title: County Offaly

text: Traditionally, agriculture and industry have been the main driving force of the economy in the county. Offaly has extensive bogland, particularly in the northern parts of the county, that forms part of the Bog of Allen. Bord na Móna was founded in 1946 and provided employment to hundreds of people in Offaly by making peat briquettes (for home domestic use) and supplying peat to power stations operated by ESB. Peat briquettes are currently made at the Bord na Móna factory at Derrinlough near Birr. Power stations are operating at Shannonbridge and Edenderry. With the continuing depletion of the bogs, a number of power stations have closed down in recent years. The ESB power station at Lumcloon, Ferbane was a major employer in the midlands but closed in 2001. Rhode power station closed down soon afterwards. These were major landmarks in Offaly with large cooling towers that were visible for miles around Offaly and beyond, but were demolished soon after the stations closed. Many bogs are now used as wildlife reserves or for tourism activities such as Lough Boora.


title: County Offaly

text: The opening of the Grand Canal in the 18th century brought prosperity to towns such as Banagher and Tullamore. Both towns were important stops on the Dublin to Limerick navigation which supported a number of industries and brought cheap and efficient water transport to the county in that era.


title: County Offaly

text: The Celtic Tiger also brought an increase in economic activity to Offaly with business enterprise and industrial parks opening in Birr, Edenderry and Tullamore. Many people particularly in the east of the county are within an easy commuting distance to Dublin where many find employment.


title: County Offaly

text: Offaly is well served by rail transport. Railway stations are located at Tullamore and Clara. Both stations are on the main Dublin-Westport/Galway railway line with regular trains serving the area, especially for Dublin commuters. Portarlington railway station is located just over the County Laois border and is in a catchment area for the southeast of the county. Portarlington railway station is on the main Dublin-Cork railway line with regular commuter services to Heuston Station, Dublin and intercity services to Cork, Limerick, Killarney & Tralee.


title: County Offaly

text: The Limerick-Ballybrophy railway line travels through the south of the county however there are no railway stations on the line in County Offaly. The nearest stations are located at Cloughjordan and Roscrea both just outside the county boundary. A railway line from Birr connected to the line at Roscrea until it was closed in the 1960s. A controversial railway line also connected Birr to Portumna between 1868 and 1878 and became something of a folk legend.


title: County Offaly

text: Three main national secondary routes pass through the county. The N52 road passes from Kilbeggan to Tullamore and Birr which then continues to Nenagh where it intersects with the M7. The N62 from Athlone passes through Ferbane and Birr and continues onto Roscrea and Thurles. The N80 route starts in Tullamore and continues to the southeast passing through Portlaoise and Carlow. There are no main national primary routes in the county, however, the M6 skirts the county to the north and the M7 skirts the county to the south through Moneygall. Road infrastructure has improved with the completion of the Tullamore bypass in 2009 and improved access to regional cities following the completion of the intercity motorway network.


title: County Offaly

text: Bus Éireann provide public transport services throughout the county with regular bus services to Limerick and Waterford from Athlone bus station. Other private bus coach services provide direct bus services from Birr to Dublin such as Kearns bus service which run several services daily. Slieve Bloom Coaches run services from Tullamore and Portarlington to Dublin.


title: County Offaly

text: The Grand Canal connecting Dublin to the river Shannon was constructed through the towns of Edenderry and Tullamore and joins the Shannon at Shannon Harbour. Traditionally this was an important route for transport, communication and trade between Dublin, Limerick and the midlands of Ireland. The route fell into decline as road transport became more popular. Much of the route is now used for boating and leisure activities.


title: County Offaly

text: Midlands 103 (originally Midlands Radio 3) which broadcasts to Laois, Offaly and Westmeath is based in Tullamore and has studios across the midlands.


title: County Offaly

text: RTÉ's medium wave transmitter broadcasting RTÉ Radio 1 was also located in Tullamore but transmission stopped in 2008.


title: County Offaly

text: A number of local newspapers are published in Offaly. The "Offaly Independent" and "Tullamore Tribune" are based in Tullamore. The "Midland Tribune", based in Birr, covers local news in the west and south of the county as well as parts of northern Tipperary including the towns of Birr, Roscrea and Nenagh and surrounding areas. The "Offaly Express" was a former newspaper based in Tullamore. It closed down in July 2012 after 29 years in operation. It is now an online news platform for the county at www.offalyexpress.ie


title: County Offaly

text: Gaelic games are popular in the county. Offaly GAA consists of some 44 clubs playing Gaelic football and hurling in communities throughout the county. Birr is generally considered a hurling stronghold with Birr GAA winning four All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championships. County teams have also had national success in both hurling and football, winning the Liam MacCarthy Cup four times and the Sam Maguire Cup three times. The football team is perhaps best known for the Seamus Darby goal in the


title: County Offaly

text: dying minutes of the 1982 football final when Offaly took the title by one point denying Kerry a historic five All-Ireland titles in a row.


title: County Offaly

text: Traditionally, west Offaly has been the hurling stronghold with clubs like Birr, Coolderry, And Kilcormac/Killoughey enjoying success in the Leinster and All-Ireland Championships


title: County Offaly

text: Tullamore Town F.C. play at Leah Victoria Park. Previously they played in the A Championship and League of Ireland B Division


title: County Offaly

text: Other popular sports in the county include rugby and golf. Birr Golf Club and Esker Hills Golf Club near Tullamore are popular. Irish golfer Shane Lowry is a member of Esker Hills. He is from the town of Clara outside Tullamore. As an amateur, he won the 2009 Irish Open. In 2019, Lowry won The Open Championship in Royal Portrush Golf Club, becoming the first Offaly man to win one of the golfing majors.


title: Ded Moroz

text: Ded Moroz (, ; Russian diminutive: ; ; ) or Morozko () is a legendary figure similar to Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, and Santa Claus who has his roots in Slavic mythology. The tradition of Ded Moroz is mostly spread in East Slavic countries and is an important part of Russian culture. At the beginning of the Soviet era, communist authorities banned Ded Moroz. Nevertheless, he soon became an important part of the Soviet culture. The literal translation of Ded Moroz is Grandfather Frost.


title: Ded Moroz

text: Ded Moroz wears a heel-length fur coat, in red or blue, a semi-round fur hat, and "valenki" on his feet. He has a long white beard. He walks with a long magic stick and often rides a troika. He is often depicted bringing presents to well-mannered children, often delivering them in person in the days of December and secretly under the New Year Tree over night on New Year's Eve.


title: Ded Moroz

text: The residence of Ded Moroz in Russia is considered to be the town of Veliky Ustyug, Vologda Oblast. The residence of the Belarusian Dzyed Maroz is said to be in Belavezhskaya Pushcha.


title: Ded Moroz

text: In East Slavic cultures, Ded Moroz is accompanied by Snegurochka (, "Snegurochka"; , "Snihurónka"; "Snow Maiden"), his granddaughter and helper, who also wears long silver-blue robes and a furry cap or a snowflake-like crown. She is a unique attribute of Ded Moroz, since similar characters in other cultures do not have a female companion.


title: Ded Moroz

text: The origins of the character of Ded Moroz predates Christianity as a Slavic wizard of winter. According to some sources in Slavic mythology, Ded Moroz, back then also called Morozko or Ded, is a snow demon. However, before the Christianity of Rus' the term demon had no negative connotation. Like with many other mythical figures only over time were demons attributed negative characteristics.


title: Ded Moroz

text: Under the influence of Orthodox traditions, the character of Ded Moroz was transformed. Since the 19th century the attributes and legend of Ded Moroz have been shaped by literary influences. The play "Snegurochka" by Aleksandr Ostrovsky was influential in this respect, as was Rimsky-Korsakov's "Snegurochka" with libretto based on the play. By the end of the 19th century Ded Moroz became a popular character.


title: Ded Moroz

text: Following the Russian Revolution, Christmas traditions were actively discouraged because they were considered to be "bourgeois and religious". Similarly, in 1928 Ded Moroz was declared "an ally of the priest and "kulak"". Nevertheless, the image of Ded Moroz took its current form during Soviet times, becoming the main symbol of the New Year's holiday (Novy God) that replaced Christmas. Some Christmas traditions were revived following the famous letter by Pavel Postyshev, published in "Pravda" on December 28, 1935. Postyshev believed that the origins of the holiday, which were pre-Christian, were less important than the benefits it could bring to Soviet children.


title: Ded Moroz

text: Ded Moroz is very popular in modern Russia. In 1998, the town of Veliky Ustyug in Vologda Oblast, Russia was declared the home of the Russian Ded Moroz by Yury Luzhkov, then Mayor of Moscow. Between 2003 and 2010, the post office in Veliky Ustyug received approximately 2,000,000 letters from within Russia and from all over the world for Ded Moroz. On January 7, 2008, then President Putin of the Russian Federation visited Ded Moroz' residence in the town of Veliky Ustyug as part of the Russian Orthodox Christmas Eve celebration.


title: Ded Moroz

text: The western Santa Claus made inroads in the Russian Federation during the "turbulent" 1990s when Western culture increased its penetration into the post-Soviet Russia. The resurgence of Russia in the early 21st century brought about a renewed emphasis on the basic Slavic character of Ded Moroz. This included the Russian Federation and subordinate governments sponsoring courses about Ded Moroz every December, with the aim of establishing appropriate Slavic norms for Ded Moroz and Snegurochka ("Snow Maiden" - Ded Moroz' granddaughter) roles for the New Year holiday. People playing Ded Moroz and Snegurochka now typically make appearances at children's parties during the winter holiday season, distributing presents and fighting off the wicked witch, Baba Yaga, who children are told wants to steal the gifts.


title: Ded Moroz

text: In November and December 2010, Ded Moroz was one of the candidates in the running for consideration as a mascot for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.


title: Ded Moroz

text: Many ethnic minorities have for linguistic reasons other names for Ded Moroz or even have their own culture-equivalent counterparts to Ded Moroz. For example, in Bashkir Ded Moroz is known as "Ҡыш бабай" ("Qïš babay", literally: "Winter Old Man"), in Tatar it has the similar spelling "Qış Babay" ("Кыш бабай") with the same meaning. In Nenets he is known as "Yamal Iri" ("Grandfather of Yamal"). The Yakut indigenous people have their own counterpart to Ded Moroz, which is called "Chys Khaan" ("Master of Cold").


