemoreceptors are:


title: Sensory nervous system

text: Photoreceptors are capable of phototransduction, a process which converts light (electromagnetic radiation) into, among other types of energy, a membrane potential. The three primary types of photoreceptors are:


title: Sensory nervous system

text: Cones are photoreceptors which respond significantly to color. In humans the three different types of cones correspond with a primary response to short wavelength (blue), medium wavelength (green), and long wavelength (yellow/red).


title: Sensory nervous system

text: Rods are photoreceptors which are very sensitive to the intensity of light, allowing for vision in dim lighting. The concentrations and ratio of rods to cones is strongly correlated with whether an animal is diurnal or nocturnal. In humans rods outnumber cones by approximately 20:1, while in nocturnal animals, such as the tawny owl, the ratio is closer to 1000:1.


title: Sensory nervous system

text: Ganglion Cells reside in the adrenal medulla and retina where they are involved in the sympathetic response. Of the ~1.3 million ganglion cells present in the retina, 1-2% are believed to be photosensitive ganglia. These photosensitive ganglia play a role in conscious vision for some animals, and are believed to do the same in humans.


title: Sensory nervous system

text: Mechanoreceptors are sensory receptors which respond to mechanical forces, such as pressure or distortion. While mechanoreceptors are present in hair cells and play an integral role in the vestibular and auditory systems, the majority of mechanoreceptors are cutaneous and are grouped into four categories:


title: Sensory nervous system

text: Thermoreceptors are sensory receptors which respond to varying temperatures. While the mechanisms through which these receptors operate is unclear, recent discoveries have shown that mammals have at least two distinct types of thermoreceptors:


title: Sensory nervous system

text: TRPV1 is a heat-activated channel that acts as a small heat detecting thermometer in the membrane which begins the polarization of the neural fiber when exposed to changes in temperature. Ultimately, this allows us to detect ambient temperature in the warm/hot range. Similarly, the molecular cousin to TRPV1, TRPM8, is a cold-activated ion channel that responds to cold. Both cold and hot receptors are segregated by distinct subpopulations of sensory nerve fibers, which shows us that the information coming into the spinal cord is originally separate. Each sensory receptor has its own “labeled line” to convey a simple sensation experienced by the recipient. Ultimately, TRP channels act as thermosensors, channels that help us to detect changes in ambient temperatures.


title: Sensory nervous system

text: Nociceptors respond to potentially damaging stimuli by sending signals to the spinal cord and brain. This process, called nociception, usually causes the perception of pain. They are found in internal organs, as well as on the surface of the body. Nociceptors detect different kinds of damaging stimuli or actual damage. Those that only respond when tissues are damaged are known as "sleeping" or "silent" nociceptors.


title: Sensory nervous system

text: All stimuli received by the receptors listed above are transduced to an action potential, which is carried along one or more afferent neurons towards a specific area of the brain. While the term sensory cortex is often used informally to refer to the somatosensory cortex, the term more accurately refers to the multiple areas of the brain at which senses are received to be processed. For the five traditional senses in humans, this includes the primary and secondary cortices of the different senses: the somatosensory cortex, the visual cortex, the auditory cortex, the primary olfactory cortex, and the gustatory cortex. Other modalities have corresponding sensory cortex areas as well, including the vestibular cortex for the sense of balance.


title: Sensory nervous system

text: Located in the parietal lobe, the primary somatosensory cortex is the primary receptive area for the sense of touch and proprioception in the somatosensory system. This cortex is further divided into Brodmann areas 1, 2, and 3. Brodmann area 3 is considered the primary processing center of the somatosensory cortex as it receives significantly more input from the thalamus, has neurons highly responsive to somatosensory stimuli, and can evoke somatic sensations through electrical stimulation. Areas 1 and 2 receive most of their input from area 3. There are also pathways for proprioception (via the cerebellum), and motor control (via Brodmann area 4). See also: S2 Secondary somatosensory cortex.


