title: Plunderphonics

text: Another important early purveyor of what can be described as plunderphonics was the Houston, Texas based industrial punk rock band, Culturcide’s second album entitled “Tacky Souvenirs Of Pre-Revolutionary America” (released in 1986) where the band sampled famous 1980’s Top 40 pop and rock songs. Negativland (See Negativland's "") is another important work that utilizes plunderphonics. While Oswald and Culturcide used easily recognizable and familiar sources, Negativland's sources were sometimes more obscure. 1983's "A Big 10-8 Place", for instance, consists of recordings of people talking on the radio. Their next album, "Escape From Noise", like most of their later records, also makes extensive use of spoken-word samples, often to make particular political points. Their most famous release, the "U2" EP, featured an extended rant from radio DJ Casey Kasem and extensively sampled U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", which resulted in a lawsuit being brought by U2's label, Island Records.


title: Plunderphonics

text: Both Oswald and Negativland made their recordings by cutting up magnetic tape (or later using digital technology), but several DJs have also produced plunderphonic works using turntables; in fact, "digging" for samples plays a large part in DJ culture. Christian Marclay is a turntablist who has been using other people's records as the sole source of his music-making since the late 1970s. He often treats the records in unusual ways, for example, he has physically cut up a group of records and stuck them together, making both a visual and aural collage. Sometimes several spoken-word or lounge music records bought from thrift stores are mashed together to make a Marclay track, but his "More Encores" album cuts up tracks by the likes of Maria Callas and Louis Armstrong in a way similar to Oswald's work on "Plunderphonics". Marclay's experimental approach has been taken up by the likes of Roberto Musci & Giovanni Venosta, Otomo Yoshihide, Philip Jeck and Martin Tétreault, although in these artist's works the records used are sometimes heavily disguised and unrecognizable.


title: Plunderphonics

text: The Bran Flakes and People Like Us have both used thrift store records to create their music; the Canadian pop band TAS 1000 did the same with thrift store answering machine tapes. Late 80's house musicians like Coldcut, S'Express, MARRS used cut-up collages to build dance music songs. Kid 606 has created quite a bit of plunderphonic work (most notably "The Action-Packed Mentalist Bring You the Fucking Jams"), similarly never seeking permission, although his work is sold commercially. Akufen used more than 2000 plundered sound samples to build his "My Way" album. Wobbly is also known for his plunderphonic works, most notably "Wild Why", a CD piece compiled from his own recordings of mainstream Hip-Hop radio from the San Francisco Bay Area. In Italy Filippo Paolini (aka Økapi) has published several albums using samples also for post-classical music projects.


title: Plunderphonics

text: Vicki Bennett of People Like Us has extended the plunderphonic ideal to video, creating films to accompany her music by plundering the resources of the Prelinger Archives, the online part of the collection of film archivist Rick Prelinger. Anne McGuire used similar techniques in her 1992 film "Strain Andromeda The". With permission, McGuire reversed "The Andromeda Strain" shot by shot so that everything unfolded in reverse order, although with each scene running in normal time with comprehensible dialogue.


title: Plunderphonics

text: Andrea Rocca’s 1994 album Heartsounds, and much of his subsequent output, makes extensive use of plunderphonics, with dialogue and musical fragments taken from sources as diverse as cartoons and pornography.


title: Plunderphonics

text: Another approach is to take two very different records and play them simultaneously. An early example of this is the Evolution Control Committee's "Whipped Cream Mixes" (1994), which laid the vocals from Public Enemy's "Rebel Without a Pause" over Herb Alpert's "Bittersweet Samba". This gave rise to the so-called "bastard pop" or "mash-up" phenomenon where an a cappella version of one song is mixed on top of a purely instrumental version of another song. Soulwax and Richard X have both produced records along these lines.


title: Plunderphonics

text: New possibilities in plunderphonics projects are permitted by Dataflow programming languages, such as Pure Data and Max/Msp, allowing the artist to even release true aleatory works, which will sound different each time the listener executes the algorithm, an example of this approach is the work of Alea T. - Hot 01-00-09.


title: Plunderphonics

text: There are also several Web-based plunderphonics projects. The Droplift Project created a compilation CD of plunderphonic works which was then "drop lifted" into record stores (this involved slipping copies of the record onto the shelves without knowledge of the store owner — a sort of reverse stealing). Dictionaraoke took audio clips from online dictionaries and stitched them together so that they recited the words of various popular songs while instrumental versions of the music (often in MIDI renderings) played along. Vaporwave, which largely consists of sampled and slowed down 1980s pop music, has been cited as a subgenre of plunderphonics. American musician and humorist Neil Cicierega has released several mashup albums with a plunderphonic ethos, beginning with his albums "Mouth Sounds" and "Mouth Silence", both released in 2014 on his own website, which were released to critical acclaim.


title: Ancient Libya

text: The Latin name Libya (from Greek Λιβύη: "Libyē", which came from Berber: Libu) referred to North Africa during the Iron Age and Classical Antiquity. Berbers occupied the area for thousands of years before the recording of history in ancient Egypt. Climate changes affected the locations of the settlements.


title: Ancient Libya

text: More narrowly, "Libya" could also refer to the country immediately west of Egypt, viz Marmarica ("Libya Inferior") and Cyrenaica ("Libya Superior"). The Libyan Sea or "Mare Libycum" was the part of the Mediterranean Sea south of Crete, between Cyrene and Alexandria.


title: Ancient Libya

text: In the Hellenistic period, the Berbers were known collectively as "Libyans", a Greek term for the inhabitants of the Berber world. Their lands were called "Libya" and referred to the known African continent at that time, excluding Sub-Saharan Africa which was known as Aethiopia. Egypt contains the Siwa Oasis, which was part of ancient Libya. The Siwi language, a Berber language, is still spoken in the area.


title: Ancient Libya

text: The Greek name is based on the ethnonym "Libu" ( "Líbyes", ). The name "Libya" (in use since 1934 for the modern country formerly known as Tripolitania and Barca) was the Latin designation for the region of the Maghreb, from the Ancient Greek ( "Libúē", "Libúā"). In Classical Greece, the term had a broader meaning, encompassing the continent that later (second century BC) became known as "Africa", which, in antiquity, was assumed to constitute one third of the world's land mass, Europe and Asia combined making up the other two thirds.


title: Ancient Libya

text: The "Libu" are attested since the Late Bronze Age as inhabiting the region (Egyptian "R'bw", Punic: "lby"). The oldest known references to the "Libu" date to Ramesses II and his successor Merneptah, pharaohs of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, during the 13th century BC. "LBW" appears as an ethnic name on the Merneptah Stele.


title: Ancient Libya

text: Menelaus had travelled there on his way home from Troy; it was a land of wonderful richness, where the lambs have horns as soon as they are born, where ewes lamb three times a year and no shepherd ever goes short of milk, meat or cheese.


title: Ancient Libya

text: Homer names Libya, in "Odyssey" (IX.95; XXIII.311). Homer used the name in a geographic sense, while he called its inhabitants "Lotus-eaters". After Homer, Aeschylus, Pindar, and other ancient Greek writers used the name. Herodotus (1.46) used Λιβύη "Libúē" to indicate the African continent; the "Líbues" proper were the light-skinned North Africans, while those south of Egypt (and Elephantine on the Nile) were known to him as "Aethiopians"; this was also the understanding of later Greek geographers such as Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, etc.


title: Ancient Libya

text: When the Greeks actually settled in the real Libya in the 630s, the old name taken from the Egyptians was applied by the Greeks of Cyrenaica, who may have coexisted with the Libu. Later, the name appeared in the Hebrew language, written in the Bible as Lehabim and Lubim, indicating the ethnic population and the geographic territory as well.


title: Ancient Libya

text: In the neo-Punic inscriptions, it was written as "Lby" for the masculine noun, and "Lbt" for the feminine noun of "Libyan".


title: Ancient Libya

text: Latin absorbed the name from Greek and the Punic languages. The Romans would have known them before their colonization of North Africa because of the Libyan role in the Punic Wars against the Romans. The Romans used the name Líbues, but only when referring to Barca and the Libyan Desert of Egypt. The other Libyan territories were called "Africa".


title: Ancient Libya

text: Classical Arabic literature called Libya "Lubya", . Modern Arabic uses "Libya". The Lwatae, the tribe of Ibn Battuta, as the Arabs called it, was a Berber tribe that mainly was situated in Cyrenaica. This tribe may have ranged from the Atlantic Ocean to modern Libya, however, and was referred to by Corippius as "Laguatan"; he linked them with the Maures. Ibn Khaldun's "Muqaddimah" states Luwa was an ancestor of this tribe. He writes that the Berbers add an "a" and "t" to the name for the plural forms. Subsequently, it became "Lwat".


title: Ancient Libya

text: Conversely, the Arabs adopted the name as a singular form, adding an "h" for the plural form in Arabic. Ibn Khaldun disagrees with Ibn Hazam, who claimed, mostly on the basis of Berber sources, that the Lwatah, in addition to the Sadrata and the Mzata, were from the "Qibt"s (Egyptians). According to Ibn Khaldun, this claim is incorrect because Ibn Hazam had not read the books of the Berber scholars.


title: Ancient Libya

text: Oric Bates, a historian, considers that the name "Libu" or "LBW" would be derived from the name "Luwatah" whilst the name Liwata is a derivation of the name Libu.


title: Ancient Libya

text: Compared with the history of Egypt, historians know little about the history of Libya, as there are few surviving written records. Information on ancient Libya comes from archaeological evidence and historic sources written by Egypt's neighbors, the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines, and from Arabs of Medieval times.


title: Ancient Libya

text: Since Neolithic times, the climate of North Africa has become drier. A reminder of the desertification of the area is provided by megalithic remains, which occur in great variety of form and in vast numbers in presently arid and uninhabitable wastelands : dolmens and circles akin to Stonehenge, cairns, underground cells excavated in rock, barrows topped with huge slabs, and step-pyramid-like mounds. Most remarkable are the trilithons, some still standing, some fallen, which occur isolated or in rows, and consist of two squared uprights standing on a common pedestal that supports a huge transverse beam. In the Terrgurt valley, Cowper says, "There had been originally no less than eighteen or twenty megalithic trilithons, in a line, each with its massive altar placed before it".


title: Ancient Libya

text: In ancient times, the Phoenicians/Carthaginians, the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the Persian Achaemenid Empire ("see Libya (satrapy)"), the Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great and his Ptolemaic successors from Egypt ruled variously parts of Libya. With the Roman conquest, the entire region of present-day Libya became part of the Roman Empire. Following the fall of the Empire, Vandals, and local representatives of the Byzantine Empire also ruled all or parts of Libya. The territory of modern Libya had separate histories until Roman times, as Tripoli and Cyrenaica.


