title: High Court of Australia

text: The court typically sits for two weeks for each calendar month of the year, excepting for January and July in which no sitting days are held.


title: High Court of Australia

text: Each judge engages associates for assistance in exercising their functions. The usual practice is to engage two associates simultaneously for a one-year term. Additionally, the Chief Justice is assisted by a legal research officer employed by the court library.


title: High Court of Australia

text: Associates have varying responsibilities; typically their work involves legal research, assistance in preparation for oral arguments, tipping in court during oral argument, editing judgments and assisting with extrajudicial functions, such as speechwriting. Associates are typically recruited after having graduated from an Australian law school with grades at or near the top of their class. Hundreds of applications for associate positions are received by the High Court annually.


title: High Court of Australia

text: Many High Court associates have gone on to illustrious careers. Examples of former associates include Adrienne Stone and Nicola Roxon.


title: High Court of Australia

text: Three High Court justices served as associates prior to their elevation to the bench: Aickin to Dixon, Gageler to Mason, and Edelman to Toohey.


title: High Court of Australia

text: The High Court of Australia building is located on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra's Parliamentary Triangle. The High Court was designed between 1972 and 1974 by the Australian architect Christopher Kringas (1936–1975), a director of the firm Edwards Madigan Torzillo and Briggs. The building was constructed from 1975 to 1980. Its international architectural significance is recognised by the Union of International Architects register of 'Architectural Heritage of the 20th Century'. It received the Australian Institute of Architects 'Canberra Medallion' in 1980 and the award for 'Enduring Architecture' in 2007. The High Court was added to the Commonwealth Heritage List in 2004.


title: High Court of Australia

text: The High Court makes itself generally available to the public through its own website. Judgment Alerts, available on the Court's website and by email with free subscription, provide subscribers with notice of upcoming judgments (normally a week beforehand) and, almost immediately after the delivery of a major judgment, with a brief summary of it (normally not more than one page). All of the Court's judgments, as well as transcripts of its hearings since 2009 and other materials, are made available, free of charge, through the Australasian Legal Information Institute. The Court has recently established on its website an "eresources" page, containing for each case its name, keywords, mentions of relevant legislation and a link to the full judgment; these links go to the original text from 2000 onward, scanned texts from 1948 to 1999 and facsimiles from the "Commonwealth Law Reports" for their first 100 volumes (1903 to 1959); there are also facsimiles of some unreported judgments (1906–2002). Since October 2013, audio-visual recordings of full-court hearings held in Canberra have been available on its website.


title: Batman: Zero Year

text: "Zero Year" was a yearlong comic book crossover event published by DC Comics that began in June 2013 and ended in July 2014, featuring the superhero Batman. The series is written by Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV with artwork by Greg Capullo, Danny Miki, and Rafael Albuquerque.


title: Batman: Zero Year

text: The story is intended to redefine the origin of Batman in The New 52, being a fresh story unconnected to other interpretations such as "". The story does, however, incorporate several elements from "Batman: Year One", such as Bruce Wayne's long absence from Gotham City and his first attempts at vigilantism.


title: Batman: Zero Year

text: Initially conceptualized as a "Batman" storyline, it was announced that in November 2013, various titles would tie in directly to the "Zero Year" story line. Writers of various titles in The New 52 were given the option of writing a tie-in to the storyline, which would include their connections to Gotham City and first encounter with Batman.


title: Batman: Zero Year

text: Snyder announced in December 2013 that issue 28 would no longer be a part of the event, as he had written much material that felt "too cramped" and extending the issue at this point would not give Capullo ample time to properly draw the new scenes. Thus, the original story from issue 28 was moved to issue 29, with issue 28 becoming a preview issue to the future storyline in "Batman" and the weekly, "Batman Eternal". Issue 28 was written by Snyder and Tynion, with Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs providing the artwork. The entire crossover received critical acclaim.


title: Batman: Zero Year

text: The story begins with Gotham City being destroyed in a flood, and Batman believed to be dead. The first arc of the event, titled 'Secret City', is set five months before the flood, and begins with Bruce Wayne's return to Gotham City after being away for so long that he has been declared dead. He dons a disguise and fights Red Hood One, and discovers he has much to learn if he wants to fight the new breed of costumed criminals plaguing Gotham. Bruce meets with his maternal uncle, Philip Kane, but refuses to take over Wayne Enterprises. In a flashback, Bruce's father shows him a black orb, used for showing a three-dimensional map from inside a building. Edward Nygma, Philip's strategist, tries to get Philip to arrange Bruce's murder, in order to gain public sympathy and avoid a power struggle. After Philip refuses, Edward hires the Red Hood Gang to murder Bruce. In disguise once again, Bruce rescues Oswald Cobblepot from Red Hood One and takes a sample of the gang leader's blood, but fails to find who it belongs to. After Bruce has an argument with his butler Alfred Pennyworth, the latter leaves and Bruce meets with Philip, who against Bruce's will, debuts him to the public. After Bruce retreats from the media, he meets with Nygma. He then goes to his brownstone, where he is attacked by the Red Hood Gang. The gang beats Bruce to a pulp, and the leader tells him that the Waynes' deaths changed him too. Bruce then retreats to Wayne Manor, where Alfred treats his injuries. Using the camera orb, Bruce finds the cave of bats he fell into as a child. Bruce finds his destiny as the orb falls and breaks.


title: Batman: Zero Year

text: The second arc was titled 'Dark City', and was about Bruce's first months as Batman. It begins with Bruce, as Batman, stopping another Red Hood robbery, and soon after learning Red Hood One's plan. Bruce reveals to the media that the Red Hood gang is planning to rob Ace Chemicals, so the gang tries to kill him. Bruce goes into Ace Chemicals as Batman, and begins fighting the gang. Philip, who was blackmailed into joining the gang, tries to shoot Red Hood One, but misses. Red Hood One shoots and kills Philip. Sergeant Jim Gordon raids Ace Chemicals with SWAT officers, intent on arresting both Batman and Red Hood One, but the building catches on fire. Red Hood One tries to escape on a helicopter, but Batman pulls him back into the building. Batman tries to capture Red Hood One, but the masked criminal escapes by jumping into a vat of chemicals. Bruce and Alfred study data on the gang when Edward Nygma, as the Riddler, shuts off the power in Gotham, challenging Batman to turn it back on. Soon, the police find a body with its bones twisted and grown out of its skin. Batman finds out a scientist working with Lucius Fox had created a program that had similar effects. Bruce goes to visit Fox, but Fox stabs Bruce with the toxin, stating that the program was also his, and that Doctor Death is coming. Bruce wakes to seeing Fox being attacked by Doctor Death. Bruce stops him with the help of Gordon and Fox informs him that the substance he injected him with earlier was an experimental antidote for Dr. Death's bone toxin. However, the fight with Doctor Death puts Bruce in the hospital. Bruce is confronted by Gordon at the hospital, but Bruce feels he cannot trust him. Bruce as Batman searches for Dr. Death's next victim, but is too late, as Doctor Death had already reached them. The police corner Batman and open fire, mistakenly believing that he is the murderer. Batman is badly wounded, but Gordon helps him escape. Gordon and Batman then begin a tenuous partnership. Batman then goes to Gotham's catacombs, a popular tourist attraction, to find Doctor Death and the Riddler, having deduced that the two criminals are working together. Doctor Death and the Riddler then flood the catacombs. Batman uses his Bat blimp to stop the Riddler's airship and bomb. Batman arrives at his airship and tries to use a jammer device to stop the bomb. As his blimp explodes, Batman jumps onto the airship, where Doctor Death is waiting to fight him. Gordon arrives at Wayne Tower only to find the Riddler there, and falls into one of his traps. Doctor Death and Batman fight briefly, but the villain drops the jammer off the airship. After subduing Doctor Death, Batman sets off a bomb that destroys the inside of the airship; Dr. Death is killed in the explosion. The police then turn the power back on, only to find out the Riddler still has the power to flood the city by blowing up the reservoir. Batman destroys the airship, but fails to stop the Riddler from flooding the city.


title: Batman: Zero Year

text: The third and final arc was titled 'Savage City', and was about Bruce's efforts to save his city from the Riddler's control. It begins with Bruce Wayne awakening in the Duke residence, having removed the Batsuit before falling asleep. A young boy whose life he had saved informs him that the Riddler has taken control of Gotham. Alfred tells Batman to return to Wayne Manor through the secret entrance in the now dilapidated Crime Alley, the site of his parents' murder. Meanwhile, the military sends special forces soldiers to Gotham to help Gordon restore the peace. The Riddler uses a jumbotron every day to tell the people of Gotham that all he wants is a worthy opponent. The Riddler spots Gordon and the men on the rooftop, sending drones to stop him. The Riddler tries to destroy the building, but Batman stops him. Batman, Gordon, Fox and the soldiers plan a way to stop the Riddler. The next day, the Riddler appears on screen again to say that he will dedicate this "Zero Year" to the people of Gotham. Batman in a new costume comes driving in on a motorcycle and accepts the Riddler's challenge in order to buy time so Fox can discover their location. The Riddler drops Batman into a pit of lions. Batman fights and tames the lions, allowing Fox to find the Riddler's hiding place. Batman, Gordon and Fox try to attack the Riddler, only to fall into a trap. Fox is injured, but Batman saves him. The soldiers call in an airstrike to level Gotham while Batman finds the Riddler, as they play his last game. The Riddler challenges Batman to solve his riddles, allowing him one step closer to him on every answer he gets right. Gordon and Fox find a way to stop the jets from destroying Gotham. Batman grabs the Riddler, stopping his game. Gordon creates a Bat signal and successfully stops the jets. The Riddler reveals that to save Gotham, Batman must use his heart to turn the city's power back on; he must attach himself to an electrode. Batman successfully turns Gotham's power back on with the force of his own pulse. One month later, Gotham is back to normal, while the Riddler is put in Arkham Asylum. Bruce gets a visit from Julie Madison, an old flame, and Alfred tells him he has two choices: lead a normal life as Bruce Wayne, or protect Gotham as Batman. When Bruce chooses the latter, Alfred tells Julie that Bruce is "spoken for" as Batman disappears into the night.