title: Sensory nervous system

text: The visual cortex refers to the primary visual cortex, labeled V1 or Brodmann area 17, as well as the extrastriate visual cortical areas V2-V5. Located in the occipital lobe, V1 acts as the primary relay station for visual input, transmitting information to two primary pathways labeled the dorsal and ventral streams. The dorsal stream includes areas V2 and V5, and is used in interpreting visual 'where' and 'how.' The ventral stream includes areas V2 and V4, and is used in interpreting 'what.' Increases in Task-negative activity are observed in the ventral attention network, after abrupt changes in sensory stimuli, at the onset and offset of task blocks, and at the end of a completed trial.


title: Sensory nervous system

text: Located in the temporal lobe, the auditory cortex is the primary receptive area for sound information. The auditory cortex is composed of Brodmann areas 41 and 42, also known as the anterior transverse temporal area 41 and the posterior transverse temporal area 42, respectively. Both areas act similarly and are integral in receiving and processing the signals transmitted from auditory receptors.


title: Sensory nervous system

text: Located in the temporal lobe, the primary olfactory cortex is the primary receptive area for olfaction, or smell. Unique to the olfactory and gustatory systems, at least in mammals, is the implementation of both peripheral and central mechanisms of action. The peripheral mechanisms involve olfactory receptor neurons which transduce a chemical signal along the olfactory nerve, which terminates in the olfactory bulb. The chemoreceptors in the receptor neurons that start the signal cascade are G protein-coupled receptors. The central mechanisms include the convergence of olfactory nerve axons into glomeruli in the olfactory bulb, where the signal is then transmitted to the anterior olfactory nucleus, the piriform cortex, the medial amygdala, and the entorhinal cortex, all of which make up the primary olfactory cortex.


title: Sensory nervous system

text: In contrast to vision and hearing, the olfactory bulbs are not cross-hemispheric; the right bulb connects to the right hemisphere and the left bulb connects to the left hemisphere.


title: Sensory nervous system

text: The gustatory cortex is the primary receptive area for taste. The word "taste" is used in a technical sense to refer specifically to sensations coming from taste buds on the tongue. The five qualities of taste detected by the tongue include sourness, bitterness, sweetness, saltiness, and the protein taste quality, called umami. In contrast, the term "flavor" refers to the experience generated through integration of taste with smell and tactile information. The gustatory cortex consists of two primary structures: the anterior insula, located on the insular lobe, and the frontal operculum, located on the frontal lobe. Similarly to the olfactory cortex, the gustatory pathway operates through both peripheral and central mechanisms. Peripheral taste receptors, located on the tongue, soft palate, pharynx, and esophagus, transmit the received signal to primary sensory axons, where the signal is projected to the nucleus of the solitary tract in the medulla, or the gustatory nucleus of the solitary tract complex. The signal is then transmitted to the thalamus, which in turn projects the signal to several regions of the neocortex, including the gustatory cortex.


title: Sensory nervous system

text: The neural processing of taste is affected at nearly every stage of processing by concurrent somatosensory information from the tongue, that is, mouthfeel. Scent, in contrast, is not combined with taste to create flavor until higher cortical processing regions, such as the insula and orbitofrontal cortex.


title: Video vixen

text: A video vixen (also referred to as a hip hop honey or video girl) is a female model who appears in hip hop-oriented music videos. The video vixen image has become a staple in popular music, especially within the genre of hip hop. The video vixen came around in the late 80s when hip-hop began to break off into its own lifestyle. It popularized in American culture during the 90s and early 00s. Many video vixens are aspiring actors, singers, dancers, or professional models. Women from various cultures have been portrayed either as fragile, manipulative, fetishistic, or submissive within contemporary music lyrics, videos, concert and movie soundtracks. Artists and vixens have been criticized for allegedly contributing to the social degradation of black women.


title: Video vixen

text: The video vixen is believed to have arrived around the late 80s when hip-hop was starting to take over as its own genre in the music industry. At this time women were used to create sex appeal in music videos while still being in the background. It wasn’t until the late 1990s when the women came to the center of many videos. The concept of the video vixen is seen to derive from the historical Jezebel stereotype that is typically placed upon black women. The term jezebel is used in reference to a hypersexual woman; she often is someone who is depicted as sexually promiscuous and uses her body to get what she wants. The video vixen is believed to be the modernization of the Jezebel stereotype. According to Meagan Ford it is an opportunity for women to use their features and sexuality in order to create wealth.  The vixens were there to complete the male artist persona of having lots of money and lots of women available to them. The women not only had to please the directors and artists as they were also meant to please the audience. This concept sold because “The males wanted to see that and the girls wanted to be that”. This statement is made by Music Video Director Dr. Teeth who in the documentary also mentions how these women “had the curves, she had the face, and she looked like the chick that was around the way that you could get at”.