title: Ancient Libya

text: Cyrenaica, by contrast, was Greek before it was Roman. It was also known as Pentapolis, the "five cities" being Cyrene (near the village of Shahat) with its port of Apollonia (Marsa Susa), Arsinoe (Tocra), Berenice (Benghazi) and Barca (Merj). From the oldest and most famous of the Greek colonies, the fertile coastal plain took the name of Cyrenaica.


title: Ancient Libya

text: These five cities were also known as the "Western Pentapolis"; not to be confused with the Pentapolis of the Roman era on the current west Italian coast.


title: Ancient Libya

text: The exact boundaries of ancient Libya are unknown. It lay west of ancient Egypt and was known as "Tjehenu" to the Ancient Egyptians.


title: Ancient Libya

text: To the ancient Greeks, Libya was one of the three known continents along with Asia and Europe. In this sense, Libya was the whole known African continent to the west of the Nile Valley and extended south of Egypt. Herodotus described the inhabitants of Africa as two peoples: The Libyans in northern Africa and the "Ethiopians" in the south. According to Herodotus, Libya began where Ancient Egypt ended, and extended to Cape Spartel, south of Tangier on the Atlantic coast.


title: Ancient Libya

text: Modern geographers suspect that ancient Libyans may have experienced loss of forests, reliable fresh water sources, and game availability as the area became more desert-like.


title: Ancient Libya

text: After the Egyptians, the Greeks; Romans; and Byzantines mentioned various other tribes in Libya. Later tribal names differ from the Egyptian ones but, probably, some tribes were named in the Egyptian sources and the later ones, as well. The Meshwesh-tribe represents this assumption. Scholars believe it would be the same tribe called "Mazyes" by Hektaios and Maxyes by Herodotus, while it was called "Mazaces" and "Mazax" in Latin sources. All those names are similar to the name used by the Berbers for themselves, "Imazighen".


title: Ancient Libya

text: Late period sources give more detailed descriptions of Libya and its inhabitants. The ancient historian Herodotus describes Libya and the Libyans in his fourth book, known as "The Libyan Book". Pliny the Elder, Diodorus Siculus, and Procopius also contributed to what is now primary source material on ancient Libya and the Libyans.


title: Ancient Libya

text: Ibn Khaldun, who dedicated the main part of his book "Kitab el'ibar", which is known as "The history of the Berbers", did not use the names "Libya" and "Libyans", but instead used Arabic names: "The Old Maghreb", ("El-Maghrib el-Qadim"), and the "Berbers" (El-Barbar or El-Barabera(h)).


title: Ancient Libya

text: There were many tribes in ancient Libya, including the now extinct Psylli, with the Libu being the most prominent. The ancient Libyans were mainly pastoral nomads, living off their goats, sheep and other livestock. Milk, meat, hides and wool were gathered from their livestock for food, tents and clothing.


title: Ancient Libya

text: Ancient Egyptian sources describe Libyan men with long hair, braided and bearded, neatly parted from different sides and decorated with feathers attached to leather bands around the crown of the head while wearing thin robes of antelope hide, dyed and printed, crossing the shoulder and coming down until mid calf length to make a robe. Older men kept long braided beards. Women wore the same robes as men, plaited, decorated hair and both sexes wore heavy jewelry. Depictions of Libyans in Egyptian reliefs show prominent and numerous tattoos, very similar to traditional Berber tattoos still seen today. Weapons included bows and arrows, hatchets, spears and daggers.


title: Ancient Libya

text: The Libyan script that was used in Libya was mostly a funerary script. It is difficult to understand, and there are a number of variations.


title: Ancient Libya

text: Herodotus divided them into Eastern Libyans and Western Libyans. Eastern Libyans were nomadic shepherds east of Lake Tritonis. Western Libyans were sedentary farmers who lived west of Lake Tritonis. At one point, a catastrophic change reduced the vast body of fresh water to a seasonal lake or marsh.


title: Ancient Libya

text: Ibn Khaldun and Herodotus distinguish the Libyans on the basis of their lifestyles rather than ethnic background. Modern historians tend to follow Herodotus's distinction. Examples include Oric Bates in his book "The Eastern Libyans". Some other historians have used the modern name of the Berbers in their works, such as the French historian Gabriel Camps.


title: Ancient Libya

text: The Libyan tribes mentioned in these sources were: "Adyrmachidae", "Giligamae", "Asbystae", "Marmaridae", "Auschisae", "Nasamones", "Macae", "Lotus-eaters (or Lotophagi)", "Garamantes", "Gaetulians", "Mauri", and "Luwatae", as well as many others.


title: Kingdom Hearts IV

text: Development on the next mainline entry after "Kingdom Hearts III" had begun by January 2020, with "Kingdom Hearts IV" formally announced in April 2022.


title: Kingdom Hearts IV

text: Sora faces Heartless in the game. Parkour elements and Keyblade transformations return, with the Keyblade also able to transform into a grappling hook to traverse large distances. The game will also bring back the reaction commands from "Kingdom Hearts II", and introduces a new "scrap and build" mechanic. More of Sora's "daily life" and his "day-to-day routines" are also explored.


title: Kingdom Hearts IV

text: "Kingdom Hearts IV" serves as the beginning of the "Lost Master" story arc. The game takes place in Quadratum, an expansive city set in a realistic world inspired by Tokyo, featuring a fictionalized Shibuya and Minami-Aoyama. Sora's apartment in Minami-Aoyama serves as the player's home base in the early part of the game. Quadratum serves as a hub world, with players returning there after traveling to other worlds. Several worlds based on Disney properties will also appear. The advancement of hardware capabilities since the series began played a factor in determining the number of worlds created for the game.


title: Kingdom Hearts IV

text: Sora, a teenager who uses a key-shaped weapon called the Keyblade to battle the forces of darkness, reprises his role from previous games as the main protagonist and playable character of the game. Donald Duck and Goofy, the royal magician and knight captain of Disney Castle, also return after having served as Sora's party companions. The game also features Strelitzia, a Keyblade wielder who previously appeared in the mobile game "Kingdom Hearts Union χ". Other main characters of the series, such as the protagonists of the games "Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep" and "Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days", are not expected to have much focus in "Kingdom Hearts IV", with Nomura also open to finding a "good balance" with regards to including "Final Fantasy" characters that have been a part of the series.


title: Kingdom Hearts IV

text: Though "Kingdom Hearts III" was the end of the "Dark Seeker Saga" which revolved around Xehanort, it had been decided where certain characters end up in order to potentially continue their stories in future games. The ending of "Kingdom Hearts III" and its downloadable content (DLC) "Re Mind" saw Sora end up in the city of Quadratum and the appearance of the character Yozora, who was the main character of the in-universe video game "Verum Rex". Quadratum had designs elements that evoked Shibuya from Square Enix's franchise "The World Ends with You" as well as "Final Fantasy Versus XIII", which eventually was reworked to become "Final Fantasy XV", while Yozora's design was similar to Noctis Lucis Caelum, the main protagonist of "Final Fantasy XV", and part of his appearance mimicked an early trailer for "Versus XIII". Commentators believed series director Tetsuya Nomura, who was also the director of "Versus XIII" before it was reworked, was planning to implement some of his ideas from that game in a future "Kingdom Hearts" title. In March 2020, Nomura said "Versus XIII" and "Verum Rex" were "completely different" but an "unexpected development" between the two was occurring, and later confirmed the Shibuya in Quadratum was unrelated to that in "The World Ends with You".


title: Kingdom Hearts IV

text: In January 2020, Nomura said there would need to be "more time" before the next main entry in the series. Additionally, he revealed that there were two new development teams, separate from those that worked on the "Re Mind" DLC and the "Union χ"/"Dark Road" team, working on "Kingdom Hearts" content. In September 2020, Nomura stated that the development team was in the process of discussing the series' future plans between Square Enix and Disney, and that "nothing has been set in stone, but I do have some concepts percolating in my head". He added that Yozora would "definitely... be involved" in the future of the series, in an unexpected and surprising way.


title: Kingdom Hearts IV

text: In April 2022, Square Enix revealed "Kingdom Hearts IV" was in development during the series' 20th anniversary celebration. The game is being developed by Square Enix Business Division 3, the same Osaka-based team that developed "Kingdom Hearts III", with Tai Yasue serving as co-director, and Masaru Oka and Akiko Ishibashi joining Nomura to write the game. The game's reveal trailer was created with Unreal Engine 4, with the final game planned to be made with Unreal Engine 5. Wesley Leblanc of "Game Informer" felt Nomura was able to realize his vision for "Versus XIII" with the game and the ""Verum Rex" side of the franchise", and called the inclusion of Donald and Goofy at the end of the trailer a way to reassure players that the Disney elements of the franchise would continue. Nomura had also originally planned to create the "Verum Rex" game in its entirety, but noted the difficulty of creating two console games simultaneously. "Kingdom Hearts IV"s theme was described by Nomura as the contrast between the inhabitants of Sora's original world believing the inhabitants of Quadratum are fictional and vice versa.


title: Kingdom Hearts IV

text: In June 2022, Nomura revealed that the mobile game "Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link" would be connected to "Kingdom Hearts IV" explaining that there were "some figures that appear" in "Missing-Link" that were tied to the story of "IV".


title: Kingdom Hearts IV

text: Sora receives an updated look for the game, having a more realistic art style. Quadratum and the non-playable characters also have a realistic design. The design team was challenged to make the world as realistic as possible; previously in the series, the most "realistic" world was the one based on the "Pirates of the Caribbean" films. Conversely, characters in the original world of the series, such as Donald and Goofy, continue to use the shaders and designs introduced in "Kingdom Hearts III", with Nomura stating if Sora were to return to his world, his look would revert.


title: Bangkok Airways

text: Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited () is a regional airline based in Bangkok, Thailand. It operates scheduled services to destinations in Thailand, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Singapore, and Vietnam. Its main base is Suvarnabhumi Airport.


title: Bangkok Airways

text: The airline was established in 1968 as Sahakol Air, operating air taxi services under contract from the Overseas International Construction Company (OICC), an American construction company, the United States Operations Mission (USOM), and a number of other organisations engaged in oil and natural gas exploration in the Gulf of Thailand. It began scheduled services in 1986, becoming Thailand's first privately owned domestic airline. It rebranded to become Bangkok Airways in 1989. The airline is owned by Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth (92.31 percent), Sahakol Estate (4.3 percent), Bangkok Dusit Medical Services (1.2 percent), and other shareholders (2.19 percent). At one point, it also wholly owned subsidiary airline Siem Reap Airways in Cambodia.


