title: XPeng

text: XPeng uses a combination of lidar, radar, and a camera for driver aid. The lidar system uses laser light to create a 3D space by measuring the distance between objects and the time it takes for the light to bounce back. Xinzhou Wu stated "Lidar will provide the 3D drivable space and precise depth estimation to small moving obstacles even like kids and pets, and obviously, other pedestrians and the motorbikes which are a nightmare for anybody who's working on driving", The radar will provide the vehicles with the ability to detect the speed of an object and also the location. The camera will provide the vehicle with basic semantic information as stated by Xinzhou Wu. Lidar has come down in price significantly over the last few years with drone companies such as DJI announcing the integration in their aerial surveying technology. The Zenmuse L1 - Lidar + RGB camera starts at a price of 13,100$. XPeng's lidar system is provided by Livox. The decreasing price and increased innovation and development in lidar is making it cheaper for consumers to enjoy. "Our next vehicle is targeting the economy class. I would say it's mid-range in terms of price".


title: XPeng

text: XPeng's batteries are developed by China's largest battery developer, Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL).


title: XPeng

text: XPeng has moved away from CTP batteries to LFP batteries, which negates the need for cobalt in a battery, one of the most expensive materials in a battery. However LFP batteries do reduce the range of the vehicle. "Xpeng announces they were launching new versions of the P7 sedan and G3 SUV with LFP batteries. The new versions with lithium iron phosphate cells will be available for the rear-wheel-drive P7 sports sedan first, effectively driving down the 700 km long-range to 480 kilometres." LFP batteries however do provide longer life cycles and are generally safer.


title: XPeng

text: XPeng offers free lifetime charging similar to what Tesla has offered their customers around the world. XPeng's charging network has expanded to over 1,000 charging stations within China, and customers have access to another 200,000 third party stations positioned in major cities. XPeng intends to construct more than 50 S4 sites in large cities by the end of 2022, with an additional 20 sites each in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, with Shenzhen following in 2023. By 2025, Xpeng hopes to have 2,000 super-fast charging stations.


title: XPeng

text: XPeng has two factories, one in Zhaoqing and the other being built in Guangzhou. The Zhaoqing factory has an annual production capacity of 100,000 vehicles. XPeng has only sold 50,000 vehicles since its first offering. The new Guangzhou factories construction was started in September 2020. Annual production of the Guangzhou factory has yet to be started but XPeng staff has said "XPeng's new Smart EV Manufacturing Base in Guangzhou will significantly expand the Company's production capacity and accelerate XPeng's momentum to achieve its goals in innovation, technological advancement and growth." A third factory has also been acquired, this factory will reside in Wuhan which will produce another 100,000 vehicles annually. The factories construction has not been started but has support from the government of Wuhan. The factory is stated to be an important location for XPeng as it will enhance XPeng's distribution. Chairman and CEO He said "Wuhan's strategic location as an auto manufacturing and distribution hub will further enhance our supply chain management, sales and distribution network in the future."


title: XPeng

text: China is the largest market for automotive sales accounting for 30% of the worlds vehicle sales in 2020. Between 2009 and 2012, China identified the electric EV market as the quickest and easiest way for entering the auto industry market. Between 2009 and 2016, the Chinese Central Government has spent an estimated 12.6 billion yuan or (1.9 billion) on subsidies for new energy vehicles.


title: XPeng

text: Between 2013 and 2017, China witnessed the worst air pollution it has ever seen. China initiated a very effective policy of cutting its vehicle registration lottery from 250,000 to 150,000 and allotting 20,000 of those slots to new energy vehicles. This stimulated the electric vehicle market of China and pushed people to look into new energy vehicles over fossil fuel vehicles. In 2015, Beijing issued a red alert on air quality and required conventional vehicles to operate on alternating days whilst electric and new energy vehicles could operate every day. China's EV market exploded from 18,000 vehicles in 2013 to 330,000 vehicles sold in China in 2015. In 2018, more than 1 million electric vehicles were produced in China.


title: XPeng

text: The global auto industry has witnessed growth from Chinese start ups like XPeng, NIO and Li in the local Chinese market for EVs. The global auto industry is now witnessing and experiencing competition with these non-state owned Chinese startups. China has gained an increase in desire for SUVs. While XPeng, NIO and Li fall behind in subcompact and small cars to foreign brands like Tesla and Mercedes, domestic brands now account for 56% of the electric SUV market. XPeng's sales have gone from 630 EV sales in January 2020 to 6,015 EV sales in January 2021.


title: XPeng

text: Europe is currently the second largest EV market accounting for 28% of the global market. China's EV exports lag behind that of the US and Europe's EV companies. In late December 2020, XPeng stated it would be delivering the G3 SUV to Norway. "Our launch in Europe comes just as consumers are shifting in increasingly large numbers to more sustainable personal transport, and at a tipping point where governments around the world are stepping up their zero-emission efforts", said He. XPeng has also decided that it would be selling its P7 EV sedan to the European market this year.


title: XPeng

text: As of 2021, XPeng has sold 211 G3 SUVs in Norway. XPeng stated it will be tough to break into the European auto market but with policies in Europe further encouraging the purchase of EV cars, XPeng will seek to find those consumers. Without infrastructure to build XPeng vehicles, it will also add to the challenge of breaking into the European auto market.


title: XPeng

text: On 7 July 2021, XPeng debuted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The choice to bring the company to the exchange before a second listing could result in the company taking a better position in the city's share indexes. As a dual-primary listing, XPeng will be eligible for Stock Connect, an investment channel facilitating trade between Hong Kong and mainland China. With its listing in Hong Kong, XPeng became the first US-listed Chinese firm with dual primary listing. The move will as well provide some security for the company in the event of being kicked off the US market.


title: XPeng

text: In July 2018, the United States Department of Justice charged an ex-Apple employee for stealing the trade secrets of Apple's autonomous car project in an attempt to get a job at XPeng. In August 2022, the former Apple engineer, Xiaolang Zhang, pleaded guilty to trade secret theft in federal court.


title: XPeng

text: In March 2019, Tesla sued Cao Guangzhi, a former Tesla employee, accusing him of stealing its Autopilot source code and bringing them to XPeng. Cao rejected the accusation of IP theft, but later said he had uploaded Tesla's source code to his iCloud prior to leaving Tesla. In response to Tesla's accusations, XPeng launched an internal investigation. In November 2020, XPeng provided a copy of its source code to a neutral third party to compare to Tesla's to prove nothing was copied. Neither XPeng or any subsidiaries were parties to Tesla's original lawsuit. A court-appointed neutral third party concluded XPeng's code did not use Tesla's IP after comparing both source codes as provided by the companies. Tesla and Cao moved to settle soon after this was established.


title: XPeng

text: In December 2021, XPeng was fined for the illegal collection of the facial data of 430,000 visitors of its stores. The fine was 100,000 yuan ($15,716).


title: Test statistic

text: A test statistic is a statistic (a quantity derived from the sample) used in statistical hypothesis testing. A hypothesis test is typically specified in terms of a test statistic, considered as a numerical summary of a data-set that reduces the data to one value that can be used to perform the hypothesis test. In general, a test statistic is selected or defined in such a way as to quantify, within observed data, behaviours that would distinguish the null from the alternative hypothesis, where such an alternative is prescribed, or that would characterize the null hypothesis if there is no explicitly stated alternative hypothesis.


title: Test statistic

text: An important property of a test statistic is that its sampling distribution under the null hypothesis must be calculable, either exactly or approximately, which allows "p"-values to be calculated. A "test statistic" shares some of the same qualities of a descriptive statistic, and many statistics can be used as both test statistics and descriptive statistics. However, a test statistic is specifically intended for use in statistical testing, whereas the main quality of a descriptive statistic is that it is easily interpretable. Some informative descriptive statistics, such as the sample range, do not make good test statistics since it is difficult to determine their sampling distribution.


title: Test statistic

text: Suppose the task is to test whether a coin is fair (i.e. has equal probabilities of producing a head or a tail). If the coin is flipped 100 times and the results are recorded, the raw data can be represented as a sequence of 100 heads and tails. If there is interest in the marginal probability of obtaining a tail, only the number "T" out of the 100 flips that produced a tail needs to be recorded. But "T" can also be used as a test statistic in one of two ways:


title: Test statistic

text: Using one of these sampling distributions, it is possible to compute either a one-tailed or two-tailed p-value for the null hypothesis that the coin is fair. Note that the test statistic in this case reduces a set of 100 numbers to a single numerical summary that can be used for testing.


title: Test statistic

text: One-sample tests are appropriate when a sample is being compared to the population from a hypothesis. The population characteristics are known from theory or are calculated from the population.


title: Test statistic

text: Two-sample tests are appropriate for comparing two samples, typically experimental and control samples from a scientifically controlled experiment.


title: Test statistic

text: Paired tests are appropriate for comparing two samples where it is impossible to control important variables. Rather than comparing two sets, members are paired between samples so the difference between the members becomes the sample. Typically the mean of the differences is then compared to zero. The common example scenario for when a paired difference test is appropriate is when a single set of test subjects has something applied to them and the test is intended to check for an effect.


title: Test statistic

text: Z-tests are appropriate for comparing means under stringent conditions regarding normality and a known standard deviation.


title: Test statistic

text: Chi-squared tests use the same calculations and the same probability distribution for different applications:


title: Test statistic

text: F-tests (analysis of variance, ANOVA) are commonly used when deciding whether groupings of data by category are meaningful. If the variance of test scores of the left-handed in a class is much smaller than the variance of the whole class, then it may be useful to study lefties as a group. The null hypothesis is that two variances are the same – so the proposed grouping is not meaningful.


title: Test statistic

text: In the table below, the symbols used are defined at the bottom of the table. Many other tests can be found in . Proofs exist that the test statistics are appropriate.


title: TVS Group

text: TVS Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate with its principal headquarters in Madurai and international headquarters in Chennai. It has more than 50 subsidiaries including the two-wheeler manufacturer TVS Motor Company and TVS Supply Chain Solutions.


