prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: What is the source of the river Orlam clans crossed to migrate to Namibia?

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
Bhilangna River
Bhilangna River is a Himalayan river in Uttarakhand, India, which is the major tributary of the Bhagirathi river, the source stream of the Ganges River of India  Bhilangana is a combination of Bhil and Ganga The mainstem, Bhilangna, rises at the foot of the Khatling Glacier (elevation 3,717 m (12,195 ft)) approximately 50 km (31 mi) south of the ice cave at Gaumukh, traditionally considered the source of both the Bhagirathi and the Ganges and flows into the Bhagirathi at Old Tehri, the site of the Tehri dam   It meets its major tributary the Bal Ganga at Ghansali (elevation 976 m (3,202 ft)) 
The Bal Ganga, whose headwaters are formed at the foot of Mount Kukhli Dhar (elevation 4,600 m (15,100 ft)), itself has a minor tributary, the Dharam Ganga, which meets it at Thati Kathur (also Budha Kedar) at elevation 1,524 m (5,000 ft)
The Khatling trek route passes alongside the Bhilangna, starting from the last point accessible by road, Ghuttu, until the glacier, which stands at 3700 metres  If one were to go further on the trail past the glacier, one could reach Kedarnath 

See also
Bhagirathi River
Ganges
Alaknanda River
Passage 2:
Orange River
The Orange River (from Afrikaans/Dutch: Oranjerivier) is a river in Southern Africa  It is the longest river in South Africa  With a total length of 2,432 km (1,511 mi), the Orange River Basin extends from Lesotho into South Africa and Namibia to the north  It rises in the Drakensberg mountains in Lesotho, flowing westwards through South Africa to the Atlantic Ocean  The river forms part of the international borders between South Africa and Lesotho and between South Africa and Namibia, as well as several provincial borders within South Africa  Except for Upington, it does not pass through any major cities  The Orange River plays an important role in the South African economy by providing water for irrigation and hydroelectric power  The river was named the Orange River in honour of the Dutch ruling family, the House of Orange, by the Dutch explorer Robert Jacob Gordon  Other names include simply the word for river, in Khoekhoegowab orthography written as !Garib, which is rendered in Afrikaans as Gariep River with the intrusion of a velar fricative in place of the alveolar click, Groote River (derived from Kai !Garib) or Senqu River (used in Lesotho), derived from ǂNū "Black"  It is known in isiZulu as isAngqu 

Course
The Orange rises in the Drakensberg mountains along the border between South Africa and Lesotho, about 193 km (120 mi) west of the Indian Ocean and at an altitude of over 3,000 m (9,800 ft)  The extremity of the Orange River inside Lesotho is known as the Senqu  Parts of the Senqu River freeze in winter because of the high altitude  This creates droughts downstream, which mainly affect goat and cattle production 

The Orange River then runs westward through South Africa, forming the south-western boundary of the Free State province  In this section, the river flows first into the Gariep Dam and later into the Vanderkloof Dam  From the border of Lesotho to below the Vanderkloof Dam, the river bed is deeply incised  Further downstream, the land is flatter, and the river is used extensively for irrigation 
At the western point of the Free State, southwest of Kimberley, the Orange meets with its main tributary, the Vaal River, which forms much of the northern border of the province  From here, the river flows further westward through the arid wilderness of the southern Kalahari region and Namaqualand in the Northern Cape province to meet with Namibia at 20°E longitude  From here, it flows westward for 550 km (340 mi), forming the international border between the province and Namibia's ǁKaras Region  On the border, the river passes the town of Vioolsdrif, the main border post between South Africa and Namibia 

In the last 800 km (500 mi) of its course, the Orange receives many intermittent streams, and several large wadis lead into it  In this section, the Namib Desert terminates on the north bank of the river, so under normal circumstances, the volume of water added by these tributaries is negligible  Here, the bed of the river is once again deeply incised  The Augrabies Falls are located on this section of the Orange, where the river descends 122 m (400 ft) in a course of 26 km (16 mi) 
The Orange empties into the Atlantic Ocean between the small towns of Oranjemund (meaning "Orange mouth") in Namibia and Alexander Bay in South Africa, about equidistant between Walvis Bay and Cape Town  Some 33 km (21 mi) from its mouth, it is obstructed by rapids and sand bars and is generally not navigable for long stretches 
The river has a total length of 2,432 km (1,511 mi) 

Catchment and rainfall
In the dry season, the volume of the water in the river is considerably reduced because of the rapid run-off and evaporation  At the source of the Orange, the rainfall is about 2,000 mm (79 in) per annum, but precipitation decreases as the river flows westward; at its mouth, the rainfall is less than 50 mm (2 0 in) per year  The factors that support evaporation, though, tend to increase in a westerly direction  In the wet season (summer), the Orange river becomes a brown colored torrent  The huge mass of sediment carried constitutes a long-term threat to engineering projects on the river The total catchment of the Orange River (including the Vaal) extends over 973,000 km2 (376,000 sq mi), i e  equivalent to about 77% of the land area of South Africa (1,221,037 km2 (471,445 sq mi))  Around 366,000 km2 (141,000 sq mi) (38%), however, are situated outside the country in Lesotho, Botswana, and Namibia 

Tributaries
Vaal River - 1,458 km (906 mi)
Caledon River - 642 km (399 mi)
Khubelu River - 144 km (89 mi)

Dams
Armenia Dam
Egmont Dam
Gariep Dam
Newberry Dam
Vanderkloof Dam
Welbedacht Dam

History
Etymology
Some of the earliest precolonial inhabitants called the river ǂNūǃarib, referring to its black colour, or sometimes just Kai !Arib ("Great River"), from which is derived the Afrikaans version Gariep, and translation "Groote Rivier"  The early Dutch name for the river was just that translation, Groote Rivier, meaning "Great River"  The river was named the Orange River by Colonel Robert Gordon, commander of the United East India Company (VOC) garrison at Cape Town, on a trip to the interior in 1779  Gordon named the river in honor of William V of Orange  A popular but incorrect belief is that the river was named after the supposedly orange color of its water, as opposed to the color of its tributary, the Vaal River, which name is derived from the name ǀHaiǃarib "pale river" (vaal being Afrikaans for pale or grey)  Since the end of apartheid, the name "Gariep" has had greater favour in official correspondence in South Africa, although the name "Orange" has greater international recognition  In Lesotho, where the river rises, it is known as the Senqu River, derived from the original Khoemana name 

The Eastern Cape Geographical Names Committee has advertised its intention to consider a name change from the colonial name, for that portion of the river that forms the border between the Eastern Cape and the Free State, with suggestions being IGqili or Senqu  The advertisement placed in the Aliwal Weekblad newspaper states that the "present name is perceived to have a strong association with the history of colonial subjugation and has therefore no place under the current democratic dispensation "

The Grootslang
In South African folklore, the Orange River is often associated with the Grootslang, a mythical being resembling a giant serpent, which is often connected to the river's alluvial diamonds  The Grootslang is described as living in a gem-filled cave connected to the Orange River by a natural pipe through which the diamonds gradually enter the river  Other sites said to be lairs of the creature include the pool beneath the King George Cataract at Aughrabies Falls, which is also said to be a source of diamonds, and a large rock in the middle of the river itself  In this version of the legend, the Grootslang is also said to prey on cattle from the river's banks 

Economy
As the collection point for the majority of South Africa's water, the Orange River plays a major role in supporting agriculture, industry, and mining  To assist in this, two large water schemes have been created, the Orange River Project and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project  Historically, the river played an important role in the South African diamond rush, with the first diamonds in the country being discovered in alluvial deposits on the Orange  Today, several commercial diamond mines operate along the final stretch of the Orange River and around its mouth 
Because of the lack of dangerous animals and high water levels during summer, the river is used for recreational canoeing and rafting  Orange River rafting has become very popular with many companies using their camps along the river from which to operate  The most popular trips are four-day and six-day river trips that take place either along the gorge below the Augrabies Falls or along the Richtersveld area 

Orange River Project
The Orange River Project (ORP) was one of the largest and most imaginative projects of its kind in South Africa  It was constructed by Hendrik Verwoerd's government at the height of the apartheid era  The ORP was built to exploit the waters of the Orange River—which, without the Vaal River, represents some 14 1% of the total runoff in South Africa—and in the process, to satisfy an increasing demand for water  The main objectives of the project were:

to stabilise river flow,
the generation and transmission of hydroelectric power,
to provide a reliable water supply for users in the Orange River basin, and
to give a new lease on life to water-deficient areas in the Eastern Cape, such as the Great Fish and Sundays River valleys The Gariep Dam near Colesberg is the main storage structure within the Orange River  From here, the water is supplied in two directions, westward along the Orange River (via hydroelectric power generators) to the Vanderkloof Dam and southward through the Orange-Fish Tunnel to the Eastern Cape 

Hydroelectricity
Eskom operates hydroelectric power stations at both the Gariep Dam and the Vanderkloof Dam  The hydroelectric power station at the Vanderkloof Dam was the first power-generation station in South Africa situated entirely underground  The towns Oviston and Oranjekrag were established to facilitate the construction and operation of the new infrastructure 

Irrigation
Irrigation in the vast area downstream of the Vanderkloof Dam, which has turned thousands of hectares of arid veld into highly productive agricultural land, was made possible by the construction of the Gariep and Vanderkloof Dams  Old established irrigation schemes such as those at Buchuberg, Upington, Kakamas, and Vioolsdrif have also benefitted because regulation of the flow is now possible  On the Namibian side of the river, Aussenkehr produces grapes with the help of water from the Orange 
In recent years, the wine-producing areas along the Orange River have grown in importance  Irrigation in the Eastern Cape has also received a tremendous boost, not only from the additional water being made available, but also owing to improvement in water quality  Without this improvement, the citrus farmers along the Lower Sundays River would almost certainly have continued to suffer losses of productivity 