title: Bangkok Airways

text: It built its own airport on Ko Samui, which opened in April 1989 and offers direct flights between the island and Chiang Mai, Hong Kong, Krabi, Pattaya, Phuket, and Singapore. The airline opened its second airport in Sukhothai Province in 1996. A third airport was built in Trat Province, opening in March 2003 to serve the tourism destination of Ko Chang.


title: Bangkok Airways

text: The airline made its first foray into jet aircraft in 2000, when it started adding Boeing 717s to its fleet. Until that time, Bangkok Airways had flown propeller-driven aircraft, primarily the ATR 72. It had also operated the De Havilland Canada Dash 8, the Shorts 330 and for a short time a Fokker 100. The carrier added another jet, the Airbus A320, to its fleet in 2004.


title: Bangkok Airways

text: Bangkok Airways planned to order wide-body aircraft as part of its ambition to expand its fleet but these plans to expand to the long haul market eventually fell short. It wanted to add its first wide-body jets in 2006 to serve longer-haul destinations such as the UK, India, and Japan and is looking at Airbus A330, Airbus A340 and Boeing 787 aircraft. In December 2005, Bangkok Airways announced it had decided to negotiate an order for six Airbus A350-800 aircraft in a 258-seat configuration, to be delivered to the airline commencing 2013 but the order of the aircraft was cancelled in 2011 due to the further delay of the Airbus plane.


title: Bangkok Airways

text: In 2007, Royal Household Secretary General Kaewkwan Watcharoethai awarded Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth a royal warrant to display the Garuda emblem.


title: Bangkok Airways

text: In 2017, Bangkok Airways received a new Air Operator Certificate, recertified to safety standards set out by ICAO from the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand.


title: Bangkok Airways

text: For the fiscal year ending 31 December 2019, Bangkok Airways reported a profit of 351 million baht on revenues of 29,418 million baht. Its assets were valued at 61,908 million baht. BA lost 300 million baht during the first quarter of 2020, compared with a profit of 500 million baht a year earlier. Earnings have continued to decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the airline has asked for government assistance. As of 31 December 2019, BA employed 3,010 persons.


title: Bangkok Airways

text: Bangkok Airways is currently an official sponsor of Chiangrai United, Sukhothai FC, Chiang Mai FC, Trat FC, Lampang FC, Krabi FC, Kasetsart FC, Bangkok Christian College FC and Borussia Dortmund.


title: Hox gene

text: Hox genes, a subset of homeobox genes, are a group of related genes that specify regions of the body plan of an embryo along the head-tail axis of animals. Hox proteins encode and specify the characteristics of 'position', ensuring that the correct structures form in the correct places of the body. For example, Hox genes in insects specify which appendages form on a segment (for example, legs, antennae, and wings in fruit flies), and Hox genes in vertebrates specify the types and shape of vertebrae that will form. In segmented animals, Hox proteins thus confer segmental or positional identity, but do not form the actual segments themselves.


title: Hox gene

text: Studies on Hox genes in ciliated larvae have shown they are only expressed in future adult tissues. In larvae with gradual metamorphosis the Hox genes are activated in tissues of the larval body, generally in the trunk region, that will be maintained through metamorphosis. In larvae with complete metamorphosis the Hox genes are mainly expressed in juvenile rudiments and are absent in the transient larval tissues. The larvae of the hemichordate species "Schizocardium californicum" and the pilidium larva of Nemertea do not express Hox genes.


title: Hox gene

text: An analogy for the Hox genes can be made to the role of a play director who calls which scene the actors should carry out next. If the play director calls the scenes in the wrong order, the overall play will be presented in the wrong order. Similarly, mutations in the Hox genes can result in body parts and limbs in the wrong place along the body. Like a play director, the Hox genes do not act in the play or participate in limb formation themselves.


title: Hox gene

text: The protein product of each Hox gene is a transcription factor. Each Hox gene contains a well-conserved DNA sequence known as the homeobox, of which the term "Hox" was originally a contraction. However, in current usage the term Hox is no longer equivalent to homeobox, because Hox genes are not the only genes to possess a homeobox sequence; for instance, humans have over 200 homeobox genes, of which 39 are Hox genes. Hox genes are thus a subset of the homeobox transcription factor genes. In many animals, the organization of the Hox genes in the chromosome is the same as the order of their expression along the anterior-posterior axis of the developing animal, and are thus said to display colinearity. Production of Hox gene products at wrong location in the body is associated with metaplasia and predisposes to oncological disease, e.g. Barrett’s esophagus is the result of altered Hox coding and is a precursor to esophageal cancer.


title: Hox gene

text: The products of Hox genes are Hox proteins. Hox proteins are a subset of transcription factors, which are proteins that are capable of binding to specific nucleotide sequences on DNA called enhancers through which they either activate or repress hundreds of other genes. The same Hox protein can act as a repressor at one gene and an activator at another. The ability of Hox proteins to bind DNA is conferred by a part of the protein referred to as the homeodomain. The homeodomain is a 60-amino-acid-long DNA-binding domain (encoded by its corresponding 180-base-pair DNA sequence, the homeobox). This amino acid sequence folds into a "helix-turn-helix" (i.e. homeodomain fold) motif that is stabilized by a third helix. The consensus polypeptide chain is shown below: Hox proteins often act in partnership with co-factors, such as PBC and Meis proteins encoded by very different types of homeobox gene.


title: Hox gene

text: Homeobox genes, and thus the homeodomain protein motif, are found in most eukaryotes. The Hox genes, being a subset of homeobox genes, arose more recently in evolution within the animal kingdom or Metazoa. Within the animal kingdom, Hox genes are present across the bilateria (animals with a clear head-to-tail axis), and have also been found in Cnidaria such as sea anemones. This implies that Hox genes arose over 550 million years ago. In bilateria, Hox genes are often arranged in gene clusters, although there are many exceptions where the genes have been separated by chromosomal rearrangements. Comparing homeodomain sequences between Hox proteins often reveals greater similarity between species than within a species; this observation led to the conclusion that Hox gene clusters evolved early in animal evolution from a single Hox gene via tandem duplication and subsequent divergence, and that a prototypic Hox gene cluster containing at least seven different Hox genes was present in the common ancestor of all bilaterian animals.


title: Hox gene

text: In most bilaterian animals, Hox genes are expressed in staggered domains along the head-to-tail axis of the embryo, suggesting that their role in specifying position is a shared, ancient feature. The functional conservation of Hox proteins can be demonstrated by the fact that a fly can function to a large degree with a chicken Hox protein in place of its own. So, despite having a last common ancestor that lived over 550 million years ago, the chicken and fly version of the same Hox gene are similar enough to target the same downstream genes in flies.


title: Hox gene

text: "Drosophila melanogaster" is an important model for understanding body plan generation and evolution. The general principles of Hox gene function and logic elucidated in flies will apply to all bilaterian organisms, including humans. "Drosophila", like all insects, has eight Hox genes. These are clustered into two complexes, both of which are located on chromosome 3. The Antennapedia complex (not to be confused with the "Antp" gene) consists of five genes: labial ("lab"), proboscipedia ("pb"), deformed ("Dfd"), sex combs reduced ("Scr"), and Antennapedia ("Antp"). The Bithorax complex, named after the Ultrabithorax gene, consists of the remaining three genes: Ultrabithorax ("Ubx"), abdominal-A ("abd-A") and abdominal-B ("abd-B").


title: Hox gene

text: The "lab" gene is the most anteriorly expressed gene. It is expressed in the head, primarily in the intercalary segment (an appendageless segment between the antenna and mandible), and also in the midgut. Loss of function of "lab" results in the failure of the "Drosophila" embryo to internalize the mouth and head structures that initially develop on the outside of its body (a process called head involution). Failure of head involution disrupts or deletes the salivary glands and pharynx. The "lab" gene was initially so named because it disrupted the labial appendage; however, the lab gene is not expressed in the labial segment, and the labial appendage phenotype is likely a result of the broad disorganization resulting from the failure of head involution.


title: Hox gene

text: The "pb" gene is responsible for the formation of the labial and maxillary palps. Some evidence shows "pb" interacts with "Scr".


title: Hox gene

text: The "Dfd" gene is responsible for the formation of the maxillary and mandibular segments in the larval head. The mutant phenotypes of "Dfd" are similar to those of labial. Loss of function of "Dfd" in the embryo results in a failure of head involution (see labial gene), with a loss of larval head structures. Mutations in the adult have either deletions of parts of the head or transformations of head to thoracic identity.


title: Hox gene

text: The "Scr" gene is responsible for cephalic and thoracic development in "Drosophila" embryo and adult.


title: Hox gene

text: The second thoracic segment, or T2, develops a pair of legs and a pair of wings. The" Antp" gene specifies this identity by promoting leg formation and allowing (but not directly activating) wing formation. A dominant "Antp" mutation, caused by a chromosomal inversion, causes "Antp" to be expressed in the antennal imaginal disc, so that, instead of forming an antenna, the disc makes a leg, resulting in a leg coming out of the fly's head.


title: Hox gene

text: The third thoracic segment, or T3, bears a pair of legs and a pair of halteres (highly reduced wings that function in balancing during flight). "Ubx" patterns T3 largely by repressing genes involved in wing formation. The wing blade is composed of two layers of cells that adhere tightly to one another, and are supplied with nutrient by several wing veins. One of the many genes that "Ubx" represses is blistered, which activates proteins involved in cell-cell adhesion, and spalt, which patterns the placement of wing veins. In "Ubx" loss-of-function mutants, "Ubx" no longer represses wing genes, and the halteres develop as a second pair of wings, resulting in the famous four-winged flies. When "Ubx" is misexpressed in the second thoracic segment, such as occurs in flies with the "Cbx" enhancer mutation, it represses wing genes, and the wings develop as halteres, resulting in a four-haltered fly.


title: Hox gene

text: In "Drosophila", "abd-A" is expressed along most of the abdomen, from abdominal segments 1 (A1) to A8. Expression of "abd-A" is necessary to specify the identity of most of the abdominal segments. A major function of "abd-A" in insects is to repress limb formation. In "abd-A" loss-of-function mutants, abdominal segments A2 through A8 are transformed into an identity more like A1. When "abd-A" is ectopically expressed throughout the embryo, all segments anterior of A4 are transformed to an A4-like abdominal identity.


title: Hox gene

text: The "abd-A gene" also affects the pattern of cuticle generation in the ectoderm, and pattern of muscle generation in the mesoderm.