title: TVS Group

text: The group's subsidiaries are owned by three holding companies, viz., TVS & Sons, Sundaram Industries and TVS Holding Companies. TVS & Sons is the parent company of the group.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: Scientific skepticism or rational skepticism (also spelled scepticism), sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a position in which one questions the veracity of claims lacking empirical evidence. In practice, the term most commonly references the examination of claims and theories that appear to be beyond mainstream science, rather than the routine discussions and challenges among scientists. Scientific skepticism differs from philosophical skepticism, which questions humans' ability to claim any knowledge about the nature of the world and how they perceive it, and the similar but distinct methodological skepticism, which is a systematic process of being skeptical about (or doubting) the truth of one's beliefs.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: The skeptical movement (British spelling: sceptical movement) is a contemporary social movement based on the idea of scientific skepticism. The movement has the goal of investigating claims made on fringe topics and determining whether they are supported by empirical research and are reproducible, as part of a methodological norm pursuing "the extension of certified knowledge".


title: Scientific skepticism

text: Roots of the movement date at least from the 19th century, when people started publicly raising questions regarding the unquestioned acceptance of claims about spiritism, of various widely-held superstitions, and of pseudoscience.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: Publications such as those of the Dutch Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij (1881) also targeted medical quackery. Using as a template the Belgian organization founded in 1949, Comité Para, Americans Paul Kurtz and Marcello Truzzi founded the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), in Amherst, New York, in 1976. Now known as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), this organization has inspired others to form similar groups worldwide.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: Scientific skeptics maintain that empirical investigation of reality leads to the most reliable empirical knowledge, and suggest that the scientific method is best suited to verifying results. Scientific skeptics attempt to evaluate claims based on verifiability and falsifiability; they discourage accepting claims which rely on faith or anecdotal evidence.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: Paul Kurtz described scientific skepticism in his 1992 book The "New Skepticism", calling it an essential part of scientific inquiry. The Skeptics Society describes it as "the application of reason to any and all ideas—no sacred cows allowed." Robert K. Merton introduced Mertonian norms, which assert that all ideas must be tested and are subject to rigorous, structured community scrutiny. Kendrick Frazier said that scientific skeptics have a commitment to science, reason, evidence, and the quest for truth."" Carl Sagan emphasized the importance of being able to ask skeptical questions, recognizing fallacious or fraudulent arguments, and considering the validity of an argument rather than simply whether we like the conclusion. Similarly, Steven Novella described skepticism as selecting "beliefs and conclusions that are reliable and valid to ones that are comforting or convenient" and as the study of "pitfalls of human reason and the mechanisms of deception so as to avoid being deceived by others or themselves". Brian Dunning called skepticism "the process of finding a supported conclusion, not the justification of a preconceived conclusion.<nowiki>"</nowiki>


title: Scientific skepticism

text: Skeptics often focus their criticism on claims they consider implausible, dubious or clearly contradictory to generally-accepted science. Scientific skeptics do not assert that unusual claims should be automatically rejected out of hand on "a priori" grounds—rather they argue that one should critically examine claims of paranormal or anomalous phenomena and that extraordinary claims would require extraordinary evidence in their favor before they could be accepted as having validity. From a scientific point of view, skeptics judge ideas on many criteria, including falsifiability, Occam's Razor, Morgan's Canon and explanatory power, as well as the degree to which their predictions match experimental results.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: Skepticism in general may be deemed part of the scientific method; for instance an experimental result is not regarded as established until it can be shown to be repeatable independently.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: The Sci.Skeptic FAQ characterizes the skeptic spectrum as divided into "wet" and "dry" sceptics, primarily based on the level of engagement with those promoting claims that appear to be pseudoscience; the dry skeptics preferring to debunk and ridicule, in order to avoid giving attention and thus credence to the promoters, and the "wet" skeptics, preferring slower and more considered engagement, in order to avoid appearing sloppy and ill-considered and thus similar to the groups all skeptics opposed.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: Ron Lindsay has argued that while some non-scientific claims appear to be harmless or "soft targets", it is important to continue to address them and the underlying habits of thought that lead to them so that we do not "have a lot more people believing that 9/11 was an inside job, that climate change is a hoax, that our government is controlled by aliens, and so forth—and those beliefs are far from harmless".


title: Scientific skepticism

text: With regard to the skeptical social movement, Daniel Loxton refers to other movements already promoting "humanism, atheism, rationalism, science education and even critical thinking" beforehand.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: He saw the demand for the new movement—a movement of people called "skeptics"—as based on a lack of interest by the scientific community to address paranormal and fringe-science claims. In line with Kendrick Frazier, he describes the movement as a surrogate in that area for institutional science.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: The movement set up a distinct field of study, and provided an organizational structure, while "the long-standing genre of individual skeptical writing" lacked such a community and background.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: The skeptical movement has had issues with allegations of sexism. Mary Coulman identified a disparity between women and men in the movement in a 1985 skeptic newsletter. The skeptic movement has generally been made up of men; at a 1987 conference the members there discussed the fact that the attendees were predominantly older white men and a 1991 listing of 50 CSICOP fellows included four women. Following a 2011 conference, Rebecca Watson, a prominent skeptic, raised issues of the way female skeptics are targeted with online harassment including threats of sexual violence by opponents of the movement, and also raised issues of sexism within the movement itself. While she received some support in response to her discussion of sexism within the movement, she later became a target of virulent online harassment, even from fellow skeptics, after posting an online video that discussed her discomfort with being propositioned in a confined space. This became known as "Elevatorgate", based on Watson's discussion about being propositioned in a hotel elevator in the early morning after a skeptic event.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: The verb "to debunk" is used to describe efforts by skeptics to expose or discredit claims believed to be false, exaggerated, or pretentious. It is closely associated with skeptical investigation or rational inquiry of controversial topics (compare list of topics characterized as pseudoscience) such as U.F.O.s, claimed paranormal phenomena, cryptids, conspiracy theories, alternative medicine, religion, or exploratory or fringe areas of scientific or pseudoscientific research.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: Further topics that scientifically skeptical literature questions include health claims surrounding certain foods, procedures, and alternative medicines; the plausibility and existence of supernatural abilities (e.g. tarot reading) or entities (e.g. poltergeists, angels, gods—including Zeus); the monsters of cryptozoology (e.g. the Loch Ness monster); as well as creationism/intelligent design, dowsing, conspiracy theories, and other claims the skeptic sees as unlikely to be true on scientific grounds.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: Skeptics such as James Randi have become famous for debunking claims related to some of these. Paranormal investigator Joe Nickell cautions, however, that "debunkers" must be careful to engage paranormal claims seriously and without bias. He explains that open minded investigation is more likely to teach and change minds than debunking.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: A striking characteristic of the skeptical movement is the fact that while most of the phenomena covered, such as astrology and homeopathy, have been debunked again and again, they stay popular. Frazier reemphasized in 2018 that "[w]e need independent, evidence-based, science-based critical investigation and inquiry now more than perhaps at any other time in our history."


title: Scientific skepticism

text: The scientific skepticism community has traditionally been focused on what people believe rather than why they believe—there might be psychological, cognitive or instinctive reasons for belief when there is little evidence for such beliefs. According to Hammer, the bulk of the skeptical movement's literature works on an implicit model, that belief in the irrational is being based on scientific illiteracy or cognitive illusions. He points to the skeptical discussion about astrology: The skeptical notion of astrology as a "failed hypothesis" fails to address basic anthropological assumptions about astrology as a form of ritualized divination. While the anthropological approach attempts to explain the activities of astrologers and their clients, the skeptical movement's interest in the cultural aspects of such beliefs is muted.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: According to sociologist David J. Hess, the skeptical discourse tends to set science and the skeptical project apart from the social and the economic. From this perspective, he argues that skepticism takes on some aspects of a sacred discourse, as in Emile Durkheim's "Elementary Forms of the Religious Life"—Science, seen as pure and sacred (motivated by values of the mind and reason), is set apart from popular dealings with the paranormal, seen as profane (permeated by the economic and the social); obscuring the confrontation between science and religion. Hess states as well a strong tendency in othering: both skeptics and their opponents see the other as being driven by materialistic philosophy and material gain and assume themselves to have purer motives.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: While not all pseudoscientific beliefs are necessarily dangerous, some can potentially be harmful. Plato believed that to release others from ignorance despite their initial resistance is a great and noble thing. Modern skeptical writers address this question in a variety of ways. Bertrand Russell argued that some individual actions based on beliefs for which there is no evidence of efficacy, can result in destructive actions.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: James Randi often wrote on the issue of fraud by psychics and faith healers. Unqualified medical practice and alternative medicine can result in serious injury and death. Skeptical activist Tim Farley, who aims to create catalogue of harmful pseudoscientific practices and cases of damage caused by them, estimates documented number of killed or injured to be more than 600,000. Richard Dawkins points to religion as a source of violence (notably in "The God Delusion"), and considers creationism a threat to biology. Some skeptics, such as the members of "The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe" podcast, oppose certain new religious movements because of their cult-like behaviors.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: Leo Igwe, Junior Fellow at the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies and past Research Fellow of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF), wrote "A Manifesto for a Skeptical Africa", which received endorsements from multiple public activists in Africa, as well as skeptical endorsers around the world. He is a Nigerian human rights advocate and campaigner against the impacts of child witchcraft accusations. Igwe came into conflict with high-profile witchcraft believers, leading to attacks on himself and his family.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: In 2018, Amardeo Sarma provided some perspective on the state of the skeptical movement by addressing "the essence of contemporary skepticism and [highlighting] the vital nonpartisan and science-based role of skeptics in preventing deception and harm." He emphasized the dangers of pseudoscience as a reason for prioritizing skeptical work.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: Richard Cameron Wilson, in an article in "New Statesman", wrote that "the bogus sceptic is, in reality, a disguised dogmatist, made all the more dangerous for his success in appropriating the mantle of the unbiased and open-minded inquirer". Some advocates of discredited intellectual positions (such as AIDS denial, Holocaust denial and climate change denial) engage in pseudoskeptical behavior when they characterize themselves as "skeptics". This is despite their cherry picking of evidence that conforms to a pre-existing belief. According to Wilson, who highlights the phenomenon in his 2008 book "Don't Get Fooled Again", the characteristic feature of false skepticism is that it "centres not on an impartial search for the truth, but on the defence of a preconceived ideological position".