Lesotho Highlands Water Project
The Lesotho Highlands Water Project was conceived to supplement the water supply in the Vaal River System  Water is delivered to South Africa by means of the delivery tunnel which passes under the Lesotho South Africa border at the Caledon River, and then under the Little Caledon River south of Clarens in the Free State, and discharges into the Ash River about 30 kilometres (19 mi) further to the north  The scheme became viable when water demands in Gauteng reached levels that could no longer be supported economically by alternative schemes such as the Tugela River-Vaal River pumped storage scheme, which used the Sterkfontein Dam, located near Harrismith in the Free State 

Alluvial diamonds
In 1867, the first diamond discovered in South Africa, the Eureka Diamond, was found near Hopetown on the Orange River  Two years later, a much larger diamond known as the Star of South Africa was found in the same area, causing a diamond rush  This was soon eclipsed by the diamond rush to mine diamonds directly from kimberlite at Kimberley in 1871, although alluvial diamonds continued to be found in the Orange  Today, several commercial diamond mines operate on the last stretch of the river, as well as the beaches around its mouth  Diamond mines also operate on the middle stretch of the river 

Rafting and canoeing
During the temperate months of March and April, given good rains and the sluices of the dams being open, a canoeist (or rafter) can easily travel 30 kilometres (19 mi) per day  The lower reaches of the river are most popular, because of the spectacular topography  Commercial tours are available, and these expeditions depart from the border town of Vioolsdrif 

Wildlife
The Orange River has no large animals  It lies outside the range of the Nile crocodile, and although hippopotami were once abundant, they were hunted to extermination in the 19th century  The Orange River has a relative paucity of species diversity  A 2011 survey of 13,762 fish found only 16 species of fish present   Three of these, the common carp, the Mozambique tilapia, and the western mosquitofish are not indigenous   Another exotic species, rainbow trout, is found in the river headwaters in Lesotho 
Seven species are endemic to the Vaal-Orange River system:
Rock-catfish (Austroglanis sclateri)
Maluti redfin or Maloti minnow (Pseudobarbus quathlambae)
Namaquab barb (Barbus hospes)
River sardine (Mesobola brevianalis)
Smallmouth yellowfish (Labeobarbus aeneus)
Largemouth yellowfish (Labeobarbus kimberlyensis)
Orange River Mudfish (Labeo capensis)

See also
List of rivers in South Africa
List of international border rivers
List of crossings of the Orange River
Passage 3:
Khan River
The river Khan is an ephemeral river crossing the Erongo region of central Namibia  It is the main tributary of the Swakop River and only occasionally carries surface water during the rain seasons in November and February/March  Khan's catchment area including its tributaries Slang and Etiro is 8,400 square kilometres (3,200 sq mi) The Khan has its origin near the settlement of Otjisemba, north-west of Okahandja  From there the river course passes westwards to the town of Usakos, and further in a south-western direction through the Namib desert  It  has its confluence with the Swakop River 40 km east of Swakopmund It is a popular tourist attraction due to the proliferation of mammals such as the klipspringer antelope, ostriches and jackals 
Passage 4:
Namibia
Namibia ( (listen), ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa  Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean  It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east  Although it does not border Zimbabwe, less than 200 metres (660 feet) of the Botswanan right bank of the Zambezi River separates the two countries  Namibia gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the Namibian War of Independence  Its capital and largest city is Windhoek  Namibia is a member state of the United Nations (UN), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU) and the Commonwealth of Nations 
The driest country in sub-Saharan Africa, Namibia has been inhabited since pre-historic times by the San, Damara and Nama people  Around the 14th century, immigrating Bantu peoples arrived as part of the Bantu expansion  Since then, the Bantu groups, the largest being the Ovambo, have dominated the population of the country; since the late 19th century, they have constituted a majority  Today Namibia is one of the least densely populated countries in the world 
It has a population of 2 55 million people and is a stable multi-party parliamentary democracy  Agriculture, tourism and the mining industry – including mining for gem diamonds, uranium, gold, silver and base metals – form the basis of its economy, while the manufacturing sector is comparatively small 
In 1884, the German Empire established rule over most of the territory, forming a colony known as German South West Africa  Between 1904 and 1908, it perpetrated a genocide against the Herero and Nama people  German rule ended in 1915 with a defeat by South African forces  In 1920, after the end of World War I, the League of Nations mandated administration of the colony to South Africa  As mandatory power, South Africa imposed its laws, including racial classifications and rules  From 1948, with the National Party elected to power, this included South Africa applying apartheid to what was then known as South West Africa  In the later 20th century, uprisings and demands for political representation by native African political activists seeking independence resulted in the UN assuming direct responsibility over the territory in 1966, but the country of South Africa maintained de facto rule  In 1973, the UN recognised the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) as the official representative of the Namibian people  Following continued guerrilla warfare, Namibia obtained independence in 1990  However, Walvis Bay and the Penguin Islands remained under South African control until 1994 

History
Etymology
The name of the country is derived from the Namib desert, the oldest desert in the world  The name Namib itself is of Nama origin and means "vast place"  That word for the country was chosen by Mburumba Kerina, who originally proposed the name the "Republic of Namib"  Before its independence in 1990, the area was known first as German South-West Africa (Deutsch-Südwestafrika), then as South West Africa, reflecting the colonial occupation by the Germans and South Africans 

Pre-colonial period
The dry lands of Namibia have been inhabited since prehistoric times by the San, Damara, and Nama  Around the 14th century, immigrating Bantu people began to arrive during the Bantu expansion from central Africa From the late 18th century onward, Oorlam people from Cape Colony crossed the Orange River and moved into the area that today is southern Namibia  Their encounters with the nomadic Nama tribes were largely peaceful  They received the missionaries accompanying the Oorlam very well, granting them the right to use waterholes and grazing against an annual payment  On their way further north, however, the Oorlam encountered clans of the OvaHerero at Windhoek, Gobabis, and Okahandja, who resisted their encroachment  The Nama-Herero War broke out in 1880, with hostilities ebbing only after the German Empire deployed troops to the contested places and cemented the status quo among the Nama, Oorlam, and Herero In 1878, the Cape of Good Hope, then a British colony, annexed the port of Walvis Bay and the offshore Penguin Islands; these became an integral part of the new Union of South Africa at its creation in 1910 
The first Europeans to disembark and explore the region were the Portuguese navigators Diogo Cão in 1485 and Bartolomeu Dias in 1486, but the Portuguese did not try to claim the area  Like most of the interior of Sub-Saharan Africa, Namibia was not extensively explored by Europeans until the 19th century  At that time traders and settlers came principally from Germany and Sweden  In 1870, Finnish missionaries came to the northern part of Namibia to spread the Lutheran religion among the Ovambo and Kavango people  In the late 19th century, Dorsland Trekkers crossed the area on their way from the Transvaal to Angola  Some of them settled in Namibia instead of continuing their journey 

German rule
Namibia became a German colony in 1884 under Otto von Bismarck to forestall perceived British encroachment and was known as German South West Africa (Deutsch-Südwestafrika)  The Palgrave Commission by the British governor in Cape Town determined that only the natural deep-water harbour of Walvis Bay was worth occupying and thus annexed it to the Cape province of British South Africa 
In 1897, a rinderpest epidemic caused massive cattle die-offs of an estimated 95% of cattle in southern & central Namibia  In response the German colonizers set up a veterinary cordon fence known as the Red Line  In 1907 this fence then broadly defined the boundaries for the first Police Zone From 1904 to 1907, the Herero and the Namaqua took up arms against brutal German colonialism  In a calculated punitive action by the German occupiers, government officials ordered the extinction of the natives in the OvaHerero and Namaqua genocide  In what has been called the "first genocide of the 20th century", the Germans systematically killed 10,000 Nama (half the population) and approximately 65,000 Herero (about 80% of the population)  The survivors, when finally released from detention, were subjected to a policy of dispossession, deportation, forced labour, racial segregation, and discrimination in a system that in many ways foreshadowed the apartheid established by South Africa in 1948 

Most Africans were confined to so-called native territories, which under South African rule after 1949 were turned into "homelands" (Bantustans)  Some historians have speculated that the German genocide in Namibia was a model for the Nazis in the Holocaust  The memory of genocide remains relevant to ethnic identity in independent Namibia and to relations with Germany  The German minister for aid development apologised for the Namibian genocide in 2004, however, the German government distanced itself from this apology 

South African mandate
During World War I, South African troops under General Louis Botha occupied the territory and deposed the German colonial administration  The end of the war and the Treaty of Versailles resulted in South West Africa remaining a possession of South Africa, at first as a League of Nations mandate, until 1990  The mandate system was formed as a compromise between those who advocated for an Allied annexation of former German and Ottoman territories and a proposition put forward by those who wished to grant them to an international trusteeship until they could govern themselves  It permitted the South African government to administer South West Africa until that territory's inhabitants were prepared for political self-determination  South Africa interpreted the mandate as a veiled annexation and made no attempt to prepare South West Africa for future autonomy 
As a result of the Conference on International Organization in 1945, the League of Nations was formally superseded by the United Nations (UN) and former League mandates by a trusteeship system  Article 77 of the United Nations Charter stated that UN trusteeship "shall apply   to territories now held under mandate"; furthermore, it would "be a matter of subsequent agreement as to which territories in the foregoing territories will be brought under the trusteeship system and under what terms"  The UN requested all former League of Nations mandates be surrendered to its Trusteeship Council in anticipation of their independence  South Africa declined to do so and instead requested permission from the UN to formally annex South West Africa, for which it received considerable criticism  When the UN General Assembly rejected this proposal, South Africa dismissed its opinion and began solidifying control of the territory  The UN Generally Assembly and Security Council responded by referring the issue to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which held a number of discussions on the legality of South African rule between 1949 and 1966 