title: Hox gene

text: Gene "abd-B" is transcribed in two different forms, a regulatory protein, and a morphogenic protein. Regulatory "abd-B" suppress embryonic ventral epidermal structures in the eighth and ninth segments of the "Drosophila" abdomen. Both the regulatory protein and the morphogenic protein are involved in the development of the tail segment.


title: Hox gene

text: Proteins with a high degree of sequence similarity are also generally assumed to exhibit a high degree of functional similarity, i.e. Hox proteins with identical homeodomains are assumed to have identical DNA-binding properties (unless additional sequences are known to influence DNA-binding).


title: Hox gene

text: To identify the set of proteins between two different species that are most likely to be most similar in function, classification schemes are used. For Hox proteins, three different classification schemes exist: phylogenetic inference based, synteny-based, and sequence similarity-based. The three classification schemes provide conflicting information for Hox proteins expressed in the middle of the body axis ("Hox6-8" and "Antp, Ubx" and" abd-A"). A combined approach used phylogenetic inference-based information of the different species and plotted the protein sequence types onto the phylogenetic tree of the species. The approach identified the proteins that best represent ancestral forms ("Hox7" and "Antp") and the proteins that represent new, derived versions (or were lost in an ancestor and are now missing in numerous species).


title: Hox gene

text: Hox genes act at many levels within developmental gene hierarchies: at the "executive" level they regulate genes that in turn regulate large networks of other genes (like the gene pathway that forms an appendage). They also directly regulate what are called realisator genes or effector genes that act at the bottom of such hierarchies to ultimately form the tissues, structures, and organs of each segment. Segmentation involves such processes as morphogenesis (differentiation of precursor cells into their terminal specialized cells), the tight association of groups of cells with similar fates, the sculpting of structures and segment boundaries via programmed cell death, and the movement of cells from where they are first born to where they will ultimately function, so it is not surprising that the target genes of Hox genes promote cell division, cell adhesion, apoptosis, and cell migration.


title: Hox gene

text: The DNA sequence bound by the homeodomain protein contains the nucleotide sequence TAAT, with the 5' terminal T being the most important for binding. This sequence is conserved in nearly all sites recognized by homeodomains, and probably distinguishes such locations as DNA binding sites. The base pairs following this initial sequence are used to distinguish between homeodomain proteins, all of which have similar recognition sites. For instance, the nucleotide following the TAAT sequence is recognized by the amino acid at position 9 of the homeodomain protein. In the maternal protein Bicoid, this position is occupied by lysine, which recognizes and binds to the nucleotide guanine. In Antennapedia, this position is occupied by glutamine, which recognizes and binds to adenine. If the lysine in Bicoid is replaced by glutamine, the resulting protein will recognize Antennapedia-binding enhancer sites.


title: Hox gene

text: However, all homeodomain-containing transcription factors bind essentially the same DNA sequence. The sequence bound by the homeodomain of a Hox protein is only six nucleotides long, and such a short sequence would be found at random many times throughout the genome, far more than the number of actual functional sites. Especially for Hox proteins, which produce such dramatic changes in morphology when misexpressed, this raises the question of how each transcription factor can produce such specific and different outcomes if they all bind the same sequence. One mechanism that introduces greater DNA sequence specificity to Hox proteins is to bind protein cofactors. Two such Hox cofactors are Extradenticle (Exd) and Homothorax (Hth). Exd and Hth bind to Hox proteins and appear to induce conformational changes in the Hox protein that increase its specificity.


title: Hox gene

text: Just as Hox genes regulate realisator genes, they are in turn regulated themselves by other genes. In Drosophila and some insects (but not most animals), Hox genes are regulated by gap genes and pair-rule genes, which are in their turn regulated by maternally-supplied mRNA. This results in a transcription factor cascade: maternal factors activate gap or pair-rule genes; gap and pair-rule genes activate Hox genes; then, finally, Hox genes activate realisator genes that cause the segments in the developing embryo to differentiate.


title: Hox gene

text: Regulation is achieved via protein concentration gradients, called morphogenic fields. For example, high concentrations of one maternal protein and low concentrations of others will turn on a specific set of gap or pair-rule genes. In flies, stripe 2 in the embryo is activated by the maternal proteins Bicoid and Hunchback, but repressed by the gap proteins Giant and Kruppel. Thus, stripe 2 will only form wherever there is Bicoid and Hunchback, but "not" where there is Giant and Kruppel.


title: Hox gene

text: MicroRNA strands located in Hox clusters have been shown to inhibit more anterior hox genes ("posterior prevalence phenomenon"), possibly to better fine tune its expression pattern.


title: Hox gene

text: Non-coding RNA (ncRNA) has been shown to be abundant in Hox clusters. In humans, 231 ncRNA may be present. One of these, HOTAIR, silences in trans (it is transcribed from the HOXC cluster and inhibits late HOXD genes) by binding to Polycomb-group proteins (PRC2).


title: Hox gene

text: The chromatin structure is essential for transcription but it also requires the cluster to loop out of the chromosome territory.


title: Hox gene

text: In higher animals including humans, retinoic acid regulates differential expression of Hox genes along the anteroposterior axis. Genes in the 3' ends of Hox clusters are induced by retinoic acid resulting in expression domains that extend more anteriorly in the body compared to 5' Hox genes that are not induced by retinoic acid resulting in expression domains that remain more posterior.


title: Hox gene

text: Quantitative PCR has shown several trends regarding colinearity: the system is in equilibrium and the total number of transcripts depends on the number of genes present according to a linear relationship.


title: Hox gene

text: In some organisms, especially vertebrates, the various Hox genes are situated very close to one another on the chromosome in groups or clusters. The order of the genes on the chromosome is the same as the expression of the genes in the developing embryo, with the first gene being expressed in the anterior end of the developing organism. The reason for this colinearity is not yet completely understood, but could be related to the activation of Hox genes in a temporal sequence by gradual unpacking of chromatin along a gene cluster. The diagram above shows the relationship between the genes and protein expression in flies.


title: Hox gene

text: The Hox genes are named for the homeotic phenotypes that result when their function is disrupted, wherein one segment develops with the identity of another (e.g. legs where antennae should be). Hox genes in different phyla have been given different names, which has led to confusion about nomenclature. The complement of Hox genes in "Drosophila" is made up of two clusters, the Antennapedia complex and the Bithorax complex, which together were historically referred to as the HOM-C (for Homeotic Complex). Although historically HOM-C genes have referred to "Drosophila" homologues, while Hox genes referred to vertebrate homologues, this distinction is no longer made, and both HOM-C and Hox genes are called Hox genes.


title: Hox gene

text: The ancestors of vertebrates had a single Hox gene cluster, which was duplicated (twice) early in vertebrate evolution by whole genome duplications to give four Hox gene clusters: Hoxa, Hoxb, Hoxc and Hoxd. It is currently unclear whether these duplications occurred before or after the divergence of lampreys and hagfish from other vertebrates. Most tetrapods have four HOX clusters, while most teleost fish, including zebrafish and medaka, have seven or eight Hox gene clusters because of an additional genome duplication which occurred in their evolutionary history. In zebrafish, one of the eight Hox gene clusters (a Hoxd cluster) has lost all protein-coding genes, and just a single microRNA gene marks the location of the original cluster. In some teleost fish, such as salmon, an even more recent genome duplication occurred, doubling the seven or eight Hox gene clusters to give at least 13 clusters


title: Hox gene

text: Vertebrate bodies are not segmented in the same way as insects; they are on average much more complex, leading to more infrastructure in their body plan compared to insects. HOX genes control the regulation and development of many key structures in the body, such as somites, which form the vertebrae and ribs, the dermis of the dorsal skin, the skeletal muscles of the back, and the skeletal muscles of the body wall and limbs. HOX genes help differentiate somite cells into more specific identities and direct them to develop differently depending on where they are in the body. A large difference between vertebrates and invertebrates is the location and layering of HOX genes. The fundamental mechanisms of development are strongly conserved among vertebrates from fish to mammals.


title: Hox gene

text: Due to the fact that the HOX genes are so highly conserved, most research has been done on much simpler model organisms, such as mice. One of the major differences that was noticed when comparing mice and drosophila, in particular, has to do with the location and layering of HOX genes within the genome. Vertebrates do have HOX genes that are homologous to those of the fly as it is one of the most highly conserved genes, but the location is different. For example, there are more HOX genes on the 5' side of the mouse segment compared to the invertebrates. These genes correspond to expression in the tail, which would make sense as flies would not have anything similar to the tail that all vertebrates have. Additionally, in most vertebrates there are 39 members segregated into four separate tightly clustered gene arrays (A–D) on four separate chromosomes, whereas there are eight HOX genes in total for the Drosophila. Clusters are far more redundant and less likely to generate mutations. In flies, one gene can be mutated, resulting in a haltere, something fundamental for them to be able to fly, being transformed into a wing, or an antenna turning into a leg; in the mouse, two to four genes must be simultaneously removed to get a similar complete transformation. Some researchers believe that, because of the redundancy of the vertebrate HOX cluster plan and more constrained compared to invertebrate HOX clusters, the evolvability of vertebrate HOX clusters is, for some structural or functional reason, far lower than their invertebrate counterparts. This rapid evolvability is in part because invertebrates experienced much more dramatic episodes of adaptive radiation and mutations. More than 20 major clades of invertebrates differ so radically in body organization, partly due to a higher mutation rate, that they became formally classified as different phyla.  All of the paralogous genes need to be knocked out in order for there to be any phenotypic changes for the most part. This is also one reason why homeotic mutations in vertebrates are so rarely seen.


title: Hox gene

text: In mouse embryos, the HOX10 genes, which is one of the genes that lie in the tail portion of the animal, turn the “rib-building” system off when the gene is activated. The genes are active in the lower back, where the vertebrae don’t grow ribs, and inactive in the mid-back, allowing ribs to be formed.  When the HOX10 paralogs are experimentally inactivated, the vertebrae of the lower back grow ribs. This research prompted an evolutionary search for these mutations among all animals.  An example of this is in lizards and snakes. In snakes, HOX10 genes have lost their rib-blocking ability in that way.


title: Hox gene

text: Amphioxus such as "Branchiostoma floridae" have a single Hox cluster with 15 genes, known as "AmphiHox1" to "AmphiHox15".


title: Hox gene

text: Six Hox genes are dispersed in the genome of "Caenorhabditis elegans", a roundworm. "Hydra" and "Nematostella vectensis", both in the phylum Cnidaria, have a few Hox/ParaHox-like homeobox genes.