title: Scientific skepticism

text: Scientific skepticism is itself sometimes criticized on this ground. The term "pseudoskepticism" has found occasional use in controversial fields where opposition from scientific skeptics is strong. For example, in 1994, Susan Blackmore, a parapsychologist who became more skeptical and eventually became a Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) fellow in 1991, described what she termed the "worst kind of pseudoskepticism":


title: Scientific skepticism

text: Commenting on the labels "dogmatic" and "pathological" that the "Association for Skeptical Investigation" puts on critics of paranormal investigations, Bob Carroll of the "Skeptic's Dictionary" argues that that association "is a group of pseudo-skeptical paranormal investigators and supporters who do not appreciate criticism of paranormal studies by truly genuine skeptics and critical thinkers. The only skepticism this group promotes is skepticism of critics and [their] criticisms of paranormal studies."


title: Scientific skepticism

text: According to skeptic author Daniel Loxton, "skepticism is a story without a beginning or an end." His 2013 article in "Skeptic" magazine "Why Is There a Skeptical Movement" claims a history of two millennia of paranormal skepticism. He is of the opinion that the practice, problems, and central concepts extend all the way to antiquity and refers to a debunking tale as told in some versions of the Old Testament, where the Prophet Daniel exposes a tale of a "living" statue as a scam. According to Loxton, throughout history, there are further examples of individuals practicing critical inquiry and writing books or performing publicly against particular frauds and popular superstitions, including people like Lucian of Samosata (2nd century), Michel de Montaigne (16th century), Thomas Ady and Thomas Browne (17th century), Antoine Lavoisier and Benjamin Franklin (18th century), many different philosophers, scientists and magicians throughout the 19th and early 20th century up until and after Harry Houdini. However, skeptics banding together in societies that research the paranormal and fringe science is a modern phenomenon.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: Two early important works influential to the skeptical movement were Daniel Webster Hering's "Foibles and Fallacies of Science" (1924) and D. H. Rawcliffe's "The Psychology of the Occult".


title: Scientific skepticism

text: Loxton mentions the Belgian Comité Para (1949) as the oldest "broad mandate" skeptical organization. Although it was preceded by the Dutch Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij (VtdK) (1881), which is therefore considered the oldest skeptical organization by others, the VtdK only focuses on fighting quackery, and thus has a 'narrow mandate'. The Comité Para was partly formed as a response to a predatory industry of bogus psychics who were exploiting the grieving relatives of people who had gone missing during the Second World War. In contrast, Michael Shermer traces the origins of the modern scientific skeptical movement to Martin Gardner's 1952 book "Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science".


title: Scientific skepticism

text: In 1968, the French Association for Scientific Information (AFIS) was founded. AFIS strives to promote science against those who deny its cultural value, abuse it for criminal purposes or as a cover for quackery. According to AFIS, science itself cannot solve humanity's problems, nor can one solve them without using the scientific method. It maintains that people should be informed about scientific and technical advancements and the problems it helps to solve. Its magazine, "Science et pseudo-sciences", attempts to distribute scientific information in a language that everyone can understand.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: In 1976, the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), known as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) since November 2006, was founded in the United States. Some see this as the "birth of modern skepticism", however, founder Paul Kurtz actually modeled it after the Comité Para, including its name. Kurtz' motive was being "dismayed ... by the rising tide of belief in the paranormal and the lack of adequate scientific examinations of these claims."


title: Scientific skepticism

text: Kurtz was an atheist and had also founded the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion. While he saw both aspects as being covered in the skeptical movement, he had recommended CSICOP to focus on paranormal and pseudoscientific claims and to leave religious aspects to others. Despite not being the oldest, CSICOP was "the first successful, broad-mandate North American skeptical organization of the contemporary period", popularized the usage of the terms "skeptic", "skeptical" and "skepticism" by its magazine, "Skeptical Inquirer", and directly inspired the foundation of many other skeptical organizations throughout the world, especially in Europe.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: These included Australian Skeptics (1980), Vetenskap och Folkbildning (Sweden, 1982), New Zealand Skeptics (1986), GWUP (Austria, Germany and Switzerland, 1987), Skepsis r.y. (Finland, 1987), Stichting Skepsis (Netherlands, 1987), CICAP (Italy, 1989) and SKEPP (Dutch-speaking Belgium, 1990).


title: Scientific skepticism

text: Besides scientists such as astronomers, stage magicians like James Randi were important in investigating charlatans and exposing their trickery. In 1996 Randi formed the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) and created the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, where anyone who could demonstrate paranormal abilities, under mutually agreed-upon controlled circumstances, could claim the prize. After Randi's retirement in 2015, the Paranormal Challenge was officially terminated by the JREF with the prize unclaimed:


title: Scientific skepticism

text: Other influential second-generation American organizations were The Skeptics Society (founded in 1992 by Michael Shermer), the New England Skeptical Society (originating in 1996) and the Independent Investigations Group (formed in 2000 by James Underdown).


title: Scientific skepticism

text: After the Revolutions of 1989, Eastern Europe saw a surge in quackery and paranormal beliefs that were no longer restrained by the generally secular Communist regimes or the Iron curtain and its information barriers. The foundation of many new skeptical organizations was as well intending to protect consumers. These included the Czech Skeptics' Club Sisyfos (1995), the Hungarian Skeptic Society (2006), the Polish Sceptics Club (2010) and the Russian-speaking Skeptic Society (2013). The Austrian Skeptical Society in Vienna (founded in 2002) deals with issues such as Johann Grander's "vitalized water" and the use of dowsing at the Austrian Parliament".


title: Scientific skepticism

text: The European Skeptics Congress (ESC) has been held throughout Europe since 1989, from 1994 onwards co-ordinated by the European Council of Skeptical Organizations. In the United States, The Amaz!ng Meeting (TAM) hosted by the JREF in Las Vegas had been the most important skeptical conference since 2003, with two spin-off conferences in London, UK (2009 and 2010) and one in Sydney, Australia (2010). Since 2010, the Merseyside Skeptics Society and Greater Manchester Skeptics jointly organized (QED) in Manchester, UK. World Skeptics Congresses have been held so far, namely in Buffalo, New York (1996), Heidelberg, Germany (1998), Sydney, Australia (2000), Burbank, California (2002), Abano Terme, Italy (2004) and Berlin, Germany (2012).


title: Scientific skepticism

text: In 1991, the Center for Inquiry, a US think-tank, brought the CSICOP and the Council for Secular Humanism (CSH) under one umbrella. In January 2016, the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science announced its merger with the Center for Inquiry.


title: Scientific skepticism

text: In 2010, as a form of skeptical outreach to the general population, Susan Gerbic launched the Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW) project to improve skeptical content on Wikipedia.


title: Bomb suit

text: A bomb suit, Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) suit or a blast suit is a heavy suit of body armor designed to withstand the pressure generated by a bomb and any fragments the bomb may produce. It is usually worn by trained personnel attempting bomb disposal. In contrast to ballistic body armors, which usually focus on protecting the torso and head, a bomb suit must protect all parts of the body, since the dangers posed by a bomb's explosion affect the entire body.


title: Bomb suit

text: Parts of the bomb suit overlap for maximum protection. The suit protects in several different ways. It deflects or stops projectiles that may come from an exploded device. It also stops or greatly decreases the pressure of the blast wave being transmitted to the person inside of the suit. Most bomb suits, such as the Advanced Bomb Suit, use layers of Kevlar, foam, and plastic to accomplish these functions.


title: Bomb suit

text: In order to maximize protection, bomb suits come with a pair of interchangeable gloves and wrist guard attachments. This gives the wearer's hands mobility and protection needed for the task and avoid cross contamination of any evidence found (e.g., fingerprints).


title: Bomb suit

text: EOD technicians wear bomb suits during reconnaissance, 'render safe' or disruption procedures on potential or confirmed explosive threats. Such suits must provide a tremendous degree of protection from fragmentation, blast overpressure, thermal and tertiary effects should the threat device detonate. At the same time, the suit can significantly hinder their mobility or situational awareness.


title: Bomb suit

text: Modern day EOD units had their beginnings in World War II, when the German Luftwaffe greatly increased the number of bombs dropped on British soil. As the number of civilian casualties grew due to delayed explosion of bombs, which had often penetrated several feet into the ground after being dropped from planes, men were trained to defuse the unexploded devices and groups were dedicated to try to keep up with that task. As fuse designs changed, many of these early UXD (unexploded device) soldiers died until more successful means to defeat a new design were developed.


title: Bomb suit

text: As the United States saw its likely involvement in World War II, they requested help from the British to train a civilian EOD force that could defuse unexploded bombs in urban areas. The human cost of learning the variety of fuses and how to defeat them was lower for the U.S. due to this education. After it became clear that EOD tasks were best handled by the military, the U.S. tried several ways to organize EOD personnel that would allow for the need for both specialized training and diverse deployment.


title: Bomb suit

text: In photos of early missions to defuse unexploded bombs, the men are not wearing any protective gear. In fact, they are often shirtless to cope with the heat generated by the manual labor of digging around the devices before they could be defused. Basically, the individual defusing the bomb succeeded - or failed with fatal results.


title: Bomb suit

text: The first EOD suits consisted of Kevlar type material and/or armor plates made of metal or fiber-reinforced plastic. Their purpose was to protect the wearer from penetrating injuries by fragments from an exploding device. In the mid-1990s, research showed that these materials alone were not effective against the blast wave itself, which can cause blast lung and other potentially deadly internal injuries. Modern EOD suits have layers of Kevlar, plating, and foam to provide protection from both fragments and the blast wave itself.


title: Bomb suit

text: The threats posed by an Improvised Explosive Device, commonly known as an IED, can also include chemical or biological agents. This has led to significant advancements since 1999 in the design of bomb disposal suits and helmets. For example, a modern bomb suit may address both conventional blast threats and chemical/biological agents by incorporating a chemical protective undergarment and a helmet compatible with a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA).


title: Bomb suit

text: In 2006, the U.S. National Institute of Justice supported a program to develop a national testing standard for EOD suits so that the protection afforded by a given suit can be described in a standard way. The goal was to have a means to compare the performance of different designs with each other and with expected threats, similar to the NIJ standards that are widely used to test and compare body armor or materials used to stop ballistic threats.