title: Video vixen

text: The work of video vixens and their portrayal in music videos have drawn criticism. Meagan Ford, Stephanie Stevenson, Kate Conrad, Travis Dixon, and Yuanyuan Zhang express concern on how video vixens are placed in subordinate and submissive roles while often depicted as sexual objects. These authors believe that these depictions place male artists in positions of power which they say contribute to the representation of males as the dominant gender. Models are depicted as sexual objects, signs of male power, and the use of derogatory language towards women such as “bitch” and “slut” by artist contributes to the narrative that women are the inferior sex.


title: Video vixen

text: In 2004, Nelly's video for his song "Tip Drill" came under particular criticism for its depiction and sexual objectification of women. While some people pointed out that the women who appeared in Nelly's video voluntarily chose to participate, others insisted that male rappers continue to sexually objectify hip hop models while denying that the hip hop artists' career is, at least in part, based on the exploitation of other people.


title: Video vixen

text: In 2005, former hip hop music video model Karrine Steffans authored the book "Confessions of a Video Vixen", in which she depicts the degradation of women in the world of hip hop. The book's publisher describes it as "part tell-all, part cautionary tale". The book went on to be a best seller in the US. Karrine Steffans was one of a few who decided to share her personal experience as a vixen with the world. Her book was set as the standard vixen experience by society because it was believed to confirm people's speculations about the industry. Steffans is just one example of a vixen and because of this vixens such as Gloria Velez and Melyssa Ford had a problem with her book. They explained how their experience wasn’t the same as hers and how she was essentially a nobody until the book was released. And her referencing of other vixens was an act of forcing her narrative on their experience. Another hip hop model, Candace Smith, said in an "XXL" interview, "what I've seen on [hip hop music video] sets is complete degradation".


title: Video vixen

text: Female rappers such as Lil' Kim and Trina occupy what T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting calls a "peculiar place of cultural antipathy", often accused of selling out and blamed for participating in the exploitation of women. Similarly, Nicki Minaj is arguably a 'video vixen' who is the 'object, subject, and author' of sexually explicit music videos.


title: Video vixen

text: Female rappers who have shown themselves off as "video vixens" include Nicki Minaj, Trina, Eve, Rasheeda, Foxy Brown, Remy Ma, Da Brat, Jacki-O, Shawnna, Gangsta Boo, LoLa Monroe, Diamond Princess, Cardi B and many others. The role of women has evolved over time in the hip hop world. Two artists in the early era of hip hop, rapper Roxanne Shante and rap group Salt-N-Pepa, were well-known for rapping about defending the image of women. They were responding to male hip hop artists who habitually degrade women. Rappers Lil' Kim, Foxy Brown, Trina, Nicki Minaj, and many others are all opposite and seem to accept this hyper-sexuality.


title: Video vixen

text: Nicki Minaj is known for her overly sexualized music videos. Including women in little to nothing clothes and dressing provocatively. Nicki is believed to use her body with the intent of dominating over the male expression of female sexuality.Author Nicole Heller uses Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda music video as an example of how female artists are reclaiming their sexuality's and power. Anaconda is a song that seeks to embrace large behinds and curvy bodies. Nicki samples Sir Mix-A- Lot’s Baby Got Back with the intent of transforming the objectification of the female body and how curvy women specifically are objectified in the hip-hop industry. She uses her body in order to establish her dominance and portray how she is in full control of her body and sexuality.


title: Video vixen

text: Even artists such as Lauryn Hill and Queen Latifah prided themselves on being strong independent black women. It was heard in their music and seen in their videos.


title: Video vixen

text: Heller mentions how Missy Elliot uses her sexuality as power and not her body. This same idea is used by other pioneer female artists like previously mentioned Lauryn Hill, Queen Latifah, and even Erykah Badu. They wanted men to think of them as equal and treat them with respect. Playing to this stereotype would mean accepting society's negative implications of women.