title: Ded Moroz

text: Ded Moroz, and on occasion the Belarus "Dzied Maroz", are presented in the media as being in on-going détente with various counterparts from other cultures, such as the Estonian Santa Claus ("Jõuluvana" or "Old man of Yule"), the Finnish Santa Claus ("Joulupukki" or "Yule Goat"), and other Santa Claus, Father Christmas, and Saint Nicholas figures.<ref name="Estonia/Russia: Santa Claus Shakes Hands With Father Frost – Jan 1, 2006"></ref> The détente efforts portrayed have included one-on-one meetings, group meetings and friendly competitions, such as the annual November Santa Claus championships of Celle, Germany.


title: Ded Moroz

text: In November 2009, for the first time, the Russian Federation offered competition to NORAD Tracks Santa with GLONASS Tracks Ded Moroz, which purports to use GLONASS (GLObal NAvigation Satellite System or "the Russian GPS") to track Ded Moroz on New Year's Eve (according to the Gregorian Calendar).


title: Ded Moroz

text: The Russian-language website provides "real-time tracking" of Ded Moroz, "news" of Ded Moroz throughout the year, a form to send e-mail to Ded Moroz, photos, videos, streaming audio of Russian songs, poems and verses from children's letters to Ded Moroz, information on Veliky Ustyug in Vologda Oblast (considered to be Ded Moroz's hometown) and opportunities to enter competitions and win prizes.


title: Ded Moroz

text: There are equivalents of Ded Moroz and Snegurochka all over the former USSR, as well as the countries once in the Eastern bloc and in the former Yugoslavia. After the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, some of these countries made efforts to move away from Soviet and Russian heritage toward their own ancient traditions.


title: Ded Moroz

text: The Armenian name for Ded Moroz is Dzmer Pap, literally Grandfather Winter. His loyal granddaughter Dzyunanushik, whose name means Snow Sweetie, or Snow Anush (a popular Armenian female name), is another counterpart of Snegurochka. The tradition was set throughout the times of the Russian Empire after the Russo-Persian War (1826-1828), when Eastern Armenia was joined to Russia according to the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay.


title: Ded Moroz

text: For almost 160 years of influence Dzmer Pap and Dzyunanushik have hardly changed their appearance or behavior: they come in red, blue or white winter fur coats and, bringing presents to children, expect them to sing songs or recite poems. They are parts of New Year and Christmas matinées and shows in Armenia. In the recent decades well-off parents have developed a tradition to invite Dzmer Pap and Dzyunanushik to their children.


title: Ded Moroz

text: In Azerbaijani, Ded Moroz is known as "Şaxta Baba" ("Grandfather Frost") and his companion Snegurochka is known as "Qar Qızı" ("Snow Girl"). In the predominantly Muslim but secular country, where Christians are a small minority, this tradition remains very popular. "Şaxta Baba" brings gifts to children at New Year celebrations, however "Qar Qızı" is rarely present at the festivities.


title: Ded Moroz

text: Ded Moroz is "Dzied Maroz" () in the Belarusian language. He is not a historical folkloric Belarusian character, but was a replacement for Saint Nicholas, known locally as "Śviaty Mikałaj", whom Soviet authorities disapproved of because of his Christian origin.


title: Ded Moroz

text: The Bulgarian name of Santa Claus is Дядо Коледа ("Dyado Koleda", Grandfather Koleda), with "Dyado Mraz" (Дядо Мраз, "Grandfather Frost") being a similar Russian-imported character lacking the Christian connotations and thus popular during Communist rule. However, he has been largely forgotten since 1989, when "Dyado Koleda" again returned as the more popular figure.


title: Ded Moroz

text: In socialist Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia) the character who was said to bring gifts to children was called "Grandfather Frost" (; ; ; ). He was said to bring gifts for the New Year because public celebration of Christmas was frowned upon during communism.


title: Ded Moroz

text: In Croatia after the breakup of Yugoslavia, "Djed Mraz" was labeled a communist creation and "Djed Božićnjak" (literally: "Grandfather Christmas") was introduced. Attempts were made in the mass media and advertising to replace "Djed Mraz" with "Djed Božićnjak". After 1999 the names of "Djed Mraz" and "Djed Božićnjak" became more or less synonymous, including in their use on public television. In some families "Djed Mraz" is still said to brings gifts at New Year. In Croatia, children also get presents on December 6. Due to the historical influence of Austrian culture in parts of Croatia, presents are also said to be brought by a traditional figure called "Sveti Nikola" ("Saint Nicholas") who closely resembles "Djed Mraz" or "Djed Božićnjak", except for the fact that he is accompanied by Krampus who takes misbehaving children away, another character from Central European folklore. In some religious families, little Jesus ("Isusek, Mali Isus, Kriskindl") is said to brings gifts at Christmas instead of "Djed Božićnjak". Also, in some parts of Dalmatia the gifts are brought by Saint Lucy ("Sveta Lucija").


title: Ded Moroz

text: Since the introduction and familiarization of Russian culture during the socialist era, Mongolia has been celebrating the New Year's festivities as a formal holiday. "Өвлийн өвгөн" (Övliin Övgön, Grandfather Winter) is the Mongolian equivalent of Ded Moroz, who brings children and adult alike gifts on New Year's Eve.


title: Ded Moroz

text: In 1948, after the Communists gained power in Romania, it was decided that Christmas should not be celebrated. December 25 and December 26 became working days and no official celebrations were to be held. As a replacement for "Moş Crăciun" (Father Christmas), a new character was introduced, "Moş Gerilă" (literally "Old Man Frosty", a Romanian language adaptation of the Russian Ded Moroz). He was said to bring gifts to children on December 31.


title: Ded Moroz

text: Officially, the New Year's Day celebrations began on 30 December, which was named the Day of the Republic, since it was the day when King Mihai I of Romania abdicated in 1947.


title: Ded Moroz

text: After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, "Moş Gerilă" lost his influence, being replaced by "Moş Crăciun".


title: Ded Moroz

text: In Slovenia, the name "Ded Moroz" was translated from Russian as "Dedek Mraz" (literally, "Grandpa Frost"). "Dedek Mraz" is depicted as a slim man wearing a grey leather coat, which has fur inside and is decorated outside, and a round dormouse fur cap. This version of the character is based on traditional imagery, especially as depicted by Maksim Gaspari in images commissioned in 1952. Although the name was translated literally from the Soviet figure, other names for the character were also considered: "Sneženi mož" ("the Snow Man") and "oca Triglav" ("Daddy Triglav"). A female figure named "babica Zima" (Grandma Winter) was also proposed. Initially he was said to live in Siberia, but with the Informbiro crisis and the schism between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union his home was relocated to Mt. Triglav, Slovenia's (and also Yugoslavia's) highest peak. Public processions featuring the character began in Ljubljana in 1953. The notion of Grandpa Frost was ideologically useful because it served to reorient the December/January holidays away from religion (Saint Nicholas Day and Christmas) and towards the secular New Year. After the ousting of Communism at the beginning of the 1990s, two other "good old men" (as they are currently styled in Slovenian) reappeared in public: "Miklavž" ("Saint Nicholas") is said to bring presents on December 6, and "Božiček" ("Christmas man"; usually depicted as Santa Claus) on Christmas Eve. St. Nicholas has had a strong traditional presence in Slovenian ethnic territory and his feast day remained celebrated in family circles throughout the Communist period. Until the late 1940s it was also said in some areas of Slovenia that Christkind (called "Jezušček" ("little Jesus") or "Božiček") brought gifts on Christmas Eve. Slovenian families have different preferences regarding their gift-giver of choice, according to political or religious persuasion. Slovenian popular culture depicts Grandpa Frost, Saint Nicholas and Santa Claus as friends and has also started blending attributes of the characters, for example, mention of Santa's reindeer is sometimes mingled into the Grandpa Frost narrative at public appearances. Due to his non-religious character and strong institutionalization, Grandpa Frost continues to retain a public presence.


title: Ded Moroz

text: In Tajikistan the tradition of Ded Moroz has continued. In Tajik, Ded Moroz is known as "Boboi Barfi" ("Grandfather Snow"), and Snegurochka is called "Barfak" ("Snowball").


title: Ded Moroz

text: In 2012, a young man dressed as Ded Moroz was stabbed to death in Dushanbe by a crowd shouting "You infidel!". The murder was motivated by religious hatred, according to the Tajik police.


title: Ded Moroz

text: On 11 December 2013, Saidali Siddiqov, the first deputy head of the Committee for TV and Radio-broadcasting under the Government of Tajikistan, announced in an interview that "Father Frost, his maiden sidekick Snegurochka (Maiden Snow), and New Year’s tree will not appear on the state television this year, because these personages and attributes bear no direct relation to our national traditions, though there is no harm in them". However next day this was denounced, and planned celebrations did include these despite objections of some religious figures.


title: Ded Moroz

text: Since the breakup of the USSR and especially in the recent years, there has been a shift from Ded Moroz/Did Moroz (), which came to be associated with the Soviet-era heritage, to more traditional Saint Nicholas (Святий Миколай, "Sviatyi Mykolai"), which used to be more popular in Western Ukraine. There were rumors that Ded Moroz imagery was discouraged by the authorities due to conflict with Russia. The Ukrainian Ministry of Culture refuted this.


title: Ded Moroz

text: In 2012, Uzbekistan, a largely Muslim nation, moved away from celebrating Christmas and its historical characters