title: Batman: Zero Year

text: The main crossover received critical acclaim with critics praising the art, the action, and the writing of Scott Snyder.


title: Batman: Zero Year

text: According to Comic Book Roundup, Batman Volume 2 Issue 21 received an average score of 8.5 out of 10 based on 41 reviews. Melissa Gray from IGN wrote "This younger, more innocent (if he could ever be called such a thing) Bruce Wayne tries to balance respecting his parent's legacy with his desire to do good outside the system. It's an honest portrait of a man between worlds trying to find himself. What he's about to find instead is that old family friends aren't what they appear, and any man whose first initial plus last name phonetically spell out "enigma" is definitely up to no good."


title: Batman: Zero Year

text: According to Comic Book Roundup, Batman Issue 22 received an average score of 8.7 out of 10 based on 35 reviews. Gilbert Rivera from "Dark Knight News" wrote "Batman #22 is more great work from two of DC's finest. Snyder is a machine, continuously building upon Batman's history without disturbing it, all the while adding pieces that feel like they've always belonged. Capullo, too, is unstoppable, as his work not only pushes Snyder's story telling to the next level, but also truly stands on its own. With the promise of issue #23 as "The End of Bruce Wayne" one can't help but wonder how much more surprises this pair has in store for us."


title: Batman: Zero Year

text: According to Comic Book Roundup, Batman Issue 23 received an average score of 8.6 out of 10 based on 32 reviews. Chuck wrote "I suspect it'll "read" better as a collection, because the story keeps stepping back and forth along Bruce's timeline, and it's not easy to keep track of things on a month-to-month basis. But the creative team is putting an interesting and original spin on a well-trod story - not an easy task. "


title: Batman: Zero Year

text: According to Comic Book Roundup, Batman Issue 24 received an average score of 9.3 out of 10 based on 31 reviews. Matt Dodge from "Multiversity Comic"s wrote "Buy it, then buy another so you can frame the art. "Batman" #24 stands with #5 and #17 as the best of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's incredible run."


title: Batman: Zero Year

text: According to Comic Book Roundup, Batman Issue 25 received an average score of 8.7 out of 10 based on 35 reviews. Shawn Hoklas wrote "If you're not reading this title, you should be. It is simply one of the best titles being published today consistently."


title: Batman: Zero Year

text: According to Comic Book Roundup, Batman Issue 26 received an average score of 8.6 out of 10 based on 33 reviews. Josh Raj from "Nerd on the Block" wrote "Overall, Zero Year is a must read for any Batman fan. The art is stunning, the colors are great even if they are not dark like a normal Batman comic. There is just so much happening right night in Gotham, how will Batman walk away from this. The interactions with Gordon are great, mainly because we know where they end up. Batman #26 really does a fantastic job."


title: Batman: Zero Year

text: According to Comic Book Roundup, Batman Issue 27 received an average score of 8.8 out of 10 based on 32 reviews. Alison Berry from "Comicosity" wrote "This story will read as well in trade as it does in single issue, but single issue has the advantage of highlighting the character moments at which both Snyder and Capullo excel. Those moments are making the entire Zero Year arc stand out as a story that respects the Man as much as the Bat. Im the High Priestess of the Church of Pennyworth, thank you for listening. "


title: Batman: Zero Year

text: According to Comic Book Roundup, Batman Issue 29 received an average score of 9 out of 10 based on 36 reviews. Jeff Hill from "Comic Booked" wrote "My favorite scene was not the homage to The Dark Knight Returns (which is probably one of most people's favorites). It's not even the censored description of the Batman himself. And to be honest, even though I love both of those things and they are all sorts of Frank Miller, it came down to one scene for me that made this not only a great book, but a legendary one. It's the first time we see the Bat Blimp. Something so ridiculous in theory, so obnoxiously fictional in reality, that it shouldn't work. But Capullo's pencils make it work. And it's not only my favorite scene from the comic, but from Zero Year so far entirely. Well done, Mr. Capullo. You, sir, are a master. (Snyder's also excellent, but most of my reviews say that, so I'm going to let Greg have this one.) "


title: Batman: Zero Year

text: According to Comic Book Roundup, Batman Issue 30 received an average score of 8.5 out of 10 based on 26 reviews. Joey Garces from "DC Comic News" wrote "The pair of Snyder and Capullo continues to impress as the story telling and artwork are equally top notch. This storyline continues to separate itself from any of the other origin stories of Batman in the past, something that we can all appreciate. An epic finale has been set up and if it's anything like this issue then I recommend we get our pre-orders in now."


title: Batman: Zero Year

text: According to Comic Book Roundup, Batman Issue 31 received an average score of 8.8 out of 10 based on 28 reviews. Chuck wrote "Good to see this series getting back to its strengths!"


title: Batman: Zero Year

text: According to Comic Book Roundup, Batman Issue 32 received an average score of 8.8 out of 10 based on 24 reviews. Aaron Long from "Comicosity" wrote "Snyder and Capullo have become a team that will be remembered for decades to come and stories like Zero Year are why. Issue #32 is a fantastic single issue built upon a brilliant run of them, driving toward a conclusion that I can't wait to read. This is as good as comics get, and anyone who has been reading Batman to this point will be very satisfied with this issue. Zero Year is primed to have one hell of a finale, and I can't wait to get my hands on it."


title: Batman: Zero Year

text: According to Comic Book Roundup, Batman Issue 33 received an average score of 9.5 out of 10 based on 32 reviews. Wayne Hall from "Major spoilers" wrote "I cant wait until the next story starts in August! I think itll continue to keep Batman as the top-selling comic each month, so I highly recommend you dont miss it!"


title: Distributed operating system

text: A distributed operating system is system software over a collection of independent software, networked, communicating, and physically separate computational nodes. They handle jobs which are serviced by multiple CPUs. Each individual node holds a specific software subset of the global aggregate operating system. Each subset is a composite of two distinct service provisioners. The first is a ubiquitous minimal kernel, or microkernel, that directly controls that node's hardware. Second is a higher-level collection of "system management components" that coordinate the node's individual and collaborative activities. These components abstract microkernel functions and support user applications.


title: Distributed operating system

text: The microkernel and the management components collection work together. They support the system's goal of integrating multiple resources and processing functionality into an efficient and stable system. This seamless integration of individual nodes into a global system is referred to as "transparency", or "single system image"; describing the illusion provided to users of the global system's appearance as a single computational entity.


title: Distributed operating system

text: A distributed OS provides the essential services and functionality required of an OS but adds attributes and particular configurations to allow it to support additional requirements such as increased scale and availability. To a user, a distributed OS works in a manner similar to a single-node, monolithic operating system. That is, although it consists of multiple nodes, it appears to users and applications as a single-node.


title: Distributed operating system

text: Separating minimal system-level functionality from additional user-level modular services provides a "separation of mechanism and policy". Mechanism and policy can be simply interpreted as "what something is done" versus "how something is done," respectively. This separation increases flexibility and scalability.


title: Distributed operating system

text: At each locale (typically a node), the kernel provides a minimally complete set of node-level utilities necessary for operating a node's underlying hardware and resources. These mechanisms include allocation, management, and disposition of a node's resources, processes, communication, and input/output management support functions. Within the kernel, the communications sub-system is of foremost importance for a distributed OS.


title: Distributed operating system

text: In a distributed OS, the kernel often supports a minimal set of functions, including low-level address space management, thread management, and inter-process communication (IPC). A kernel of this design is referred to as a microkernel. Its modular nature enhances reliability and security, essential features for a distributed OS.


title: Distributed operating system

text: System management components are software processes that define the node's "policies". These components are the part of the OS outside the kernel. These components provide higher-level communication, process and resource management, reliability, performance and security. The components match the functions of a single-entity system, adding the transparency required in a distributed environment.


title: Distributed operating system

text: The distributed nature of the OS requires additional services to support a node's responsibilities to the global system. In addition, the system management components accept the "defensive" responsibilities of reliability, availability, and persistence. These responsibilities can conflict with each other. A consistent approach, balanced perspective, and a deep understanding of the overall system can assist in identifying diminishing returns. Separation of policy and mechanism mitigates such conflicts.


title: Distributed operating system

text: The architecture and design of a distributed operating system must realize both individual node and global system goals. Architecture and design must be approached in a manner consistent with separating policy and mechanism. In doing so, a distributed operating system attempts to provide an efficient and reliable distributed computing framework allowing for an absolute minimal user awareness of the underlying command and control efforts.


title: Distributed operating system

text: The multi-level collaboration between a kernel and the system management components, and in turn between the distinct nodes in a distributed operating system is the functional challenge of the distributed operating system. This is the point in the system that must maintain a perfect harmony of purpose, and simultaneously maintain a complete disconnect of intent from implementation. This challenge is the distributed operating system's opportunity to produce the foundation and framework for a reliable, efficient, available, robust, extensible, and scalable system. However, this opportunity comes at a very high cost in complexity.


title: Distributed operating system

text: In a distributed operating system, the exceptional degree of inherent complexity could easily render the entire system an anathema to any user. As such, the logical price of realizing a distributed operation system must be calculated in terms of overcoming vast amounts of complexity in many areas, and on many levels. This calculation includes the depth, breadth, and range of design investment and architectural planning required in achieving even the most modest implementation.


title: Distributed operating system

text: These design and development considerations are critical and unforgiving. For instance, a deep understanding of a distributed operating system's overall architectural and design detail is required at an exceptionally early point. An exhausting array of design considerations are inherent in the development of a distributed operating system. Each of these design considerations can potentially affect many of the others to a significant degree. This leads to a massive effort in balanced approach, in terms of the individual design considerations, and many of their permutations. As an aid in this effort, most rely on documented experience and research in distributed computing power.