title: Bomb suit

text: Developers must consider more than just protection, since a person must work on a stressful task that also requires fine motor skills while wearing a bomb suit. Other factors that must be considered include


title: Bomb suit

text: The pieces of a bomb suit overlap with other pieces for maximum protection from the front and minimal protection for the back and sides from an explosive device. The suit protects in several ways. It deflects or stops projectiles that may come from an exploded device. The second way it protects is by stopping the blast wave from being transmitted and injuring the wearer. Usually, Kevlar, foam, and plastic are layered and covered with fire retardant materials to accomplish these things. It is important that the fibers are strain-rate sensitive, or become more rigid if struck by an object traveling at high speeds, according to a ballistics engineer working for bomb suit manufacturer HighCom Security.


title: Bomb suit

text: Until the mid-1990s, EOD suits consisted of Kevlar and/or armor plates to stop projectiles. However, the suits did not offer much protection against the blast wave itself. The most recognized injury due to the blast wave is called “blast lung.” The lungs (and other internal organs) can be injured by the blast wave and bleed, even when there is no penetrating injury; such internal injuries can be fatal. In the mid-1990s, research conducted in the UK showed that textile and rigid plate armor by themselves do not protect the lungs from blast injury. It was found that a layer with high acoustic impedance with a backing of a softer, low acoustic impedance layer (such as low density foam) would protect from blast injury. However, it was also shown that it is important to understand the frequency content of the applied blast wave and to experimentally test the way materials are put together to make sure they are effective.


title: Bomb suit

text: To effectively stop a blast wave, thick layers of Kevlar, foam and plastic are needed to prevent serious bodily harm. Since the entire body needs protection, the resulting bomb suit is heavy ( or more), hot to the point of risking heat stress, and impairs movement. Therefore, often one individual will put on a suit to approach a device for defusing after it has been identified. The weight of the suit is often a tradeoff with the amount of protection it can provide. A range of bomb suits are thus available so that agencies can choose the needed protection without unnecessary weight when possible. A minimal suit consists of a jacket, apron and helmet that weigh as little as . These are listed as being suitable for demining activities but not EOD.


title: Bomb suit

text: The materials needed to make bomb suits protective do not release body heat generated by the wearer. The result can be heat stress, which can lead to illness and disorientation, reducing the wearer’s ability to accomplish the task. The most recent models of bomb suits include battery-operated cooling systems to prevent heat stress. One manufacturer’s study claims that the internal cooling systems on 39 lbs and 81 lbs bomb suits helped the wearer stay at workable temperatures for up to an hour, even in a hot environment.


title: Frederick Augustus III of Saxony

text: Frederick Augustus III (; 25 May 1865 – 18 February 1932), was the last King of Saxony (1904–1918). Born in Dresden, Frederick Augustus was the eldest son of King George of Saxony and his wife, Maria Anna of Portugal.


title: Frederick Augustus III of Saxony

text: Frederick Augustus served in the Royal Saxon Army before becoming king, and later was promoted to . Though well-loved by his subjects, he voluntarily abdicated as king on 13 November 1918, after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I. He died in Sibyllenort in Lower Silesia (now Szczodre in Poland) and was buried in Dresden.


title: Frederick Augustus III of Saxony

text: Frederick Augustus entered the Royal Saxon Army in 1877 as a second lieutenant, despite being only twelve years old. Given his royal status, he advanced rapidly through the ranks. He served initially with the Royal Saxon "1. (Leib-) Grenadier Regiment Nr. 100". He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1883, captain in 1887, major in 1889 and lieutenant colonel in 1891. By 1891, he was commander of the 1st Battalion of "Schützen (Füsilier)-Regiment Nr. 108". He was promoted to colonel on 22 September 1892 and took command of the "Schützen (Füsilier)-Regiment Nr. 108" on the same day. On 20 September 1894, the 29-year-old prince was promoted to "Generalmajor" and given command of the 1st Royal Saxon Infantry Brigade Nr. 45 (Saxon higher units usually bore two numbers: one their Saxon Army number and the other their number in the Prussian Army order of battle). On 22 May 1898, he was promoted to "Generalleutnant" and given command of the 1st Royal Saxon Infantry Division Nr. 23. He commanded this division until 26 August 1902, when he took command of the XII (1st Royal Saxon) Corps. He was promoted to "General der Infanterie" one month later, on 24 September. He remained in command of the corps until October 1904, when he became king. His military career effectively ended with his accession to the throne, but he was promoted subsequently to "Generaloberst" and then to "Generalfeldmarschall" (on 9 September 1912).


title: Frederick Augustus III of Saxony

text: Following his father's accession, he was in July 1902 appointed "à la suite" of the German Marine Infantry by Emperor Wilhelm II during a visit to Kiel.


title: Frederick Augustus III of Saxony

text: Frederick Augustus married Archduchess Louise of Austria, in Vienna on 21 November 1891. They were divorced in 1903 by the royal decree of the King after she ran away while pregnant with her last child. Luise's flight from Dresden was due to her father-in-law's threatening to have her interned in a mental asylum at the Sonnenstein Castle for life. Her brother supported her in her wish to escape from Saxony. Emperor Franz-Josef of Austria-Hungary did not recognise the divorce.


title: Frederick Augustus III of Saxony

text: Their two eldest sons, Friedrich August and Friedrich Christian were born in the same year, 1893, but were not twins. Friedrich August was born in January, while Friedrich Christian was born in December.


title: Punic religion

text: The Punic religion, Carthaginian religion, or Western Phoenician religion in the western Mediterranean was a direct continuation of the Phoenician variety of the polytheistic ancient Canaanite religion. However, significant local differences developed over the centuries following the foundation of Carthage and other Punic communities elsewhere in North Africa, southern Spain, Sardinia, western Sicily, and Malta from the ninth century BC onward. After the conquest of these regions by the Roman Republic in the third and second centuries BCE, Punic religious practices continued, surviving until the fourth century CE in some cases. As with most cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, Punic religion suffused their society and there was no stark distinction between religious and secular spheres. Sources on Punic religion are poor. There are no surviving literary sources and Punic religion is primarily reconstructed from inscriptions and archaeological evidence. An important sacred space in Punic religion appears to have been the large open air sanctuaries known as tophets in modern scholarship, in which urns containing the cremated bones of infants and animals were buried. There is a long-running scholarly debate about whether child sacrifice occurred at these locations, as suggested by Greco-Roman and biblical sources.


title: Punic religion

text: The Punics derived the original core of their religion from Phoenicia, but also developed their own pantheons. The poor quality of the evidence means that conclusions about these gods must be tentative. There are no surviving hymns, prayers, or lists of gods and while there are many inscriptions, these are very formulaic and generally only mention the names of gods. The names of gods were also often incorporated into theophoric personal names and some gods are known primarily from this onomastic evidence.


title: Punic religion

text: It is difficult to reconstruct a hierarchy of the Carthaginian gods. It was common for the pantheons of Phoenician cities to be headed by a divine couple, entitled Baal (lord) and "Baalat" ("lady"). At Carthage, this divine couple appears to have consisted of the god Baal Hammon and the goddess Tanit, who appear frequently in inscriptions from the tophet of Salammbô, with which they seem to have been especially associated. From the fifth century BCE, Tanit begins to be mentioned before Baal Hammon in inscriptions and bears the title "Face of Baal" ("pene Baal"), perhaps indicating that she was seen as mediating between the worshipper and Baal Hammon. An anthropomorphic symbol, composed of a circular "head", horizontal "arms", and a triangular "body," which is frequently found on Carthaginian stelae, is known by modern scholars as the sign of Tanit, but it is not clear whether the Carthaginians themselves associated it with Tanit. The connections of Baal Hammon and Tanit to the Phoenician pantheon are debated: Tanit may have a Libyan origin, but some scholars connect her to the Phoenician goddesses Anat, Astarte or Asherah; Baal Hammon is sometimes connected to Melqart or El. The gods Eshmun and Melqart also had their own temples in Carthage. The priests of other gods are known from epigraphic evidence, include Ashtart (Astarte), Reshef, Sakon, and Shamash.


title: Punic religion

text: Different Punic centres had their own distinct pantheons. In Punic Sardinia, Sid or Sid Babi (known to the Romans as Sardus Pater and apparently an indigenous deity) received worship as the son of Melqart and was particularly associated with the island. At Maktar, to the southwest of Carthage, an important god was Hoter Miskar ("the sceptre of Miskar"). At Leptis Magna, a number of unique gods are attested, many of them in Punic-Latin bilingual inscriptions, such as El-qone-eres, Milkashtart (Hercules), and Shadrafa (Liber Pater). Inscriptions in the tophet at Motya in western Sicily frequently refer to Baal Hammon, as in Carthage, but do not refer to Tanit at all.


title: Punic religion

text: Following the common practice of "interpretatio graeca", Greco-Roman sources consistently use Greek and Latin names, rather than Punic ones, to refer to Punic deities. They typically identify Baal Hammon with Cronus/Saturn, Tanit with Hera/Juno Caelestis, Melqart with Hercules, and Astarte with Venus/Aphrodite, although the Etruscan-Punic bilingual Pyrgi Tablets produced around 500 BCE identify her with the Etruscan goddess Uni (Hera/Juno). Both Reshef and Eshmun could be Apollo, but Eshmun was also identified with Asclepius. Many of these Roman gods, especially Saturn, Caelestis, Hercules, and Asclepius remained very popular in North Africa after the Roman conquest and probably represent an adaptation and continuation of the Punic deities.


title: Punic religion

text: An important source on the Carthaginian pantheon is a treaty between Hamilcar of Carthage and Philip III of Macedon preserved by the second-century BCE Greek historian Polybius which lists the Carthaginian gods under Greek names, in a set of three triads. Shared formulas and phrasing show it belongs to a Near Eastern treaty tradition, with parallels attested in Hittite, Akkadian, and Aramaic. Given the inconsistencies in identifications by Greco-Roman authors, it is not clear which Carthaginian gods are to be interpreted. Paolo Xella and Michael Barré (followed by Clifford) have put forward different identifications. Barré has also connected his identifications with Tyrian and Ugaritic predecessors


title: Punic religion

text: The Carthaginians also adopted the Greek cults of Persephone (Kore) and Demeter in 396 BCE as a result of a plague that was seen as divine retribution for the Carthaginian desecration of these goddesses' shrines at Syracuse. Nevertheless, Carthaginian religion did not undergo any significant Hellenization. The Egyptian deities Bes, Bastet, Isis, Osiris and Ra were also worshiped.