title: Video vixen

text: The topic of Video Vixens have created a lot of debate on the representation of Black women, such as author Faatimah Soloman’s argument that it has contributed to the hyper-sexualization of black women. She explains in her article The Exploitation Of Women Of Color In Music Videos Needs To End how black women are deemed sexual beings due to their physical features. Video vixens are believed to be the reinforcement of these negative stereotypes placed upon black women. Often referred to as stereotypical tropes because of their glamorization of embodying the stereotypes typically placed on women of color. She expands her argument by mentioning how these stereotypes lead to exclusion of Black women in relation to their “social and intellectual contributions”, often because they are only praised for their bodies.


title: Video vixen

text: This idea also correlates with Nicole Heller’s explanation of Objectification theory and one- dimensional womanhood. These theories define the portrayal of black women in hip-hop as it aims to separate the female body from her personality in order to focus on just her body. Heller mentions how Nelly swiping a card through the rear end of a vixen in his Tip Drill music video visually represents the ideology of the Black woman's body being a commodity. The subculture of the Video Vixen represents black women and women of color as objects that can literally be bought with a credit card instead of human beings. Author Amanda Rodriguez however does mention how these women were considered to be a “luxury commodity”. Meaning that the artist and labels gave them a glamourized experience in return for their work. It was temporary for most but for the Vixens who became famous they truly were able to get paid like the artist.


title: Video vixen

text: The Video Vixen impacts young women as they are believed to set unrealistic beauty standards. By having a body that seems to have no flaws and a beautiful face to match.It has caused women to feel the need to change themselves in order to fit society's standards. While young girls can be taught to be confident and love themselves the vixen is believed to portray negative images of women that look just like them. These images place limitations on the future of young girls.


title: Video vixen

text: Audre Lorde, who spoke out for black girls who are considered video vixens, said: "If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive."


title: British slang

text: British slang is English-language slang originating from and used in the United Kingdom and also used to a limited extent in Anglophone countries such as Ireland, South Africa, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, especially by British expatriates. It is also used in the United States to a limited extent. Slang is informal language sometimes peculiar to a particular social class or group and its use in Britain dates back to before the 15th century. The language of slang, in common with the English language, is changing all the time; new words and phrases are being added and some are used so frequently by so many, they almost become mainstream.


title: British slang

text: While some slang words and phrases are used throughout Britain (e.g. "knackered", meaning "exhausted"). Others are restricted to smaller regions, even to small geographical areas. The nations of the United Kingdom, which are England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, all have their own slang words, as does London. London slang has many varieties, the best known of which is rhyming slang.


title: British slang

text: English-speaking nations of the former British Empire may also use this slang, but also incorporate their own slang words to reflect their different cultures. Not only is the slang used by British expats, but some of these terms are incorporated into other countries' everyday slang, such as in Australia, Canada and Ireland.


title: British slang

text: British slang has been the subject of many books, including a seven volume dictionary published in 1889. Lexicographer Eric Partridge published several works about British slang, most notably "Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English", revised and edited by Paul Beale.


title: British slang

text: Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's dialect or language. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo (see euphemism). It is often used to identify with one's peers and, although it may be common among young people, it is used by people of all ages and social groups.


title: British slang

text: Collins English Dictionary (3rd edition) defines slang as "Vocabulary, idiom etc that is not appropriate to the standard form of a language or to formal contexts, may be restricted as to social status or distribution, and is characteristically more metaphorical and transitory than standard language".


title: British slang

text: The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar (1994) defines it as "Words, phrases, and uses that are regarded as informal and are often restricted to special contexts or are peculiar to specific profession, classes etc".


title: British slang

text: Jonathon Green, in his 1999 book "The Cassell Dictionary of Slang", defines slang as "A counter language, the language of the rebel, the outlaw, the despised and the marginal". Recognising that there are many definitions, he goes on to say, "Among the many descriptions of slang, one thing is common, it is a long way from mainstream English".


title: British slang

text: The dating of slang words and phrases is difficult due to the nature of slang. Slang, more than any other language, remains spoken and resists being recorded on paper (or for that matter any other medium). By the time slang has been written down, it has been in use some time and has, in some cases, become almost mainstream.