South Africa began imposing apartheid, its codified system of racial segregation and discrimination, on South West Africa during the late 1940s  Black South West Africans were subject to pass laws, curfews, and a host of residential regulations that restricted their movement  Development was concentrated in the southern region of the territory adjacent to South Africa, known as the "Police Zone", where most of the major settlements and commercial economic activity were located  Outside the Police Zone, indigenous peoples were restricted to theoretically self-governing tribal homelands 
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the accelerated decolonisation of Africa and mounting pressure on the remaining colonial powers to grant their colonies self-determination resulted in the formation of nascent nationalist parties in South West Africa  Movements such as the South West African National Union (SWANU) and the South West African People's Organisation advocated for the formal termination of South Africa's mandate and independence for the territory  In 1966, following the ICJ's controversial ruling that it had no legal standing to consider the question of South African rule, SWAPO launched an armed insurgency that escalated into part of a wider regional conflict known as the South African Border War In 1971 Namibian contract workers led a general strike against the contract system and in support of independence  Some of the striking workers would later join SWAPO's PLAN as part of the South African Border War 

Independence
As SWAPO's insurgency intensified, South Africa's case for annexation in the international community continued to decline  The UN declared that South Africa had failed in its obligations to ensure the moral and material well-being of South West Africa's indigenous inhabitants, and had thus disavowed its own mandate  On 12 June 1968, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming that, in accordance with the desires of its people, South West Africa be renamed Namibia  United Nations Security Council Resolution 269, adopted in August 1969, declared South Africa's continued occupation of Namibia illegal  In recognition of this landmark decision, SWAPO's armed wing was renamed the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) Namibia became one of several flashpoints for Cold War proxy conflicts in southern Africa during the latter years of the PLAN insurgency  The insurgents sought out weapons and sent recruits to the Soviet Union for military training  As the PLAN war effort gained momentum, the Soviet Union and other sympathetic states such as Cuba continued to increase their support, deploying advisers to train the insurgents directly as well as supplying more weapons and ammunition  SWAPO's leadership, dependent on Soviet, Angolan, and Cuban military aid, positioned the movement firmly within the socialist bloc by 1975  This practical alliance reinforced the external perception of SWAPO as a Soviet proxy, which dominated Cold War rhetoric in South Africa and the United States  For its part, the Soviet Union supported SWAPO partly because it viewed South Africa as a regional Western ally 

Growing war weariness and the reduction of tensions between the superpowers compelled South Africa, Angola, and Cuba to accede to the Tripartite Accord, under pressure from both the Soviet Union and the United States  South Africa accepted Namibian independence in exchange for Cuban military withdrawal from the region and an Angolan commitment to cease all aid to PLAN  PLAN and South Africa adopted an informal ceasefire in August 1988, and a United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) was formed to monitor the Namibian peace process and supervise the return of refugees  The ceasefire was broken after PLAN made a final incursion into the territory, possibly as a result of misunderstanding UNTAG's directives, in March 1989  A new ceasefire was later imposed with the condition that the insurgents were to be confined to their external bases in Angola until they could be disarmed and demobilised by UNTAG By the end of the 11-month transition period, the last South African troops had been withdrawn from Namibia, all political prisoners granted amnesty, racially discriminatory legislation repealed, and 42,000 Namibian refugees returned to their homes  Just over 97% of eligible voters participated in the country's first parliamentary elections held under a universal franchise  The United Nations plan included oversight by foreign election observers in an effort to ensure a free and fair election  SWAPO won a plurality of seats in the Constituent Assembly with 57% of the popular vote  This gave the party 41 seats, but not a two-thirds majority, which would have enabled it to draft the constitution on its own The Namibian Constitution was adopted in February 1990  It incorporated protection for human rights and compensation for state expropriations of private property and established an independent judiciary, legislature, and an executive presidency (the constituent assembly became the national assembly)  The country officially became independent on 21 March 1990  Sam Nujoma was sworn in as the first President of Namibia at a ceremony attended by Nelson Mandela of South Africa (who had been released from prison the previous month) and representatives from 147 countries, including 20 heads of state  In 1994, shortly before the first multiracial elections in South Africa, that country ceded Walvis Bay to Namibia 

After independence
Since independence Namibia has completed the transition from white minority apartheid rule to parliamentary democracy  Multiparty democracy was introduced and has been maintained, with local, regional and national elections held regularly  Several registered political parties are active and represented in the National Assembly, although the SWAPO has won every election since independence  The transition from the 15-year rule of President Nujoma to his successor Hifikepunye Pohamba in 2005 went smoothly Since independence, the Namibian government has promoted a policy of national reconciliation  It issued an amnesty for those who fought on either side during the liberation war  The civil war in Angola spilled over and adversely affected Namibians living in the north of the country  In 1998, Namibia Defence Force (NDF) troops were sent to the Democratic Republic of the Congo as part of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) contingent 
In 1999, the national government quashed a secessionist attempt in the northeastern Caprivi Strip  The Caprivi conflict was initiated by the Caprivi Liberation Army (CLA), a rebel group led by Mishake Muyongo  It wanted the Caprivi Strip to secede and form its own society 
In December 2014, Prime Minister Hage Geingob, the candidate of ruling SWAPO, won the presidential elections, taking 87% of the vote  His predecessor, President Hifikepunye Pohamba, also of SWAPO, had served the maximum two terms allowed by the constitution  In December 2019, President Hage Geingob was re-elected for a second term, taking 56 3% of the vote 

Geography
At 825,615 km2 (318,772 sq mi), Namibia is the world's thirty-fourth largest country (after Venezuela)  It lies mostly between latitudes 17° and 29°S (a small area is north of 17°), and longitudes 11° and 26°E 
Being situated between the Namib and the Kalahari deserts, Namibia has the least rainfall of any country in sub-Saharan Africa The Namibian landscape consists generally of five geographical areas, each with characteristic abiotic conditions and vegetation, with some variation within and overlap between them: the Central Plateau, the Namib, the Great Escarpment, the Bushveld, and the Kalahari Desert 
The Central Plateau runs from north to south, bordered by the Skeleton Coast to the northwest, the Namib Desert and its coastal plains to the southwest, the Orange River to the south, and the Kalahari Desert to the east  The Central Plateau is home to the highest point in Namibia at Königstein elevation 2,606 metres (8,550 ft) The Namib is a broad expanse of hyper-arid gravel plains and dunes that stretches along Namibia's entire coastline  It varies between 100 and 200 kilometres (60 and 120 mi) in width  Areas within the Namib include the Skeleton Coast and the Kaokoveld in the north and the extensive Namib Sand Sea along the central coast The Great Escarpment swiftly rises to over 2,000 metres (7,000 ft)  Average temperatures and temperature ranges increase further inland from the cold Atlantic waters, while the lingering coastal fogs slowly diminish  Although the area is rocky with poorly developed soils, it is significantly more productive than the Namib Desert  As summer winds are forced over the Escarpment, moisture is extracted as precipitation The Bushveld is found in north-eastern Namibia along the Angolan border and in the Caprivi Strip  The area receives a significantly greater amount of precipitation than the rest of the country, averaging around 400 mm (16 in) per year  The area is generally flat and the soils sandy, limiting their ability to retain water and support agriculture The Kalahari Desert, an arid region that extends into South Africa and Botswana, is one of Namibia's well-known geographical features  The Kalahari, while popularly known as a desert, has a variety of localised environments, including some verdant and technically non-desert areas  The Succulent Karoo is home to over 5,000 species of plants, nearly half of them endemic; approximately 10 percent of the world's succulents are found in the Karoo  The reason behind this high productivity and endemism may be the relatively stable nature of precipitation Namibia's Coastal Desert is one of the oldest deserts in the world  Its sand dunes, created by the strong onshore winds, are the highest in the world  Because of the location of the shoreline, at the point where the Atlantic's cold water reaches Africa's hot climate, often extremely dense fog forms along the coast  Near the coast there are areas where the dune-hummocks are vegetated  Namibia has rich coastal and marine resources that remain largely unexplored 

The Caprivi Strip extends east from the northeastern corner of the country 

Climate
Namibia extends from 17°S to 25°S latitude: climatically the range of the sub-Tropical High Pressure Belt  Its overall climate description is arid, descending from the Sub-Humid [mean rain above 500 mm (20 in)] through Semi-Arid [between 300 and 500 mm (12 and 20 in)] (embracing most of the waterless Kalahari) and Arid [from 150 to 300 mm (6 to 12 in)] (these three regions are inland from the western escarpment) to the Hyper-Arid coastal plain [less than 100 mm (4 in)]  Temperature maxima are limited by the overall elevation of the entire region: only in the far south, Warmbad for instance, are maxima above 40 °C (104 °F) recorded Typically the sub-Tropical High Pressure Belt, with frequent clear skies, provides more than 300 days of sunshine per year  It is situated at the southern edge of the tropics; the Tropic of Capricorn cuts the country about in half  The winter (June – August) is generally dry  Both rainy seasons occur in summer: the small rainy season between September and November, the big one between February and April  Humidity is low, and average rainfall varies from almost zero in the coastal desert to more than 600 mm (24 in) in the Caprivi Strip  Rainfall is highly variable, and droughts are common  In the summer of 2006/07 the rainfall was recorded far below the annual average  In May 2019, Namibia declared a state of emergency in response to the drought, and extended it by additional 6 months in October 2019 Weather and climate in the coastal area are dominated by the cold, north-flowing Benguela Current of the Atlantic Ocean, which accounts for very low precipitation (50 mm (2 in) per year or less), frequent dense fog, and overall lower temperatures than in the rest of the country  In Winter, occasionally a condition known as Bergwind (German for "mountain wind") or Oosweer (Afrikaans for "east weather") occurs, a hot dry wind blowing from the inland to the coast  As the area behind the coast is a desert, these winds can develop into sand storms, leaving sand deposits in the Atlantic Ocean that are visible on satellite images The Central Plateau and Kalahari areas have wide diurnal temperature ranges of up to 30C (54F) Efundja, the annual seasonal flooding of the northern parts of the country, often causes not only damage to infrastructure but loss of life  The rains that cause these floods originate in Angola, flow into Namibia's Cuvelai-Etosha Basin, and fill the oshanas (Oshiwambo: flood plains) there  The worst floods so far occurred in March 2011 and displaced 21,000 people 