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Anaglyph 3D is the stereoscopic 3D effect achieved by means of encoding each eye's image using filters of different (usually chromatically opposite) colors, typically red and cyan. Anaglyph 3D images contain two differently filtered colored images, one for each eye. When viewed through the "color-coded" "anaglyph glasses", each of the two images reaches the eye it's intended for, revealing an integrated stereoscopic image. The visual cortex of the brain fuses this into the perception of a three-dimensional scene or composition.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Anaglyph images have seen a recent resurgence due to the presentation of images and video on the Web, Blu-ray Discs, CDs, and even in print. Low cost paper frames or plastic-framed glasses hold accurate color filters that typically, after 2002, make use of all 3 primary colors. The current norm is red and cyan, with red being used for the left channel. The cheaper filter material used in the monochromatic past dictated red and blue for convenience and cost. There is a material improvement of full color images, with the cyan filter, especially for accurate skin tones.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Video games, theatrical films, and DVDs can be shown in the anaglyph 3D process. Practical images, for science or design, where depth perception is useful, include the presentation of full scale and microscopic stereographic images. Examples from NASA include Mars Rover imaging, and the solar investigation, called STEREO, which uses two orbital vehicles to obtain the 3D images of the sun. Other applications include geological illustrations by the United States Geological Survey, and various online museum objects. A recent application is for stereo imaging of the heart using 3D ultra-sound with plastic red/cyan glasses.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Anaglyph images are much easier to view than either parallel (diverging) or crossed-view pairs stereograms. However, these side-by-side types offer bright and accurate color rendering, not easily achieved with anaglyphs. Also, extended use of the "color-coded" "anaglyph glasses" can cause discomfort, and the afterimage caused by the colors of the glasses may temporarily affect the viewer's visual perception of real life objects. Recently, cross-view prismatic glasses with adjustable masking have appeared, that offer a wider image on the new HD video and computer monitors.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: The oldest known description of anaglyph images was written in August 1853 by W. Rollmann in Stargard about his "Farbenstereoscope" (color stereoscope). He had the best results viewing a yellow/blue drawing with red/blue glasses. Rollmann found that with a red/blue drawing the red lines were not as distinct as yellow lines through the blue glass.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: In 1858, in France, delivered a report to l'Académie des sciences describing how to project three-dimensional magic lantern slide shows using red and green filters to an audience wearing red and green goggles. Subsequently he was chronicled as being responsible for the first realisation of 3D images using anaglyphs.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Louis Ducos du Hauron produced the first printed anaglyphs in 1891. This process consisted of printing the two negatives which form a stereoscopic photograph on to the same paper, one in blue (or green), one in red. The viewer would then use colored glasses with red (for the left eye) and blue or green (right eye). The left eye would see the blue image which would appear black, whilst it would not see the red; similarly the right eye would see the red image, this registering as black. Thus a three dimensional image would result.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: William Friese-Green created the first three-dimensional anaglyphic motion pictures in 1889, which had public exhibition in 1893. 3-D films enjoyed something of a boom in the 1920s. The term "3-D" was coined in the 1950s. As late as 1954, films such as "Creature from the Black Lagoon" remained very successful. Originally shot and exhibited using the Polaroid system, "Creature from the Black Lagoon" was successfully reissued much later in an anaglyph format so it could be shown in cinemas without the need for special equipment. In 1953, the anaglyph had begun appearing in newspapers, magazines and comic books. The 3-D comic books were one of the most interesting applications of anaglyph to printing.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Over the years, anaglyphic pictures have sporadically appeared in comics and magazine ads. Although not anaglyphic, "Jaws 3-D" was a box-office success in 1983. At present the excellent quality of computer displays and user-friendly stereo-editing programs offer new and exciting possibilities for experimenting with anaglyph stereo.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: A stereo pair is a pair of images from slightly different perspectives at the same time. Objects closer to the camera(s) have greater differences in appearance and position within the image frames than objects further from the camera.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Historically cameras captured two color filtered images from the perspective of the left and right eyes which were projected or printed together as a single image, one side through a red filter and the other side through a contrasting color such as blue or green or mixed cyan. As outlined below, one may now, typically, use an image processing computer program to simulate the effect of using color filters, using as a source image a pair of either color or monochrome images. This is called mosaicking or image stitching.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: In the 1970s filmmaker Stephen Gibson filmed direct anaglyph blaxploitation and adult movies. His "Deep Vision" system replaced the original camera lens with two color-filtered lenses focused on the same film frame. In the 1980s, Gibson patented his mechanism.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Many computer graphics programs provide the basic tools (typically layering and adjustments to individual color channels to filter colors) required to prepare anaglyphs from stereo pairs. In simple practice, the left eye image is filtered to remove blue & green. The right eye image is filtered to remove red. The two images are usually positioned in the compositing phase in close overlay registration (of the main subject). Plugins for some of these programs as well as programs dedicated to anaglyph preparation are available which automate the process and require the user to choose only a few basic settings.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: There also exist methods for making anaglyphs using only one image, a process called stereo conversion. In one, individual elements of a picture are horizontally offset in one layer by differing amounts with elements offset further having greater apparent changes in depth (either forward or back depending on whether the offset is to the left or right). This produces images that tend to look like elements are flat standees arranged at various distances from the viewer similar to cartoon images in a View-Master.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: A more sophisticated method involves use of a depth map (a false color image where color indicates distance, for example, a grayscale depth map could have lighter indicate an object closer to the viewer and darker indicate an object further away). As for preparing anaglyphs from stereo pairs, stand-alone software and plug-ins for some graphics apps exist which automate production of anaglyphs (and stereograms) from a single image or from an image and its corresponding depth map.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: As well as fully automatic methods of calculating depth maps (which may be more or less successful), depth maps can be drawn entirely by hand. Also developed are methods of producing depth maps from sparse or less accurate depth maps. A sparse depth map is a depth map consisting of only a relatively few lines or areas which guides the production of the full depth map. Use of a sparse depth map can help overcome auto-generation limitations. For example, if a depth finding algorithm takes cues from image brightness an area of shadow in the foreground may be incorrectly assigned as background. This misassignment is overcome by assigning the shaded area a close value in the sparse depth map.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Viewing anaglyphs through spectrally opposed glasses or gel filters enables each eye to see independent left and right images from within a single anaglyphic image. Red-cyan filters can be employed because our vision processing systems use red and cyan comparisons, as well as blue and yellow, to determine the color and contours of objects.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: In a red-cyan anaglyph, the eye viewing through the red filter sees red within the anaglyph as "white", and the cyan within the anaglyph as "black". The eye viewing through the cyan filter perceives the opposite.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Actual black or white in the anaglyph display, being void of color, are perceived the same by each eye. The brain blends together the red and cyan channeled images as in regular viewing but only green and blue are perceived. Red is not perceived because red equates with white through red gel and is black through cyan gel. Green and blue, however, are perceived through cyan gel.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Complementary color anaglyphs employ one of a pair of complementary color filters for each eye. The most common color filters used are red and cyan. Employing tristimulus theory, the eye is sensitive to three primary colors, red, green, and blue. The red filter admits only red, while the cyan filter blocks red, passing blue and green (the combination of blue and green is perceived as cyan). If a paper viewer containing red and cyan filters is folded so that light passes through both, the image will appear black. Another recently introduced form employs blue and yellow filters. (Yellow is the color perceived when both red and green light passes through the filter.)


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Anaglyph images have seen a recent resurgence because of the presentation of images on the Internet. Where traditionally, this has been a largely black & white format, recent digital camera and processing advances have brought very acceptable color images to the internet and DVD field. With the online availability of low cost paper glasses with improved red-cyan filters, and plastic framed glasses of increasing quality, the field of 3D imaging is growing quickly. Scientific images where depth perception is useful include, for instance, the presentation of complex multi-dimensional data sets and stereographic images of the surface of Mars. With the recent release of 3D DVDs, they are more commonly being used for entertainment. Anaglyph images are much easier to view than either parallel sighting or crossed eye stereograms, although these types do offer more bright and accurate color rendering, most particularly in the red component, which is commonly muted or desaturated with even the best color anaglyphs. A compensating technique, commonly known as Anachrome, uses a slightly more transparent cyan filter in the patented glasses associated with the technique. Processing reconfigures the typical anaglyph image to have less parallax to obtain a more useful image when viewed without filters.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Simple sheet or uncorrected molded glasses do not compensate for the 250 nanometer difference in the wavelengths of the red-cyan filters. With simple glasses the red filter image can be blurry when viewing a close computer screen or printed image since the retinal focus differs from the cyan filtered image, which dominates the eyes' focusing. Better quality molded plastic glasses employ a compensating differential diopter power to equalize the red filter focus shift relative to the cyan. The direct view focus on computer monitors has been recently improved by manufacturers providing secondary paired lenses, fitted and attached inside the red-cyan primary filters of some high-end anaglyph glasses. They are used where very high resolution is required, including science, stereo macros, and animation studio applications. They use carefully balanced cyan (blue-green) acrylic lenses, which pass a minute percentage of red to improve skin tone perception. Simple red/blue glasses work well with black and white, but the blue filter is unsuitable for human skin in color. U.S. Patent No. 6,561,646 was issued to the inventor in 2003. In the trade,