title: Hox gene

text: The Hox genes are so named because mutations in them cause homeotic transformations. Homeotic transformations were first identified and studied by William Bateson in 1894, who coined the term "homeosis". After the rediscovery of Mendel's genetic principles, Bateson and others realized that some examples of homeosis in floral organs and animal skeletons could be attributed to variation in genes.


title: Hox gene

text: Definitive evidence for a genetic basis of some homeotic transformations was obtained by isolating homeotic mutants. The first homeotic mutant was found by Calvin Bridges in Thomas Hunt Morgan's laboratory in 1915. This mutant shows a partial duplication of the thorax and was therefore named Bithorax ("bx"). It transforms the third thoracic segment (T3) toward the second (T2). Bithorax arose spontaneously in the laboratory and has been maintained continuously as a laboratory stock ever since.


title: Hox gene

text: The genetic studies by Morgan and others provided the foundation for the systematic analyses of Edward B. Lewis and Thomas Kaufman, which provided preliminary definitions of the many homeotic genes of the Bithorax and Antennapedia complexes, and also showed that the mutant phenotypes for most of these genes could be traced back to patterning defects in the embryonic body plan.


title: Hox gene

text: Ed Lewis, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard and Eric F. Wieschaus identified and classified 15 genes of key importance in determining the body plan and the formation of body segments of the fruit fly "D. melanogaster" in 1980. For their work, Lewis, Nüsslein-Volhard, and Wieschaus were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1995.


title: Hox gene

text: In 1983, the homeobox was discovered independently by researchers in two labs: Ernst Hafen, Michael Levine, and William McGinnis (in Walter Gehring's lab at the University of Basel, Switzerland) and Matthew P. Scott and Amy Weiner (in Thomas Kaufman's lab at Indiana University in Bloomington).


title: Hox gene

text: Hox genes play critical roles in the development of structures such as limbs, lungs, the nervous system, and eyes. As T. R. Lappin and colleagues observed in 2006, "Evolutionary conservation provides unlimited scope for experimental investigation of the functional control of the Hox gene network which is providing important insights into human disease." In the future, more research can be done in investigating the roles of Hox genes in Leukaemia and cancer (such as EOC).


title: Project 22160 patrol ship

text: Project 22160 is a series of large patrol ships being constructed for the Russian Navy. The vessels are primarily intended for duties such as patrol, monitoring and protection in open and closed seas. The first ship was laid down in February 2014 and joined the Russian Navy in December 2018. By January 2018, six ships were under construction.


title: Project 22160 patrol ship

text: The class's armament includes the Kalibr-NK cruise missile, aerosol camouflage, two grenade launchers and two machine guns and a 76.2 mm dual-purpose gun (AK-176). The ship also has a helicopter deck and hangar for one Ka-27 or Ka-226 helicopter. The ship also carries a landing speedboat, and has provisions for drones, underwater unmanned craft and unmanned boats. There is accommodation for an additional 60 men.


title: Project 22160 patrol ship

text: In 2020 it was announced that the Russian Navy would begin trials to test the installation of module containers on patrol vessels permitting such ships to carry significantly upgraded armaments tailored to different missions. The containers were envisaged to carry various weapons including sonars and torpedoes or anti-ship and cruise missiles. The trials took place in the Arctic Sea from June 2020 and lasted two months.


title: Project 22160 patrol ship

text: The Russian Navy planned to order 6 additional ships since 2014, however these plans were abandoned in June 2022 after dissatisfaction with the ships' performance during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Flaws include insufficient seaworthiness, light armour, and a lack of adequate air defences. Notably, after the sinking of the "Moskva", the Russian Navy began attaching Tor-M2 km missile systems onto the helicopter decks of the patrol ships.


title: Project 22160 patrol ship

text: On 17 August 2022, Ak Bars CEO Renat Mistakhov stated that further vessels can be constructed, which will be armed with new anti-aircraft missiles.


title: Project 22160 patrol ship

text: On 15 January 2021, "Dmitry Rogachev" entered the Mediterranean Sea, to strengthen the Russian Navy squadron.


title: Project 22160 patrol ship

text: The ship "Vasily Bykov" participated in the attack on Snake Island on 24 February 2022 during the first day of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine together with the Russian cruiser "Moskva". This confrontation ended in the Russian takeover of Snake Island.


title: Project 22160 patrol ship

text: On 7 March 2022, Ukrainian sources claimed that the Armed Forces of Ukraine had hit the "Vasily Bykov" with rocket artillery off the coast of Odessa, reportedly heavily damaging or sinking it. However, on 16 March 2022, "Vasily Bykov" was seen entering Sevastopol with no damage visible.


title: Project 22160 patrol ship

text: On 5 August 2022, one of the ships of the class was seen entering Sevastopol with fire damage to the stern, thought by an open-source intelligence analyst to be the result of an attack on the day before.


title: Project 22160 patrol ship

text: In April 2018, it was reported that negotiations are underway after Algeria showed interest in acquiring four project 22160 patrol ships, equipped with the Club-N missile system and the Palma anti-aircraft system which includes the Sosna guided missiles. The demand for ships armed with the Kalibr cruise missiles grew after Russia's use of these missiles in combat in Syria.


title: Magnum (band)

text: Magnum are an English hard rock band. They were formed in Birmingham by Tony Clarkin (guitar, songwriter) and Bob Catley (vocals) in order to appear as the resident band at the Rum Runner nightclub in the city. Magnum have undergone several changes in personnel over the years; however, the core of Catley and Clarkin remain.


title: Magnum (band)

text: Magnum's most significant early success was "Chase the Dragon" in 1982, which reached number 17 in the UK Albums Chart. It included several songs that would become mainstays of the band's live set, notably "Soldier of the Line", "Sacred Hour" and "The Spirit". "On a Storyteller's Night" gave the band its breakthrough in Europe, and achieved a Gold certification in the United Kingdom. The band's 1986 album "Vigilante" represented a further move towards the mainstream before the band achieved their commercial peak in 1988 when they entered the UK Top Ten for the first time with the album "Wings of Heaven", which reached number five and featured three Top 40 singles, "Days of No Trust", "Start Talking Love" and "It Must Have Been Love". It was followed by "Goodnight L.A.", which was produced by Keith Olsen and reached number nine in the UK Album Chart in 1990. It produced another Top 40 single for the band, "Rockin' Chair".


title: Magnum (band)

text: In 1995, Clarkin announced Magnum's split; however, Clarkin and Catley continued working together, now under the name Hard Rain, until 1999. Magnum reformed in 2001 and has enjoyed late-career commercial success. Their most recent album, "The Monster Roars", was released in January 2022.


title: Magnum (band)

text: Magnum began as the house band at Birmingham's famous Rum Runner night club (later the home of Duran Duran) in 1972. Joining Clarkin and Catley were drummer Kex Gorin (born Kevin Gorin, 26 January 1949, Birmingham died 21 December 2007) and bassist Bob Doyle. The band line up remained the same until later in 1972, when Les Kitcheridge joined temporarily on rhythm guitar. Bob Doyle left Magnum in 1972 and joined Roy Wood's Wizzard, and was replaced by former Uglys and Balls bassist Dave Morgan (later a member of ELO).


title: Magnum (band)

text: The band began to develop its own style by playing Clarkin's songs at a residency at The Railway Inn, in Birmingham's Curzon Street, in 1976. In 1975, Clarkin and Dave Morgan received an offer from Kim Holmes to help with the construction of a studio, rather than being paid with money, Clarkin requested to be paid with studio time. Much of Magnum's early demo material was recorded at Nest Studios in Birmingham, which would later lead to a recording contract with David Arden of Jet Records. During the "Nest" sessions, at least two songs written by Dave Morgan (and sung by Bob Catley) were recorded but never released. The titles were "Baby I Need" and "One More Round The Bend", which resurfaced on an acetate disc in 2005.


title: Magnum (band)

text: A one off deal with CBS was arranged via producer Roger Greenaway, and the band released a cover of The Searchers' "Sweets for My Sweet" in February 1975; however, this failed to make the charts. The original recording included a medley of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" but was edited out for the single release. Lead vocals on this song were by Morgan, who left the band soon after, and was replaced by Colin "Wally" Lowe. Success was still minimal; they were working as a backing band for artists, such as Del Shannon, on small tours. The band was expanded to a five-piece with the addition of Richard Bailey on keyboards. In May 1977 the band supported Judas Priest on their "Sin After Sin" UK tour, still without the backing of a record label.


title: Magnum (band)

text: Magnum's debut album "Kingdom of Madness" was released on Jet Records at the end of 1978 and reached #58 in the UK Chart; it received a five star review from Geoff Barton of "Sounds magazine". They toured the UK in October/November 1978, as support to David Coverdale's Whitesnake. Leo Lyons, formerly bassist with Ten Years After, produced the follow-up album "Magnum II –" which was released in 1979, but failed to chart. Another support tour was organised for November 1979, this time with Blue Öyster Cult. A live set, "Marauder", was released as an album and reached #34 in the UK, and a live double single ("Live at the Marquee", including "Invasion") reached #48 in the UK Singles Chart. Bailey departed soon after and was replaced temporarily by Grenville Harding during Magnum's support of Def Leppard's "On Through the Night" UK tour in March. For the second leg in April, permanent replacement Mark Stanway took over keyboard duties. Magnum also appeared at the Reading Festival in 1980. April 1981 saw another support tour, this time with Tygers of Pan Tang on their "Spellbound" UK tour.


title: Magnum (band)

text: Their first successful album was the Jeff Glixman produced "Chase the Dragon" (1982), which reached #17 in the UK, and included several songs that would be mainstays of the band's live set, including "Soldier of the Line", "Sacred Hour" and "The Spirit". Glixman was previously known for his work with Kansas, and this was the first Magnum release to feature the artwork of fantasy artist Rodney Matthews. The tour included a support slot in February with Krokus, on their "One Vice at a Time" UK tour. A few United States dates were played during the summer of 1982, supporting labelmate Ozzy Osbourne. The band returned to the UK in July for their own headlining tour.


title: Magnum (band)

text: Budgetary constraints at Jet denied Magnum the use of an outside producer for 1983's Clarkin-produced "The Eleventh Hour", which peaked at UK #38. A UK tour started in May 1983, featuring additional guitarist Robin George for live performances. Magnum also appeared at the 1983 Reading Festival, with George. However, Jet was unhappy about the sales figures of "The Eleventh Hour", and refused to support another album or finance a tour.