Water sources
Namibia is the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa and depends largely on groundwater  With an average rainfall of about 350 mm (14 in) per annum, the highest rainfall occurs in the Caprivi Strip in the northeast (about 600 mm (24 in) per annum) and decreases in a westerly and southwesterly direction to as little as 50 mm (2 in) and less per annum at the coast  The only perennial rivers are found on the national borders with South Africa, Angola, Zambia, and the short border with Botswana in the Caprivi Strip  In the interior of the country, surface water is available only in the summer months when rivers are in flood after exceptional rainfalls  Otherwise, surface water is restricted to a few large storage dams retaining and damming up these seasonal floods and their run-off  Where people do not live near perennial rivers or make use of the storage dams, they are dependent on groundwater  Even isolated communities and those economic activities located far from good surface water sources, such as mining, agriculture, and tourism, can be supplied from groundwater over nearly 80% of the country More than 100,000 boreholes have been drilled in Namibia over the past century  One third of these boreholes have been drilled dry  An aquifer called Ohangwena II, on both sides of the Angola-Namibia border, was discovered in 2012  It has been estimated to be capable of supplying a population of 800,000 people in the North for 400 years, at the current (2018) rate of consumption  Experts estimate that Namibia has 7,720 km3 (1,850 cu mi) of underground water According to African Folder, a sewage-to-water treatment project in Namibia not only provides citizens with safe drinking water but also boosts productivity by 6% per year  All pollutants and impurities are removed using cutting-edge "multi-barrier" technology, which includes residual chlorination, ozone treatment, and ultra membrane filtration  Strict bio-monitoring methods are also used throughout the process to ensure high-quality, safe drinking water 

Communal Wildlife Conservancies
Namibia is one of few countries in the world to specifically address conservation and protection of natural resources in its constitution  Article 95 states, "The State shall actively promote and maintain the welfare of the people by adopting international policies aimed at the following: maintenance of ecosystems, essential ecological processes, and biological diversity of Namibia, and utilisation of living natural resources on a sustainable basis for the benefit of all Namibians, both present and future "In 1993, Namibia's newly formed government received funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through its Living in a Finite Environment (LIFE) Project  The Ministry of Environment and Tourism, with financial support from organisations such as USAID, Endangered Wildlife Trust, WWF, and Canadian Ambassador's Fund, together form a Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) support structure  The project's main goal is to promote sustainable natural resource management by giving local communities rights to wildlife management and tourism 

Government and politics
Namibia is a unitary semi-presidential representative democratic republic  The President of Namibia is elected to a five-year term and is both the head of state and the head of government  All members of the government are individually and collectively responsible to the legislature The Constitution of Namibia outlines the following as the organs of the country's government:
Executive: executive power is exercised by the President and the Government 
Legislature: Namibia has a bicameral Parliament with the National Assembly as lower house, and the National Council as the upper house 
Judiciary: Namibia has a system of courts that interpret and apply the law in the name of the state While the constitution envisaged a multi-party system for Namibia's government, the SWAPO party has been dominant since independence in 1990 

Foreign relations
Namibia has a largely independent foreign policy, with persisting affiliations with states that aided the independence struggle, including Cuba  With a small army and a fragile economy, the Namibian government's principal foreign policy concern is developing strengthened ties within the Southern African region  A dynamic member of the Southern African Development Community, Namibia is a vocal advocate for greater regional integration  It became the 160th member of the UN on 23 April 1990  On its independence it became the 50th member of the Commonwealth of Nations 

Military
In early 2020, The Global Firepower Index (GFP) reported that Namibia's military is ranked as one of the weakest in the world, at 126th out of 137 countries  Among 34 African countries, Namibia is also poorly ranked at the 28th position  Despite this, government spending for the Ministry of Defence stood at N$5,885 million (a 1 2% decrease from the previous financial year)  With close to 6 billion Namibian dollars (US$411 million in 2021) the Ministry of Defence receives the fourth highest amount of money from Government per ministry 
Namibia does not have any enemies in the region, though it has been involved in various disputes regarding borders and construction plans The Namibian constitution defines the role of the military as "defending the territory and national interests " Namibia formed the Namibian Defence Force (NDF), comprising former enemies in a 23-year bush war: the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) and South West African Territorial Force (SWATF)  The British formulated the plan for integrating these forces and began training the NDF, which consists of a small headquarters and five battalions 
The United Nations Transitional Assistance Group (UNTAG)'s Kenyan infantry battalion remained in Namibia for three months after independence to help train the NDF and to stabilise the north  According to the Namibian Defence Ministry, enlistments of both men and women will number no more than 7,500 
The chief of the Namibian Defence Force is Air Vice Marshal Martin Kambulu Pinehas (with effect from 1 April 2020) 
In 2017, Namibia signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons 

Administrative divisions
Namibia is divided into 14 regions which are subdivided into 121 constituencies  The administrative division of Namibia is tabled by Delimitation Commissions and accepted or declined by the National Assembly  Since state foundation four Delimitation Commissions have delivered their work, the last one in 2013 under the chairmanship of Judge Alfred Siboleka Regional councillors are directly elected through secret ballots (regional elections) by the inhabitants of their constituencies Local authorities in Namibia can be in the form of municipalities (either Part 1 or Part 2 municipalities), town councils or villages 

Human rights
Namibia is one of the most free and democratic countries in Africa, with a government that maintains and protects basic human rights and freedoms  However, significant issues include government corruption and prison overcrowding  Also, refugees are not permitted free movement The law is not enforced, but homosexual acts are illegal in Namibia  Discrimination, as well as intolerance, against LGBT people is widespread  Some Namibian government officials and high-profile figures, such as Namibia's Ombudsman John Walters and First Lady Monica Geingos, have called for sodomy and homosexuality to be decriminalised and are in favour of LGBT rights In November 2018, it was reported that 32% of women aged 15–49 experienced violence and domestic abuse from their spouses/partners and 29 5% of men believe that physical abuse towards their wife/partner is acceptable  The Namibian constitution guarantees the rights, freedoms and equal treatment of women in Namibia and SWAPO, the ruling party in Namibia, has adopted a "zebra system", which ensures a fair balance of both genders in government and equal representation of women in the Namibian government 

Economy
Namibia's economy is tied closely to South Africa's due to their shared history  The largest economic sectors are mining (10 4% of the gross domestic product in 2009), agriculture (5 0%), manufacturing (13 5%), and tourism (14 5%) Namibia has a highly developed banking sector with modern infrastructures, such as online banking and cellphone banking  The Bank of Namibia (BoN) is the central bank of Namibia responsible for performing all other functions ordinarily performed by a central bank  There are five BoN authorised commercial banks in Namibia: Bank Windhoek, First National Bank, Nedbank, Standard Bank and Small and Medium Enterprises Bank  Namibia's economy is characterised by a divide between the formal and the informal economies, which is in part aggravated by the legacy of apartheid spatial planning According to the Namibia Labour Force Survey Report 2012, conducted by the Namibia Statistics Agency, the country's unemployment rate is 27 4%  "Strict unemployment" (people actively seeking a full-time job) stood at 20 2% in 2000, 21 9% in 2004 and spiralled to 29 4% in 2008  Under a broader definition (including people who have given up searching for employment) unemployment rose to 36 7% in 2004  This estimate considers people in the informal economy as employed  Labour and Social Welfare Minister Immanuel Ngatjizeko praised the 2008 study as "by far superior in scope and quality to any that has been available previously", but its methodology has also received criticism In 2004 a labour act was passed to protect people from job discrimination stemming from pregnancy and HIV/AIDS status  In early 2010 the Government tender board announced that "henceforth 100 per cent of all unskilled and semi-skilled labour must be sourced, without exception, from within Namibia" In 2013, global business and financial news provider, Bloomberg, named Namibia the top emerging market economy in Africa and the 13th best in the world  Only four African countries made the Top 20 Emerging Markets list in the March 2013 issue of Bloomberg Markets magazine, and Namibia was rated ahead of Morocco (19th), South Africa (15th), and Zambia (14th)  Worldwide, Namibia also fared better than Hungary, Brazil, and Mexico  Bloomberg Markets magazine ranked the top 20 based on more than a dozen criteria  The data came from Bloomberg's own financial-market statistics, IMF forecasts and the World Bank  The countries were also rated on areas of particular interest to foreign investors: the ease of doing business, the perceived level of corruption and economic freedom  To attract foreign investment, the government has made improvement in reducing red tape resulted from excessive government regulations, making Namibia one of the least bureaucratic places to do business in the region  Facilitation payments are occasionally demanded by customs due to cumbersome and costly customs procedures  Namibia is also classified as an Upper Middle Income country by the World Bank, and ranks 87th out of 185 economies in terms of ease of doing business The cost of living in Namibia is relatively high because most goods, including cereals, need to be imported  Its capital city, Windhoek, is the 150th most expensive place in the world for expatriates to live Taxation in Namibia includes personal income tax, which is applicable to the total taxable income of an individual  All individuals are taxed at progressive marginal rates over a series of income brackets  The value-added tax (VAT) is applicable to most of the commodities and services 