title: Punic religion

text: There is very little evidence for a Punic mythology, but some scholars have seen an original Carthaginian myth behind the story of the foundation of Carthage that is reported by Greek and Latin sources, especially Josephus and Vergil. In this story, Elissa (or Dido) flees Tyre after the her brother king Pygmalion murders her husband, a priest of Melqart, and establishes the city of Carthage. Eventually, Elissa/Dido burns herself on a pyre. Some scholars connect this and other instances of self-immolation in historical accounts of Carthaginian generals with tophet rituals. Josephine Crawley Quinn has proposed that myth of the Philaeni brothers in Libya had its roots in Punic myth and Carolina López-Ruiz has made similar arguments for the story of Gargoris and Habis in Tartessus.


title: Punic religion

text: The Carthaginians appear to have had both part-time and full-time priests, the latter called (singular , cognate with the Hebrew term kohen), led by high priests called . Lower-ranking religious officials, attached to specific sanctuaries, included the "chief of the gatekeepers," people called "servants" or "slaves" of the sanctuary (male: , female: or ), and functionaries like cooks, butchers, singers, and barbers. Goddesses may have been worshiped together and shared the same priests. A class of cultic officials known as the (vocalized , usually translated "Awakener of the god") was responsible for ensuring that the dying-and-rising god Melqart returned to watch over the city each year. Sanctuaries had associations, referred to as in Punic and Neo-Punic inscriptions, who held ritual banquets. M'Hamed Hassine Fantar proposes that it was the part-time priests, appointed in some way by the civil authorities, who controlled religious affairs, while the full-time priests were primarily responsible for rites and the interpretation of myth. At Carthage, for example, there was a thirty-person council that regulated sacrifices. Some Phoenician communities practiced sacred prostitution; in the Punic sphere this is attested at Sicca Veneria (El Kef) in western Tunisia and the sanctuary of Venus Erycina at Eryx in western Sicily.


title: Punic religion

text: The funerary practices of the Carthaginians were very similar to those of Phoenicians in the Levant. They include the rituals surrounding the disposal of the remains, funerary feasts, and ancestor worship. A variety of grave goods are found in the tombs, which indicate a belief in life after death.


title: Punic religion

text: Cemeteries were located outside settlements. They were often symbolically separated from them by geographic features like rivers or valleys. A short papyrus found in a tomb at Tal-Virtù in Malta suggests a belief that the dead had to cross a body of water to enter the afterlife. Tombs could take the form of "fossae" (rectangular graves cut into the earth or bedrock), "pozzi" (shallow, round pits), and hypogea (rock-cut chambers with stone benches on which the deceased was laid). There are some built tombs, all from before the sixth century BC. Tombs are often surmounted by small funerary stelae and baetyls.


title: Punic religion

text: At different times, Punic people practiced both cremation and inhumation. Until the sixth century BCE, cremation was the normal means of disposing of the dead. In the sixth century BCE, cremation was almost entirely superseded by inhumation. Thereafter, cremation was largely restricted to infant burials. This change is sometimes associated with the expansion of Carthaginian influence in the western Mediterranean, but exactly how and why this change occurred is unclear. Around 300 BC, cremation once again became the norm, especially in Sardinia and Ibiza. Cremation pits have been identified at Gades in Spain and Monte Sirai in Sardinia. After cremation, the bones were cleaned and separated from the ashes and then placed carefully in urns before burial. At Hoya de los Rastros, near Ayamonte in Spain, for example, the bones were arranged in order in their urns so that the feet were at the bottom and the skull at the top. Cremated and inhumed remains could be placed in wooden coffins or stone sarcophagi. Examples are known from Tharros and Sulci in Sardinia, Lilybaeum in Sicily, Casa del Obispo at Gades in Spain, and Carthage and Kerkouane in Tunisia. Before burial, the deceased was anointed with perfumed resin, coloured red with ochre or cinnabar, traces of which have been recovered archaeologically.


title: Punic religion

text: The funeral was accompanied by a feast in the cemetery. This banquet, called a "mrz", is attested in inscriptions of the fourth and third centuries BC, but is known in the Levant in earlier periods. The attendees decorated an altar and sacrificed an animal which they then ate. The feasts included the consumption of wine, which may have had symbolic links to blood, the fertility of the Earth, and new life, as it did for other Mediterranean peoples. At the end of the feast, the crockery was smashed or buried in order to ritually kill it. Cemeteries included spaces and equipment for food preparation. The feast may have played a role in determining inheritance and could have symbolised the enduring bond between the deceased and their survivors. These funerary feasts were repeated at regular intervals as part of a cult of the ancestors (called "rpʼm", cognate with the Hebrew "rephaim"). In Neo-Punic texts, the "rpʼm" are equated with the Latin "Manes". At Monte Sirai in Sardinia, tombs included amphorae to channel libations offered on these occasions down into the tomb. The funerary stelae and baetyls erected on top of tombs, which are often inscribed with the name of the deceased and anthropomorphised, may have been intended as the focus for worship of the deceased within the context of this ancestor cult. Small stone altars were found in the cemeteries at Palermo and Lilybaeum in Sicily and are depicted on funerary stelae in Sardinia and Sicily. It appears that fires were lit on top of them as part of purification rites.


title: Punic religion

text: A range of grave goods are found deposited with the deceased, which seem to have been intended to provide the deceased with protection and symbolic nourishment. These do not differ significantly based on the gender or age of the deceased. Grave offerings could include carved masks and amulets, especially the eye of Horus ("wadjet") and small glass apotropaic heads ("protomae"), which were intended to protect the deceased. Offerings of food and drink were probably intended to nourish the deceased in the afterlife. They were often accompanied by a standardised set of feasting equipment for the deceased, consisting of two jugs, a drinking bowl, and an oil lamp. Oil and perfume may have been intended to provide the deceased with heat and light. Chickens and their eggs were particularly frequent offerings and may have represented the soul's resurrection or transition to the afterlife in Punic thought. Razors, left next to the head of the deceased, may indicate that the corpse was shaved before burial or an expectation that priests would continue to shave in death as they had in life. Bronze cymbals and bells found in some tombs may derive from songs and music played at the funeral of the deceased - perhaps intended to ward off evil spirits. Terracotta figurines of musicians are found in graves, and depictions of them were carved on funerary stelae and on razors deposited in the grave. Almost all these musicians are female, suggesting that women had a particular role in this part of the funeral; most play the drums, kithara, or aulos.


title: Punic religion

text: Most Punic grave stelae, in addition to an engraved text and sometimes a standing figure bearing a libation cup, show a standard repertoire of (religious) symbols. It is thought that such symbols, which may be compared to a cross on a Christian gravestone, generally represent "deities or beliefs related to the after-life, aimed probably at facilitating or at protecting the eternal rest of the deceased". The symbols also helped the large majority of people who were illiterate to understand the function of the stela.


title: Punic religion

text: Animals and other valuables were sacrificed to propitiate the gods; such sacrifices had to be done according to strict specifications, which are described on nine surviving inscriptions known as "sacrificial tariffs." The longest of these is "KAI" 69, known as the Marseille Tariff, after its find-spot, which probably originally stood in Carthage. It lists the portions of sacrifices that the priests of a temple of Baal Saphon were entitled to. The other sacrificial tariffs are "CIS" I.165, 167–170, 3915–3917, all found in North Africa. These tariffs are similar to a pair of fifth-century BC tariff inscriptions found at the Phoenician city of Kition in Cyprus. They also share some terminology and formulae with Ugaritic and Biblical Hebrew texts on sacrifice. There is also a list of festival offerings, "CIS" I.166 and many short votive inscriptions, mostly associated with the tophets. Many of these tophet inscriptions refer to the sacrificial ritual as (vocalized or ), which some scholars connect with the biblical Moloch. Votive inscriptions are also found in other contexts; a long inscription on an eighth-century BC bronze statuette found at Seville dedicates it to Athtart ("KAI" 294). A fifth-century BC inscription ("KAI" 72) from Ebusus records the dedication of a temple, first to Rašap-Melqart, and then to Tinnit and Gad by a priest who states that the process involved making a vow. A stele erected at Carthage in the mid-second century BC by a woman named Abibaal shows the sacrifice of a cow's head by burning on an altar; the details of the image show continuity with much earlier Near Eastern sacrificial rituals.


title: Punic religion

text: Libations and incense also appear to have been an important part of sacrifices, based on archaeological finds. A custom attested at Byblos by the Greek author Lucian of Samosata that those sacrificing to Melqart had to shave their heads may explain ritual razors found in many Carthaginian tombs.


title: Punic religion

text: Various Greek and Roman sources describe and criticize the Carthaginians as engaging in the practice of sacrificing children by burning. Classical writers describing some version of child sacrifice to "Cronos" (Baal Hammon) include the Greek historians Diodorus Siculus and Cleitarchus, as well as the Christian apologists Tertullian and Orosius. These descriptions were compared to those found in the Hebrew Bible describing the sacrifice of children by burning to Baal and Moloch at a place called Tophet. The ancient descriptions were seemingly confirmed by the discovering of the so-called "Tophet of Salammbô" in Carthage in 1921, which contained the urns of cremated children. However, modern historians and archaeologists debate the reality and extent of this practice. Some scholars propose that all remains at the tophet were sacrificed, whereas others propose that only some were.


title: Punic religion

text: The specific sort of open aired sanctuary described as a Tophet in modern scholarship is unique to the Punic communities of the Western Mediterranean. Over 100 tophets have been found throughout the Western Mediterranean, but they are absent in Spain. The largest tophet discovered was the Tophet of Salammbô at Carthage. The Tophet of Salammbô seems to date to the city's founding and continued in use for at least a few decades after the city's destruction in 146 BCE. No Carthaginian texts survive that would explain or describe what rituals were performed at the tophet. When Carthaginian inscriptions refer to these locations, they are referred to as "bt" (temple or sanctuary), or "qdš" (shrine), not Tophets. This is the same word used for temples in general.