title: Magnum (band)

text: In 1984, Magnum signed a one-off deal with FM Records. George left a few months later, but Stanway soon rejoined and the band went to the studio. In May 1985, they released "On a Storyteller's Night", which had a cover by Rodney Matthews. It reached #24 in the UK, and launched the band across Europe. Soon after, Simpson left the band to join UFO, and was replaced by 32-year-old, self-taught Mickey Barker.


title: Magnum (band)

text: From the success of "On a Storyteller's Night", Keith Baker negotiated a major label deal with Polydor Records, and they embarked on the most commercially successful period of their career; opening the famous Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington in August 1985, on a bill that also included Bon Jovi, Metallica, Marillion and headliners ZZ Top. A second leg for the "Storyteller's" tour was concluded in December 1985.


title: Magnum (band)

text: The first release for Polydor was in September 1986, entitled "Vigilante". The album was a move towards the mainstream due to production by Queen drummer Roger Taylor and David Richards, who had recently worked together on "A Kind of Magic". The switch to Polydor saw an increase in the marketing budget, and promotional videos were made for the singles "Lonely Night" and "Midnight". A full UK and European tour was scheduled in March 1986, including appearances at The Garden Party Festival, Milton Keynes Bowl in June and the Out in the Green Festival. A second leg was organised in September 1986, which finished in Europe in November 1986. Stanway commented, "with only one tour of Germany we had already achieved as much success as after ten years in England!" In March 1987, the band embarked on a third UK and European tour, including an appearance at 1987's Reading Festival.


title: Magnum (band)

text: Magnum enjoyed increased success with the album "Wings of Heaven" (#5 in the UK). Three singles from "Wings of Heaven" reached the UK Top 40, including a "Top of the Pops" appearance with "Start Talking Love". The album also became the band's first to chart in Norway and Switzerland. A successful tour followed in December and, by now, Magnum had been elevated to an 'arena' band in the UK, headlining the N.E.C. and several nights at London's Hammersmith Odeon, supported by the Norwegian band Stage Dolls. There were talks about touring the United States with Iron Maiden, but nothing came of it.


title: Magnum (band)

text: Following the success of "Wings of Heaven", Polydor eyed an opportunity to break Magnum in the United States. To adjust to the American market, the record company convinced Clarkin to work with co-songwriters. The band went to Los Angeles for the Keith Olsen produced "Goodnight L.A.", which peaked at #9 in the UK chart. However, the album was never released in the United States, and received backlash from critics for being "commercial" and "Americanized". While successful, the album did not live up to its expectations and became a disappointment to the band and the label. Following the release, Magnum performed at Berlin's Arena Festival, followed by a full UK and European tour in September 1990. They toured the UK again in November. After a fallout between the band and the record company, Magnum parted ways with Polydor. They released the live album "The Spirit" in 1991 and toured the UK and Europe again to support the album. During the concerts in Germany, the band played live with the Roger Taylor band The Cross. Magnum continued to release albums for various labels on one-off deals, the first being "Sleepwalking" in 1992 on Music for Nations. The album got a mixed reception from critics, some of whom argued that the band was moving in the direction of pop rock. A full UK tour followed in October, and started a tradition of performing Christmas shows in Birmingham. This was followed by the release of "Archive" in April 1993 by Jet Records, a compilation album that featured four previously unreleased songs from between 1976 and 1983. Polydor released "Chapter & Verse – The Very Best of Magnum", another compilation album, a month later. Later the same year, Magnum released "Keeping the Nite Light Burning", the band's first and only purely acoustic album.


title: Magnum (band)

text: "Rock Art" was released in 1994 on EMI, and the album charted 57 in the United Kingdom. A UK tour was scheduled for April, but dates in May and June were postponed or cancelled. A low key tour was arranged for August and Europe in September, followed by another tour in the spring 1995. Clarkin wrote eleven new songs for the planned next album, which were recorded and sent to record companies, their contract with EMI having expired. However, they received no offer from any major record company, and the band faced financial difficulties. Meanwhile, Clarkin had started to feel creatively trapped, as fans and critics did not appreciate the band's musical evolution. A growing creative gap between Clarkin and Stanway also caused friction within the band. In September 1995, Clarkin decided to quit. The other band members were shocked by his decision, and attempted to talk him out of it. They briefly considered continuing with a different guitarist, but soon concluded that Clarkin, the band's sole songwriter, was irreplaceable. They managed to talk Clarkin into doing a farewell tour in the United Kingdom and Europe, documented on the live album "Stronghold" (titled "The Last Dance" in mainland Europe). After a final concert on 17 December 1995, Magnum disbanded.


title: Magnum (band)

text: While most band members went their separate ways, Catley and Clarkin continued working together as before and planned a new album. To avoid pressure and interference from the labels, they named themselves Hard Rain rather than continuing as Magnum. Three months after Magnum split, Catley and Clarkin began recording new music. In 1997, they released the eponymous debut album "Hard Rain". Most of the songs on the album had been written before the split of Magnum and were originally meant for a Magnum album. The album received positive reviews, and Catley and Clarkin started recruiting more musicians to turn Hard Rain into an actual band. Ex-Magnum drummer Kex Gorin briefly agreed to join the band, before changing his mind. Hard Rain eventually recruited the brothers Rob and Al Barrow as drummer and bassist, respectively, Sue McCloskey for backup vocals, and Paul Hodson on keyboards. The next album, "When the Good Times Come", was released in 1999. This album was stylistically different from anything Magnum had released, and received mixed reviews from critics. Hard Rain always included Magnum songs in their live sets, and was widely considered a continuation of Magnum in all but name. The new name was actually detrimental to the sales, as many buyers expected to find the albums in the M-shelf rather than the H-shelf in music stores. The albums would eventually be filed together with Magnum albums. Clarkin and Catley discussed whether they should revert to the name Magnum, but ultimately decided against it. When asked to explain the difference between Magnum and Hard Rain, Clarkin replied that the latter was "a relief, a stop gap, something I wanted to do".


title: Magnum (band)

text: It was around this time that Catley launched a solo career using various songwriters, including Gary Hughes of the band Ten. His first solo album, "The Tower", was released in November 1998, followed by "Legends" a year later and a live album in-between. Additionally, Catley participated in several projects as a guest vocalist, the first of which was "Jabberwocky" by Oliver Wakeman and Clive Nolan in early-1999. Catley disagreed with Hard Rain's musical drift away from the classical Magnum sound, and soon became more focused on his solo career. In September 1999 he decided to quit Hard Rain, marking the end of a working relationship with Clarkin that dated back to 1972. Clarkin briefly continued Hard Rain with Sue McCloskey replacing Catley as lead vocalist. They performed with this lineup at a charity event in January 2000, but Hard Rain never released any additional new material. A short quiet period ensued, followed by rumors of a Magnum reunion.


title: Magnum (band)

text: During Magnum's split, one of Clarkin's friends found a live recording from 1976 in his loft. Clarkin, fed up with the many unofficial compilations that had been released without the band's authorisation, was initially reluctant to authorise the release of this old material. He eventually changed his mind, and "Days of Wonder" was released in April 2000.


title: Magnum (band)

text: In March 2001, Catley revealed that Clarkin had suggested a reunion, apparently after his manager Derek Kemp had convinced him that giving Magnum a new shot was worth it. Catley and Clarkin had hoped for a complete reunion of the pre-1995 lineup, but only Mark Stanway ended up returning to the band. While Mickey Barker was committed to a different band, Wally Lowe had retired from the music industry. Al Barrow, who had been a member of Hard Rain, continued as the band's bassist. Rob Barrow was invited to stay on as the band's drummer, but he had already decided to quit the music industry. Paul Hodson went on to join Ten.


title: Magnum (band)

text: Clarkin's manager's assessment proved to be correct; while in 1995 the band had difficulties getting a record deal, this time they got several offers. They ultimately signed a deal with SPV Steamhammer in September 2001. In February 2002, "Breath of Life" was released. The album consisted partly of songs originally written for Hard Rain; according to Catley, it was a mix of Magnum and Hard Rain. They recorded the album without a drummer, before hiring Thunder drummer Harry James to complete the lineup. The band then went on a UK tour in December. The next album, "Brand New Morning", was released in 2004. This album represented a final departure from the Hard Rain style; years later, Catley would comment that "Brand New Morning [had] really [been] the first new Magnum album". Magnum then appeared at Germany's Bang Your Head Festival and the Lorca Rock Festival in Spain and went on a tour around the UK and Europe in December. Clarkin commented:


title: Magnum (band)

text: When James returned to Thunder, Jimmy Copley became a full-time member of Magnum. The band toured in April 2005 to mark the 20th anniversary of "On a Storyteller's Night"; they released a live DVD of the Astoria concert entitled "Livin' the Dream", which also included a short documentary and promotional videos from throughout the band's history.


title: Magnum (band)

text: Magnum completed work on a new studio album, "Princess Alice and the Broken Arrow", which was released on 26 March 2007; this also marked the return to the cover artwork by Rodney Matthews, absent since 1992. The album entered the UK Album Charts at No. 70, the first time Magnum had charted in the UK since 1994. It also reached No. 4 on the BBC Rock Album Charts and No. 60 in Germany. Magnum toured the UK and Europe in May 2007. Harry James played drums temporarily for half the tour as Jimmy Copley had taken ill, and soon replaced Copley permanently within the line-up. Copley died in 2017.


title: Magnum (band)

text: In 2005, former drummer Kex Gorin was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Gorin had a kidney removed and underwent radiotherapy and steroid treatment, but died of the disease on 21 December 2007. In 2007, Magnum played a one off show at the Robin 2 in Bilston, Wolverhampton. This was a charity event in aid of former drummer Kex Gorin's family. An auction of memorabilia before the show raised over £10,000. Magnum then played a two-hour set of old and new material. Magnum undertook a UK tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of "Wings of Heaven" in November 2007. These shows were recorded for "Wings of Heaven Live" album, which was released in March 2008. The album was dedicated to Kex Gorin.


title: Magnum (band)

text: On 15 June 2009, Magnum released "Into the Valley of the Moonking" on SPV. Stylistically, the album was considered a logical follow-up to "Princess Alice", and it became the first Magnum release to chart in Switzerland since "Rock Art". A few months later, the band released "The Gathering", on Universal/Sanctuary; their first ever cross-career collection spread over five discs featuring a 1988 live recording from Hammersmith Odeon. The next studio album, "The Visitation", was released in January 2011, and was notably rockier than previous releases. The band toured in support of the album, which charted at No. 55 in the UK and No. 19 in Germany, throughout March and April 2011.