Despite the remote nature of much of the country, Namibia has seaports, airports, highways, and railways (narrow-gauge)  It seeks to become a regional transportation hub; it has an important seaport and several landlocked neighbours  The Central Plateau already serves as a transportation corridor from the more densely populated north to South Africa, the source of four-fifths of Namibia's imports 

Agriculture
About half of the population depends on agriculture (largely subsistence agriculture) for its livelihood, but Namibia must still import some of its food  Although per capita GDP is five times the per capita GDP of Africa's poorest countries, the majority of Namibia's people live in rural areas and have a subsistence way of life  Namibia has one of the highest rates of income inequality in the world, due in part to the fact that there is an urban economy and a more rural cashless economy  The inequality figures thus take into account people who do not actually rely on the formal economy for their survival  Although arable land accounts for <1% of Namibia, (about  97%), nearly half of the population is employed in agriculture About 4,000 commercial farmers own almost half of Namibia's arable land   The United Kingdom offered about $180,000 in 2004 to help finance Namibia's land reform process, as Namibia plans to start expropriating land from white farmers to resettle landless black Namibians  Germany has offered €1 1bn in 2021 over 30 years in reparations for the genocides in the early 20th century but the money will go towards infrastructure, healthcare and training programmes not land reform An agreement has been reached on the privatisation of several more enterprises in coming years, with hopes that this will stimulate much needed foreign investment, but reinvestment of environmentally derived capital has hobbled Namibian per capita income  One of the fastest growing areas of economic development in Namibia is the growth of wildlife conservancies  These are particularly important to the rural, generally unemployed, population 

Mining and electricity
Providing 25% of Namibia's revenue, mining is the single most important contributor to the economy  Namibia is the fourth largest exporter of non-fuel minerals in Africa and was the world's fourth largest producer of uranium  There have been significant investment in uranium mining and Namibia planned to become the largest exporter of uranium by 2015  However, as of 2019 Namibia continued to produce 750 tons of uranium annually making it a smaller than average exporter in the competitive world market   Rich alluvial diamond deposits make Namibia a primary source for gem-quality diamonds  While Namibia is known predominantly for its gem diamond and uranium deposits, a number of other minerals are extracted industrially such as lead, tungsten, gold, tin, fluorspar, manganese, marble, copper and zinc  There are offshore gas deposits in the Atlantic Ocean that are planned to be extracted in the future  According to "The Diamond Investigation", a book about the global diamond market, from 1978, De Beers, the largest diamond company, bought most of the Namibian diamonds, and would continue to do so, because "whatever government eventually comes to power they will need this revenue to survive" Domestic supply voltage is 220 V AC  Electricity is generated mainly by thermal and hydroelectric power plants  Non-conventional methods of electricity generation also play some role  Encouraged by the rich uranium deposits, in 2010 the Namibian government planned to erect its first nuclear power station by 2018  Uranium enrichment was also envisaged to take place locally 

Diamonds
Although much of the world's diamond supply comes from what have been called African blood diamonds, Namibia has managed to develop a diamond mining industry largely free of the kinds of conflict, extortion, and murder that have plagued many other African nations with diamond mines  This has been attributed to political dynamics, economic institutions, grievances, political geography, and the effects of neighbourhoods, and is the result of a joint agreement between the government and De Beers that has led to a taxable base, strengthening state institutions 

Oil and natural gas
Estimates updated in 2022 suggest that two exploration wells in the offshore Orange Basin could hold 2 and 3 billion barrels of oil, respectively  The expected revenue could transform Namibia's domestic economy and facilitate sustainable development goals 

Tourism
Tourism is a major contributor (14 5%) to Namibia's GDP, creating tens of thousands of jobs (18 2% of all employment) directly or indirectly and servicing over a million tourists per year  The country is a prime destination in Africa and is known for ecotourism, which features Namibia's extensive wildlife There are many lodges and reserves to accommodate ecotourists  Sport and trophy hunting is also a large and growing component of the Namibian economy, accounting for 14% of total tourism in the year 2000, or 19 6 million U S  dollars, with Namibia boasting numerous species sought after by international sport hunters In addition, extreme sports such as sandboarding, skydiving and 4x4ing have become popular, and many cities have companies that provide tours  The most visited places include the capital city of Windhoek, Caprivi Strip, Fish River Canyon, Sossusvlei, the Skeleton Coast Park, Sesriem, Etosha Pan and the coastal towns of Swakopmund, Walvis Bay and Lüderitz Windhoek plays a very important role in Namibia's tourism due to its central location and close proximity to Hosea Kutako International Airport  According to The Namibia Tourism Exit Survey, which was produced by the Millennium Challenge Corporation for the Namibian Directorate of Tourism, 56% of all tourists visiting Namibia in 2012–13 visited Windhoek  Many of Namibia's tourism related parastatals and governing bodies such as Namibia Wildlife Resorts and the Namibia Tourism Board as well as Namibia's tourism-related trade associations such as the Hospitality Association of Namibia are headquartered in Windhoek  There are also a number of notable hotels in Windhoek, such as Windhoek Country Club Resort, and some international hotel chains, such as Hilton Hotels and Resorts 
Namibia's primary tourism related governing body, the Namibia Tourism Board (NTB), was established by an Act of Parliament: the Namibia Tourism Board Act, 2000 (Act 21 of 2000)  Its primary objectives are to regulate the tourism industry and to market Namibia as a tourist destination  There are also a number of trade associations that represent the tourism sector in Namibia, such as the Federation of Namibia Tourism Associations (the umbrella body for all tourism associations in Namibia), the Hospitality Association of Namibia, the Association of Namibian Travel Agents, Car Rental Association of Namibia and the Tour and Safari Association of Namibia 

Water supply and sanitation
The only bulk water supplier in Namibia is NamWater, which sells it to the respective municipalities which in turn deliver it through their reticulation networks  In rural areas, the Directorate of Rural Water Supply in the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry is in charge of drinking water supply The UN evaluated in 2011 that Namibia has improved its water access network significantly since independence in 1990  A large part of the population can not, however, make use of these resources due to the prohibitively high consumption cost and the long distance between residences and water points in rural areas  As a result, many Namibians prefer the traditional wells over the available water points far away Compared to the efforts made to improve access to safe water, Namibia is lagging behind in the provision of adequate sanitation  This includes 298 schools that have no toilet facilities  Over 50% of child deaths are related to lack of water, sanitation, or hygiene; 23% are due to diarrhoea alone  The UN has identified a "sanitation crisis" in the country Apart from residences for upper and middle class households, sanitation is insufficient in most residential areas  Private flush toilets are too expensive for virtually all residents in townships due to their water consumption and installation cost  As a result, access to improved sanitation has not increased much since independence: in Namibia's rural areas 13% of the population had more than basic sanitation, up from 8% in 1990  Many of Namibia's inhabitants have to resort to "flying toilets", plastic bags to defecate into, which after use are flung into the bush  The use of open areas close to residential land for urination and defecation is very common and has been identified as a major health hazard 

Demographics
Namibia has the second-lowest population density of any sovereign country, after Mongolia  In 2017 there were on average 3 08 people per km2  The total fertility rate in 2015 was 3 47 children per woman according to the UN 

Ethnic groups
The majority of the Namibian population is of Bantu-speaking origin—mostly of the Ovambo ethnicity, which forms about half of the population—residing mainly in the north of the country, although many are now resident in towns throughout Namibia  Other ethnic groups are the Herero and Himba people, who speak the related Herero language, and the Damara, who, like the Nama, speak Khoekhoe 
In addition to the Bantu majority, there are large groups of Khoisan (such as Nama and San), who are descendants of the original inhabitants of Southern Africa  The country also contains some descendants of refugees from Angola  There are also two smaller groups of people with mixed racial origins, called "Coloureds" and "Basters", who together make up 8 0% (with the Coloureds outnumbering the Basters two to one)  There is a substantial Chinese minority in Namibia; it stood at 40,000 in 2006 

Whites (being mainly of Afrikaner, German, British and Portuguese origin) make up between 4 0 and 7 0% of the population  Although their proportion of the population decreased after independence due to emigration and lower birth rates, they still form the second-largest population of European ancestry, both in terms of percentage and actual numbers, in Sub-Saharan Africa (after South Africa)  The majority of Namibian whites and nearly all those who are of mixed race speak Afrikaans and share similar origins, culture, and religion as the white and coloured populations of South Africa  A large minority of whites (around 30,000) trace their family origins back to the German settlers who colonised Namibia prior to the South African invasion during the First World War, and they maintain German cultural and educational institutions  Nearly all Portuguese settlers came to the country from the former Portuguese colony of Angola  The 1960 census reported 526,004 persons in what was then South West Africa, including 73,464 whites (14%) 

Censuses
Namibia conducts a census every ten years  After independence the first Population and Housing Census was carried out in 1991; further rounds followed in 2001, 2011, and 2023 (delayed two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and financial constraints)  The data collection method is to count every person resident in Namibia on the census reference night, wherever they happen to be  This is called the de facto method  For enumeration purposes the country is demarcated into 4,042 enumeration areas  These areas do not overlap with constituency boundaries to get reliable data for election purposes as well The 2011 Population and Housing Census counted 2,113,077 inhabitants  Between 2001 and 2011 the annual population growth was 1 4%, down from 2 6% in the previous ten-year period 

Urban settlements
Namibia has 13 cities, governed by municipalities and 26 towns, governed by town councils  The capital Windhoek is by far the largest urban settlement in Namibia 