title: British slang

text: The first recorded uses of slang in Britain occurred in the 16th century in the plays of Thomas Dekker, Thomas Middleton and William Shakespeare. The first books containing slang also appeared around that time: Robert Copland's "The hye way to the Spytlell hous" was a dialogue in verse between Copland and the porter of St Bartholomew's Hospital, which included thieves' cant; and in 1566, Thomas Harman's "A Caveat or Warning for Common Cursitors, vulgarly called vagabonds" was published. The "Caveat" contained stories of vagabond life, a description of their society and techniques, a taxonomy of rogues, and a short canting dictionary which was later reproduced in other works.


title: British slang

text: In 1698 the "New Dictionary of the Canting Crew" by B. E. Gent was published, which additionally included some 'civilian' slang terms. It remained the predominant work of its kind for much of the 18th century, until the arrival in 1785 of "The Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue" by Captain Francis Grose, which ran to more than five expanded editions. Grose's book was eventually superseded by John Camden Hotten's "Slang Dictionary" in 1859. In 1889 two multi-volumed slang dictionaries went on sale: "A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon and Cant" by Albert Barrere and Charles Leland, and "Slang and its Analogues" by John Farmer and W. E. Henley; the latter being published in seven volumes. It was later abridged to a single volume and released in 1905 as "A Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English". This book provided the major part of Eric Partridge's "Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English" (1937). It was not until the 1950s that slang began to make regular appearances in books and in the relatively new media of motion pictures and television.


title: British slang

text: There are a number of different varieties of British slang, arguably the best known of which is Rhyming slang. Chiefly associated with cockney speech spoken in the East End of London, words are replaced with a phrase which rhymes. For example: "plates of meat" for "feet", or "twist and twirl" for "girl". Often only the first word is used, so "plates" and "twist" by themselves become the colloquialisms for "feet" and "girl".


title: British slang

text: Thieves' cant or Rogues' cant was a secret language (a "cant" or "cryptolect") which was formerly used by thieves, beggars and hustlers of various kinds in Great Britain and to a lesser extent in other English-speaking countries. It is commonly believed that cant was developed from Romany but the "Winchester Confessions", a pamphlet published in 1616, clearly distinguishes between Gypsy and Cant words.


title: British slang

text: Some slang was developed because of a need for secrecy, such as "prison slang", derived from thieves cant and Polari, a variety used by homosexuals in Britain and the United Kingdom. Homosexuality was a crime until 1967 and Polari has a history going back at least a hundred years. Sometimes the purpose of slang is to cause offence, insults such as wanker or gobshite for example; and sometimes the purpose is to prevent it by substituting a slang word for the offensive one, berk (rhyming slang for cunt) for example. Sometimes a Spoonerism, is employed to make taboo speech more acceptable. For example: Cupid stunt and Betty Swallocks.


title: British slang

text: Slang is also used to create an identity or sense of belonging and a number of occupations have their own slang; most notably the armed forces, referred to as "Forces" or "Service" slang; and the construction industry. A dictionary of service slang by J. L. Hunt and A. G. Pringle was published in 1943. It was reprinted in 2008. The introduction acknowledges that slang is an ever-changing language with new slang terms emerging all the time. It also recognises that some service slang has made its way into civilian use. Examples of this include the old naval terms, "Talking bilge" (nonsense) and "A loose cannon" (an unorthodox person with the potential to cause harm).


title: Miriam Toews

text: Miriam Toews (; born 1964) is a Canadian writer and author of nine books, including "A Complicated Kindness" (2004), "All My Puny Sorrows" (2014), and "Women Talking" (2018). She has won a number of literary prizes including the Governor General's Award for Fiction and the Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award for her body of work. Toews is also a three-time finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and a two-time winner of the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.


title: Miriam Toews

text: Toews had a leading role in the feature film "Silent Light", written and directed by Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas, and winner of the 2007 Cannes Jury Prize, an experience that informed her fifth novel, "Irma Voth" (2011).