title: Magnum (band)

text: On 30 August, Magnum announced a new compilation remix album "Evolution" celebrating the last 10 years on SPV GmbH since their reformation in 2001. The album was released on 11 November 2011 in Germany and 14 November in the rest of Europe and the UK. The album featured 10 songs from the band's previous five studio releases, eight were re-recorded, remixed and remastered, as well as two new songs.


title: Magnum (band)

text: The band released their 17th studio album "On the 13th Day" in September 2012. "So Let It Rain" was the first single, released in August 2012 via Steamhammer/SPV. The band toured in Europe to promote the album in late 2012 which charted in many countries across Europe including the UK at No. 43. Soon after releasing and touring "On the 13th Day" Magnum revealed that Clarkin was back in the studio writing and recording new songs via Facebook on 4 April 2013. The new album, called "Escape from the Shadow Garden", also was to feature Rodney Matthews's artwork, this time showing similarities to Magnum's early albums "Chase the Dragon" (the tree) and "On a Storyteller's Night" (the storyteller), along with elements from more recent albums such as "On the 13th Day". "Escape From the Shadow Garden" was released in Scandinavia on 19 March 2014, and on 21 March for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, 24 March for the rest of Europe, and 1 April for the US and Canada. As with "On the 13th Day" the band were hosts to their fans at a record launch party held at the Robin 2 in Bilston on 25 March 2014, the day after the UK release. Compared with Magnum's album releases since reformation it was a great commercial success reaching number 14 in the German Albums Chart, 19 in the Swedish Albums Chart, 22 in the Switzerland Albums Chart and 38 in the official UK Albums Chart, a position last achieved by Magnum with "The Eleventh Hour!" in 1983. It also reached number two in the UK Rock Albums Chart. The album was followed by a European tour, during which the live album "Escape from the Shadow Garden – Live 2014" was recorded. It was released in May 2015.


title: Magnum (band)

text: In February 2016, Magum released the album "Sacred Blood "Divine" Lies", 10 brand new tracks forging forward the Magnum sound. With the collaboration once again with Rodney Matthews artwork the release came with bonus videos and bonus tracks. The album was followed by a 33 date tour in Europe, UK and Ireland and then again a winter tour appearing at a few UK and Irish venues. Later that year, Clarkin's daughter suggested a compilation of ballads. Clarkin liked the idea, and after getting a go-ahead from SPV, Magnum got to work with the compilation. This turned out to be a longer process than anticipated. Many songs undertook a lot of treatment to remix, re-master and even re-record complete songs. The new ballads album titled "The Valley of Tears – The Ballads" was released on 6 January 2017.


title: Magnum (band)

text: In December 2016, Mark Stanway left the band in the middle of a tour, due to what he called "irrevocable circumstances". He was replaced by West Midlands session musician Rick Benton, who made his first live appearance in Wolverhampton 2016. Benton was officially announced as a permanent member in January 2017. A few months later, due to conflicting schedules, former Paradise Lost drummer Lee Morris replaced Harry James as the band's drummer. With this new lineup, the band started recording their next album in February 2017. "Lost on the Road to Eternity" was released in January 2018, and the band embarked on a tour, which resulted in the live album "Live at the Symphony Hall" in January 2019.


title: Magnum (band)

text: On 25 June 2019, bassist Al Barrow announced his departure from the band due to his difficulties in spending much time away from his home in America. Dennis Ward (Pink Cream 69, Unisonic) was announced as the new member. "The Serpent Rings", the band's 21st studio album, was released in January 2020. When asked about the future, Clarkin stated that Magnum had another two studio albums signed for with the record label, and that the band has no plan to retire. A tour had been scheduled for the spring, but it had to be postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The band returned to the studio, and a remastered compilation album titled "Dance of the Black Tattoo" was released in January 2021. Their 22nd studio album, "The Monster Roars", was released on 14 January 2022.


title: 9K31 Strela-1

text: The 9K31 "Strela-1" (; ) is a highly mobile, short-range, low altitude infra-red guided surface-to-air missile system. Originally developed by the Soviet Union under the GRAU designation 9K31, it is commonly known by its NATO reporting name, SA-9 "Gaskin". The system consists of a BRDM-2 amphibious vehicle, mounting two pairs of ready-to-fire 9M31 missiles.


title: 9K31 Strela-1

text: The missiles used in this system were developed alongside the ubiquitous Soviet MANPADS 9K32M "Strela-2" (NATO designation SA-7 "Grail") in the 1960s. At first, both missiles were intended to be man-portable systems, but as it became obvious that the Strela-2 would be far more compact, the development goals of Strela-1 were changed. Instead of a battalion-level man-portable system the new criteria called for a regimental vehicle-mounted SAM to support the ZSU-23-4.


title: 9K31 Strela-1

text: As a result of the change in role and more relaxed weight limits of a vehicle-mounted SAM, the design team made the 9M31 a much heavier missile, which permitted fewer design compromises than in the case of Strela-2 to achieve acceptable kinematic performance. The most notable difference is the much larger diameter of the missile and a blunt seeker head spanning the full width of the missile. With all else being equal, the ability of an optical seeker to detect a target is directly proportional to its diameter, but on the other hand aerodynamic drag increases proportionally to the square of the diameter.


title: 9K31 Strela-1

text: The Strela-1 also had a warhead more than twice as heavy as the Strela-2, a proximity fuze, and more effective control surface configuration to provide better maneuverability at the cost of increased drag. The result was a missile four times the weight of Strela-2, with only slightly longer reach, but otherwise much better performance.


title: 9K31 Strela-1

text: Each TEL carries four ready-to fire missiles, but typically no missiles for reloading. Reloading is performed manually and usually takes approximately 5 minutes. The missile boxes are lowered for transport to lower the total height of the vehicle. The driver and commander have periscopes for viewing outside the vehicle when the hatches are closed.


title: 9K31 Strela-1

text: Apart from the new turret, the other major change to the BRDM-2 chassis is the removal of the belly wheels (which are presumably to improve off-road performance). The driver and commander both have infra-red vision systems. The vehicle has standard NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) protection including overpressure. The missiles fold down to the sides of the turret which greatly reduces the height of the vehicle whilst travelling. Each vehicle weighs around 7 tonnes (7.7 short tons) and has a 104 kW (140 hp) engine and a central tire pressure control system.


title: 9K31 Strela-1

text: According to a number of Russian sources, the original 9M31 (US DoD designation SA-9A "Gaskin-Mod0") had a zone of reliable target destruction from 900 to 4200 metres. Several western and also some Russian sources give much higher range estimates of 800 to 6500 m (0.5 to 4 miles); these may refer to maximum firing range against an approaching target and minimum against receding, which are obviously larger envelopes as the target only has to reach the intercept zone by the time the missile would reach it.


title: 9K31 Strela-1

text: The missile is effective against targets receding at a maximum speed of 220 m/s, or approaching at 310 m/s.


title: 9K31 Strela-1

text: The warhead was primarily intended to impact the target directly, and had contact and magnetic fuzes, but also contained a back-up optical proximity fuze to detonate the warhead in case of a near miss. The missile also had an unusual safety mechanism in case of a miss; rather than a self-destruct fuze, if the optical fuze didn't detect a target within 13–16 seconds, the warhead safety mechanism would be engaged to prevent its detonation upon impact.


title: 9K31 Strela-1

text: Propulsion is by a single-stage solid-fuel rocket motor, which is ignited a few meters from the launch tube. As the throw-out charge ejects the missile from its canister, it trails a wire from its rear. The main rocket ignites when the missile reaches the wire's end at a few metres distance, and is cut off from it.


title: 9K31 Strela-1

text: The seeker head is an unusual construction, using uncooled lead sulphide (PbS) detector elements, but with an unusual tracking mechanism. Uncooled PbS elements are commonly used to detect radiation at only short wavelengths of less than 2 micrometers. Only very hot objects emit strongly at such short wavelengths, limiting heat-seeking systems using uncooled PbS detector elements to rear-hemisphere engagements against jet targets, although propeller-driven aircraft and helicopters can of course be engaged from any direction from which the exhaust or other very hot parts of the engine are visible.


title: 9K31 Strela-1

text: The seeker head of 9M31, however, utilizes the PbS elements differently from usual. Taking advantage of the fact that the clear sky gives strong and constant background emission at below 2 micrometer range, peaking at visual light (0.4 to 0.7 micrometer) wavelengths at which PbS in 295 kelvins temperature still provides a response, the seeker head is used to track a change of radiation from the target compared to the background. The method is called optical photocontrast homing (Rus.: фотоконтрастное наведение). The advantage of photocontrast homing method over traditional heat-seeking homing heads using PbS elements is that it negates the most serious drawback of early-generation IR-homing missiles: complete lack of front-aspect engagement capability against approaching jets. Even early cooled seeker heads had usually only limited forward hemisphere engagement abilities, often reducing to zero in case of jets approaching exactly towards the shooter.


title: 9K31 Strela-1

text: The new photo-contrast seeker also had serious limits, which came in the form of rather strict meteorological conditions that had to be met to enable the seeker to detect and track the target. It could only engage targets against background conditions of either clear sky or solid overcast, at least 20 degrees away from the sun, and at least 2 degrees above horizon. Nevertheless, following a study of battlefield conditions and aircraft tactics in past conflicts where short-range air defences had been used, it was concluded that conditions allowing the use of such homing system were common enough to make it a cost-effective design choice and a better trade-off than the only practical alternative available at the time, which was infrared homing restricted to rear-hemisphere engagements.


title: 9K31 Strela-1

text: The fact that Strela-1 would be supplemented by IR-homing Strela-2 and radar-controlled ZSU-23-4 self-propelled AA gun system may have influenced the decision in favour of such an unusual homing system. The main advantage of the choice was that it made Strela-1 the only ADA system in the Soviet tank or motor rifle regiment that could engage approaching targets out to a range of several kilometers – the ZSU being hampered by very short range, and Strela-2 by its limitation to tail-chase engagements of ground attack jets, after the jet had already delivered its attack.


title: 9K31 Strela-1

text: While the 9M31 was accepted to service after state trials in 1968, the trials committee also suggested improvements that should be incorporated into the weapon as soon as possible. As a result of these improvements, the 9M31M "Strela-1M" (US DoD designation SA-9B "Gaskin-Mod1") entered service in 1970.


title: 9K31 Strela-1

text: The new version introduced many incremental improvements in the performance characteristics of the missile: it had a slightly heavier warhead (increased from 2.6 kg to 3 kg), a more accurate guidance system to increase the probability of a hit, and extended range. Range is again reported to be as high as 8000 m (0.35 to 5 miles) in a number of western and also a few Russian sources, whereas for example Petukhov & Shestov, Lappi, and a number Russian web sources give much more modest performance figures; considering the performance of similar systems, at least an intercept range of 8,000 m seems unlikely for such a small, high-drag missile design.