Religion
The Christian community makes up 80%–90% of the population of Namibia, with at least 75% being Protestant, of which at least 50% are Lutheran  Lutherans are the largest religious group, a legacy of the German and Finnish missionary work during the country's colonial times  10%–20% of the population hold indigenous beliefs Missionary activities during the second half of the 19th century resulted in many Namibians converting to Christianity  Today most Christians are Lutheran, but there also are Roman Catholic, Methodist, Anglican, African Methodist Episcopal, Dutch Reformed, Latter-day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses 
Islam in Namibia is subscribed to by about 9,000 people, many of them Nama  Namibia is home to a small Jewish community of about 100 people 

Languages
Up to 1990, English, German, and Afrikaans were official languages  Long before Namibia's independence from South Africa, SWAPO was of the opinion that the country should become officially monolingual, choosing this approach in contrast to that of its neighbour South Africa (which granted all 11 of its major languages official status), which it saw as "a deliberate policy of ethnolinguistic fragmentation " Consequently, SWAPO instituted English as Namibia's sole official language, though only about 3% of the population speaks it as a home language  Its implementation is focused on the civil service, education and the broadcasting system, especially the state broadcaster NBC  Some other languages have received semi-official recognition by being allowed as medium of instruction in primary schools  Private schools are expected to follow the same policy as state schools, and "English language" is a compulsory subject  Some critics argue that, as in other postcolonial African societies, the push for monolingual instruction and policy has resulted in a high rate of school drop-outs and of individuals whose academic competence in any language is low According to the 2011 census, the most common languages are Oshiwambo (the most spoken language for 49% of households), Khoekhoegowab  (11 3%), Afrikaans (10 4%), RuKwangali (9%), and Otjiherero (9%)  The most widely understood national language is Afrikaans, the country's lingua franca  Both Afrikaans and English are used primarily as a second language reserved for public communication  A complete list of languages according to the 2011 census is 48 9% Oshiwambo, 11 3% Khoekhoegowab, 10 4% Afrikaans, 8 6% Otjiherero, 8 5% RuKwangali, 4 8% siLozi, 3 4% English, 1 2% Other African languages, 0 9% German, 0 8% San, 0 7% Other European languages, 0 3% Setswana, and 0 1% Asian languages Most of the white population speaks either Afrikaans or German  More than a century after the end of the German colonial era, German continues to play a role as a commercial language  Afrikaans is spoken by 60% of the white community, German by 32%, English by 7% and Portuguese by 4–5%  Geographical proximity to Portuguese-speaking Angola explains the relatively high number of Portuguese speakers; in 2011 these were estimated to number 100,000 

Health
Life expectancy at birth is estimated to be 64 years in 2017 – among the lowest in the world Namibia launched a National Health Extension Programme in 2012 deployment 1,800 (2015) of a total ceiling of 4,800 health extension workers trained for six months in community health activities including first aid, health promotion for disease prevention, nutritional assessment and counseling, water sanitation and hygiene practices, HIV testing and community-based antiretroviral treatment Namibia faces a non-communicable disease burden  The Demographic and Health Survey (2013) summarises findings on elevated blood pressure, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity:

Among eligible respondents age 35–64, more than 4 in 10 women (44 percent) and men (45 percent) have elevated blood pressure or are currently taking medicine to lower their blood pressure 
Forty-nine percent of women and 61 percent of men are not aware that they have elevated blood pressure 
Forty-three percent of women and 34 percent of men with hypertension are taking medication for their condition 
Only 29 percent of women and 20 percent of men with hypertension are taking medication and have their blood pressure under control 
Six percent of women and 7 percent of men are diabetic; that is, they have elevated fasting plasma glucose values or report that they are taking diabetes medication  An additional 7 percent of women and 6 percent of men are prediabetic 
Sixty-seven percent of women and 74 percent of men with diabetes are taking medication to lower their blood glucose 
Women and men with a higher-than-normal body mass index (25 0 or higher) are more likely to have elevated blood pressure and elevated fasting blood glucose 
The HIV epidemic remains a public health issue in Namibia despite significant achievements made by the Ministry of Health and Social Services to expand HIV treatment services  In 2001, there were an estimated 210,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, and the estimated death toll in 2003 was 16,000  According to the 2011 UNAIDS Report, the epidemic in Namibia "appears to be leveling off " As the HIV/AIDS epidemic has reduced the working-aged population, the number of orphans has increased  It falls to the government to provide education, food, shelter and clothing for these orphans  A Demographic and Health Survey with an HIV biomarker was completed in 2013 and served as the fourth comprehensive, national-level population and health survey conducted in Namibia as part of the global Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) programme  The DHS observed important characteristics associated to the HIV epidemic:

Overall, 26 percent of men age 15–49 and 32 percent of those age 50–64 have been circumcised  HIV prevalence for men age 15–49 is lower among circumcised (8 0 percent) than among uncircumcised men (11 9 percent)  The pattern of lower HIV prevalence among circumcised than uncircumcised men is observed across most background characteristics  For each age group, circumcised men have lower HIV prevalence than those who are not circumcised; the difference is especially pronounced for men age 35–39 and 45–49 (11 7 percentage points each)  The difference in HIV prevalence between uncircumcised and circumcised men is larger among urban than rural men (5 2 percentage points versus 2 1 percentage points) 
HIV prevalence among respondents age 15–49 is 16 9 percent for women and 10 9 percent for men  HIV prevalence rates among women and men age 50–64 are similar (16 7 percent and 16 0 percent, respectively) 
HIV prevalence peaks in the 35–39 age group for both women and men (30 9 percent and 22 6 percent, respectively)  It is lowest among respondents age 15–24 (2 5–6 4 percent for women and 2 0–3 4 percent for men) 
Among respondents age 15–49, HIV prevalence is highest for women and men in Zambezi (30 9 percent and 15 9 percent, respectively) and lowest for women in Omaheke (6 9 percent) and men in Ohangwena (6 6 percent) 
In 76 4 percent of the 1,007 cohabiting couples who were tested for HIV in the 2013 NDHS, both partners were HIV negative; in 10 1 percent of the couples, both partners were HIV positive; and 13 5 percent of the couples were discordant (that is, one partner was infected with HIV and the other was not) As of 2015, the Ministry of Health and Social Services and UNAIDS produced a Progress Report in which UNAIDS projected HIV prevalence among 15–49-year-olds at 13 3% [12 2–14 5%] and an estimated 210,000 [200,000–230,000] living with HIV The malaria problem seems to be compounded by the AIDS epidemic  Research has shown that in Namibia the risk of contracting malaria is 14 5% greater if a person is also infected with HIV  The risk of death from malaria is also raised by approximately 50% with a concurrent HIV infection  The country had only 598 physicians in 2002 

Culture
Sport
The most popular sport in Namibia is association football  The Namibia national football team qualified for the 1998, 2008 and 2019 editions of the Africa Cup of Nations, but has yet to qualify for the World Cup 
The most successful national team is the Namibian rugby team, having competed in six separate World Cups  Namibia were participants in the 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019 Rugby World Cups  Cricket is also popular, with the national side having qualified for 2003 Cricket World Cup, 2021 ICC T20 World Cup and 2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup  In December 2017, Namibia Cricket reached the final of the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Provincial One Day Challenge for the first time  In February 2018 Namibia hosted the ICC World Cricket League Division 2 with Namibia, Kenya, UAE, Nepal, Canada and Oman to compete for the final two ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier positions in Zimbabwe  Namibia also qualified the qualifiers of ICC T20 World Cup 2021 and entered the super 12 club The most famous athlete from Namibia is Frankie Fredericks, sprinter in the 100 and 200 m events  He won four Olympic silver medals (1992, 1996) and also has medals from several World Athletics Championships  Golfer Trevor Dodds won the Greater Greensboro Open in 1998, one of 15 tournaments in his career  He achieved a career-high world ranking of 78th in 1998  Professional cyclist and Namibian Road Race champion Dan Craven represented Namibia at the 2016 Summer Olympics in both the road race and individual time trial  Boxer Julius Indongo is the unified WBA, IBF, and IBO world champion in the Light welterweight division  Another famous athlete from Namibia is ex-professional rugby player Jacques Burger  Burger played for Saracens and Aurillac in Europe, as well as gaining 41 caps for the national team 

Media
Although Namibia's population is fairly small, the country has a diverse choice of media; two TV stations, 19 radio stations (without counting community stations), 5 daily newspapers, several weeklies and special publications compete for the attention of the audience  Additionally, a mentionable amount of foreign media, especially South African, is available  Online media are mostly based on print publication contents  Namibia has a state-owned Press Agency, called NAMPA  Overall c  300 journalists work in the country The first newspaper in Namibia was the German-language Windhoeker Anzeiger, founded 1898  During German rule, the newspapers mainly reflected the living reality and the view of the white German-speaking minority  The black majority was ignored or depicted as a threat  During South African rule, the white bias continued, with mentionable influence of the Pretoria government on the South West African media system  Independent newspapers were seen as a menace to the existing order, and critical journalists were often threatened Current daily newspapers are the private publications The Namibian (English and other languages), Die Republikein (Afrikaans), Allgemeine Zeitung (German) and Namibian Sun (English) as well as the state-owned New Era (predominantly English)  Except for the largest newspaper, The Namibian, which is owned by a trust, the other mentioned private newspapers are part of Democratic Media Holdings  Other mentionable newspapers are the tabloid Informanté owned by TrustCo, the weekly Windhoek Observer, the weekly Namibia Economist, as well as the regional Namib Times  Current affairs magazines include Insight Namibia, Vision2030 Focus magazine and Prime FOCUS  The Sister Namibia magazine stands out as the longest running NGO magazine in Namibia, while Namibia Sport is the only national sport magazine  Furthermore, the print market is complemented with party publications, student newspapers and PR publications Radio was introduced in 1969, TV in 1981  The broadcasting sector today is dominated by the state-run Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC)  The public broadcaster offers a TV station as well as a "National Radio" in English and nine language services in locally spoken languages  The nine private radio stations in the country are mainly English-language channels, except for Radio Omulunga (Oshiwambo) and Kosmos 94 1 (Afrikaans) 
Privately held One Africa TV has competed with NBC since the 2000s Compared to neighbouring countries, Namibia has a large degree of media freedom  Over the past years, the country usually ranked in the upper quarter of the Press Freedom Index of Reporters without Borders, reaching position 21 in 2010, being on par with Canada and the best-positioned African country  The African Media Barometer shows similarly positive results  However, as in other countries, there is still mentionable influence of representatives of state and economy on media in Namibia  In 2009, Namibia dropped to position 36 on the Press Freedom Index  In 2013, it was 19th, 22nd in 2014 and 23rd in 2019, meaning that it is currently the highest ranked African country in terms of press freedom 
Media and journalists in Namibia are represented by the Namibian chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa and the Editors' Forum of Namibia  An independent media ombudsman was appointed in 2009 to prevent a state-controlled media council 