title: Punic religion

text: As far as the archaeological evidence reveals, the typical ritual at the Tophet – which, however, shows much variation – began by the burial of a small urn containing a child's ashes, sometimes mixed with or replaced by that of an animal, after which a stele, typically dedicated to Baal Hammon and sometimes Tanit was erected. In a few occasions, a chapel was built as well. Uneven burning on the bones indicate that they were burned on an open air pyre. The dead children are never mentioned on the stele inscriptions, only the dedicators and that the gods had granted them some request.


title: Punic religion

text: While tophets fell out of use after the fall of Carthage on islands formerly controlled by Carthage, in North Africa they became more common in the Roman Period. In addition to infants, some of these tophets contain offerings only of goats, sheep, birds, or plants; many of the worshipers have Libyan rather than Punic names. Their use appears to have declined in the second and third centuries CE.


title: Punic religion

text: The degree and existence of Carthaginian child sacrifice is controversial, and has been ever since the Tophet of Salammbô was discovered in 1920. Some historians have proposed that the Tophet may have been a cemetery for premature or short-lived infants who died naturally and then were ritually offered. The Greco-Roman authors were not eye-witnesses, contradict each other on how the children were killed, and describe children older than infants being killed as opposed to the infants found in the tophets. Accounts such as Cleitarchus's, in which the baby dropped into the fire by a statue, are contradicted by the archaeological evidence. There are not any mentions of child sacrifice from the Punic Wars, which are better documented than the earlier periods in which mass child sacrifice is claimed. Child sacrifice may have been overemphasized for effect; after the Romans finally defeated Carthage and totally destroyed the city, they engaged in postwar propaganda to make their archenemies seem cruel and less civilized. Matthew McCarty argues that, even if the Greco-Roman testimonies are inaccurate "even the most fantastical slanders rely upon a germ of fact."


title: Punic religion

text: Many archaeologists argue that the ancient authors and the evidence of the Tophet indicates that all remains in the Tophet must have been sacrificed. Others argue that only some infants were sacrificed. Paolo Xella argues that the weight of classical and biblical sources indicate that the sacrifices occurred. He further argues that the number of children in the tophet is far smaller than the rate of natural infant mortality. In Xella's estimation, prenatal remains at the tophet are probably those of children who were promised to be sacrificed but died before birth, but who were nevertheless offered as a sacrifice in fulfillment of a vow. He concludes that the child sacrifice was probably done as a last resort and probably frequently involved the substitution of an animal for the child.


title: Wienerschnitzel

text: Wienerschnitzel is an American fast food chain founded in 1961 (as "Der Wienerschnitzel") that specializes in hot dogs. Despite the name, the company does not sell Wiener schnitzel, only selling it once as a promotional item. Wienerschnitzel locations are found predominantly in California and Texas, though others are located in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Washington. Outside the 50 states, there is a store located in Guam and one in Panama.


title: Wienerschnitzel

text: The chain is recognizable by the A-frame-style roofs of its older restaurants, similar to the original structures used by IHOP, Tastee-Freez, Nickerson Farms, and Whataburger. Structures that have been converted from Wienerschnitzels into other restaurants often retain the distinctive architecture. The chain's advertising mascot is an anthropomorphized hot dog known as The Delicious One, who runs from people who want to eat him.


title: Wienerschnitzel

text: Wienerschnitzel sponsors the tongue-in-cheek Wiener Nationals, the "de facto" national dachshund racing championship series for the United States.


title: Wienerschnitzel

text: The first Wienerschnitzel was founded by former Taco Bell employee John Galardi. When Galardi came to California at the age of 19, he landed his first job from Glen Bell, who would go on to later establish Taco Bell in 1962. Bell initially hired him on a part-time basis for 50 cents an hour at a taco store called Taco-Tia. Eventually, Galardi entered into a partnership agreement to run the store. At one point, Bell borrowed $6,000 from Galardi but was unable to pay the loan back. He offered to sell the store to Galardi for $12,000. Galardi borrowed some money from his parents, laid off all of the employees at the restaurant and worked alone, and eventually secured enough money to purchase the store.


title: Wienerschnitzel

text: A couple of years later, a man wanted to recruit Galardi to start his own restaurant at a location on Pacific Coast Highway in Wilmington, next to one of Bell's taco stores. Bell encouraged him to take the man up on the offer, but to sell another kind of food. Galardi decided to sell hot dogs since "nobody else was in hot dogs." According to Galardi, his wife came up with the name when looking through a cookbook. He was initially sceptical of the name, saying, "I told my wife going home nobody in their right mind would call a company Wienerschnitzel. Three days later, I said, 'Hell, it's better than John's Hot Dogs.'" The first location was opened in 1961 as a hot-dog stand at 900 West Pacific Coast Highway, east of Figueroa Street, in the Los Angeles community of Wilmington.


title: Wienerschnitzel

text: In the late 1980s, Galardi converted several stores in the Denver area and other Western cities into Hamburger Stand restaurants. Wienerschnitzels now sell Tastee-Freez ice cream, a brand also owned by Galardi.


title: Wienerschnitzel

text: John Galardi died of pancreatic cancer on April 13, 2013. His ex-wife, Cynthia Galardi-Culpepper, who previously was a silent partner, assumed the role as CEO and chairwoman after his passing. She was the corporation's first and only woman in a managerial position and appeared as an "Undercover Boss" in 2016.


title: Wienerschnitzel

text: In 2015, the company signed a franchise agreement with International Food Concepts Inc. to plan and open Wienerschnitzel locations in Panama.


title: Wienerschnitzel

text: The expression "Wienerschnitzel" is German, spelled as a one-word compound as was the standard before the spelling reform of 1996 and is still the standard in Switzerland; however, the correct article to use in this case is the neuter form "das", not the masculine "der". This is true for both the actual food ("das Schnitzel") and the restaurant itself ("das Restaurant", "das Lokal").


title: Wienerschnitzel

text: In English, "wiener" (short for "wienerwurst"), from "Wiener Würstchen", is a colloquial name for a hot dog. The specific phrase "Wiener Schnitzel" itself, however, denotes a "Viennese breaded veal cutlet", something the restaurant chain has only served briefly as a limited menu item (in 2017).


title: Wienerschnitzel

text: The chain changed its name to "Wienerschnitzel" ("sans" article) in 1977, though many franchises retained the older name on their restaurants and many older customers still refer to the chain as "Der Wienerschnitzel". The restaurant paid homage to its original name in its 2009 marketing slogan, "DERlicious".


title: Wienerschnitzel

text: Soon after the name change, the current Wienerschnitzel "W" logo was created by graphic designer Saul Bass in 1978.


title: Wienerschnitzel

text: The Delicious One (sometimes referred to as TDO), Wienerschnitzel's mascot, has been featured in some advertising since 1999. The slogan, "The World's Most Wanted Wiener" is used in all of The Delicious One's commercials. The new commercials are more focused on describing their food products and are produced in live-action.


title: Wienerschnitzel

text: Wienerschnitzel uses the slogan "DERlicious" in advertising, alluding to the time before the company dropped the "Der" from its name in 1977. Some other newer commercials use the slogan, "Hot Dogs are DER again!" along with the DERlicious logo.


title: Wienerschnitzel

text: In celebration of Wienerschnitzel's 50th anniversary, a new slogan was released in 2011 to continue the "Der" theme: "Der fun since '61!".


title: Wienerschnitzel

text: The Galardi Group, the parent of Wienerschnitzel, Tastee-Freez and Hamburger Stand, was formed by John Galardi in 1970.


title: Wienerschnitzel

text: In 1979, Wienerschnitzel attempted to broaden its offerings and added hamburgers to its menus. However, with little success into the 1980s, the company (which was eventually renamed to the Galardi Group) started two new chains in 1983, The Original Hamburger Stand and Weldon's gourmet hamburgers (which was cast off in the 1990s). Poorly performing Wienerschnitzel locations were replaced with The Original Hamburger Stands in locations such as the Denver area.


title: Wienerschnitzel

text: By 2003, the Galardi Group became a franchisee of Tastee-Freez and made Tastee-Freez products available in its restaurants, Wienerschnitzel and Original Hamburger Stand. The Galardi Group was so pleased with the increased sales at its restaurant that it bought the Tastee-Freez company that year.


title: Wienerschnitzel

text: The Descendents' song "Weinerschnitzel" from their 1981 release Fat EP takes the form of a satirical skit in which the band's frontman Milo Aukerman orders a meal from the restaurant.


title: Subotica

text: Subotica (, ; ) is a city and the administrative center of the North Bačka District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. Formerly the largest city of Vojvodina region, contemporary Subotica is now the second largest city in the province, following the city of Novi Sad. According to the 2011 census, the city itself has a population of 97,910, while the urban area of Subotica (with adjacent urban settlement of Palić included) has 105,681 inhabitants, and the population of metro area (the administrative area of the city) stands at 141,554 people.


title: Subotica

text: The name of the city has changed frequently over time. The earliest known written name of the city was "Zabotka" or "Zabatka", which dates from 1391. It is the origin of the current Hungarian name for the city ""Szabadka"". Other sources claim, that the name "Szabadka" comes from the adjective szabad, which derived from the Slavic word for "free" – svobod, referring to the status of the colonists settled in this zone by the Habsburg after the Battle of Zenta.


title: Subotica

text: The town was named in the 1740s after Maria Theresa of Austria, Archduchess of Austria. It was officially called "Sent-Maria" in 1743, but was renamed in 1779 as "Maria-Theresiapolis". These two official names were also spelled in several different ways (most commonly the German "Maria-Theresiopel" or "Theresiopel"), and were used in different languages.


title: Subotica

text: It is located in the Pannonian Basin at 46.07° North, 19.68° East, about from the border with Hungary, and is the northernmost city in Serbia. It is located in the vicinity of lake Palić.