title: Distributed operating system

text: Research and experimentation efforts began in earnest in the 1970s and continued through the 1990s, with focused interest peaking in the late 1980s. A number of distributed operating systems were introduced during this period; however, very few of these implementations achieved even modest commercial success.


title: Distributed operating system

text: Fundamental and pioneering implementations of primitive distributed operating system component concepts date to the early 1950s. Some of these individual steps were not focused directly on distributed computing, and at the time, many may not have realized their important impact. These pioneering efforts laid important groundwork, and inspired continued research in areas related to distributed computing.


title: Distributed operating system

text: In the mid-1970s, research produced important advances in distributed computing. These breakthroughs provided a solid, stable foundation for efforts that continued through the 1990s.


title: Distributed operating system

text: The accelerating proliferation of multi-processor and multi-core processor systems research led to a resurgence of the distributed OS concept.


title: Distributed operating system

text: One of the first efforts was the DYSEAC, a general-purpose synchronous computer. In one of the earliest publications of the Association for Computing Machinery, in April 1954, a researcher at the National Bureau of Standards now the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) presented a detailed specification of the DYSEAC. The introduction focused upon the requirements of the intended applications, including flexible communications, but also mentioned other computers:


title: Distributed operating system

text: The specification discussed the architecture of multi-computer systems, preferring peer-to-peer rather than master-slave.


title: Distributed operating system

text: This is one of the earliest examples of a computer with distributed control. The Dept. of the Army reports certified it reliable and that it passed all acceptance tests in April 1954. It was completed and delivered on time, in May 1954. This was a "portable computer", housed in a tractor-trailer, with 2 attendant vehicles and 6 tons of refrigeration capacity.


title: Distributed operating system

text: Described as an experimental input-output system, the Lincoln TX-2 emphasized flexible, simultaneously operational input-output devices, i.e., multiprogramming. The design of the TX-2 was modular, supporting a high degree of modification and expansion.


title: Distributed operating system

text: The system employed The Multiple-Sequence Program Technique. This technique allowed multiple program counters to each associate with one of 32 possible sequences of program code. These explicitly prioritized sequences could be interleaved and executed concurrently, affecting not only the computation in process, but also the control flow of sequences and switching of devices as well. Much discussion related to device sequencing.


title: Distributed operating system

text: Similar to DYSEAC the TX-2 separately programmed devices can operate simultaneously, increasing throughput. The full power of the central unit was available to any device. The TX-2 was another example of a system exhibiting distributed control, its central unit not having dedicated control.


title: Distributed operating system

text: One early effort at abstracting memory access was Intercommunicating Cells, where a cell was composed of a collection of memory elements. A memory element was basically a binary electronic flip-flop or relay. Within a cell there were two types of elements, "symbol" and "cell". Each cell structure stores data in a string of symbols, consisting of a name and a set of parameters. Information is linked through cell associations.


title: Distributed operating system

text: The theory contended that addressing is a wasteful and non-valuable level of indirection. Information was accessed in two ways, direct and cross-retrieval. Direct retrieval accepts a name and returns a parameter set. Cross-retrieval projects through parameter sets and returns a set of names containing the given subset of parameters. This was similar to a modified hash table data structure that allowed multiple values (parameters) for each key (name).


title: Distributed operating system

text: This configuration was ideal for distributed systems. The constant-time projection through memory for storing and retrieval was inherently atomic and exclusive. The cellular memory's intrinsic distributed characteristics would be invaluable. The impact on the user, hardware/device, or Application programming interfaces was indirect. The authors were considering distributed systems, stating:


title: Distributed operating system

text: To better illustrate this point, examine three system architectures; centralized, decentralized, and distributed. In this examination, consider three structural aspects: organization, connection, and control. Organization describes a system's physical arrangement characteristics. Connection covers the communication pathways among nodes. Control manages the operation of the earlier two considerations.


title: Distributed operating system

text: A centralized system has one level of structure, where all constituent elements directly depend upon a single control element. A decentralized system is hierarchical. The bottom level unites subsets of a system's entities. These entity subsets in turn combine at higher levels, ultimately culminating at a central master element. A distributed system is a collection of autonomous elements with no concept of levels.


title: Distributed operating system

text: Centralized systems connect constituents directly to a central master entity in a hub and spoke fashion. A decentralized system (aka network system) incorporates direct and indirect paths between constituent elements and the central entity. Typically this is configured as a hierarchy with only one shortest path between any two elements. Finally, the distributed operating system requires no pattern; direct and indirect connections are possible between any two elements. Consider the 1970s phenomena of “string art” or a spirograph drawing as a fully connected system, and the spider's web or the Interstate Highway System between U.S. cities as examples of a "partially connected system".


title: Distributed operating system

text: Centralized and decentralized systems have directed flows of connection to and from the central entity, while distributed systems communicate along arbitrary paths. This is the pivotal notion of the third consideration. Control involves allocating tasks and data to system elements balancing efficiency, responsiveness, and complexity.


title: Distributed operating system

text: Centralized and decentralized systems offer more control, potentially easing administration by limiting options. Distributed systems are more difficult to explicitly control, but scale better horizontally and offer fewer points of system-wide failure. The associations conform to the needs imposed by its design but not by organizational chaos


title: Distributed operating system

text: "Transparency" or "single-system image" refers to the ability of an application to treat the system on which it operates without regard to whether it is distributed and without regard to hardware or other implementation details. Many areas of a system can benefit from transparency, including access, location, performance, naming, and migration. The consideration of transparency directly affects decision making in every aspect of design of a distributed operating system. Transparency can impose certain requirements and/or restrictions on other design considerations.


title: Distributed operating system

text: Systems can optionally violate transparency to varying degrees to meet specific application requirements. For example, a distributed operating system may present a hard drive on one computer as "C:" and a drive on another computer as "G:". The user does not require any knowledge of device drivers or the drive's location; both devices work the same way, from the application's perspective. A less transparent interface might require the application to know which computer hosts the drive. Transparency domains:


title: Distributed operating system

text: Inter-Process Communication (IPC) is the implementation of general communication, process interaction, and dataflow between threads and/or processes both within a node, and between nodes in a distributed OS. The intra-node and inter-node communication requirements drive low-level IPC design, which is the typical approach to implementing communication functions that support transparency. In this sense, Interprocess communication is the greatest underlying concept in the low-level design considerations of a distributed operating system.


title: Distributed operating system

text: Process management provides policies and mechanisms for effective and efficient sharing of resources between distributed processes. These policies and mechanisms support operations involving the allocation and de-allocation of processes and ports to processors, as well as mechanisms to run, suspend, migrate, halt, or resume process execution. While these resources and operations can be either local or remote with respect to each other, the distributed OS maintains state and synchronization over all processes in the system.


title: Distributed operating system

text: As an example, load balancing is a common process management function. Load balancing monitors node performance and is responsible for shifting activity across nodes when the system is out of balance. One load balancing function is picking a process to move. The kernel may employ several selection mechanisms, including priority-based choice. This mechanism chooses a process based on a policy such as 'newest request'. The system implements the policy


title: Distributed operating system

text: Systems resources such as memory, files, devices, etc. are distributed throughout a system, and at any given moment, any of these nodes may have light to idle workloads. "Load sharing" and load balancing require many policy-oriented decisions, ranging from finding idle CPUs, when to move, and which to move. Many algorithms exist to aid in these decisions; however, this calls for a second level of decision making policy in choosing the algorithm best suited for the scenario, and the conditions surrounding the scenario.


title: Distributed operating system

text: Distributed OS can provide the necessary resources and services to achieve high levels of "reliability", or the ability to prevent and/or recover from errors. Faults are physical or logical defects that can cause errors in the system. For a system to be reliable, it must somehow overcome the adverse effects of faults.


title: Distributed operating system

text: The primary methods for dealing with faults include "fault avoidance", fault tolerance, and "fault detection and recovery". Fault avoidance covers proactive measures taken to minimize the occurrence of faults. These proactive measures can be in the form of "transactions", replication and backups. Fault tolerance is the ability of a system to continue operation in the presence of a fault. In the event, the system should detect and recover full functionality. In any event, any actions taken should make every effort to preserve the "single system image".


title: Distributed operating system

text: Many benchmark metrics quantify performance; throughput, response time, job completions per unit time, system utilization, etc. With respect to a distributed OS, performance most often distills to a balance between process parallelism and IPC. Managing the task granularity of parallelism in a sensible relation to the messages required for support is extremely effective. Also, identifying when it is more beneficial to migrate a process to its data, rather than copy the data, is effective as well.


title: Distributed operating system

text: Cooperating concurrent processes have an inherent need for synchronization, which ensures that changes happen in a correct and predictable fashion. Three basic situations that define the scope of this need:


title: Distributed operating system

text: Improper synchronization can lead to multiple failure modes including loss of atomicity, consistency, isolation and durability, deadlock, livelock and loss of serializability.


title: Distributed operating system

text: Flexibility in a distributed operating system is enhanced through the modular characteristics of the distributed OS, and by providing a richer set of higher-level services. The completeness and quality of the kernel/microkernel simplifies implementation of such services, and potentially enables service providers greater choice of providers for such services.


title: Ravi Chopra

text: Ravi Chopra (27 September 1946 – 12 November 2014) was an Indian film and television director, producer and screenwriter.


title: Ravi Chopra

text: Chopra was the son of producer and director B.R.Chopra and nephew of Yash Chopra. Aditya Chopra and Uday Chopra are his cousins.