Education
Namibia has free education for both primary and secondary education levels  Grades 1–7 are primary level, grades 8–12 are secondary  In 1998, there were 400,325 Namibian students in primary school and 115,237 students in secondary schools  The pupil-teacher ratio in 1999 was estimated at 32:1, with about 8% of the GDP being spent on education  Curriculum development, educational research, and professional development of teachers is centrally organised by the National Institute for Educational Development (NIED) in Okahandja  Among sub-Saharan African countries, Namibia has one of the highest literacy rates  According to CIA World Factbook, as of 2018 91 5% of the population age 15 and over can read and write Most schools in Namibia are state-run, but there are some private schools, which are also part of the country's education system  There are four teacher training universities, three colleges of agriculture, a police training college, and three universities: University of Namibia (UNAM), International University of Management (IUM) and Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST)  Namibia was ranked 100th in the Global Innovation Index in 2021 

See also
Index of Namibia-related articles
Outline of Namibia
Context 3: Passage 1:
List of Super Bowl halftime shows
Halftime shows are a tradition during American football games at all levels of competition  Entertainment during the Super Bowl, the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL), represents a fundamental link to pop culture, which helps broaden the television audience and nationwide interest 
Prior to the early 1990s, the halftime show featured university marching bands (the Grambling State University Marching Band has performed at the most Super Bowl halftime shows, featuring in six shows including at least one per decade from the 1960s to 1990), drill teams, and other performance ensembles such as Up with People  In the 90s, the halftime show began to feature major hit musicians, beginning with Super Bowl XXV (1991) with New Kids on the Block  In an effort to boost the prominence of the halftime show to increase viewer interest, Super Bowl XXVII (1993) featured a headlining performance by Michael Jackson 

Background
During most of the Super Bowl's first decade, the halftime show featured a college marching band  The show's second decade featured a more varied show, often featuring drill teams and other performance ensembles; the group Up with People produced and starred in four of the performances  The middle of the third decade, in an effort to counter other networks' efforts to counterprogram the game, saw the introduction of popular music acts such as New Kids on the Block, Gloria Estefan, Michael Jackson, Clint Black, Patti LaBelle, and Tony Bennett  Starting with Super Bowl XXXII, commercial sponsors presented the halftime show; within five years, the tradition of having a theme—begun with Super Bowl III—ended, replaced by major music productions by arena rock bands and other high-profile acts  In the six years immediately following an incident at Super Bowl XXXVIII where Justin Timberlake exposed one of Janet Jackson's breasts in an alleged "wardrobe malfunction", all of the halftime shows consisted of a performance by one artist or group, with the musicians in that era primarily being rock artists from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s   These shows were considered "family friendly" and the time in which they took place has been described as "the age of reactionary halftime shows"  Since Super Bowl XLV, the halftime show has returned to featuring popular contemporary musicians, with the typical format featuring a single headline artist collaborating with a small number of guest acts 
The NFL does not pay the halftime show performers an appearance fee, though it covers all expenses for the performers and their entourage of band members management, technical crew, security personnel, family, and friends  Super Bowl XXVII halftime show with Michael Jackson provided an exception, as the NFL and Frito-Lay agreed to make a donation and provide commercial time for Jackson's Heal the World Foundation  According to Nielsen SoundScan data, the halftime performers regularly experience significant spikes in weekly album sales and paid digital downloads due to the exposure  For Super Bowl XLIX, it was reported by the Wall Street Journal that league officials asked representatives of potential acts if they would be willing to provide financial compensation to the NFL in exchange for their appearance, in the form of either an up-front fee, or a cut of revenue from concert performances made after the Super Bowl  While these reports were denied by an NFL spokeswoman, the request had, according to the Journal, received a "chilly" response from those involved 

History
The following is a list of the performers, producers, themes, and sponsors for each Super Bowl game's show  This list does not include national anthem performers, which are listed in the article List of national anthem performers at the Super Bowl  Names in bold are headline performers 

1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
Details on specific shows
Super Bowl XL
For the Rolling Stones, the stage was in the form of the group's iconic tongue logo (John Pasche's design first used in 1971 on their Sticky Fingers album)  It was the largest stage ever assembled for a Super Bowl halftime show, with 28 separate pieces assembled in five minutes by a 600-member volunteer stage crew  The group performed three songs: "Start Me Up", "Rough Justice", and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"  The show was viewed by 89 9 million people, more than the audiences for the Oscars, Grammys and Emmy Awards combined  In the wake of the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy with Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake, ABC and the NFL imposed a five-second delay and censored lyrics considered too sexually explicit in the first two songs by briefly turning off Mick Jagger's microphone—censoring to which the group had previously agreed 
However, the choice of the Rolling Stones sparked controversy in the Detroit community because the band did not represent the traditional Detroit "Motown Sound", and no artists from the area were included 

Achievements
The Super Bowl XXVII halftime show starring Michael Jackson is the most watched Super Bowl halftime show, with a TV audience of 133 4 million viewers 
The Super Bowl LIV halftime show starring Shakira and Jennifer Lopez is the most viewed Super Bowl halftime show on YouTube, with 270 million Views 
Based on online metrics, TicketSource revealed that the Super Bowl LIV halftime show starring Shakira and Jennifer Lopez is the "World's most popular" halftime show 
The Super Bowl LVI halftime show starring Dr  Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J  Blige and Kendrick Lamar is the first Super Bowl halftime show to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) 

See also
List of AFL Grand Final pre-match performances
List of Grey Cup halftime shows
List of national anthem performers at the Super Bowl

Notes
Passage 2:
6,000 Enemies
6,000 Enemies is a 1939 American drama film directed by George B  Seitz and starring Walter Pidgeon as a successful District Attorney who is framed on charge of bribery   Although innocent, he is sent to prison where he fights to clear his name  The film also stars Rita Johnson 

Plot summary
Steve Donegan is an elected district attorney and launches an anti-organized crime campaign  Joe Silenus, a crime boss, plots to frame Donegan for accepting a bribe  Donegan is sentenced to prison, where he re-encounters all the men he convicted during his anti-crime crusade  Martin receives orders to eliminate Donegan  Anne Barry, the embezzlement convict, saves his life by alerting the guards to her screams 
Steve’s brother pursues Silenus, disguised as a chauffeur in order to prove his innocence  ‘Socks’ Martin knocks Steve Donegan down six times, but he keeps getting up and fighting  Two revolvers are smuggled into the prison inside a fruit basket meant for the warden  ‘Socks suggests that Steve join him in the prison break  When Phil arrives at the prison to see Steve, he is shot in the drive by just outside the gates  The prisoners riot as a result of the shots, and the rumored prison break begins 

Cast
Walter Pidgeon as Steve Donegan
Rita Johnson as Anne Barry
Paul Kelly as Dr  Malcolm Scott
Nat Pendleton as 'Socks' Martin
Harold Huber as Joe Silenus
Grant Mitchell as Warden Alvin Parkhurst
John Arledge as Phil Donegan
J M  Kerrigan as Dan Barrett
Adrian Morris as 'Bull' Snyder
Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams as Maxie (as Guinn Williams)
Arthur Aylesworth as 'Bluebeard' Dawson
Raymond Hatton as Prisoner 'Wibbie' Yern
Lionel Royce as Prisoner 'Dutch' Myers
Tom Neal as Prisoner Ransom
Willie Fung as Wang

Box office
According to MGM records, the film earned $233,000 in the US and Canada and $125,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $22,000  It also featured the short "The Bear That Couldn't Sleep", which was the first Barney Bear short 
Passage 3:
NFL (video game)
NFL is a 1989 football video game, developed by Atlus and published by LJN exclusively for the Nintendo Entertainment System 

Gameplay modes
This game was the first since NFL Football - released in 1979 for the Intellivision - to get an official National Football League license  Intending to loosely represent the 1988-89 season of the National Football League, the game uses the teams and play formations of that particular era while avoiding usage of the players' names, due to a lack of an NFLPA license, which was given to Tecmo's Tecmo Bowl The player could play one of four options, either Interconference, AFC and NFC game or the Super Bowl (specifically Super Bowl XXIII)  Along with the option to choose a package to play during the game, players can directly control the entire team at once  This game was one of the first NFL video games on a gaming system  The game employs a Top-Down system for the actual gameplay and allows players to assign handicaps to a human opponent that is not as skilled as they are 