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: (ACB) 'Anaglyphic Contrast Balance' is a patented anaglyphic production method by Studio 555. Retinal Rivalry of color contrasts within the color channels of anaglyph images is addressed.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Contrasts and details from the stereo pair are maintained and re-presented for view within the anaglyph image. The (ACB) method of balancing the color contrasts within the stereo pair enables a stable view of contrast details, thus eliminating retinal rivalry. The process is available for red/cyan color channels but may use any of the opposing color channel combinations. As with all stereoscopic anaglyphic systems, screen or print, the display color should be RGB accurate and the viewing gels should match the color channels to prevent double imaging. The basic (ACB) method adjusts red, green and blue, but adjusting all six color primaries is preferred.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: The effectiveness of the (ACB) process is proven with the inclusion of primary color charts within a stereo pair. A contrast-balanced view of the stereo pair and color charts is evident in the resulting (ACB) processed anaglyph image. The (ACB) process also enables black and white (monochromatic) anaglyphs with contrast balance.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Where full color to each eye is enabled via alternating color channels and color-alternating viewing filters, (ACB) prevents shimmer from pure-colored objects within the modulating image. Vertical and diagonal parallax is enabled with concurrent use of a horizontally oriented lenticular or parallax barrier screen. This enables a Quadrascopic full color holographic effect from a monitor.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: ColorCode 3-D was deployed in the 2000s and uses amber and blue filters. It is intended to provide the perception of nearly full color viewing (particularly within the RG color space) with existing television and paint mediums. One eye (left, amber filter) receives the cross-spectrum color information and one eye (right, blue filter) sees a monochrome image designed to give the depth effect. The human brain ties both images together.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Images viewed without filters will tend to exhibit light-blue and yellow horizontal fringing. The backwards compatible 2D viewing experience for viewers not wearing glasses is improved, generally being better than previous red and green anaglyph imaging systems, and further improved by the use of digital post-processing to minimize fringing. The displayed hues and intensity can be subtly adjusted to further improve the perceived 2D image, with problems only generally found in the case of extreme blue.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: The blue filter is centered around 450 nm and the amber filter lets in light at wavelengths at above 500 nm. Wide spectrum color is possible because the amber filter lets through light across most wavelengths in spectrum and even has a small leakage of the blue color spectrum. When presented the original left and right images are run through the ColorCode 3-D encoding process to generate one single ColorCode 3-D encoded image.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: In the United Kingdom, television station Channel 4 commenced broadcasting a series of programs encoded using the system during the week of November 16, 2009. Previously the system had been used in the United States for an "all 3-D advertisement" during the 2009 Super Bowl for SoBe, Monsters vs. Aliens animated movie and an advertisement for the Chuck television series in which the full episode the following night used the format.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Developed by TriOviz, Inficolor 3D is a patent pending stereoscopic system, first demonstrated at the International Broadcasting Convention in 2007 and deployed in 2010. It works with traditional 2D flat panels and HDTV sets and uses expensive glasses with complex color filters and dedicated image processing that allow natural color perception with a 3D experience. This is achieved through having the left image using the green channel only and the right using the red and blue channels with some added post processing, which the brain then combines the two images to produce a nearly full color experience. When observed without glasses, some slight doubling can be noticed in the background of the action which allows watching the movie or the video game in 2D without the glasses. This is not possible with traditional brute force anaglyphic systems.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Inficolor 3D is a part of TriOviz for Games Technology, developed in partnership with TriOviz Labs and Darkworks Studio. It works with Sony PlayStation 3 (Official PlayStation 3 Tools & Middleware Licensee Program) and Microsoft Xbox 360 consoles as well as PC. TriOviz for Games Technology was showcased at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010 by Mark Rein (vice-president of Epic Games) as a 3D tech demo running on an Xbox 360 with Gears of War 2. In October 2010 this technology has been officially integrated in Unreal Engine 3, the computer game engine developed by Epic Games.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Video games equipped with TriOviz for Games Technology are: "" for PS3 and Xbox 360 (March 2010), "" for PS3 and Xbox 360 (Nov. 2010), "" for PS3 and Xbox 360 (May 2011), "" for PS3 and Xbox 360 (June 2011), "" for PS3 and Xbox 360 (July 2011). "Gears of War 3" for Xbox 360 (September 2011), "" for PS3 and Xbox 360 (October 2011), "" for PS3 and Xbox 360 (November 2011), and "Assassin's Creed III" for Wii U (November 2012). The first DVD/Blu-ray including Inficolor 3D Tech is: "Battle for Terra 3D" (published in France by Pathé & Studio 37 - 2010).


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: A variation on the anaglyph technique from the early 2000s is called "Anachrome method". This approach is an attempt to provide images that look nearly normal, without glasses, for small images, either 2D or 3D, with most of the negative qualities being masked innately by the small display. Being "compatible" for small size posting in conventional websites or magazines. Usually a larger file can be selected that will fully present the 3D with the dramatic definition. The 3D (Z axis) depth effect is generally more subtle than simple anaglyph images, which are usually made from wider spaced stereo pairs. Anachrome images are shot with a typically narrower stereo base, (the distance between the camera lenses). Pains are taken to adjust for a better overlay fit of the two images, which are layered one on top of another. Only a few pixels of non-registration give the depth cues. The range of color perceived, is noticeably wider in Anachrome image, when viewed with the intended filters. This is due to the deliberate passage of a small (1 to 2%) of the red information through the cyan filter. Warmer tones can be boosted, because each eye sees some color reference to red. The brain responds in the mental blending process and usual perception. It is claimed to provide warmer and more complex perceived skin tones and vividness.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: This technique uses specific wavelengths of red, green, and blue for the right eye, and different wavelengths of red, green, and blue for the left eye. Eyeglasses which filter out the very specific wavelengths allow the wearer to see a full color 3D image. Special interference filters (dichromatic filters) in the glasses and in the projector form the main item of technology and have given the system this name. It is also known as spectral comb filtering or wavelength multiplex visualization. Sometimes this technique is described as a "super-anaglyph" because it is an advanced form of spectral-multiplexing which is at the heart of the conventional anaglyph technique. This technology eliminates the expensive silver screens required for polarized systems such as RealD, which is the most common 3D display system in theaters. It does, however, require much more expensive glasses than the polarized systems.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Dolby 3D uses this principle. The filters divide the visible color spectrum into six narrow bands – two in the red region, two in the green region, and two in the blue region (called R1, R2, G1, G2, B1 and B2 for purposes of this description). The R1, G1 and B1 bands are used for one eye image, and R2, G2, B2 for the other eye. The human eye is largely insensitive to such fine spectral differences so this technique is able to generate full-color 3D images with only slight color differences between the two eyes.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: The Omega 3D/Panavision 3D system also used this technology, though with a wider spectrum and more "teeth" to the "comb" (5 for each eye in the Omega/Panavision system). The use of more spectral bands per eye eliminates the need to color process the image, required by the Dolby system. Evenly dividing the visible spectrum between the eyes gives the viewer a more relaxed "feel" as the light energy and color balance is nearly 50-50. Like the Dolby system, the Omega system can be used with white or silver screens. But it can be used with either film or digital projectors, unlike the Dolby filters that are only used on a digital system with a color correcting processor provided by Dolby. The Omega/Panavision system also claims that their glasses are cheaper to manufacture than those used by Dolby. In June 2012 the Omega 3D/Panavision 3D system was discontinued by DPVO Theatrical, who marketed it on behalf of Panavision, citing "challenging global economic and 3D market conditions".


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Although DPVO dissolved its business operations, Omega Optical continues promoting and selling 3D systems to non-theatrical markets. Omega Optical’s 3D system contains projection filters and 3D glasses. In addition to the passive stereoscopic 3D system, Omega Optical has produced enhanced anaglyph 3D glasses. The Omega’s red/cyan anaglyph glasses use complex metal oxide thin film coatings and high quality annealed glass optics.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: A pair of glasses, with filters of opposing colors, is worn to view an anaglyphic photo image. A red filter lens over the left eye allows graduations of red to cyan from within the anaglyph to be perceived as graduations of bright to dark. The cyan (blue/green) filter over the right eye conversely allows graduations of cyan to red from within the anaglyph to be perceived as graduations of bright to dark. Red and cyan color fringes in the anaglyph display represent the red and cyan color channels of the parallax-displaced left and right images. The viewing filters each cancel out opposing colored areas, including graduations of less pure opposing colored areas, to each reveal an image from within its color channel. Thus the filters enable each eye to see only its intended view from color channels within the single anaglyphic image. Red-green glasses are also usable, but may give the viewer a more strongly colored view, since red and green are not complementary colors.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Simple paper uncorrected gel glasses, cannot compensate for the 250 nanometer difference in the wavelengths of the red-cyan filters. With simple glasses, the red filtered image is somewhat blurry, when viewing a close computer screen or printed image. The red retinal focus differs from the image through the cyan filter, which dominates the eyes' focusing. Better-quality molded acrylic glasses frequently employ a compensating differential diopter power (a spherical correction) to balance the red filter focus shift relative to the cyan, which reduces the innate softness and diffraction of red filtered light. Low-power reading glasses worn along with the paper glasses also sharpen the image noticeably.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: The correction is only about 1/2 + diopter on the red lens. However, some people with corrective glasses are bothered by difference in lens diopters, as one image is a slightly larger magnification than the other. Though endorsed by many 3D websites, the diopter "fix" effect is still somewhat controversial. Some, especially the nearsighted, find it uncomfortable. There is about a 400% improvement in acuity with a molded diopter filter, and a noticeable improvement of contrast and blackness. The American Amblyopia Foundation uses this feature in their plastic glasses for school screening of children's vision, judging the greater clarity as a significant plus factor.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Plastic glasses, developed in recent years, provide both the diopter "fix" noted above, and a change in the cyan filter. The formula provides intentional "leakage" of a minimal (2%) percentage of red light with the conventional range of the filter. This assigns two-eyed "redness cues" to objects and details, such as lip color and red clothing, that are fused in the brain. Care must be taken, however, to closely overlay the red areas into near-perfect registration, or "ghosting" can occur. Anachrome formula lenses work well with black and white, but can provide excellent results when the glasses are used with conforming "anachrome friendly" images. The US Geological Survey has thousands of these "conforming" full-color images, which depict the geology and scenic features of the U.S. National Park system. By convention, anachrome images try to avoid excess separation of the cameras and parallax, thereby reducing the ghosting that the extra color bandwidth introduces to the images.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: One monochromatic method uses a stereo pair available as a digitized image, along with access to general-purpose image processing software. In this method, the images are run through a series of processes and saved in an appropriate transmission and viewing format such as JPEG.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Several computer programs will create color anaglyphs without Adobe Photoshop, or a traditional, more complex compositing method can be used with Photoshop. Using color information, it is possible to obtain reasonable (but not accurate) blue sky, green vegetation, and appropriate skin tones. Color information appears disruptive when used for brightly colored and/or high-contrast objects such as signs, toys, and patterned clothing when these contain colors that are close to red or cyan.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Only few color anaglyphic processes, e.g. interference filter systems used for Dolby 3D, can reconstruct full-color 3D images. However, other stereo display methods can easily reproduce full-color photos or movies, e.g. active shutter 3D or polarized 3D systems. Such processes allow better viewing comfort than most limited color anaglyphic methods. According to entertainment trade papers, 3D films had a revival in recent years and 3D is now also used in 3D Television.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: The adjustment suggested in this section is applicable to any type of stereogram but is particularly appropriate when anaglyphed images are to be viewed on a computer screen or on printed matter.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Those portions of the left and right images that are coincident will appear to be at the surface of the screen. Depending upon the subject matter and the composition of the image it may be appropriate to make this align to something slightly behind the nearest point of the principal subject (as when imaging a portrait). This will cause the near points of the subject to "pop out" from the screen. For best effect, any portions of a figure to be imaged forward of the screen surface should not intercept the image boundary, as this can lead to a discomforting "amputated" appearance. It is of course possible to create a three-dimensional "pop out" frame surrounding the subject in order to avoid this condition.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: If the subject matter is a landscape, you may consider putting the frontmost object at or slightly behind the surface of the screen. This will cause the subject to be framed by the window boundary and recede into the distance. Once the adjustment is made, trim the picture to contain only the portions containing both left and right images. In the example shown above, the upper image appears (in a visually disruptive manner) to spill out from the screen, with the distant mountains appearing at the surface of the screen. In the lower modification of this image the red channel has been translated horizontally to bring the images of the nearest rocks into coincidence (and thus appearing at the surface of the screen) and the distant mountains now appear to recede into the image. This latter adjusted image appears more natural, appearing as a view through a window onto the landscape.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Since the advent of the Internet, a variant technique has developed where the images are specially processed to minimize visible mis-registration of the two layers. This technique is known by various names, the most common, associated with diopter glasses, and warmer skin tones, is Anachrome. The technique allows most images to be used as large thumbnails, while the 3D information is encoded into the image with less parallax than conventional anaglyphs.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Anaglyphic images made with cameras used to be constructed by having the lens covered with the appropriate coloured filter. Modern video/image rendering programs use a similar technique to achieve the anaglyph effect. Modern anaglyphic rendering programs used to use simulated filters over the virtual cameras, for Red/Cyan anaglyphs the left camera blocking all but red light being perceived and the right blocking all but the blue and green light being received. This worked okay for creating colourful anaglyph images but the results were prone to retinal rivalry