title: Subotica

text: Subotica has a warm-summer humid continental climate ("Dfb") that is uncommon in Serbia except at higher elevations,


title: Subotica

text: In the Neolithic and Eneolithic periods, several important archaeological cultures flourished in this area, including the Starčevo culture, the Vinča culture, and the Tiszapolgár culture. Early Indo-European peoples settled in the territory of present-day Subotica in 3200 BC. During the Eneolithic period, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, several Indo-European archaeological cultures included areas around Subotica - the Baden culture, the Vučedol culture, the Urnfield culture and some others. Before the Iazyge conquest in the 1st century BC, Indo-European peoples of Illyrian, Celtic and Dacian descent inhabited this area. In the 3rd century BC, this area was controlled by the Celtic Boii and Eravisci, while in the 1st century BC, it became part of the Dacian kingdom. From the 1st century BC, the area came under the control of the Sarmatian Iazyges, who were sometimes allies and sometimes enemies of the Romans. Iazyge rule lasted until the 4th century AD, after which the region came into the possession of various other peoples and states.


title: Subotica

text: In the Early Middle Ages various Indo-European and Turkic peoples and states ruled in the area of Subotica. These peoples included Huns, Gepids, Avars, Slavs and Bulgarians. Slavs settled today's Subotica in the 6th and 7th centuries, before some of them crossed the rivers Sava and Danube and settled in the Balkans.


title: Subotica

text: The Slavic tribe living in the territory of present-day Subotica were the Obotrites, a subgroup of the Serbs. In the 9th century, after the fall of the Avar state, the first forms of Slavic statehood emerged in this area. The first Slavic states that ruled over this region included the Principality of Lower Pannonia (846-875), Great Moravia (833– 907) and the Bulgarian Empire.


title: Subotica

text: Subotica probably first became a settlement of note when people poured into it from nearby villages destroyed during the Tatar invasions of 1241–42. When "Zabadka"/"Zabatka" was first recorded in 1391, it was a tiny town in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. Later, the city belonged to the Hunyadis, one of the most influential aristocratic families in the whole of Central Europe.


title: Subotica

text: King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary gave the town to one of his relatives, János Pongrác Dengelegi, who, fearing an invasion by the Ottoman Empire, fortified the castle of Subotica, erecting a fortress in 1470. Some decades later, after the Battle of Mohács in 1526, Subotica became part of the Ottoman Empire. The majority of the Hungarian population fled northward to Royal Hungary. Bálint Török, a local noble who had ruled over Subotica, also escaped from the city. During the military and political havoc following the defeat at Mohács, Subotica came under the control of Serbian mercenaries recruited in Banat. These soldiers were in the service of the Transylvanian general John I Zápolya, a later Hungarian king.


title: Subotica

text: The leader of these mercenaries, Jovan Nenad, established in 1526–27 his rule in Bačka, northern Banat and a small part of Syrmia and created an independent entity, with Subotica as its administrative centre. At the peak of his power, Jovan Nenad proclaimed himself as Serbian tsar in Subotica. He named Radoslav Čelnik as the general commander of his army, while his treasurer and palatine was Subota Vrlić, a Serbian noble from Jagodina. When Bálint Török returned and recaptured Subotica from the Serbs, Jovan Nenad moved the administrative centre to Szeged.


title: Subotica

text: Some months later, in the summer of 1527, Jovan Nenad was assassinated and his entity collapsed. However, after Jovan Nenad's death, Radoslav Čelnik led a part of the army to Ottoman Syrmia, where he briefly ruled as an Ottoman vassal.


title: Subotica

text: The Ottoman Empire ruled the city from 1542 to 1686. At the end of this almost 150-year-long period, not much remained of the old town of "Zabadka"/"Zabatka". As much of the population had fled, the Ottomans encouraged the settlement of the area by different colonists from the Balkans. The settlers were mostly Orthodox Serbs. They cultivated the extremely fertile land around Subotica. In 1570, the population of Subotica numbered 49 houses, and in 1590, 63 houses. In 1687, the region was settled by Catholic "Dalmatas" (called Bunjevci today). It was called "Sobotka" under Ottoman rule and was a kaza centre in Segedin sanjak at first in Budin Eyaleti until 1596, and after that in Eğri Eyaleti between 1596 and 1686.


title: Subotica

text: In 1687, about 5,000 Bunjevci settled in Bačka (including Subotica). After the decisive battle against the Ottomans at Senta led by Prince Eugene of Savoy on 11 September 1697, Subotica became part of the military border zone Theiss-Mieresch established by the Habsburg monarchy. In the meantime the uprising of Francis II Rákóczi broke out, which is also known as the Kuruc War.


title: Subotica

text: In the region of Subotica, Rákóczi joined battle against the "Rac National Militia". "Rác" was a designation for the South Slavic people (mostly Serbs and Bunjevci) and they often were referred to as "rácok" in the Kingdom of Hungary. In a later period "rácok" came to mean, above all, Serbs of Orthodox religion.


title: Subotica

text: The Serbian military families enjoyed several privileges thanks to their service for the Habsburg Monarchy. Subotica gradually, however, developed from being a mere garrison town to becoming a market town with its own civil charter in 1743. When this happened, many Serbs complained about the loss of their privileges. The majority left the town in protest and some of them founded a new settlement just outside 18th century Subotica in Aleksandrovo, while others emigrated to Russia. In New Serbia, a new Russian province established for them, those Serbs founded a new settlement and also named it "Subotica". In 1775, a Jewish community in Subotica was established.


title: Subotica

text: It was perhaps to emphasise the new civic serenity of Subotica that the pious name "Saint Mary" came to be used for it at this time. Some decades later, in 1779, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria advanced the town's status further by proclaiming it a Free Royal Town. The enthusiastic inhabitants of the city renamed Subotica once more as "Maria-Theresiopolis".


title: Subotica

text: This Free Royal Town status gave a great impetus to the development of the city. During the 19th century, its population doubled twice, attracting many people from all over the Habsburg monarchy. This led eventually to a considerable demographic change. In the first half of the 19th century, the Bunjevci had still been in the majority, but there was an increasing number of Hungarians and Jews settling in Subotica. This process was not stopped even by the outbreak of the Revolutions in the Habsburg monarchy (1848–49).


title: Subotica

text: During the 1848-49 revolution, the proclaimed borders of autonomous Serbian Vojvodina included Subotica, but Serb troops could not establish control in the region. On 5 March 1849, at the locality named Kaponja (between Tavankut and Bajmok), there was a battle between the Serb and Hungarian armies, which was won by the Hungarians.


title: Subotica

text: The first newspaper in the town was also published during the 1848/49 revolution—it was called "Honunk állapota" ("State of Our Homeland") and was published in Hungarian by Károly Bitterman's local printing company. Unlike most Serbs and Croats who confronted the Hungarians, part of the local Bunjevci people supported the Hungarian revolution.


title: Subotica

text: In 1849, after the Hungarian revolution of 1848 was defeated by the Russian and Habsburg armies, the town was separated from the Kingdom of Hungary together with most of the Bačka region, and became part of a separate Habsburg province, called Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar. The administrative centre of this new province was Timișoara. The province existed until 1860. During the existence of the voivodeship, in 1853, Subotica acquired its impressive theatre.


title: Subotica

text: After the establishment of the Dual-Monarchy in 1867, there followed what is often called the "golden age" of city development of Subotica. Many schools were opened after 1867 and in 1869 the railway connected the city to the world. In 1896 an electrical power plant was built, further enhancing the development of the city and the whole region. Subotica now adorned itself with its remarkable Central European, fin de siècle architecture. In 1902 a Jewish synagogue was built in the Art Nouveau style.


title: Subotica

text: Subotica had been part of Austria-Hungary until the end of World War I. In 1918, the city became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. As a result, Subotica became a border-town in Yugoslavia and did not, for a time, experience again the same dynamic prosperity it had enjoyed prior to World War I. However, during that time, Subotica was the third-largest city in Yugoslavia by population, following Belgrade and Zagreb.


title: Subotica

text: In 1941, Yugoslavia was invaded and partitioned by the Axis Powers, and its northern parts, including Subotica, were annexed by Hungary. The annexation was not considered legitimate by the international community and the city was de jure still part of Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav government in exile received formal recognition of legitimacy as the representative of the country. On 11 April 1941, the Hungarian troops arrived in Subotica on the grounds that the majority of the people living in the city were ethnic Hungarians, which had been part of the Kingdom of Hungary for over 600 years. During World War II, the city lost approximately 7,000 of its citizens, mostly Serbs, Hungarians and Jews. Before the war about 6,000 Jews had lived in Subotica; many of these were deported from the city during the Holocaust, mostly to Auschwitz. In April 1944, under German administration, a ghetto was set up. In addition, many communists were executed during Axis rule. In 1944, the Axis forces left the city, and Subotica became part of the new Yugoslavia. During the 1944–45 period, about 8,000 citizens (mainly Hungarians) were killed by Partisans while re-taking the city as a retribution for supporting Axis Hungary.


title: Subotica

text: In the post-war period, Subotica has gradually been modernised. During the Yugoslav and Kosovo wars of the 1990s, a considerable number of Serb refugees came to the city from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo, while many ethnic Hungarians and Croats, as well as some local Serbs, left the region.


title: Subotica

text: Unique in Serbia, Subotica and adjacent Palić have the most buildings built in the Hungarian Secession style, a distinct variant of Art Nouveau. The Hungarian Secession style was operational between the 1890s and World War I. Its designs combined art nouveau vegetal ornaments and symbolic figures with traditional Hungarian motifs. It found its architectural expression in Subotica in the works of Marcell Komor, Dezső Jakab and Ferenc Raichle.


title: Subotica

text: The (built in 1908–1910) and the Synagogue (1902) are of especially outstanding beauty. These were built by the same architects, Marcell Komor and Dezső Jakab. Another exceptional example of art nouveau architecture is the actual , which was built in 1904 by Ferenc J. Raichle.


title: Subotica

text: Church buildings include the Cathedral of St. Theresa of Avila dating from 1797, the Franciscan friary dating from 1723, the Eastern Orthodox churches also from the 18th century, and the Hungarian Art Nouveau Subotica Synagogue from the early 20th century and its renovation was completed in the summer of 2019.