title: Ravi Chopra

text: Chopra started his career assisting his father B.R. Chopra in films like, "Dastaan" (1972) and "Dhund" (1973). He also assisted his uncle Yash Chopra in "Ittefaq" (1969). Eventually, he made his independent directorial debut with "Zameer" (1975), produced under the family banner, B. R. Films. In 1980, he directed the ensemble disaster film "The Burning Train", which over the years is considered a cult classic. Other films he directed included "Mazdoor" (1983), Aaj Ki Awaaz, "Dehleez" (1986),


title: Ravi Chopra

text: Pratigyabadh, "Kal Ki Awaz" (1992). Then he, along with his father, directed TV series Mahabharat (1988–89)


title: Ravi Chopra

text: Since 2006, the only movies Ravi produced after his father's death was "Bhoothnath" (2008) and "Bhoothnath Returns" (2013). Ravi Chopra was served with a legal notice in 2009 by 20th Century Fox, which charged that his upcoming movie "Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai" blatantly plagiarized the 1992 comedy My Cousin Vinny. Chopra and the production company, Mumbai-based BR Films, denied the charges in court in May 2009; the movie's release was to be delayed until June 2009 by order of the Bombay High Court. Fox sought damages of $1.4 million; this was the first time a Bollywood filmmaker was taken to court by a Hollywood company over the remaking of a film. Fox had given Chopra permission "to make a film loosely based on the Oscar-winning movie" but concluded the final product was a "substantial reproduction" of the original. The film has remained unreleased even after Ravi Chopra's death in 2014.


title: Ravi Chopra

text: Ravi directed the highly successful television serial "Mahabharat", which aired during 1988–1990, and the television mini-series, "Ramayan", which was aired in 2002. He also directed mythological shows like Vishnu Puran and Ma Shakti. His TV series Aap Beeti was one of the most popular TV show on Doordarshan National in the early 2000s.


title: Ravi Chopra

text: On 23 October 2012, he was diagnosed with a severe lung ailment and was discharged from Breach Candy hospital after a week. "He was discharged from hospital on October 26," hospital sources said, without going into details. He was being treated for lung cancer at CMC Vellore. Chopra died on 12 November 2014 at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai where he had been admitted a few days earlier for a lung ailment. He was 68 years old, and survived by his wife and two children.


title: Nancy Stafford

text: Nancy Elizabeth Stafford (born June 5, 1954) is an American actress, speaker and author, known for her roles on television. She came to prominence in the 1980s as Michelle Thomas, law partner, on five seasons of "Matlock". She later hosted a syndicated TV series called "Main Floor" (1995–2005), a show about fashion and beauty.


title: Nancy Stafford

text: Nancy Elizabeth Stafford was born in Wilton Manors, Florida, a suburb of Ft. Lauderdale, in 1954, where she was raised as a Southern Baptist. She graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism. She is a practicing Christian.


title: Nancy Stafford

text: After graduating from Ft. Lauderdale High School in 1972, she was Miss Florida 1976, competing in the 1977 Miss America Pageant.


title: Nancy Stafford

text: Stafford moved to Los Angeles in 1982, where she had her first contract role playing the dual role of Adrienne/Felicia Hunt on the daytime soap opera "The Doctors". She had guest starring roles in shows such as "Riptide", "Remington Steele", "Scarecrow and Mrs. King", "Who's the Boss?", "Hunter", "Quantum Leap", and "Magnum, P.I.". In 1983, Stafford won her first regular role on the NBC medical drama series "St. Elsewhere" as Joan Halloran. She played the role for two seasons and came back for one more episode in 1986. She later starred as Patricia Blake in the short-lived ABC series "Sidekicks" from 1986-87.


title: Nancy Stafford

text: Stafford is best known for her role as Ben Matlock's legal partner Michelle Thomas in the legal drama "Matlock", from 1987 to 1992. When the show relocated its filming from the west coast, Stafford opted to leave "Matlock". After her departure from "Matlock", she began public speaking and hosted "Main Floor", a 1990s talk show.


title: Nancy Stafford

text: In 2008, she co-hosted the first season of "Love, Marriage and Stinkin' Thinkin" alongside Mark Gungor. Stafford continued to guest star in many shows, such as "ER", "Frasier", "Babylon 5", "Baywatch" and "The Mentalist".


title: Nancy Stafford

text: Stafford is the author of many Christian books, such as: "Beauty by the Book: Seeing Yourself as God Sees You", "The Wonder of His Love: A Journey into the Heart of God", and her 2006 book, "Mothers & Daughters Taking Your Adult Relationship to a Deeper Level".


title: Nancy Stafford

text: Stafford married Larry Myers, a pastor. She has a step-daughter and grandson. Her older brother, Tracy Stafford, was a two-term Mayor of Wilton Manors, Florida and a five-term member of the Florida House of Representatives.


title: Robert Fisk

text: Robert Fisk (12 July 194630 October 2020) was a writer and journalist who held British and Irish citizenship. He was critical of United States foreign policy in the Middle East, and the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians. His stance earned him praise from many commentators, but was condemned by others.


title: Robert Fisk

text: As an international correspondent, he covered the civil wars in Lebanon, Algeria, and Syria, the Iran–Iraq conflict, the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Islamic revolution in Iran, Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, and the U.S. invasion, and occupation of Iraq. An Arabic speaker, he was among the few Western journalists to interview Osama bin Laden, which he did three times between 1993 and 1997.


title: Robert Fisk

text: He began his journalistic career at the "Newcastle Chronicle" and then the "Sunday Express". From there, he went to work for "The Times" as a correspondent in Northern Ireland, Portugal and the Middle East; in the last role, he based himself in Beirut intermittently from 1976. After 1989, he worked for "The Independent". Fisk received many British and international journalism awards, including the Press Awards Foreign Reporter of the Year seven times.


title: Robert Fisk

text: Books by Fisk include "The Point of No Return" (1975), "In Time of War" (1985), "Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War" (1990), "The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East" (2005), and "Syria: Descent Into the Abyss" (2015).


title: Robert Fisk

text: Fisk was an only child, born in Maidstone, Kent, to William and Peggy Fisk. His father William ('Bill') Fisk (1899–1992) was Borough Treasurer at Maidstone Corporation and had fought in the First World War. His mother, Peggy (Rose) Fisk, was an amateur painter who in later years became a Maidstone magistrate. At the end of the war Bill Fisk was punished for disobeying an order to execute another soldier; his son said, "My father's refusal to kill another man was the only thing he did in his life which I would also have done." Though his father said little about his part in the war, it held a fascination for his son. After his father's death, he discovered that he had been the scribe of his battalion's war diaries from August 1918.


title: Robert Fisk

text: Fisk was educated at Yardley Court, a preparatory school, then at Sutton Valence School and Lancaster University, where he undertook his B.A. in Latin and Linguistics and contributed to the student magazine "John O'Gauntlet". He gained a PhD in political science from Trinity College Dublin in 1983; the title of his doctoral thesis was "A Condition of Limited Warfare: Éire's Neutrality and the Relationship between Dublin, Belfast and London, 1939–1945". It was published as "In Time of War: Ireland, Ulster and the Price of Neutrality 1939-1945" (London: André Deutsch, 1983; reprinted in Dublin by Gill & MacMillan, 1996). Reviewer F. I. Magee in 1984 stated: "This book presents a detailed and definitive account of Anglo-Irish relations during the Second World War...Fisk's excellent book highlights the ambivalence in relations between Britain, the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland and goes a long way towards explaining why the current situation is so intractable."


title: Robert Fisk

text: Fisk worked on the "Sunday Express" diary column before a disagreement with the editor, John Junor, prompted a move to "The Times". From 1972 to 1975, at the height of the Troubles, Fisk was "The Times" Belfast correspondent, before being posted to Portugal following the Carnation Revolution in 1974. He then was appointed Middle East correspondent (1976–1987). In addition to the Troubles and Portugal, he reported the Iranian revolution in 1979. When a story of his on Iran Air Flight 655 was spiked shortly after the paper's takeover by Rupert Murdoch, Fisk moved to "The Independent" in 1989. "The New York Times" described Fisk as "probably the most famous foreign correspondent in Britain". "The Economist" referred to him as "one of the most influential correspondents in the Middle East since the second world war."


title: Robert Fisk

text: Fisk lived in Beirut from 1976, remaining throughout the Lebanese Civil War. He was one of the first Western journalists to report on the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon, as well as the Hama Massacre in Syria. His book on the Lebanese conflict, "Pity the Nation", was published in 1990.


title: Robert Fisk

text: Fisk also reported on the Soviet–Afghan War, the Iran–Iraq War, the Arab–Israeli conflict, the Gulf War, the Kosovo War, the Algerian Civil War, the Bosnian War, the 2001 international intervention in Afghanistan, the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Arab Spring in 2011 and the ongoing Syrian Civil War. During the Iran–Iraq War, he suffered partial but permanent hearing loss as a result of being close to Iraqi heavy artillery in the Shatt-al-Arab when covering the early stages of the conflict.


title: Robert Fisk

text: After the United States and allies launched their intervention in Afghanistan, Fisk was for a time transferred to Pakistan to cover the conflict. While reporting from there, he was attacked and beaten by a group of Afghan refugees fleeing heavy bombing by the United States Air Force. In his graphic account of his almost being beaten to death until a local Muslim leader intervened, Fisk absolved the attackers of responsibility and pointed out that their "brutality was entirely the product of others, of us—of we who had armed their struggle against the Russians and ignored their pain and laughed at their civil war and then armed and paid them again for the 'War for Civilisation' just a few miles away and then bombed their homes and ripped up their families and called them 'collateral damage'." According to Richard Falk, Fisk said of his attacker: "There is every reason to be angry. I’ve been an outspoken critic of the US actions myself. If I had been them, I would have attacked me."


title: Robert Fisk

text: During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Fisk was based in Baghdad and filed many eyewitness reports. He criticised other journalists based in Iraq for what he calls their "hotel journalism": reporting from one's hotel room without interviews or first-hand experience of events. Fisk's criticism of the invasion was rejected by some other journalists. Fisk criticised the Coalition's handling of the sectarian violence in post-invasion Iraq and argued that the official narrative of sectarian conflict is not possible: "The real question I ask myself is: who are these people who are trying to provoke the civil war? Now the Americans will say it's Al Qaeda, it's the Sunni insurgents. It is the death squads. Many of the death squads work for the Ministry of Interior. Who runs the Ministry of Interior in Baghdad? Who pays the Ministry of the Interior? Who pays the militiamen who make up the death squads? We do, the occupation authorities. ... We need to look at this story in a different light."