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: In 2001 Eric Dubois () released a paper titled 'A projection method to generate anaglyph stereo images' This paper described a method of filtering for anaglyph images that retained much of the colour and reduced ghosting and retinal rivalry The algorithm used to create this effect is called the least-squares algorithm. The result is a matrix that is applied over each virtual camera and forms a filter. His Matrix has been incorporated into many anaglyph programs such as StereoPhoto Maker () and threeJs's anaglyph effect ()


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Anaglyph images may use any combination of color channels. However, if a stereoscopic image is to be pursued, the colors should be diametrically opposed. Impurities of color channel display, or of the viewing filters, allow some of the image meant for the other channel to be seen. This results in stereoscopic double imaging, also called ghosting. Color channels may be left-right reversed. Red/cyan is most common. magenta/green and blue/yellow are also popular. Red/green and red/blue enable monochromatic images especially red/green. Many anaglyph makers purposely integrate impure color channels and viewing filters to enable better color perception, but this results in a corresponding degree of double imaging. Color channel brightness % of white: red-30/cyan-70, magenta-41/green-59 or especially blue-11/yellow-89), the lighter display channel may be darkened or the brighter viewing filter may be darkened to allow both eyes a balanced view. However the Pulfrich effect can be obtained from a light/dark filter arrangement. The color channels of an anaglyphic image require pure color display fidelity and corresponding viewing filter gels. The choice of ideal viewing filters is dictated by the color channels of the anaglyph to be viewed. Ghosting can be eliminated by ensuring a pure color display and viewing filters that match the display. Retinal rivalry can be eliminated by the (ACB) 3-D "Anaglyphic Contrast Balance" method patented by that prepares the image pair prior to color channeling in any color.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: In theory, under trichromatic principles, it is possible to introduce a limited amount of multiple-perspective capability (a technology not possible with polarization schemes). This is done by overlapping three images instead of two, in the sequence of green, red, blue. Viewing such an image with red-green glasses would give one perspective, while switching to blue-red would give a slightly different one. In practice, this remains elusive as some blue is perceived through green gel and most green is perceived through blue gel. It is also theoretically possible to incorporate rod cells, which optimally perform at a dark cyan color, in well-optimized mesopic vision, to create a fourth filter color and yet another perspective; however, this has not yet been demonstrated, nor would most televisions be able to process such tetrachromatic filtering.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: On April 1, 2010, Google launched a feature in Google Street View that shows anaglyphs rather than regular images, allowing users to see the streets in 3D.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Disney Studios released "" in August 2008, its first anaglyph 3D Blu-ray Disc. This was shown on the Disney Channel with red-cyan paper glasses in July 2008.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: However, on Blu-ray Disc anaglyph techniques have more recently been supplanted by the Blu-ray 3D format, which uses Multiview Video Coding (MVC) to encode full stereoscopic images. Though Blu-ray 3D does not require a specific display method, and some Blu-ray 3D software players (such as Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre) are capable of anaglyphic playback, most Blu-ray 3D players are connected via HDMI 1.4 to 3D televisions and other 3D displays using more advanced stereoscopic display methods, such as alternate-frame sequencing (with active shutter glasses) or FPR polarization (with the same passive glasses as RealD theatrical 3D).


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: These techniques have been used to produce 3-dimensional comic books, mostly during the early 1950s, using carefully constructed line drawings printed in colors appropriate to the filter glasses provided. The material presented were from a wide variety of genres, including war, horror, crime, and superhero. Anaglyphed comics were far more difficult to produce than normal comics, requiring each panel to be drawn multiple times on layers of acetate. While the first 3D comic in 1953 sold over two million copies, by the end of the year sales had bottomed out, though 3D comics have continued to be released irregularly up until the present day.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Three-dimensional display can also be used to display scientific data sets, or to illustrate mathematical functions. Anaglyph images are suitable both for paper presentation, and moving video display (see neuroimage related paper). They can easily be included in science books, and viewed with cheap anaglyph glasses.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Anaglyphy (including, among others, aerial, telescopic, and microscopic images) is being applied to scientific research, popular science, and higher education.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Also, chemical structures, particularly for large systems, can be difficult to represent in two dimensions without omitting geometric information. Therefore, most chemistry computer software can output anaglyph images, and some chemistry textbooks include them.


title: Anaglyph 3D

text: Today, there are more advanced solutions for 3D imaging available, like shutter glasses together with fast monitors. These solutions are already extensively used in science. Still, anaglyph images provide a cheap and comfortable way to view scientific visualizations.


title: Kenneth McDuff

text: Kenneth Allen McDuff (March 21, 1946 – November 17, 1998) was an American serial killer. He was convicted in 1966 of murdering 16-year-old Edna Sullivan, her boyfriend, 17-year-old Robert Brand, and Brand's cousin, 15-year-old Mark Dunnam, who was visiting from California. They were all strangers whom McDuff abducted after noticing Sullivan. McDuff repeatedly raped her before breaking her neck with a broomstick.


title: Kenneth McDuff

text: McDuff was given three death sentences that were reduced to life imprisonment consequently to the 1972 U.S. Supreme Court ruling "Furman v. Georgia". He was paroled in 1989 and went on to kill again. He was executed in 1998, and is suspected to have been responsible for many other killings.


title: Kenneth McDuff

text: Kenneth Allen McDuff was born at 201 Linden Street in the central Texas town of Rosebud, the fifth of six children born to John Allen "JA" and Addie McDuff. His father ran a successful concrete business during the Texas construction boom of the 1960s. McDuff was indulged by his family, particularly his mother Addie, nicknamed the "pistol packing mama" because she threatened a school bus driver with a gun after the driver kicked McDuff's older brother Lonnie off the bus.


title: Kenneth McDuff

text: At Rosebud High School, McDuff earned the reputation of being a bully. He was careful to pick on weaker individuals after the large but not strong McDuff lost a fight he had picked with an athletic and popular boy named Tommy Sammons. As a result, he quit school and worked for his father's business doing manual labor. McDuff would often brag in later interviews that old ladies loved the way he mowed their lawns, making others jealous. McDuff was convicted of a series of burglaries and put in prison.


title: Kenneth McDuff

text: McDuff's criminal record began two years before his first murder conviction. In 1964, at age 18, McDuff was convicted of 12 counts of burglary and attempted burglary in three Texas counties: Bell, Milam, and Falls. He was sentenced to 12 four-year prison terms to be served concurrently. He made parole in December 1965.


title: Kenneth McDuff

text: McDuff briefly returned to prison after becoming involved in a fight, but was soon released. While he had not been convicted of any murders at this time, his accomplice in the 1966 triple murder, Roy Dale Green, said that McDuff bragged openly about his criminal record and claimed to have raped and killed two young women.


title: Kenneth McDuff

text: On August 6, 1966, McDuff and Green, whom he had met around a month earlier through a mutual acquaintance, spent the day pouring concrete for McDuff's father. They then drove around, as McDuff said he was looking for a girl. At 10 pm, Robert Brand (aged 17), his girlfriend Edna Louise Sullivan (aged 16), and Brand's 15-year-old cousin Mark Dunman were standing beside their parked car on a baseball field in Everman, Texas.


title: Kenneth McDuff

text: While cruising around, McDuff noticed Sullivan and parked around 150 yards away from the soon-to-be victims. He threatened the trio with his .38 Colt revolver and ordered them to get into the trunk of their car. With Green following in McDuff's car, McDuff drove the victims' Ford along a highway and then into a field, where he ordered Sullivan out of the trunk of the Ford and instructed Green to put her into the trunk of his Dodge Coronet. At this point, according to Green's statement, McDuff said he would have to "knock 'em off"; he proceeded to fire six shots into the trunk of the Ford in spite of Dunman and Brand's pleas not to. McDuff then instructed Green to wipe the fingerprints off the Ford.


title: Kenneth McDuff

text: After driving to another location, McDuff and Green, the latter allegedly under duress, raped Sullivan. After she was raped repeatedly, McDuff asked Green for something with which to strangle her. Green gave him his belt. However, in the end, McDuff opted to use a piece of broomstick from his car. He choked Sullivan, and then Green and he dumped her body in some bushes. They purchased Coca-Cola from a Hillsboro gas station before driving to Green's house to spend the night. The following day, McDuff buried his revolver beside Green's garage, and their mutual acquaintance Richard Boyd allowed McDuff to wash his car at his house. The next day, Green confessed to Boyd's parents, who told Green's mother, who convinced him to turn himself in. McDuff was arrested by Falls County Sheriff Brady Pamplin (who served with Texas Rangers before serving in World War II with United States Army Air Corps) and Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Parnell “T.P.” McNamara, Sr.


title: Kenneth McDuff

text: McDuff received a death sentence in Texas' electric chair; Green received a 25-year sentence and was released in 1979. McDuff's death sentence was commuted to a life sentence, and he hired a lawyer, who amassed a dossier of various evidence that claimed to show that Green was the real killer. Some members of the parole board were impressed by the dossier. During a one-on-one interview with a board member, McDuff offered him a bribe to secure a favorable decision on the parole application. He was given a two-year sentence for trying to bribe the official. It proved meaningless, as board members thought McDuff could still "contribute to society" and decided to grant him a parole. He was released in 1989.


title: Kenneth McDuff

text: McDuff was one of 20 former death-row inmates and 127 murderers to be paroled. After being released, he got a job at a gas station making $4 an hour while taking a class at Texas State Technical College in Waco. Within three days of his release, he is widely believed to have begun killing again. The body of 29-year-old Sarafia Parker was discovered on October 14, 1989, in Temple, a town 48 miles south of Waco along the I-35 corridor. McDuff was not charged with this crime. However, he was soon returned to prison on a parole violation for making death threats to an African American youth in Rosebud.