title: Subotica

text: The historic National Theatre in Subotica, which was built in 1854 as the first monumental public building in Subotica, was demolished in 2007, although it was declared a historic monument under state protection in 1983, and in 1991 it was added to the National Register as a monument of an extraordinary cultural value. It is currently in the midst of renovation and is scheduled to open in 2017.


title: Subotica

text: The administrative area of Subotica comprises Subotica proper, the town of Palić () and 17 villages. The villages are:


title: Subotica

text: According to the 2011 census results, the city administrative area of Subotica had 141,554 inhabitants.


title: Subotica

text: Places with either an absolute or relative Hungarian ethnic majority are: Subotica (Hungarian: Szabadka), Palić (Hungarian: Palicsfürdő), Hajdukovo (Hungarian: Hajdújárás), Bački Vinogradi (Hungarian: Bácsszőlős), Šupljak (Hungarian: Alsóludas), Čantavir (Hungarian: Csantavér), Bačko Dušanovo (Hungarian: Zentaörs), and Kelebija (Hungarian: Alsókelebia). Places with an absolute or relative Serb ethnic majority are: Bajmok, Višnjevac, Novi Žednik, and Mišićevo. Places with a relative ethnic majority Croat are: Mala Bosna, Đurđin, Donji Tavankut, Gornji Tavankut, Bikovo, Stari Žednik. Ljutovo has a relative Bunjevac ethnic majority.


title: Subotica

text: Serbian is the most employed language in daily life, but Hungarian is also used by over one third of the population in their daily conversations. Both languages are also widely employed in commercial and official signage


title: Subotica

text: Subotica is the centre of the Roman Catholic diocese of the Bačka region. The Subotica area has the highest concentration of Catholics in Serbia. 57% of the city's population are Catholic. There are eight Catholic parish churches, a Franciscan spiritual centre (the city has communities of both Franciscan friars and Franciscan nuns), a female Dominican community, and two congregations of Augustinian religious sisters. The diocese of Subotica has the only Catholic secondary school in Serbia (Paulinum).


title: Subotica

text: When the nuns' orphanage and children's home in Blato, Korčula (present-day Croatia) had exhausted the food and funds needed for helping poor and hungry children, Marija Petković (later known as Blessed Mary of Jesus Crucified Petković), went to


title: Subotica

text: Bačka, whose apostolic seat is Subotica, to solicit help for orphans and widows. Bishop Ljudevit Lajčo Budanović asked Petković to found monasteries of her Order in Subotica and neighbourhood, so the locals could benefit spiritually from the instruction of the nuns of her Order. She learned that Bačka had many poor and abandoned children. In 1923, she opened "Kolijevka", a children's home in Subotica. The home still exists but is no longer run by nuns.


title: Subotica

text: Among other Christian communities, the members of the Serbian Orthodox Church are the most numerous. There are two Orthodox church buildings in the city. Orthodox Christians in Subotica belong to the Eparchy of Bačka of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Subotica has two Protestant churches as well, Lutheran and Calvinist. The Jewish community of Subotica is the third largest in Serbia, after those in Belgrade and Novi Sad. About 1000 (of the 6,000 pre-WWII Jews of Subotica) survived the Holocaust. According to the 2011 census, fewer than 90 Jews remained in Subotica as of 2011.


title: Subotica

text: The original coat of arms and current medium coat of arms have an outlining Latin inscription of "Civitatis Maria Theresiopolis, Sigillum Liberæque Et Regiæ", translated as "Seal of the Free and Royal City of Maria Theresiopolis".


title: Subotica

text: The area around Subotica is mainly farmland but the city itself is an important industrial and transportation centre in Serbia. Due to the surrounding farmlands Subotica has famous food producer industries in the country, including such brands as the confectionery factory "Pionir", "Fidelinka" the cereal manufacturer, "Mlekara Subotica" a milk producer and "Simex" producer of strong alcohol drinks.


title: Subotica

text: There are a number of old socialistic industries that survived the transition period in Serbia. The biggest one is the chemical fertilizer factory "Azotara" and the rail wagon factory "Bratstvo". Currently the biggest export industry in town is the "Siemens Subotica" wind generators factory and it is the biggest brownfield investment so far. The other big companies in Subotica are: Fornetti, ATB Sever and Masterplast. More recent companies to come to Subotica include Dunkermotoren and NORMA Group. Tourism is important. In the past few years, Palić has been famous for the Palić Film Festival. Subotica is a festival city, hosting more than 17 festivals over the year.


title: Subotica

text: In 2020 construction of a new aqua park with ten pools and wellness and spa sections was underway in Palić.


title: Subotica

text: The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in legal entities per their core activity (as of 2018):


title: Subotica

text: Tutoring of teachers in Subotica dates back to the late 18th century. After the establishment of Austria-Hungary, the second state-financed teacher training faculty of Hungary was founded in Subotica, second to Buda only. Modern history of teacher training in Subotica started in 2006, when the Sombor Teacher Training Faculty's curriculums in the Hungarian language seceded from the faculty and became independent as the 14th faculty of the University of Novi Sad. As of 2022, the faculty offers bachelor's degrees in kindergarten teaching, elementary school teaching, disciplinatory teaching and communications, and master's degrees in kindergarten teaching and elementary school teaching.


title: Subotica

text: 4 953 students studied in the city in the year 2020/21 in the secondary education. 1 626 students chose Hungarian speaking classes (32.8%), 209 students chose Croatian classes while 3 118 students studied in Serbian language.


title: Subotica

text: Subotica has one major football stadium, the Subotica City Stadium, indoor arena and indoor swimming pool. The local football team is Spartak and plays in the Serbian SuperLiga, the country's primary football competition.


title: Subotica

text: A1 motorway connects the city with Novi Sad and Belgrade to the south and, across the border with Hungary, with Szeged to the north. It runs alongside the Budapest–Belgrade railway, which connects it to major European cities. As of November 2022, the line is out of order without replacement as both the Serbian and the Hungarian part of the line is currently being reconstructed. Subotica also has branch line railway connections to Sombor, Senta (with passenger service), and Szeged through Horgoš (under reconstruction with limited freight service, passenger service planned to commence in late 2023), while the former branch line to Baja through Csikéria was dismantled in the 1960s but parts of the derelict tracks are still visible in the city's northwestern outskirts.


title: Subotica

text: The city used to have a tram system, the Subotica tram system, but it was discontinued in 1974. The Subotica tram, put into operation in 1897, ran on electricity from the start. While neighbouring cities' trams at this date were often still horse-drawn, this gave the Subotica system an advantage over other municipalities including Belgrade, Novi Sad, Zagreb, and Szeged. Its existence was important for the citizens of Subotica, as well as tourists who came to visit.


title: Subotica

text: Subotica has since developed a bus system, operated by JP Subotica Trans, who operates eleven city lines, eight suburban lines, and thirteen interurban lines, as well as a single international line to Szeged. Per year the buses travel some 4.7 million kilometres, and carry about ten million people.


title: Subotica

text: The city is served by Subotica Airport; its runway is too short for airliners, limiting usage to mostly recreational aviation. Southwest of the city there is a 218.5 metres tall guyed mast for FM-/TV-broadcasting. It is the tallest of its kind in Serbia and one of the tallest in the region.


title: Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017

text: The solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, dubbed the "Great American Eclipse" by the media, was a total solar eclipse visible within a band that spanned the contiguous United States from the Pacific to the Atlantic coasts. It was also visible as a partial solar eclipse from as far north as Nunavut in northern Canada to as far south as northern South America. In northwestern Europe and Africa, it was partially visible in the late evening. In northeastern Asia, it was partially visible at sunrise.


title: Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017

text: Prior to this event, no solar eclipse had been visible across the entirety of the United States since June 8, 1918; not since the February 1979 eclipse had a total eclipse been visible from anywhere in the mainland United States. The path of totality touched 14 states, and the rest of the U.S. had a partial eclipse. The area of the path of totality was about 16 percent of the area of the United States, with most of this area over the ocean, not land. The event's shadow began to cover land on the Oregon coast as a partial eclipse at 4:05 p.m. UTC (9:05 a.m. PDT), with the total eclipse beginning there at 5:16 p.m. UTC (10:16 a.m. PDT); the total eclipse's land coverage ended along the South Carolina coast at about 6:44 p.m. UTC (2:44 p.m. EDT). Visibility as a partial eclipse in Honolulu, Hawaii began with sunrise at 4:20 p.m. UTC (6:20 a.m. HST) and ended by 5:25 p.m. UTC (7:25 a.m. HST).


title: Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017

text: This total solar eclipse marked the first such event in the smartphone and social media era in America. Information, personal communication, and photography were widely available as never before, capturing popular attention and enhancing the social experience.


title: Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017

text: The event was received with much enthusiasm across the nation; people gathered outside their homes to watch it, and many parties were set up in the path of the eclipse. Many people left their homes and traveled hundreds of miles just to get a glimpse of totality, which few ever get to experience. Marriage proposals were timed to coincide with the eclipse, as was at least one wedding. Logistical problems arose with the influx of visitors, especially for smaller communities. The sale of counterfeit eclipse glasses was also anticipated to be a hazard for eye injuries.


title: Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017

text: Future total solar eclipses will cross the United States on April 8, 2024 (12 states), and in August 2045 (10 states), and annular solar eclipses—wherein the Moon appears smaller than the Sun—will occur in October 2023 (9 states) and June 2048 (9 states).


title: Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017

text: The total eclipse had a magnitude of 1.0306 and was visible within a narrow corridor wide, crossing 14 of the contiguous United States: Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. It was first seen from land in the U.S. shortly after 10:15 am PDT (17:15 UTC) at Oregon's Pacific coast, and then it progressed eastward through Salem, Oregon; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Casper, Wyoming; Lincoln, Nebraska; Kansas City, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri; Hopkinsville, Kentucky; and Nashville, Tennessee; before reaching Columbia, South Carolina about 2:41 pm; and finally Charleston, South Carolina. A partial eclipse was seen for a greater time period, beginning shortly after 9:00 am PDT along the Pacific Coast of Oregon. Weather forecasts predicted clear skies in Western U.S. and some Eastern states, but clouds in the Midwest and East Coast.