title: Robert Fisk

text: Fisk interviewed Osama bin Laden on three occasions. The interviews appeared in articles published by "The Independent" on 6 December 1993, 10 July 1996, and 22 March 1997. In Fisk's first interview, "Anti-Soviet warrior puts his army on the road to peace", he wrote of Osama bin Laden, then overseeing the construction of a highway in Sudan: "With his high cheekbones, narrow eyes and long brown robe, Mr. Bin Laden looks every inch the mountain warrior of mujahedin legend. Chadored children danced in front of him, preachers acknowledged his wisdom" while observing that he was accused of "training for further jihad wars".


title: Robert Fisk

text: During one of Fisk's interviews with bin Laden, Fisk noted an attempt by bin Laden to convert him. Bin Laden said: "Mr Robert, one of our brothers had a dream ... that you were a spiritual person ... this means you are a true Muslim". Fisk replied: "Sheikh Osama, I am not a Muslim. ... I am a journalist [whose] task is to tell the truth." Bin Laden replied: "If you tell the truth, that means you are a good Muslim." During the 1996 interview, bin Laden said the Saudi royal family was corrupt. During the final interview in 1997, bin Laden said he sought God's help "to turn America into a shadow of itself".


title: Robert Fisk

text: Fisk strongly condemned the September 11 attacks, describing them as a "hideous crime against humanity". He also denounced the Bush administration's response to the attacks, arguing that "a score of nations" were being identified and positioned as "haters of democracy" or "kernels of evil", and urged a more honest debate on U.S. policy in the Middle East. He argued that such a debate had hitherto been avoided "because, of course, to look too closely at the Middle East would raise disturbing questions about the region, about our Western policies in those tragic lands, and about America's relationship with Israel".


title: Robert Fisk

text: In 2007, Fisk expressed personal doubts about the official historical record of the attacks. In an article for "The Independent", he wrote that, while the Bush administration was incapable of successfully carrying out such attacks due to its organisational incompetence, he was "increasingly troubled at the inconsistencies in the official narrative of 9/11" and added that he did not condone the "crazed 'research' of David Icke", but was "talking about scientific issues". Fisk had earlier addressed similar concerns in a speech at Sydney University in 2006. During the speech, Fisk said: "Partly I think because of the culture of secrecy of the White House, never have we had a White House so secret as this one. Partly because of this culture, I think suspicions are growing in the United States, not just among Berkeley guys with flowers in their hair. ... But there are a lot of things we don't know, a lot of things we're not going to be told. ... Perhaps the [fourth] plane was hit by a missile, we still don't know".


title: Robert Fisk

text: Bill Durodié noted that at one point Osama bin Laden had advised the White House to "read Robert Fisk, rather than, as one might have supposed, the Koran."


title: Robert Fisk

text: Reporting from Douma, in April 2018 on the Douma chemical attack, Fisk quoted a Syrian doctor who attributed the victims' breathing problems not to gas but to dust and lack of oxygen after heavy shelling by government forces. Other people he spoke to doubted a gas attack, and Fisk queried the incident. Fisk's reporting drew criticism for having relied on government supplied contacts, with Asser Khattab writing in "Raseef22" that the doctor quoted by Fisk "had been introduced to him by officials in the Syrian government and army". Richard Spencer and Catherine Philp in "The Times" wrote that journalists had been taken to Douma on a government-organised trip while international investigators were forced to remain in Damascus, and that the doctor interviewed by Fisk admitted to not having been to the hospital where the victims were taken. The Snopes website said other reporters on the same trip as Fisk had interviewed locals who said they had inhaled toxic gas.


title: Robert Fisk

text: Fisk returned to the subject of the Douma attacks in early January 2020, in an article concerning internal disagreements within the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) recorded in documents released by WikiLeaks.


title: Robert Fisk

text: He was interviewed by Kirsty Young for "Desert Island Discs" in 2006. His final selections were "Adagio for Strings" by Samuel Barber, "Le Morte d'Arthur" by Thomas Malory, and a violin.


title: Robert Fisk

text: Fisk featured in the 2016 documentary film "notes to eternity" by New Zealand filmmaker Sarah Cordery, along with Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein and Sara Roy. The film explores their lives and work in relation to the Israel-Palestine conflict.


title: Robert Fisk

text: Fisk was profiled in Yung Chang's 2019 documentary film "This Is Not a Movie". In reviewing the film, "Slant Magazine" stated: "The two things that give this documentary its power and provocativeness are intellectual rather than dramatic: Fisk’s work, and his ideas." Cath Clarke, writing for "The Guardian", said the film asks its audience about war: "Is there something deep in our souls that permits it because it feels natural? His painful, deeply serious question about the inevitability of war sets the tone of this documentary about his career, directed by Yung Chang."


title: Robert Fisk

text: Fisk was known for his criticism of the foreign policy of the United States, particularly the country's involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East. He was consistently critical of Israel, labelling some of the country's actions against Palestinians as "war crimes". One of his beliefs was that he should report events from the point of view of the victim rather than those in authority. "The Times" newspaper, in its November 2020 obituary of Fisk, said that he had developed a "visceral dislike of the Israeli government and its allies" following his coverage of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, alleging that this had made Fisk biased and "unable to provide a dispassionate account of events and their context". David Pryce-Jones, writing in "The Spectator" in 2003, said that Fisk was guilty of "hysteria and distortion" in his coverage of Middle Eastern topics. "The Independent", for whom he wrote from 1989, praised him as being "renowned for his courage in questioning official narratives from governments".


title: Robert Fisk

text: The BBC's Jeremy Bowen also praised him following his death and noted the controversy Fisk drew for his "sharp criticism of the US and Israel, and of Western foreign policy". Bowen described himself as an admirer who would miss Fisk's "guts and his appetite for the fight". Fisk dismissed the controversy related to his reporting in Syria, saying that he was "writing only what he saw and heard". His ex-wife Lara Marlowe took exception to the frequent use of the adjective 'controversial' in obituaries: he was a prolific non-conformist in the world of journalism, whose judgments avoided jumping on the bandwagon and, in her experience, had been "intuitive, rapid, ... and invariably right".


title: Robert Fisk

text: Similarly, the foreign correspondent for "The Independent" Patrick Cockburn, responding to criticisms raised in obituaries, said "Derring-do in times of war usually gets good notices from the press and from public opinion, but moral endurance is a much rarer commodity, when the plaudits are replaced by abuse, often from people who see a world divided between devils and angels and denounce anybody reporting less than angelic behaviour on the part of the latter for being secret sympathisers with the devil." Cockburn wrote that Fisk was better than anyone at "find[ing] out significant news as fast as possible, disregard[ing] all efforts by governments, armies and media to suppress it, and pass[ing] that information on to the public so they can better judge what is happening in the world around them".


title: Robert Fisk

text: Fisk described himself as a pacifist and non-voter. He said that journalism must "challenge authority, all authority, especially so when governments and politicians take us to war". He quoted, with approval, the words of Israeli journalist Amira Hass: "There is a misconception that journalists can be objective. ... What journalism is really about is to monitor power and the centres of power." In light of his earlier training as a journalist on the "Newcastle Evening Chronicle", he said "I had a suspicion that the language we were forced to write as trainee reporters all those years ago had somehow imprisoned us, that we had been schooled to mould the world and ourselves in clichés, that for the most part this would define our lives, destroy our anger and imagination, make us loyal to our betters, to governments, to authority. For some reason, I had become possessed of the belief that the blame for our failure as journalists to report the Middle East with any sense of moral passion or indignation lay in the way that we as journalists were trained." In an interview with the BBC in 2005, he articulated this position further: "If you believe that victims should have more of a say than people who commit atrocities, then yes, I take a definite position. If reporters don't do that then they are out of their minds."


title: Robert Fisk

text: On coverage of foreign reporting, he observed in an interview with Harry Kreisler at the Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley in 2006: "the French are very good at getting to the scene and reporting the reality. I know France doesn't have a very clean reputation in American politics at the moment but my goodness, they've got good journalists. You read a translation of "Liberacion" , "Figero" , "Le Monde" – they've got it. I work a lot with French – I normally work on my own, but if I work with other reporters, I tend to report with Italians or the French because, my goodness, they get to the war front."


title: Robert Fisk

text: When he spoke on "Lies, Misreporting, and Catastrophe in the Middle East" at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley on 22 September 2010, he stated: "I think it is the duty of a foreign correspondent to be neutral and unbiased on the side of those who suffer, whoever they may be." He wrote at length on how many contemporary conflicts had their origins, in his view, in lines drawn on maps: "After the Allied victory of 1918, at the end of my father's war, the victors divided up the lands of their former enemies. In the space of just seventeen months, they created the borders of Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia and most of the Middle East. And I have spent my entire career—in Belfast and Sarajevo, in Beirut and Baghdad—watching the people within those borders burn."


title: Robert Fisk

text: Fisk wrote extensively about the Armenian genocide of 1915 and supported moves to persuade the Turkish Government to acknowledge it.


title: Robert Fisk

text: For Remembrance Day in 2011, Fisk wrote that his father "old Bill Fisk became very ruminative about the Great War. He learned that Haig had lied, that he himself had fought for a world that betrayed him, that 20,000 British dead on the first day of the Somme – which he mercifully avoided because his first regiment, the Cheshires, sent him to Dublin and Cork to deal with another 1916 "problem" – was a trashing of human life. In hospital and recovering from cancer, I asked him once why the Great War was fought. 'All I can tell you, fellah,' he said, 'was that it was a great waste.' And he swept his hand from left to right. Then he stopped wearing his poppy. I asked him why, and he said that he didn't want to see 'so many damn fools' wearing it." He returned to the subject in 2014, the standfirst summarised his experience "My family was haunted by my father's experience on the Somme and the loss of his friends. Why do we pay homage to the dead but ignore the lessons of their war?" and in 2016 where he said "His example was one of great courage. He fought for his country and then, unafraid, he threw his poppy away. Television celebrities do not have to fight for their country – yet they do not even have the guts to break this fake conformity and toss their sordid poppies in the office waste paper bin."