title: Kenneth McDuff

text: Addie McDuff paid $1,500, plus an additional $700 for expenses, to two Huntsville attorneys in return for their "evaluating" her son's prospect of release. On December 18, 1990, McDuff was again released from prison. On the night of October 10, 1991, he picked up a prostitute named Brenda Thompson in Waco. He tied her up, but then stopped his truck about 50 ft from a police checkpoint. When a policeman walked toward McDuff's vehicle, Thompson repeatedly kicked at the windshield of McDuff's truck, cracking it several times.


title: Kenneth McDuff

text: McDuff accelerated very quickly and drove at the officers. According to a statement filed by the officers later, three of them had to jump to avoid being hit. The policemen gave chase, but McDuff eluded them by turning off his lights and traveling the wrong way down one-way streets. Ultimately, he parked his truck in a wooded area near U.S. Route 84 and tortured Thompson to death. Her body was not discovered until 1998.


title: Kenneth McDuff

text: Five days later, on October 15, 1991, McDuff and a 17-year-old prostitute named Regenia DeAnne Moore were witnessed having an argument at a Waco motel. Shortly thereafter, the pair drove in McDuff's pickup truck to a remote area beside Texas State Highway 6, near Waco. McDuff tied her arms and legs with stockings before killing her. She had been missing from home for 7 years by the time her body was discovered on September 29, 1998. McDuff is also believed to have murdered Cynthia Renee Gonzalez, 23, who was found dead in a creek bed near County Road 313 in heavily wood terrain 1 mile west of I-35 on September 21, 1991, some six days after she was reported missing in Arlington.


title: Kenneth McDuff

text: McDuff and an accomplice, Alva Hank Worley, murdered Colleen Reed, a Louisiana native, on December 29, 1991. McDuff and Worley drove to an Austin car wash and kidnapped Reed in plain sight of eyewitnesses before driving away. Worley admitted in an April 1992 interview with the Bell County Sheriff's Department that he had raped Reed and tortured her with cigarettes, but he stated that he did not participate in her murder.


title: Kenneth McDuff

text: McDuff's next victim was Valencia Joshua, a prostitute who was last seen alive knocking on McDuff's door. He strangled Joshua on February 24, 1992. Her body was discovered on March 15 at a golf course near their college. Next was Melissa Northrup, a 22-year-old store clerk at a Waco Quik-Pak (the same store that McDuff had worked in at one point), who was pregnant when she went missing from the store. The kidnapper also took $250 from the cash register. McDuff was a suspect because he had been seen in the vicinity of the Quik-Pak at the time of Northrup's disappearance. During the investigation before the body was found, a college friend of McDuff's told police officers that he had attempted to enlist his help in robbing the store. Northrup died on March 1, 1992, and a fisherman found her body on April 26.


title: Kenneth McDuff

text: A major problem for investigators was that McDuff's post-release victims were spread out across several Texas counties. This made a single coordinated investigation difficult. However, the police learned that McDuff was peddling drugs and had an illegal firearm, both federal offenses. Consequently, on March 6, 1992, a local state attorney issued a warrant for his arrest. In April 1992, Bell County investigators had brought in Worley for questioning on the basis that he was a known acquaintance of McDuff's. Worley admitted to his involvement in the kidnapping of Reed. He was held in a Travis County jail while the police continued their search for McDuff.


title: Kenneth McDuff

text: McDuff had moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where he was working at a refuse collection company and living under the assumed name of Richard Fowler. On May 1, 1992, a coworker of his named Gary Smithee watched the Fox television program "America's Most Wanted". Smithee noticed how similar McDuff, who was featured on the program, was to his new co-worker. After discussing the matter with another co-worker, Smithee telephoned the Kansas City Police Department, which searched Fowler's name and found he had been arrested and fingerprinted for soliciting prostitutes. A comparison of the fingerprints taken from Fowler to those of McDuff showed they were the same. On May 4, 1992, a surveillance team of six officers arrested McDuff as he drove to a landfill south of Kansas City. The arresting officers included Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Parnell McNamara, Jr., his brother, Deputy U.S. Marshal Mike McNamara, and Falls County Sheriff Larry Pamplin, whose fathers had arrested McDuff in 1966.


title: Kenneth McDuff

text: McDuff was indicted on one count of capital murder for Northrup's murder in McLennan County, Texas, on June 26, 1992. He was found guilty. In Texas, juries determine whether or not an individual convicted of capital murder receives life imprisonment or the death penalty. Journalist Gary Cartwright expressed the hope he would be executed, saying: "If there has ever been a good argument for the death penalty, it's Kenneth McDuff."


title: Kenneth McDuff

text: On February 18, 1993, the jury, in a special punishment hearing, opted to sentence him to death. Following a number of delays while appeals were heard, the Western District Court denied "habeas corpus" relief and rescheduled the execution date for November 17, 1998. As he was denied authorization for another, he gave up Reed's burial location a few weeks before his execution.


title: Kenneth McDuff

text: McDuff is buried in the Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery, also known as "Peckerwood Hill", in Huntsville, Texas. Prisoners buried there are those whose family chose not to claim their remains. His headstone contains only his date of execution (11-17-98), an "X" (meaning that he was executed by the State of Texas), and his death row number (999055). His last meal, according to death-row chef Brian Price, was a hamburger fashioned to resemble his request of a steak.


title: Bissau

text: Bissau () is the capital, and largest city of Guinea-Bissau. Bissau had a population of 492,004. Bissau is located on the Geba River estuary, off the Atlantic Ocean, and is Guinea-Bissau's largest city, major port, and its administrative and military centre.


title: Bissau

text: The term Bissau may have come from the name of a clan N'nssassun, in its plural form Bôssassun. Intchassu (Bôssassu) was the name given to the nephew of King Mecau—the first sovereign of the island of Bissau—, son of his sister Pungenhum. Bôssassu formed a clan of the Papel peoples.


title: Bissau

text: The city was founded in 1687 by Portugal as a fortified port and trading center. In 1942 the capital of Portuguese Guinea was transferred from Bolama to Bissau.


title: Bissau

text: After the declaration of independence by the anti-colonial guerrillas of PAIGC in 1973, the capital of the rebel territories was declared to be Madina do Boe, while Bissau remained the colonial capital. When Portugal granted independence, following the military coup of April 25 in Lisbon, Bissau became the capital of the new independent state.


title: Bissau

text: Bissau was the scene of intense fighting during the beginning and end of the Guinea-Bissau Civil War in 1998 and 1999.


title: Bissau

text: Bissau is located at 11°52' North, 15°36' West (11.86667, -15.60) GNS: Country Files, on the Geba River estuary, off the Atlantic Ocean. The land surrounding Bissau is extremely low-lying, and the river is accessible to ocean-going vessels despite its modest discharge for about beyond the city.


title: Bissau

text: Bissau has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen "Aw"), not quite wet enough to qualify as a tropical monsoon climate ("Am") but much wetter than most climates of its type.


title: Bissau

text: Almost no rain falls from November to May, but during the remaining five months of the year the city receives around of rain.


title: Bissau

text: At the 1979 census, Bissau had a population of 109,214. By the 2015 census Bissau had a population of 492,004.


title: Bissau

text: Bissau is the country's largest city, major port, educational, administrative, industrial and military center. Peanuts, hardwoods, copra, palm oil, milk products, and rubber are the chief products. Bissau is also the main city of the fishing and agricultural industry in the country.


title: Bissau

text: Bissau is served by Osvaldo Vieira International Airport, the country's sole international airport, which currently offers flights from six different airlines.


title: Bissau

text: The main highway connecting Bissau to the rest of the nation and the continent is the Trans–West African Coastal Highway. There are also many smaller national highways that connect to other big cities such as Bafatá and Gabu.


title: Bissau

text: The main secondary school institutions in Bissau are the National Lyceum Kwame N'Krumah and the Bethel-Bissau Adventist School. The main higher education institutions in the city are the Amílcar Cabral University, the Catholic University of Guinea Bissau, and the Jean Piaget University of Guinea-Bissau.


title: Bissau

text: Attractions include the Portuguese-built Fortaleza de São José da Amura barracks from the 18th century, containing Amílcar Cabral's mausoleum, the Pidjiguiti Memorial to the dockers killed in the Bissau Dockers' Strike on August 3, 1959, the Guinea-Bissau National Arts Institute, Bissau New Stadium and local beaches.


title: Bissau

text: Many buildings in the city were ruined during the Guinea-Bissau Civil War (1998–1999), including the Guinea-Bissau Presidential Palace and the Bissau French Cultural Centre (now rebuilt), and the city centre is still underdeveloped. Because of the large populations of Muslims in Bissau, Ramadan is also an important celebration.


title: Bissau

text: Football is the most popular sport in the country, as well as in the city. Many teams are based in the city, such as: UD Internacional, SC de Bissau, SC Portos de Bissau, Sport Bissau e Benfica, and FC Cuntum. Stadiums that are located in the city are Estádio Lino Correia and Estádio 24 de Setembro.


title: Bissau

text: The majority of the population of Bissau is with the majority being Muslims (50%), then Christians (34%) and animists (7.9%).


title: Bissau

text: Among the places of worship, they are predominantly Muslim mosques. There are also some Christian churches and temples such as the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bissau (Catholic Church), Evangelical Churches, and the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.


title: Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria

text: Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria (Albrecht Luitpold Ferdinand Michael; 3 May 1905 – 8 July 1996) was the son of the last crown prince of Bavaria, Rupprecht, and his first wife, Duchess Marie Gabrielle in Bavaria. He was the only child from that marriage that reached adulthood. His paternal grandfather was Ludwig III of Bavaria, the last king of Bavaria, who was deposed in 1918.


title: Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria

text: Following the First World War, Albrecht's grandfather King Ludwig was deposed. Albrecht and the family moved from Bavaria to the Austrian Tyrol.


title: Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria

text: Prior to the Second World War, his family, the House of Wittelsbach, were opposed to the regime of Nazi Germany and refused to join the Nazi Party. The decision meant that Prince Albrecht, who had been studying forestry, was unable to complete his studies. In 1940 Albrecht took his family to his estate at Sárvár, Vas, Hungary. In October 1944, after Germany had occupied Hungary in March, the Wittelsbachs were arrested and imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp at Oranienburg, Brandenburg. In April 1945 they were moved to the Dachau concentration camp, where they were liberated by the United States Army.