title: 9K31 Strela-1

text: The Strela-1 was deployed in short-range air defense batteries of Soviet motor rifle and tank regiments. The battery consisted of a gun platoon of four ZSU-23-4 Shilkas, and a SAM platoon with four Strela-1 vehicles.


title: 9K31 Strela-1

text: The Strela-1 platoon contains, in addition to a command vehicle, one TEL fitted with a passive radar detection system similar to a Radar Warning Receiver, and several more (usually three) without any radar system. The radar detection system is the 9S16 "Flat Box" and consists of four sensors mounted around the BRDM vehicle giving it 360 degree coverage. This system emits no radar energy but can detect radio waves emitted from aircraft, giving the vehicle warning about incoming aircraft and aiding in the acquisition of the target aircraft with the optical system. Typical tactics call for the launch of two missiles against each target to improve the chance of destroying it.


title: Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

text: The Ferrari 612 Scaglietti (Type F137) () is an executive 2+2 coupé grand tourer manufactured by Italian automobile manufacturer Ferrari between 2004 and 2010. It was designed to replace the smaller 456; its larger size makes it a true 4 seater with adequate space in the rear seats for adults.


title: Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

text: The design, especially the large side scallops and the headlights, pays homage to the 375 MM built in 1954 that director Roberto Rossellini had commissioned for his wife, Ingrid Bergman.


title: Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

text: The 612 is Ferrari's second all-aluminium vehicle, the first being the 360 Modena. Its space frame, manufactured in collaboration with Alcoa, is made from extrusions and castings of the material, and the aluminium body is then welded on. The chassis of the 612 formed the basis of the 599 GTB flagship grand tourer.


title: Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

text: The 612 Scaglietti shares its engine with the 575 Superamerica - despite the name's suggestion that it is a six-litre V12 the displacement is actually . The engine has a compression ratio of 11:1 and enables the car to attain a top speed of and allows it to accelerate from 0–100 km/h (62 mph) in 4 seconds.


title: Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

text: Two choices of transmissions were available on the 612, a 6-speed manual or the 6-speed automated manual paddle shift transmission designated the "F1A", a much refined version of the F1 transmission used in the 360. The gearbox is built by Graziano Trasmissioni.


title: Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

text: There is not much public knowledge about the 612, but from 2006 the "pre OTO" versions could be specced with the Handling Gran Turismo Sport or Handling Gran Turismo Competizione packages. They include new calibration settings for the shock absorbers and the gearbox that was 150ms faster as a result (the gearbox had a mode called F1-S instead of the auto mode). The package also includes polished exhaust grilles. Both packages were coming with the factory sport exhaust to produce a more marked and thrilling sound. The packages also included specific 19 inches modular wheels that were polished on the HGT-C package and painted brake calipers. The only difference between HGT-S and HGT-C is the addition of carbon ceramic brakes on the latter.


title: Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

text: The body of the 612 was produced at Ferrari's Carrozzeria Scaglietti plant, the former home of the car's namesake coachbuilder in Modena, Italy. It was then taken to the Ferrari factory located at Maranello and the V12 engine along with the interior were installed. A total of 3,025 cars were produced, with only 199 equipped with a manual gearbox.


title: Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

text: In 2007 Ferrari announced the availability of the SuperFast robotic (F1) gearbox and a new electro-chromatic glass roof that could tint and lighten at the push of a button for the 612. In early 2008, at the Geneva Car Show, Ferrari unveiled the One-To-One (OTO) personalization program and thereafter the 612 was only available through this special order process. The OTO program took the catalog of options under the existing Carrozzeria Scaglietti Programme a step further. Clients hand-picked a wide variety of options from leather swatches to brake calipers and everything in between. Although the OTO program was launched on the 612 Scaglietti, it was broadened to the entire Ferrari range in due course.


title: Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

text: In 2008, Ferrari recalled several hundred 2005–2007 Ferrari 612 Scaglietti equipped with the automated manual "F1" transmission because the clutch sensor in the transmission could malfunction due to heat from the vehicle under normal operating conditions. This would render the vehicle inoperable and possibly result in a crash.


title: Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

text: In August 2022, another recall was announced, affecting around 23,000 road cars including the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti. This was due to a problem with the brake fluid reservoir cap "where it fails to vent properly, creating a vacuum in the reservoir which can cause brake fluid to leak. If enough fluid leaks, the car could lose partial or complete braking ability, which is dangerous for the driver." The remedy stated involves "replacing the reservoir cap with a modified version that should vent properly, as well as installing software to provide an alternate warning should brake fluid levels still reach dangerous levels. Dealers and owners will be notified on September 24."


title: Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

text: The 612 Sessanta (Italian for "sixty") is a limited (60 unit) variant of the 612 commemorating the 60th anniversary of the company. Standard equipment included 19-inch forged aluminium wheels, black chrome exhaust tips, the automated manual F1 transmission, three-position electrochromic glass roof, start/stop ignition button on the steering wheel, Bose infotainment system and a two-tone paint.


title: Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

text: One-off two-tone 612 Scaglietti special produced which would go on to influence one of the two colors of Sessanta models offered the following year (along with its sister car the 2006 Detroit Motor Show car). With its distinctive Nero and Silver paint scheme, the 612 Pebble Beach was displayed August 2005 at a private event during Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. Press articles in 2006 referred to this as the "Ferrari 612 Pebble Beach".


title: Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

text: Unveiled June 2006 in Japan, the Cornes 30th Anniversary Edition is a limited (20 unit) variant for the Japanese market commemorating the 30th anniversary of importing Ferrari automobiles into Japan. Standard equipment included the HGTC package, Blu Cornes paint scheme, a carbon fibre filler cap, and mesh grille inserts in the front and rear fascias.


title: Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

text: Unveiled at Montreux Grand Prix Switzerland on July 22, 2006, the 612 GP program was in celebration of Ferrari's 40th anniversary in Switzerland and the anniversary of their first Swiss Grand Prix in 1949. The dark grey car - of which 9 were built - featured the HGTC handling package (including carbon-ceramic brakes) bi-colour paint treatment with the 612 Scaglietti's side "scallops" finished in a silver-grey color and color-coded brake calipers. The interior was finished in red with grey trim. The lower dashboard, seat front sections, central tunnel sides, door panels, and lower half of the sports steering wheel all finished in red. A special plaque, imprinted with an outline of the historic Berne track, is mounted on the dash.


title: Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

text: The 612 Kappa is a one-off special built by Pininfarina for Peter S. Kalikow, former chairman of the New York Metropolitan Transport Authority, and a renowned Ferrari collector, and unveiled at the Villa d'Este Concours d'Elegance on April 23, 2006. The Kappa stands out from the standard 612 through the use of multiple unique elements, such as a functional hood scoop on the engine cover lined with polished aluminium, added air vents near the front wheels for improved downforce, the rear taillights found on the Ferrari Enzo along with the F430, personalised door handles containing the initials of the owner, chromed headlight bezels, and a sunroof that utilises electrochromic glass to vary the amount of opacity in the glass. On the request of Kalikow, Ferrari agreed to not copy the distinguished elements of the 612 Kappa into its future models.


title: Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

text: The Ferrari GG50 is a concept car developed by Italian styling house Italdesign Giugiaro, commemorating the 50th anniversary of Giorgetto Giugiaro as an automobile designer. Based on the 612 Scaglietti, the car was designed by Giugiaro himself and has a fastback coupé body style with a shorter wheelbase than the donor car. The car features folding back seats and a tailgate in order for easy entry and exit of the passengers. The folding back seats also result in increased storage space. The roofline has been designed in a downsloping manner, resulting in more headroom for passengers in the rear seats. Apart from that, the car features a redesigned nose, unique wheels, a glass roof, front air vents near the front wheels for increased downforce and improved brake cooling, thinner headlamps and unique quad tail lamps. Giugiaro wanted a Ferrari that he could easily use with his family and which allowed easy entry and exit of passengers from the rear of the car. The mechanical components are the same as those found in a standard 612.


title: Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

text: The car was unveiled at the 2006 New York International Auto Show in April 2006. Ferrari provided a rolling chassis of the 612 Scaglietti and technical support to Italdesign during the build process.


title: Stockton-on-Tees

text: Stockton-on-Tees, often simply referred to as Stockton, is a market town in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham, England. It is on the northern banks of the River Tees, part of the Teesside built-up area. The town had an estimated population of 84,318 in 2011.


title: Stockton-on-Tees

text: It is included in the Tees Valley mayoralty. The borough had a population of approximately , at the ONS


title: Stockton-on-Tees

text: The Tees was straightened in the early 1800s for larger ships to access the town. The ports have since relocated closer to the North Sea and ships are no longer able to sail from the sea to the town due to the Tees Barrage, which was installed to manage tidal flooding. The Stockton and Darlington Railway, on which coal was ferried to the town for shipment, served the port during early part of the Industrial Revolution. The railway was also the world's first permanent steam-locomotive-powered passenger railway.


title: Stockton-on-Tees

text: "Stockton" is an Anglo-Saxon place name with the common ending "ton", meaning "farm", or "homestead". "Stock" is thought by some to derive from the Anglo-Saxon "Stocc", meaning "log", "tree trunk", or "wooden post". "Stockton" could therefore mean "a farm built of logs". This is disputed because when "Stocc" forms the first part of a place name, it usually indicates a derivation from the similar word "Stoc", meaning "cell", "monastery", or "place". "Stoc" in place name such as Stoke or Stow usually indicates farms which belonged to a manor or religious house. It is thought that Stockton fell into this category, and perhaps the name is an indication that Stockton was an outpost of Durham or Norton which were both important Anglo-Saxon centres. This is a matter of dispute, but Stockton was a constituent part of Norton until the eighteenth century, when it became an independent parish in its own right. Today the roles have been reversed, and Norton has been incorporated into Stockton.


title: Stockton-on-Tees

text: Stockton is reportedly the home of the fossilised remains of the most northerly hippopotamus ever discovered. In 1958, an archeological dig north-west of the town uncovered a 125,000-year-old hippo's molar tooth. However, no one knows exactly where the tooth was discovered, who discovered it, or why the dig took place. The tooth was sent to the borough's librarian and curator, G. F. Leighton, who then sent it to the Natural History Museum in London. Since then, the tooth has been missing despite efforts to locate it.


title: Stockton-on-Tees

text: Stockton began as an Anglo-Saxon settlement on high ground close to the northern bank of the River Tees.