title: Robert Fisk

text: Fisk married American-born journalist Lara Marlowe in 1994. The couple did not have any children and divorced in 2006. At the time of his death, he was married to Nelofer Pazira, an Afghan-Canadian journalist, author and human rights activist.


title: Robert Fisk

text: On settling down, he wrote in 2005: "I told the journalism students there [at City, University of London] that when I saw families walking happily in London or Paris, I wondered whether I had not missed out on life, that perhaps comparative safety and security with nothing more than the mortgage to worry about was preferable to the existence I had chosen for myself. A friend of my father's once said I had enjoyed the privilege of seeing things that no other man had seen. But after a flood of questions from students in Sydney about suffering in the Middle East, I began to wonder if my privilege had not also been my curse."


title: Robert Fisk

text: On 30 October 2020, Fisk died aged 74 at St Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, after a suspected stroke. Due to the Irish Government COVID-19 restrictions, his funeral was held privately.


title: Robert Fisk

text: The president of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins reacted by saying "with his passing the world of journalism and informed commentary on the Middle East has lost one of its finest commentators" and the Taoiseach Micheál Martin stated that "he was fearless and independent in his reporting, with a deeply researched understanding of the complexities of the Middle East, eastern history and politics".


title: Robert Fisk

text: The Australian anti-war journalist John Pilger declared upon hearing of his death that "Robert Fisk has died. I pay warmest tribute to one of the last great reporters. The weasel word 'controversial' appears in even his own paper, "The Independent", whose pages he honoured. He went against the grain and told the truth, spectacularly. Journalism has lost the bravest." Former Leader of the UK Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn eulogised him on Twitter, finding it "[s]o sad to hear of the death of Robert Fisk. A huge loss of a brilliant man with unparalleled knowledge of history, politics and people of Middle East." The Greek politician and economic theorist Yanis Varoufakis also posted a eulogy on Twitter, declaring that "[w]ith Robert Fisk's passing we have lost a journalistic eye without which we shall be partially blind, a pen without which our capacity to express the truth is diminished, a soul without which our own empathy for victims of imperialism will be lacking."


title: Robert Fisk

text: Christian Broughton, the managing director of "The Independent", said "Fearless, uncompromising, determined and utterly committed to uncovering the truth and reality at all costs, Robert Fisk was the greatest journalist of his generation. The fire he lit at "The Independent" will burn on." For Harry Browne in "Jacobin": "Robert Fisk's voice was everywhere, and his ideas were vital in both creating and meeting that Irish urge for explanation." The "Irish Times" obituary read: "He used to explain his rejection of conventional journalistic detachment by saying: 'If you watch wars, the old ideas of journalism that you have to be neutral and take nobody's side is rubbish. As a journalist, you have got to be neutral and unbiased on the side of those who suffer." Former Chartered Institute of Journalists president Liz Justice wrote: "I knew him as a very detailed and knowledgeable journalist. My friend had to edit his work from 2,000 words to 400 and we have very different views involving eggshells and walking carefully. We both agree he will be missed." Richard Falk, in an interview with "CounterPunch", said: "Fisk's departure from the region left a journalistic gap that has not been filled. It is important to appreciate that there are few war correspondents in the world that combine Fisk's reporting fearlessness with his interpretative depth, engaging writing style, and candid exposures of the foibles of the high and mighty."


title: Robert Fisk

text: "Love in a Time of War", a memoir by Fisk's first wife, Lara Marlowe, was published in 2021. It covers the period from 1988 to 2003, the period Fisk and Marlowe worked together.


title: Robert Fisk

text: Fisk received the British Press Awards' International Journalist of the Year seven times, and twice won its "Reporter of the Year" award. He also received Amnesty International UK Media Awards in 1992 for his report "The Other Side of the Hostage Saga", in 1998 for his reports from Algeria and again in 2000 for his articles on the NATO air campaign against the FRY in 1999.


title: Robert Fisk

text: His 2005 work, "The Great War for Civilisation", was critical of Western and Israeli approaches to the Middle East. Neal Ascherson, for "The Independent on Sunday" commented: "This is a very long book, allowing Fisk to interleave political analysis, recent history and his own adventures with the real stories which concern him. These are the sufferings of ordinary people under monstrous tyrannies or in criminal, avoidable wars". In "The Guardian", a former British Ambassador to Libya, Oliver Miles, complained of "a deplorable number of mistakes" in the book's 1,366 pages which "undermine the reader's confidence", and that "vigilant editing and ruthless pruning could perhaps have made two or three good short books out of this one". Richard Beeston, a longtime foreign correspondent and then foreign editor for "The Times", wrote in a review of the book that Fisk's "central argument is lost in a verbal avalanche, as Fisk empties 30 years of notebooks onto the page" and that while there are what he calls "passages of descriptive brilliance" he regarded some of his arguments "ridiculous" and "utter nonsense".


title: Robert Fisk

text: Fisk produced a three-part series titled "From Beirut To Bosnia" in 1993 which Fisk said was an attempt "to find out why an increasing number of Muslims had come to hate the West". Fisk said that the Discovery Channel did not show a repeat of the films, after initially showing them in full, due to a letter campaign launched by pro-Israel groups such as CAMERA.


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: Pretty. Odd. is the second studio album by American pop rock band Panic at the Disco. Recorded at the Studio at the Palms in Paradise, Nevada with additional production at Abbey Road Studios in London with producer Rob Mathes, the album was released March 21, 2008 on Decaydance and Fueled by Ramen. Inspired by baroque pop and the works of the Beatles and the Beach Boys, the psychedelic-styled rock album differs greatly from the techno-influenced pop punk of "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" (2005).


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: To begin work on the record, Panic at the Disco retreated to a cabin in the rural mountains of Mount Charleston, in the group's native state of Nevada. Upon growing dissatisfied with their final product, the band scrapped the entire album and spent time writing and recording "Pretty. Odd." throughout the following winter. Production came together quickly and each song made the cut. Additional recording, such as strings and horns, were produced at Abbey Road Studios. It is the only album to feature bassist Jon Walker, and last to feature vocalist and lead guitarist Ryan Ross as both left the band in 2009, a year later after the album's release.


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: The record received a generally positive critical response, but under-performed commercially in the aftermath of its triple-platinum-selling predecessor, instead only achieving platinum status. The album spent 18 weeks on the "Billboard" 200, peaking at number two, and the album's lead single "Nine in the Afternoon" was certified double platinum by the RIAA. The album has since gathered a cult following and sold 422,000 copies by 2011. In 2019, the album was certified platinum by the RIAA.


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: The group, fresh off the major success of their debut "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out", took a break after non-stop touring and began formulating ideas for their next record together during the winter of 2006. After a short period of development regarding the ideas of the album, the band arrived at a cabin in the rural mountains of Mount Charleston, Nevada in March 2007 to begin the writing process for the new album. At the time, the band set a tentative release date for autumn and had not yet settled on a producer. By April, the band had four songs completed and planned to leave the cabin to head to Los Angeles to continue work on what Ross called "a modern fairy tale with a romantic twist." Shortly before departing from the area, bassist Jon Walker remarked the album would be similar to a concept album and that the entire band would be involved in writing (all previous material had been composed by guitarist Ryan Ross). "Nearly Witches (Ever Since We Met...)" was also written for this album; however, it was rejected for inclusion for "Pretty. Odd.", due to not fitting within the concept of the album. Urie and Smith later finished the song for the band's next studio album "Vices & Virtues".


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: When the group began settling back in Los Angeles in June 2007, they began tracking the album, and at that point, eight new songs had been written. After recording the new tracks and performing them live over the summer, the band returned to their native Las Vegas as well as their old rehearsal studio, where they wrote their debut record. During this time, the band picked producer Rob Mathes to work on the album, who had previously worked with them on a cover of "This Is Halloween" from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993). The band grew uninterested in the songs previously written and by August scrapped the entire new album (which Ross later revealed was "three-quarters" done) and started over. "We wanted to approach these songs in the most basic form," Ross said. "We wrote them all on one acoustic guitar and with someone singing. I think that we kind of skipped that part of songwriting on the first record, and this time we're sort of paying attention to that. […] We've written a bunch of songs since we've been home [Las Vegas]. I think it's the most fun and the happiest we've been since we started." With simplicity the new focus and the old album shelved, the group settled in and began recording what would become "Pretty. Odd."


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: The band continued writing for their follow-up in September 2007. In one month, the band had completed writing "six or seven songs" that contained a much more positive outlook to them, according to Ross. In October, the band entered the Studio at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas to begin recording the album. Ross became the primary spokesman for the band, remarking to MTV the band was "working backwards" for the release, stripping down its sound and going for a more classic rock approach. With "Pretty. Odd." the band was not concerned with succumbing to the pressures of living up to the success of their debut, instead writing and recording songs that made them happy.


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: The first song written for the album was actually a hold-over from the scrapped record, "Nine in the Afternoon". "We wanted to have a song people could just get on the first listen. ... It was one of those spur-of-the-moment songs that came together in a couple of hours. It's just a fun song; it's not really meant to be taken seriously," said Ross of the song. The song inspired the band to write happier tracks, and, from there, the band buckled down, ripping through eight new songs in a little more than six weeks, then writing a couple more while ensconced at the Palms. By the end of the year, the group was well on their way to finishing production on the album. The album came together quickly and each song written made the cut, with "Mad as Rabbits" being the final recorded.