title: Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria

text: Albrecht became head of the deposed royal family of Bavaria with the death of his father on 2 August 1955. As the eldest son of the eldest son of Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Este (1849–1919), recognized by Jacobites as "Queen Mary IV (of England) and III (of Scotland)", he was also the dynastic representative and heir-general of England, Scotland and Ireland's last Stuart king, James II and VII, deposed in 1688.


title: Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria

text: In 1959 Albrecht, in an official ceremony, returned the Greek crown jewels (originally made for a Bavarian prince who reigned as Greece's first modern monarch, King Otto) to the Greek nation, accepted by King Paul of Greece.


title: Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria

text: In 1980 Albrecht presided over sumptuous ceremonies in Bavaria celebrating the 800th anniversary of the founding of the House of Wittelsbach.


title: Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria

text: Albrecht was a prolific hunter and deer researcher, collecting 3,425 sets of antlers, now partially shown in a permanent exhibition on his research activities in the former royal castle at Berchtesgaden. He also wrote two books on "the habits of deer" for which he (and his second wife) received honorary doctorates by the biological faculty of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. While visiting Brazil in 1953 he encountered Brazilian Mastiffs and took some to Germany, introducing the dog breed to Europe.


title: Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria

text: Albrecht died on 8 July 1996, aged 91, at Berg Castle, southwest of Munich, where he had lived reclusively for decades. His funeral at Theatine Church, Munich was conducted by Friedrich Wetter, the Archbishop of Munich. He was buried on a family graveyard he himself had installed in 1977 at Andechs Abbey.


title: Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria

text: Albrecht married Countess Maria Draskovich of Trakostjan (8 March 1904 in Vienna – 10 June 1969 in Wildbad Kreuth) on 3 September 1930 in Berchtesgaden. Daughter of Count Dionys Maria Draskovich von Trakostjan and Princess Juliana Rose von Montenuovo (a great-granddaughter of Marie-Louise of Austria, sometime Empress of the French), she belonged to a family of the Croatian nobility known since 1230 and made Imperial counts in 1631. Although Albrecht's father allowed the wedding, a Wittelsbach family council concluded that the marriage was non-compliant with the dynasty's marital tradition as set out in its historical house laws, and the names of the couple's four children were excluded from the "Almanach de Gotha". In 1948, however, a juridical consultation advised that the head of the house has sole authority to determine the validity of marriages within the House of Wittelsbach, prompting Crown Prince Rupprecht to recognize Albrecht's marriage as dynastic on 18 May 1949.


title: Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria

text: On 21 April 1971 in Weichselboden, Albrecht married Countess Marie-Jenke Keglevich of Buzin (23 April 1921 in Budapest – 5 October 1983 in Weichselboden), daughter of Count Stephan Keglevich de Buzin and Countess Klára Zichy of Zich and Vásonkeö. They had no children.


title: Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria

text: At the time of his death, Albrecht had four children from his first marriage, fifteen grandchildren and twenty-six great-grandchildren. His children are:


title: BanG Dream!

text: BanG Dream!, also known as , is a Japanese music media franchise owned by Bushiroad. Created by Bushiroad president Takaaki Kidani in January 2015 with original story by Kō Nakamura, the project began as a manga before expanding to other media. In addition to other manga, "BanG Dream!" includes an anime television series, live concerts, singles and albums, and the mobile rhythm game "BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!" by Craft Egg.


title: BanG Dream!

text: The franchise's premise is based around all-female bands whose members are also voice actresses in the anime and mobile game; , the project has seven groups, four of which are capable of playing their respective characters' instruments. The first band, Poppin'Party, was formed in February 2015, and further groups were introduced in 2017 with the launch of the mobile game: Afterglow, Pastel Palettes, Roselia, and Hello, Happy World!. In 2018, a backup band called The Third was renamed Raise A Suilen and joined the series, followed by a seventh unit named Morfonica in 2020. For live performances, Poppin'Party, Roselia, Raise A Suilen, and Morfonica's voice actresses play their own music, while the others are limited to vocals.


title: BanG Dream!

text: The anime, which follows fictional representations of the bands, has three seasons of 13 episodes each. The first season, produced by Issen (OLM with Bushiroad) and Xebec, aired from January to April 2017. Sanzigen took over production duties for the second and third seasons, which were respectively broadcast in winter 2019 and 2020. A concert-centric movie "BanG Dream! Film Live" was released in 2019, followed by a sequel "Film Live 2nd Stage" in 2021. Three band-focused films have also been produced: the two-part "Episode of Roselia" series premiered in 2021, followed by "BanG Dream! Poppin'Dream!" premiered in 2022. Spin-off anime series include "BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! Pico" and its sequels "Pico: Ohmori" and "Pico Fever!" by Sanzigen with DMM.futureworks and "Pastel Life" by Studio A-Cat.


title: BanG Dream!

text: The series has enjoyed international popularity for its live performances and mobile game, while the anime has seen mixed but improving reviews with later seasons. In 2018, the franchise expanded to include a male-based counterpart "Argonavis from BanG Dream!", which was spun off into an independent brand "From Argonavis" in 2021.


title: BanG Dream!

text: "BanG Dream!" follows Kasumi Toyama, a happy-go-lucky girl and a new student at Hanasakigawa Girls' High School. During her first weeks at the school, she tries out for numerous clubs in an effort to rediscover the "Star Beat", a "sparkling, heart-pounding" feeling she experienced while looking up at the stars in the night sky as a child.


title: BanG Dream!

text: One day, while returning from school, she spots a trail of star stickers that lead her to a pawnshop owned by her classmate Arisa Ichigaya. In the storage area, she finds a star-shaped guitar with glittery stickers on it and quickly becomes attached to it. The two later visit a local live house, Space, where Kasumi decides to create a band upon watching a performance by a group named Glitter Green. She then recruits Arisa and three of their classmates – Sāya Yamabuki, Tae Hanazono, and Rimi Ushigome – to join her, though they are reluctant for personal reasons. Despite their initial misgivings, the five overcome many hurdles and ultimately agree to form the band "Poppin'Party". With her bandmates, Kasumi finds the excitement that she had been looking for.


title: BanG Dream!

text: During their first year of high school, Poppin'Party meets and befriends four all-girl bands at Hanasakigawa and nearby Haneoka Girls' High School, each of whom has their own stories: Afterglow consists of five childhood friends who maintain their friendship through music; Pastel Palettes is an idol group who are capable of playing their own instruments; Roselia is a gothic rock band who strives to become the perfect band; and Hello, Happy World! is an eccentric band that seeks to spread happiness. As second-year students, they encounter Raise A Suilen, an electronic music group aiming to revolutionize the girl's band genre, and Morfonica, a newly formed classical band of freshmen at Tsukinomori Girls' Academy with dreams of changing themselves for the better.


title: BanG Dream!

text: The premise for "BanG Dream!" was conceptualized in March 2014 by Bushiroad president Takaaki Kidani, who wanted to lead a music project after seeing the success of "Love Live! School Idol Festival", a mobile game published by his company. When a staff member attended "The Idolmaster Masters of Idol World!! 2014" concert at Saitama Super Arena, they took interest in guitarist Aimi and proposed having her in an all-female band. Figuring that such a concept would best be viable as a media franchise, Kidani concluded his new project's best method to gain success would be to have voice actresses who could play their own instruments in live shows. To differentiate it from similar music works, Kidani has stressed that "BanG Dream!" is not an idol franchise but a "girl band" series.


title: BanG Dream!

text: Novelist Kō Nakamura was approached by a Bushiroad editor who had read his music book "Round and Round Slide" to write the story, and he partnered with Aya Ishida for the franchise's first work "BanG_Dream! Star Beat"; the manga started serialization in the "Monthly Bushiroad" magazine in January 2015. "Star Beat" universe was retconned following the franchise's reboot in 2016 as "BanG Dream!" without the underscore. According to an August 24, 2016 post on Nakamura's Livedoor blog, the name "BanG Dream!" stemmed from the idea of "shooting" toward one's dreams. Nakamura, who is formally credited as the franchise's original story creator, based certain aspects of the plot on his high school life such as the desire and efforts to form a band, the guitarist finding the instrument in a pawnshop, and band meetings being held in a warehouse. To produce music, Kidani enlisted Noriyasu Agematsu of Elements Garden, who was skeptical of the franchise's concept due to the difficulties in balancing voice acting with practicing musical instruments but subsequently signed on to the project. Prior musical experience was not a prerequisite for voice actresses as their primary responsibility was to portray characters for in-universe media, though they remained committed to playing their instruments, a mindset that Kidani felt grew the series' charm with fans; in 2019, he noted that some cast members practiced for ten hours daily.


title: BanG Dream!

text: At her Love Generation concert on February 28, 2015, Aimi announced she had aligned with the franchise, which included creating a band and serving as its guitarist and vocalist. Rimi Nishimoto and Ayasa Itō joined the band in April, and the three hosted the project's first concert on April 18. In June, Aimi performed a solo concert at CharaExpo 2015 in Singapore, the franchise's first performance outside of Japan. The group was officially named Poppin'Party during the month, and Sae Ōtsuka and Ayaka Ōhashi completed the band lineup later in the year. In addition to live performances, the five would voice their own characters in other media such as an anime series and animated music videos; the character designs were also loosely modeled after their voice actresses to better reflect their ability to sing and perform.


title: BanG Dream!

text: Poppin'Party's debut single "Yes! BanG_Dream!" was released on February 24, 2016. A music video for the song was produced by Issen, a joint venture formed between Bushiroad and OLM, Inc. in 2015 that was also tasked with developing the anime. To lead the animation, Nakamura served as writer while Agematsu and Pixiv artist Hitowa managed music production and character design, respectively. Poppin'Party conducted the franchise's first in-character live on April 24; the group's early performances were inspired by fellow all-female group Silent Siren, and the two bands collaborated in May 2019 for the Battle of the Bands-style No Girl No Cry concert at MetLife Dome. Poppin'Party's third single "On Your New Journey / Tear Drops" ranked tenth on the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart in December, marking the first time an anime music group appeared in an Oricon chart's top ten prior to their show beginning broadcast.


title: BanG Dream!