title: Miriam Toews

text: Toews grew up in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada the second daughter of Mennonite parents, both part of the Kleine Gemeinde. Through her father, Melvin C. Toews, she is a direct descendant of one of Steinbach's first settlers, Klaas R. Reimer (1837–1906), who arrived in Manitoba in 1874 from Ukraine. Her mother, Elvira Loewen, is a daughter of the late C. T. Loewen, an entrepreneur who founded a lumber business that would become Loewen Windows. As a teenager, Toews rode horses and took part in provincial dressage and barrel-racing competitions and attended high school at the Steinbach Regional Secondary School. She left Steinbach at eighteen, living in Montreal and London before settling in Winnipeg. She has a B.A. in Film Studies from the University of Manitoba, and a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of King's College, Halifax.


title: Miriam Toews

text: Toews wrote her first novel, "Summer of My Amazing Luck" (1996), while working as a freelance journalist. The novel explores the evolving friendship of two single mothers in a Winnipeg public housing complex. The novel was developed from a documentary that Toews was preparing for CBC Radio on the subject of welfare mothers. It was shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, and the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award. Toews won the latter prize with her second novel, "A Boy of Good Breeding" (1998).


title: Miriam Toews

text: Toews has written for CBC's "WireTap", "Canadian Geographic", "Geist", "The Guardian", "The New York Times Magazine", "Intelligent Life", and "Saturday Night". In 1999, she won a National Magazine Award Gold Medal for Humour. She is the author of "The X Letters", a series of personal dispatches addressed to the father of her son, which were featured on "This American Life" in an episode about missing parents.


title: Miriam Toews

text: Toews' father died by suicide in 1998. His death inspired Toews to write a memoir in her father's voice, "Swing Low: A Life". The book was greeted as an instant classic in the modern literature on mental illness, and it won the Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction and the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award.


title: Miriam Toews

text: Toews' third novel, "A Complicated Kindness" (2004), is set in East Village, a small religious Mennonite town much like her native Steinbach. The narrator is Nomi Nickel, a curious, defiant, sardonic sixteen-year-old who dreams of hanging out with Lou Reed in the 'real' East Village of New York City. She lives alone with her doleful father, after the departure of her older sister and the unexplained disappearance of her mother. Unlike her father, who is a dutiful member of the church, Nomi is rebellious by nature, and her questioning brings her into conflict with the town's various authorities, most notably Hans Rosenfeldt, the sanctimonious church pastor.


title: Miriam Toews

text: "A Complicated Kindness" was highly acclaimed nationally and internationally, with the character of Nomi Nickel invoking comparisons to J. D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield. It won the 2004 Governor General's Award for Fiction, described by the jury as "an unforgettable coming-of-age story... melancholic and hopeful, as beautifully complicated as life itself." It was also shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. The novel was selected for the 2006 edition of Canada Reads, the first book by a female writer to win the competition.


title: Miriam Toews

text: "The Flying Troutmans" (2008) is a road-trip novel narrated by 28-year-old Hattie, who takes charge of her teenage niece and nephew after her sister Min is admitted to a psychiatric ward. Overwhelmed by the responsibility, Hattie enacts an ill-conceived plan to find the kids' long-lost father in California.


title: Miriam Toews

text: The novel was awarded the 2008 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. The jury described the novel as "a love song to young people trying to navigate the volcanic world of adult emotions." The novel was also longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, and named a "Globe and Mail" Best Book.


title: Miriam Toews

text: With her fifth novel, "Irma Voth" (2011), Toews returned to the Mennonite community to re-examine the ways in which religious communities can limit personal freedom, and how belonging can turn to estrangement when old and new value systems clash. The novel opens in an old order Mennonite settlement in Mexico's Chihuahuan Desert. Nineteen-year-old Irma Voth has been banished to a neighbouring farm by her strict, religious father after secretly marrying a non-Mennonite Mexican. Her new husband disappears into the drug trade and Irma is left alone to tend to the farm. Her world is transformed when a filmmaker from Mexico City arrives to make a film about Mennonites. Irma is hired as a translator for the film's female protagonist, and her involvement with the wildly creative film crew brings her into dangerous conflict with her father, while at the same time helping her better understand her place in the world. When her father's violence escalates and the tragedy that has haunted her family begins to surface, Irma receives the blessing of her mother to flee the encampment, and to take her two younger sisters with her, one of whom is an infant. They eventually settle in Mexico City, where the two older sisters must embrace the ways of the city in order to survive and raise their infant sister.