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: In January 2008, the band wrapped up recording at their home studio over one week, and headed to London's Abbey Road Studios to record strings and horns, which the band regarded as "truly a dream come true for us". While there, the band also mixed the album with Peter Cobbin. Mathes was involved in the instrumentation of the album, performing keyboards, acoustic piano, and the mandolin. Mathes arranged and conducted the orchestra at Abbey Road for all tracks except "Nine in the Afternoon". A wurlitzer can be found on "Mad as Rabbits", played by Rick Ronick.


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: Musically the album has been described as psychedelic pop, psychedelic rock, baroque pop, pop, pop rock, and folk rock. The sound of the album was described by the band as "more organic and mellower" than "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out", as well as unintentionally and coincidentally similar to music of the Beatles, in both songwriting and scope. "We all like all of that, from "Rubber Soul" to "The White Album" and all of that, but even before, we were into that theatrical element of things. We didn't want to do a "Sgt. Pepper's" thing," explained Ross. The band never had the intention of music similar to the Beach Boys and the Beatles, according to both Ross and Walker. "It was like before we were writing these songs, we were writing things that were almost entirely orchestrated - and it kind of carried over into this stuff," continued Ross. "And I do think that half this record does sort of have that kind of 'fantastical instrumentation' thing, but we were just trying to fit the mood of each song. And in some cases, we just thought, 'We've got to have this.' " The difference in age did not take negative effect on the band, instead inspiring them to look through a more mature perspective, according to singer Brendon Urie.


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: Although there was no "clear vision" behind "Pretty. Odd.", the band knew that they "wanted to write songs differently in the sense that not all the songs sounded the same or were part of one set genre, you know, just doing something different. With this record, we listened to a bunch of different stuff, too, so that kind of helped broaden our musical taste." Thanks to the new collaborative relationship with producer Rob Mathes, the roles within the band became blurred. Although most songs on the record are attributed to Ryan Ross, the entire band collaborated on each track, with Urie writing two tracks himself and Walker and Smith adding additional lyrics to several tracks. "The Washington Post" reviewed the new sound of Panic positively: "Everything is new, if old, from the baroque instrumentation (the use of a fluegelhorn), songwriting (less wordy, more obtuse) and vocal phrasing (streamlined) to the Beatlesque chord progressions, melodies, hooks and stacked vocal harmonies, which also owe a minor debt to Brian Wilson." The lyrics mingle ruined romances and neo-psychedelic aphorisms.


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: "Nine in the Afternoon" received positive reviews and critics noted the change in direction from the band's debut and "Pretty. Odd." James Montgomery of MTV regarded the song similar to The Band's "Music from Big Pink", and called final single "Northern Downpour" reminiscent of "an "Abbey Road" outtake". "When the Day Met the Night", the record's eighth track, was heavily praised by music publications. "Spin" regarded it as the centerpiece of the record, calling it "a sunshine pop sing-along that's as blindingly bright" and a stark contrast to the "embarrassing" "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out". Gigwise called the song "the track everyone will want to see the band play live," and noting that its "brass backing and glorious string-based crescendo are that of "Pet Sounds"-era Beach Boys." National Public Radio commented that "Pretty. Odd." "experimented with psychedelic pop, vaudeville and unusual instrumentation."


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: The entire marketing campaign for "Pretty. Odd." was based solely on grassroots and viral marketing. The band's original intention with the record, according to drummer Spencer Smith, was to have a single out by Christmas 2007 and the album out by February. The band first began promotion for the album in November 2007, with a snippet of "Nine in the Afternoon" audible in the "Heroes" episode "Cautionary Tales". On December 12, 2007 the group released a cryptic MySpace bulletin containing a link to their website and a message mysteriously stating "And so it begins …" The link led to the band's official website, where a puzzle revealed what most seemed to agree read "You Don't Have to Worry." Inspired by an idea when the band got drunk while recording according to manager Bob McLynn, the viral marketing campaign was the first clues to what would reveal several more clues over the following weeks, including the album title, artwork and first single.


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: "Nine in the Afternoon" was revealed as the first single from "Pretty. Odd." through the puzzle aforementioned on December 14, 2007. The original message was revealed to be a disclaimer in the record's first track, "We're So Starving", which debuted in a rough mix on the band's MySpace on January 2, 2008. The demo gained 45,000 listens by the end of the day, before it was removed. The album's title, "Pretty. Odd.", was hinted at during the music video shoot for "Nine in the Afternoon" on December 22, where each band member wore a sash bearing the title. The title was revealed by a spokesperson for Atlantic Records on January 9, 2008. On the same date, the band unveiled a new logo and dropped the exclamation point from their name, effectively becoming Panic at the Disco, which soon caused outrage among the band's fanbase. In April 2008, the band released a short film to promote the album, titled "Panic at the Disco in: American Valley".


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: The album's title, "Pretty. Odd." was conceived randomly while recording and the name stuck. "It just happened one night. We were working on a new song, and we weren't even talking about album titles, but it was just something I wrote down, and I brought it up to the guys," Ross explained. "Like, "Pretty. Odd." And then they all liked it, and that was a couple of months ago, so we just kept it since then." Smith added that the band thought it was "more fun" with the punctuation present in the title. Meanwhile, the lack of punctuation in the band's name outraged fans and brought about a strange amount of press. Geraldine Woods compared the punctuation to e.e. cummings and likened it to a form of "rebellion for creative people."


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: "It seems like [Panic have] put some thought into the changes ... they're not just changes for changes' sake. "Pretty. Odd." works because it conjures up images of something that is both pretty "and" odd, which is interesting, And it's grammatically interesting, because without the period, the word 'pretty' would be modifying the word 'odd.' So it takes on a completely different context."


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: The entirety of the art direction for "Pretty. Odd." was headed by Alex Kirzhner, with inspiration from Panic at the Disco. The inside liner notes, which include the lyrics to each song, were illustrated by graphic designer Connie Makita, and the majority of the rest of the illustrations were designed by Kirzhner with designer Tanapan "Bang" Puangpakdee. The album art was revealed via the band's official website on January 23, 2008. The album cover art consists of painted flowers and butterflies, which "Slant" regarded as a tribute to the Beach Boys. The deluxe edition vinyl package was nominated for Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package at the 2009 Grammy Awards, but lost to Radiohead's "In Rainbows" (2007).


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: "Pretty. Odd." was released on March 21, 2008 in the United States and Canada, as well as various other dates for other countries. The album debuted at number two on the US "Billboard" 200 chart, with first-day sales of 54,000, and first-week sales of 139,000 copies in the United States. Those figures marked the band's biggest sales week to that date, beating a previous record held by "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" (which sold 45,000 during the winter of 2006). The record also debuted at "Current Alternative Albums" chart and #2 on the "Digital Albums" chart, the latter of which accounted for 26 percent of the disc's overall sales. Online sales were very important to the early success of "Pretty. Odd."; when the iTunes Store allowed customers to pre-order the album two months ahead of its release, it had already sold 8,000 copies the day before it was released. By May, the album had sold 235,280 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan. By June, it had sold over 500,000 copies through online music services. The number one position on the "Billboard" 200 chart was the self-titled debut from Day26, enjoying its second week at the top of the chart.


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: The album also debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart. However, weekly sales for the album sharply declined and the album dropped from number two to eleven within the next week, and it spent only six weeks within the top 100. "Pretty. Odd." debuted at number two on both the Canada's Albums Chart and the Mexican Albums Chart. The album peaked within the top 10 of the charts of New Zealand, Austria, and Ireland. The album debuted at number one in Australia. The album was less commercially successful in countries such as Sweden and France, where the album barely cracked the top 40. The album eventually went gold in the UK only, and went gold in the US in 2016.


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: Although the album has been commercially viable and certified gold, the record failed to match the sales of the band's debut, "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out". "Pretty. Odd." received relatively poor sales in competition with its predecessor, which was certified platinum in a matter of months. "It's really hard to judge how the album is doing based on record sales, you know?" Ross told MTV News. "We look at that, and we don't really know what that even means. All we can go off is being on [the Honda Civic Tour] and seeing that people are getting into the new stuff, and that's the only way we can tell firsthand if things are going well or not." "It's a really weird time for music, and it's hard to tell where you stand, and all the things that used to tell you about your band have kind of gone away. So how you perceive yourself has changed," Smith added. "Luckily for us, rock bands have always been about playing live, [which is] good for us, because we're a real band who plays our own instruments, so we love being able to do it. And luckily that's always going to be there, because you can't download the concert ticket." As of June 2008, the album has sold 600,000 copies worldwide.


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: "Pretty. Odd." created fan confusion and received a mostly mixed critical response, so much so that in 2011 "Rolling Stone" called the record one of the boldest moves in rock history. At Metacritic, it currently holds a score of 70 out of 100 based on 22 reviews from mainstream critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews". Of the original reviews, "Spin" generally was the most enthusiastic: ""Pretty. Odd." lives up to its title because it dares to be optimistically beautiful at a time when sadness and ugliness might have won them easier credibility." "Billboard" also was generally positive, calling the record "15 tracks of welcomed live drum sounds, symphonies and stacked harmonies." "Time" called the record's songs smarter and said it provided a more exciting outcome for the band's future: "Where this band goes now is unclear, but the journey is a lot more interesting." British publication "NME" viewed the album in a positive light, calling it a "victory for artistic ambition over cynical careerism" and "one of the feel-good psych-pop albums of the year."


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: "Alternative Press" called "Pretty. Odd." ambitious, while "Blender" called several songs on the record a "brush with greatness." Rob Sheffield of "Rolling Stone" agreed with the latter statement, calling the songs "often beautiful," rounding out a less-than-impressed review with "Even when it's over the top, which is basically always, "Pretty. Odd." sounds cheerful." "Entertainment Weekly"s Leah Greenblatt called it "more pretty than odd," calling it a "headphones album, a dense, largely enjoyable layer cake of ideas and instrumentation that might actually alienate its teenage fans." "The A.V. Club" Aaron Burgess stated that "Pretty. Odd." deserves "far more than a casual listen," praising the baroque orchestration and multilayered harmonies. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called the album "a deliriously jumbled, left field delight." Paul Schrodt of the online "Slant Magazine" dismissed the record as generic, but commended the "exuberant delivery" of the pop hooks.