text: In 2017, "BanG Dream!" expanded to include the anime and the mobile game "BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!". Prior to the latter's release, the franchise struggled to attract further fan support; in the spring, media attention was drawn to an official "dōjinshi" (self-published works like manga) event that saw only nine registered circles (a group of artists creating a certain work) despite organizing for 400 available circles. A lukewarm reception to the anime prompted Kidani to refocus his scope on the game; by its launch on March 16, "GBP" had attracted over 560,000 pre-registered players. Kidani attributed its eventual success to the collaboration with Craft Egg and Elements Garden and the inclusion of cover versions of popular songs. Four more bands—Afterglow, Pastel Palettes (stylized as Pastel＊Palettes), Roselia, and Hello, Happy World!—were introduced with the game's arrival.


title: BanG Dream!

text: Roselia, who first appeared at Tokyo Game Show 2016, released its first single "Black Shout" on April 19, 2017. The group then enjoyed success in May 2018 when its debut album "Anfang", which contained the band's first five singles, was first on the Oricon Weekly Digital and iTunes album charts; the album also sold 25,000 copies in the first week of release, the second-most on the Oricon Weekly Albums Chart. The band went through two member changes in 2018, with Yuki Nakashima replacing the retiring Yurika Endō as bassist Lisa Imai in May and Kanon Shizaki taking over for Satomi Akesaka, who left the project in September due to sensorineural hearing loss, as keyboardist Rinko Shirokane in November. In March 2020, Roselia won the 14th Seiyu Awards' Singing Award.


title: BanG Dream!

text: The vocalists for Afterglow (Ayane Sakura), Pastel Palettes (Ami Maeshima), and Hello, Happy World! (Miku Itō) were revealed during a presentation at Sunshine City, Tokyo on December 7, 2016. Afterglow's remaining cast members confirmed their involvement later in the month, while the voice actresses for the other bands were announced in a promotional event at EX Theater Roppongi on February 24, 2017. The three bands released their debut singles in 2017: Pastel Palettes' "Shuwarin Dreaming" (released July 12) ranked the highest on Oricon's weekly charts in fourth, followed by Hello, Happy World!'s "Orchestra of Smiles!" (August 2) and Afterglow's "That Is How I Roll!" (September 6) in ninth and 18th, respectively.


title: BanG Dream!

text: On January 13–14, 2018, the five bands participated in the Garupa Live and Garupa Party! at Tokyo Big Sight, which included activities to promote "Girls Band Party!" and performances. The Third (Beta), a backup band that provided instrumentals for Afterglow, Pastel Palettes, and Hello, Happy World! at the event as their voice actresses were not musicians, eventually became a standalone unit; the tentative name was a reference to being the third live-action band in the franchise after Poppin'Party and Roselia. The group's first live took place in March, and it was officially renamed Raise A Suilen (stylized as RAISE A SUILEN) in July.


title: BanG Dream!

text: "BanG Dream!" saw its first dual-single release day on February 21, 2018, with Poppin'Party and Roselia releasing their ninth ("CiRCLING") and fifth singles ("Opera of the wasteland"), respectively. A triple release took place on December 12 with Poppin'Party's "Kizuna Music", Roselia's "Brave Jewel", and Raise A Suilen's "R・I・O・T"; the three singles recorded top-ten Oricon Weekly Chart placements.


title: BanG Dream!

text: Poppin'Party's first album "Poppin'on!" came out January 30, 2019; consisting of the group's first 11 singles, it peaked at fourth on Oricon's album chart. On February 20, the franchise simultaneously released six singles, one from each band at the time; the tracks placed in the top ten on Oricon's daily chart for February 19, with Roselia's "Safe and Sound" being the highest in third.


title: BanG Dream!

text: In January 2020, Poppin'Party's "Initial / Straight Through Our Dreams!", whose tracks serve as the theme music to the anime's third season, became "BanG Dream!" first single to top Oricon's Weekly Single Sales Chart after selling 27,000 copies from January 7 to 11. Shortly after the single's release, the franchise surpassed two million total music sales. Five months later, the "BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! Cover Collection Vol. 4" ranked first on Oricon's Weekly Albums Chart with 2,231 first-week sales. Poppin'Party ("Breakthrough!" on June 24), Roselia ("Wahl" on July 15), and Raise A Suilen ("Era" on August 19) also released albums during the summer. "Initial / Straight Through Out Dreams!" (86th), Roselia's "Promise" (87th), and Raise A Suilen's "Drive Us Crazy" (97th) were among "Billboard Japan" best-selling singles in 2020, while "Wahl" (62nd), "Era" (86th), and the fourth (93rd) and third cover collections (94th) were among the year's top albums; "Wahl" and "Era" were also respectively ranked 67th and 94th on "Billboard" Hot Albums of 2020.


title: BanG Dream!

text: A seventh unit called Morfonica was introduced on March 1, 2020, to commemorate "Girls Band Party!" three-year anniversary. Morfonica is the only band in the franchise with a violinist, a distinction that was conceived by Craft Egg to better differentiate it from the others. The group's debut single "Daylight", which was released on May 27, sold over 15,000 copies in its first week and peaked at second on the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart. Morfonica's first live, Cantabile, took place on October 7.


title: BanG Dream!

text: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, various franchise-related events since 2020 have been impacted. "Breakthrough!" was intended for a June 3 release before being pushed to June 24. The BanG Dream! Special Live Girls Band Party! 2020 was originally scheduled to take place on May 3 until it was postponed to June 5–6, 2021, before being delayed again to November 12, 2022 as cases rose in Japan. A stage play focusing on Raise A Suilen titled "We are Raise A Suilen: BanG Dream! The Stage", which consisted of nine performances at the Tennozu Galaxy Theater from July 15 to 19, was streamed online with unused tickets being refunded. The BanG Dream! 8th Live Summer Outdoors 3 Days, held August 21–23, admitted only a quarter of the venue's capacity. On January 9, 2021, the franchise announced Shizaki had tested positive for COVID-19, forcing her to miss the project's Raukure! and Asuhamo events at Tokyo Dome City Hall two days later. Morfonica's bassist Yūka Nishio skipped her band's Resonance performance on April 24, 2022 following a positive test.


title: BanG Dream!

text: Poppin'Party's 16th single "Photograph", which was released in January 2021, became the band's second single to rank first on the Oricon Weekly Chart.


title: BanG Dream!

text: On November 30, 2022, Maeshima announced her departure from the franchise as part of a career hiatus for health reasons. She had missed the Special Live Girls Band Party! two weeks prior. Unlike Lisa and Rinko respectively having their voices in "Girls Band Party!" re-recorded by Nakashima and Shizaki, Maeshima's lines as Aya will remain in the game after her successor's entry.


title: BanG Dream!

text: The voice actresses of Poppin'Party, Roselia, Raise A Suilen, and Morfonica play their respective characters' instruments during live concerts, while the other groups are limited to providing vocals. In a 2019 interview with "Billboard Japan", Roselia's Haruka Kudō and Megu Sakuragawa described this distinction of being a "voice actor's band" as helping the franchise gain popularity among those unfamiliar with the game and anime, while the anime's second- and third-season director Kōdai Kakimoto explained in 2020 that his staff implements events from the live-action concerts into the show to "portray the connection between real life and anime." For example, the third season's final episode features references to the BanG Dream! 7th Live as both take place at the Nippon Budokan. The first season under Issen also incorporated elements of the performances into the plot, such as Kasumi losing her voice in one episode being based on the same occurring to Aimi during the franchise's first show.


title: BanG Dream!

text: The first "BanG_Dream!" concert, titled I Started a Band in Spring! and held at Shimokitazawa Garden, took place on April 18, 2015, with Aimi, Nishimoto, and Itō; the three played mainly cover songs with the exception of the original song "Yes! BanG_Dream!". In 2016, the BanG Dream! First Live Sprin'Party 2016! on April 24 marked the first performance since the franchise's rebranding to "BanG Dream!". The shows' increasing popularity was marked by the Second Live Starrin'Party 2016! selling out much of its tickets shortly after opening sales, while the 4th Live Miracle Party 2017! at the Budokan sold out its 11,000 tickets prior to general sale; Live Viewing Japan simulcasted the performance in 41 Japanese theaters, with showings also taking place in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Delayed screenings would also be provided for later lives; for instance, the BanG Dream! 5th Live in 2018 was shown in select North American and Australian theaters by Azoland Pictures and Madman Entertainment, respectively.


title: BanG Dream!

text: In December 2020, the franchise began streaming "Sound Only Lives", online concerts with exclusively song audio and interactions between the voice cast, on its YouTube channel. The first, Afterglow's As ever, took place on December 19 and 20, followed by Pastel Palettes' Flowerful on February 27 and 28, 2021. Hello, Happy World!'s Sound Only Live, titled Welcome to OUR MUSIC, was on May 15–16.


title: BanG Dream!

text: "BanG_Dream! Star Beat" by Ishida and Nakamura debuted in "Monthly Bushiroad" on January 8, 2015. Featuring numerous differences in character traits from the current series, the manga consisted of twelve chapters and ran from the magazine's February 2015 to January 2016 issues. A light novel by Nakamura and illustrated by Hitowa, which follows "Star Beat" story, was published on August 25, 2016, by ASCII Media Works under their Dengeki Bunko imprint.


title: BanG Dream!

text: A manga series following the redesigned universe, "BanG Dream!" by Mami Kashiwabara and Nakamura, was serialized in "Monthly Bushiroad" from April 2016 to February 2019. Shogakukan Asia acquired the rights to translate the manga into English in February 2017; although the company first released the manga in Southeast Asia, its license was not exclusive to the region. 2016 and 2017 saw the release of two four-panel manga with Hakuto Shiroi's "Yonkoma: Bandori!", which debuted in ASCII Media Works' "seinen" manga magazine "Dengeki G's Comic" and concluded in 2017, and the surrealist "Banban Doridori" by Nyaromeron in Sogakukan's "Coro Coro Aniki".


title: BanG Dream!

text: In 2017, the first non-Poppin'Party-centric manga, "BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! Roselia Stage", was written by Pepako Dokuta and circulated in Overlap's magazine "Gardo Comics" from February to September. On March 2, 2020, Tokyopop announced it had licensed the series for North American release. Raise A Suilen also received a series, titled "RAiSe! The story of my music", by Nakamura and art by Ryū Shihara; "RAiSe!" began in 2019 in "Monthly Bushiroad".