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: "Mojo" called the LP "too clinical and calculated" considering the young age of band members. Fellow British music magazine "Q" expressed similar sentiments: "Ultimately, you're left wishing that Panic at the Disco had more to say about their own generation, instead of mimicking that of their parents'." "The Boston Globe" reviewer Matthew Shaer agreed: ""Pretty" borrows liberally from the things that made those bands superficially interesting - the practiced eccentricity, the constant innovation - without paying tribute to the cultural and political sensibilities that made them great." "The New York Times" called the record "wildly elaborate" and a "brave change," but offered less kind words to summarize: "For all its craftsmanship, "Pretty. Odd." comes across as mannered and overbearing, more studied than exuberant." "The Village Voice" called the record earnest and triumphant, but criticized the "hard to grasp" overarching narrative strand. "Uncut" held that the album "tried too hard to be obtuse," but praised the band's artistic evolution.


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: James Montgomery of MTV News has described "Pretty. Odd." in retrospect as overlooked, writing that, "Give this one a decade ... we could have another "Pinkerton" on our hands," referencing the Weezer album that received a mixed response upon release but was heralded as a classic in later years.


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: The band announced plans to headline the 2008 Honda Civic Tour in January 2008, which took up the majority of early touring for the album. Motion City Soundtrack, The Hush Sound and Phantom Planet opened for the tour, which April 10 to July 14, 2008 across North America. Throughout October and November 2008, the band toured with Dashboard Confessional and The Cab on the "Rock Band" Live Tour promoting the video game "Rock Band 2".


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: As expected and predicted by several music publications, Panic at the Disco adopted a very different style for the touring in support of "Pretty. Odd.", in contrast to the dark, circus-themed elements of their previous stage shows. Each show contained "woodsy set pieces, projections of flora and fauna, and mic stands wrapped in lights and flowers," and each band member dressed in a vest. While reflecting on the theatrical nature of "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" touring, Urie commented "We did it and it was a lot of fun when we did it, but this time around I think we wanted to get back to a more intimate, personal setting, and scale it down a little bit." Ryan Ross explained that "It's more about connecting with the audience and seeing what's gonna happen every night. It's not as scripted out and pre-planned. It makes it more exciting for us, and less monotonous every night." A live album, "...Live in Chicago", based on live recordings from Chicago during the Honda Civic Tour, was released December 2, 2008. An accompanying DVD contains photos from the tour, each music video from the album as well as behind-the-scenes footage of the videos and the tour, the short film "Panic at the Disco In: American Valley", and the documentary feature based on the tour, "All In A Day's".


title: Pretty. Odd.

text: "Pretty. Odd." touring was also defined by a larger effort to remain environmentally conscious. On the tour, the band worked with two non-profit eco organizations: Reverb, which facilitates environmentally friendly touring; and Global Inheritance, which seeks to inspire more eco-activism. In a 2008 interview, Ross revealed that the band was traveling on a biodiesel bus, re-using plastics, and recycling more backstage. The band also printed tour booklets on recycled paper, with soy ink, and organized an "eco-contest," in which profits from the tour went straight to environmental organizations.


title: Scrapie

text: Scrapie () is a fatal, degenerative disease affecting the nervous systems of sheep and goats. It is one of several transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), and as such it is thought to be caused by a prion. Scrapie has been known since at least 1732 and does not appear to be transmissible to humans. However, new studies suggest a link between scrapie and sporadic CJD.


title: Scrapie

text: The name scrapie is derived from one of the clinical signs of the condition, wherein affected animals will compulsively scrape off their fleeces against rocks, trees or fences. The disease apparently causes an itching sensation in the animals. Other clinical signs include excessive lip smacking, altered gaits and convulsive collapse.


title: Scrapie

text: Scrapie is infectious and transmissible among conspecifics, so one of the most common ways to contain it (since it is incurable) is to quarantine and kill those affected. However, scrapie tends to persist in flocks and can also arise apparently spontaneously in flocks that have not previously had cases of the disease. The mechanism of transmission between animals and other aspects of the biology of the disease are only poorly understood, and are active areas of research. Recent studies suggest prions may be spread through urine and persist in the environment for decades.


title: Scrapie

text: Scrapie usually affects sheep around three to five years of age. The potential for transmission at birth and from contact with placental tissues is apparent.


title: Scrapie

text: The disease has been notifiable in the EU since 1993, but unlike BSE, there was no evidence as of 1999 to suggest that scrapie is a risk to human health. In July 2003, a Canadian Food Inspection Agency officer said that while scrapie shows up every year on Canadian farms, "We've had a lot of experience with scrapie and there's never been a link between scrapie and human illness." As of 2004, the USDA made no mention of scrapie in its "Sheep and Goats Death Loss" circular.


title: Scrapie

text: Historically, scrapie had been considered to be an animal health issue. However, between 1996 and 1999 the UK Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee had been considering the control and eradication of scrapie in the UK also with public health in mind because of concern over five issues:


title: Scrapie

text: Scrapie and other transmissible spongiform encephalopathies are caused by prion disease. Prions were determined to be the infectious agent because transmission is difficult to prevent with heat, radiation and disinfectants, the agent does not evoke any detectable immune response, and it has a long incubation period of between 18 months and 5 years. The agent is thought to be much smaller than the smallest known virus. Prions multiply by causing normally folded proteins of the same type to


title: Scrapie

text: take on their abnormal shape, which then go on to do the same, in a kind of chain reaction. These abnormal proteins are gradually accumulated in the body, especially in nerve cells, which subsequently die.


title: Scrapie

text: The primary mode of transmission is from mother to lamb through ingestion of placental or allantoic fluids.


title: Scrapie

text: The agent can also enter through cuts in the skin. An experiment has shown lambs risk being infected through milk from infected ewes, but the lambs in the experiment also infected each other, making the risk of infection difficult to assess. The experiment did not continue long enough to show if the lambs developed symptoms, but merely that the abnormal prion was present in their bodies.


title: Scrapie

text: The pathogenesis of scrapie involves the lymphatic system. Once the agent is absorbed through the intestines, misfolded prions first appear and accumulate in the lymph nodes, especially in Peyer's patches at the small intestine. Eventually, the infection invades the brain, often through the spinal cord or the medulla oblongata by creeping up the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, respectively.


title: Scrapie

text: Changes are mild at first; slight behavioral changes and an increase in chewing movements may occur. Ataxia and neurological signs then develop, and affected sheep struggle to keep up with the flock.


title: Scrapie

text: Some sheep scratch excessively and show patches of wool loss and lesions on the skin. Scratching sheep over the rump area may lead to a nibbling reflex, which is characteristic for the condition.


title: Scrapie

text: "Post mortem" examination is important for the diagnosis of scrapie. Histology of tissues shows accumulation of prions in the central nervous system, and immunohistochemical staining and ELISA can also be used to demonstrate the protein.


title: Scrapie

text: A test performed by sampling a small amount of lymphatic tissue from the third eyelid is now available.


title: Scrapie

text: In the UK, the Blair ministry implemented in 2001 a "National Scrapie Plan", which encouraged breeding from sheep that are genetically more resistant to scrapie. This is intended to eventually reduce the incidence of the disease in the UK sheep population. Scrapie occurs in Europe and North America, but to date, Australia and New Zealand (both major sheep-producing countries) are scrapie-free. In 2003, there was pressure from previously-sinistered Canadian husbandry practitioners on the Chretien government and their CFIA to implement their own national scrapie plan.


title: Scrapie

text: Breeds such as Cheviot and Suffolk are more susceptible to scrapie than other breeds. Specifically, this is determined by the genes coding for the naturally occurring prion proteins. The most resistant sheep have a double set of "ARR" alleles, while sheep with the "VRQ" allele are the most susceptible. A simple blood test reveals the allele of the sheep, and many countries are actively breeding away the "VRQ" allele.


title: Scrapie

text: Out of fear of BSE, many European countries banned some traditional sheep or goat products made without removing the spinal cord, such as smalahove and smokie.


title: Scrapie

text: In 2010, a team from New York described detection of PrP even when initially present at only one part in a hundred billion (10) in brain tissue. The method combines amplification with a novel technology called surround optical fiber immunoassay and some specific antibodies against PrP. The technique allowed detection of PrP after many fewer cycles of conversion than others have achieved, substantially reducing the possibility of artefacts, as well as speeding up the assay. The researchers also tested their method on blood samples from apparently healthy sheep that went on to develop scrapie. The animals' brains were analysed once any symptoms became apparent. They could therefore compare results from brain tissue and blood taken once the animals exhibited symptoms of the diseases, with blood obtained earlier in the animals' lives, and from uninfected animals. The results showed very clearly that PrP could be detected in the blood of animals long before the symptoms appeared. After further development and testing, this method could be of great value in surveillance as a blood- or urine-based screening test for scrapie.


title: Scrapie

text: Various studies have indicated prions (PrP) that infect sheep and goats with the fatal transmissible encephalopathy known as scrapie, are able to persist in soil for years without losing their pathogenic activity. Dissemination of prions into the environment can occur from several sources: mainly, infectious placenta or amniotic fluid of sheep and possibly environmental contamination by saliva or excrement.


title: Scrapie

text: Confirmatory testing for scrapie can only be achieved by applying immunohistochemistry of disease-associated prion protein (PrP) to tissues collected "post mortem", including obex (a brainstem structure), retropharyngeal lymph node and palatine tonsil. A live animal diagnostic, not confirmatory, test was approved in 2008 for immunochemistry testing on rectal biopsy-derived lymphoid tissue by USDA.