Reception
Allgame gave the game a 2 5 out of 5 rating in their overview 
Passage 4:
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly known as the NES, is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo  It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the Family Computer, commonly referred to as the Famicom or FC  The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American test markets on October 18, 1985, before becoming widely available in North America and other countries 
After developing a series of successful arcade games in the early 1980s, Nintendo planned to create a home video game console  Rejecting more complex proposals, the Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi called for a simple, cheap console that ran games stored on cartridges  The controller design was reused from Nintendo's portable Game & Watch games  Nintendo released several add-ons, such as a light gun for shooting games like Duck Hunt 
The NES was one of the best-selling consoles of its time and helped revitalize the US gaming industry following the video game crash of 1983  It introduced a now-standard business model of licensing third-party developers to produce and distribute games  The NES featured a number of groundbreaking games, such as the 1985 platform game Super Mario Bros  and the 1986 action-adventure games The Legend of Zelda and Metroid, which became long-running franchises  It was succeeded in 1990 by the Super Nintendo Entertainment System  In 2011, IGN named the NES the greatest video game console of all time 

History
Development
Following a series of arcade game successes in the early 1980s, Nintendo made plans to create a cartridge-based console called the Family Computer, or Famicom  Masayuki Uemura designed the system  The console's hardware was largely based on arcade video games, particularly the hardware for Namco's Galaxian (1979) and Nintendo's Radar Scope (1980) and Donkey Kong (1981), with the goal of matching their powerful sprite and scrolling capabilities in a home system  Original plans called for an advanced 16-bit system which would function as a full-fledged computer with a keyboard and floppy disk drive, but Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi rejected this and instead decided to go for a cheaper, more conventional cartridge-based game console as he believed that features such as keyboards and disks were intimidating to non-technophiles  A test model was constructed in October 1982 to verify the functionality of the hardware, after which work began on programming tools  Because 65xx CPUs had not been manufactured or sold in Japan up to that time, no cross-development software was available and it had to be produced from scratch  Early Famicom games were written on a system that ran on an NEC PC-8001 computer and LEDs on a grid were used with a digitizer to design graphics as no software design tools for this purpose existed at that time The code name for the project was "GameCom", but Masayuki Uemura's wife proposed the name "Famicom", arguing that "In Japan, 'pasokon' is used to mean a personal computer, but it is neither a home nor personal computer  Perhaps we could say it is a family computer " Meanwhile, Hiroshi Yamauchi decided that the console should use a red and white theme after seeing a billboard for DX Antenna (a Japanese antenna manufacturer) which used those colors The Famicom was also influenced by the ColecoVision, Coleco's competition against the Atari 2600 in the United States; the ColecoVision's top-seller was a port of Nintendo's Donkey Kong  The project's chief manager Takao Sawano brought a ColecoVision home to his family, impressed by its smooth graphics, which contrasts with the flicker and slowdown commonly seen on Atari 2600 games  Uemura said the ColecoVision set the bar for the Famicom  They wanted to surpass it and match the more powerful Donkey Kong arcade hardware; they took a Donkey Kong arcade cabinet to chip manufacturer Ricoh for analysis, which led to Ricoh producing the Picture Processing Unit (PPU) chip for the NES Original plans called for the Famicom's cartridges to be the size of a cassette tape, but ultimately they ended up being twice as big  Careful design attention was paid to the cartridge connectors because loose and faulty connections often plagued arcade machines  As it necessitated 60 connection lines for the memory and expansion, Nintendo decided to produce its own connectors The controllers are hard-wired to the console with no connectors for cost reasons  The controller designs were reused from the Game & Watch machines, although the Famicom design team originally wanted to use arcade-style joysticks, even dismantling some from American game consoles to see how they worked  There were concerns regarding the durability of the joystick design and that children might step on joysticks on the floor  Katsuya Nakawaka attached a Game & Watch D-pad to the Famicom prototype and found that it was easy to use and caused no discomfort  Ultimately though, they installed a 15-pin expansion port on the front of the console so that an optional arcade-style joystick could be used Gunpei Yokoi suggested an eject lever to the cartridge slot which is not necessary, but he believed that children could be entertained by pressing it  Uemura adopted his idea  Uemura added a microphone to the second controller with the idea that it could be used to make players voices sound through the TV speaker 

Japanese release
The console was released on July 15, 1983, as the Home Cassette-type Video Game: Family Computer, for ¥14,800 (equivalent to ¥18,400 in 2019) with three ports of Nintendo's successful arcade games Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr , and Popeye  The Famicom was slow to gather success; a bad chip set caused the early revisions to crash  Following a product recall and a reissue with a new motherboard, the Famicom's popularity soared, becoming the bestselling game console in Japan by the end of 1984 : 279, 285 Nintendo launched the system with only first-party games, but after being approached by Namco and Hudson Soft in 1984, agreed to produce third-party games for a 30% fee for console licensing and production costs  This rate continued in the industry for consoles and digital storefronts through the 21st Century 

North American release
Nintendo also had its sights set on the North American market, entering into negotiations with Atari, Inc  to release the Famicom under Atari's name as the Nintendo Advanced Video Gaming System  The deal was set to be finalized and signed at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show in June 1983  However, Atari discovered at that show that its competitor Coleco was illegally demonstrating its Coleco Adam computer with Nintendo's Donkey Kong game  This violation of Atari's exclusive license with Nintendo to publish the game for its own computer systems delayed the implementation of Nintendo's game console marketing contract with Atari  Atari's CEO Ray Kassar was fired the next month, so the deal went nowhere, and Nintendo decided to market its system on its own : 283–285 

Subsequent plans for the Nintendo Advanced Video System likewise never materialized: a North American repackaged Famicom console featuring a keyboard, cassette data recorder, wireless joystick controller and a special BASIC cartridge : 287  By the beginning of 1985, more than 2 5 million Famicom units had been sold in Japan, and Nintendo soon announced plans to release it in North America as the Advanced Video Entertainment System (AVS) that year  The American video game press was skeptical that the console could have any success in the region, as the industry was still recovering from the video game crash of 1983  The March 1985 issue of Electronic Games magazine stated that "the videogame market in America has virtually disappeared" and that "this could be a miscalculation on Nintendo's part" The Famicom hardware first made its North American debut in the arcades, in the form of the Nintendo VS  System in 1984; the system's success in arcades paved the way for the official release of the NES console  With US retailers refusing to stock game consoles, Yamauchi realized there was still a market for video games in the arcades, so he decided to introduce the Famicom to North America through the arcade industry  The VS  System became a major success in North American arcades, becoming the highest-grossing arcade machine of 1985 in the United States  By the time the NES launched, nearly 100,000 VS  Systems had been sold to American arcades  The success of the VS  System gave Nintendo the confidence to release the Famicom in North America as a video game console, for which there was growing interest due to Nintendo's positive reputation in the arcades  It also gave Nintendo the opportunity to test new games as VS  Paks in the arcades, to determine which games to release for the NES launch At June 1985's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Nintendo unveiled the American version of its Famicom, with a new case redesigned by Lance Barr and featuring a "zero insertion force" cartridge slot  The change from a top-loader in the Famicom to a front-loader was to make the new console more like a video cassette recorder, which had grown in popularity by 1985, and differentiate the unit from past video game consoles  Additionally, Uemura explained that Nintendo developers had feared that the console's electronics might face electrostatic hazards in dry American states such as Arizona and Texas, and a front-loading design would be safer if children handled the console carelessly This was deployed as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)  Nintendo seeded these first systems to limited American test markets starting in New York City on October 18, 1985, and followed up in Los Angeles in February 1986; the American nationwide release came on September 27, 1986  Nintendo released 17 launch games: 10-Yard Fight, Baseball, Clu Clu Land, Duck Hunt, Excitebike, Golf, Gyromite, Hogan's Alley, Ice Climber, Kung Fu, Pinball, Soccer, Stack-Up, Super Mario Bros , Tennis, Wild Gunman, and Wrecking Crew 
For expedient production, some varieties of these launch games contain Famicom chips with an adapter inside the cartridge so they play on North American consoles, which is why the title screens of Gyromite and Stack-Up show the titles of the Famicom games Robot Gyro and Robot Block, respectively 
The system's launch represented not only a new product, but also a reframing of the severely damaged home video game market in North America  The 1983 video game crash had occurred in large part due to a lack of consumer and retailer confidence in video games, which had been partially due to confusion and misrepresentation in video game marketing  Prior to the NES, the packaging of many video games presented bombastic artwork which did not represent a game's actual graphics  Furthermore, a single game such as Pac-Man appeared across consoles with substantial variations in graphics, sound, and general quality  In contrast, Nintendo's marketing strategy aimed to regain consumer and retailer confidence by delivering a singular platform whose graphics could be represented truthfully and whose qualities were clearly defined To differentiate Nintendo's new home platform from the perception of a troubled and shallow video game market still reeling from the 1983 crash, the company freshened its product nomenclature and established a strict product approval and licensing policy  The overall platform is referred to as "Entertainment System" instead of a "video game system", is centered upon a machine called a "Control Deck" instead of a "console", and features software cartridges called "Game Paks" instead of "video games"  This allowed Nintendo to gain more traction in selling the system in toy stores  To deter production of games which had not been licensed by Nintendo, and to prevent copying, the 10NES lockout chip system act as a lock-and-key coupling of each Game Pak and Control Deck  The packaging of the launch lineup of NES games bear pictures of close representations of actual onscreen graphics  To reduce consumer confusion, symbols on the games' packaging clearly indicate the genre of the game  A seal of quality is on all licensed game and accessory packaging  The initial seal states, "This seal is your assurance that Nintendo has approved and guaranteed the quality of this product"  This text was later changed to "Official Nintendo Seal of Quality" Unlike with the Famicom, Nintendo of America marketed the console primarily to children, instituting a strict policy of censoring profanity, sexual, religious, or political content  The most famous example is Lucasfilm's attempts to port the comedy-horror game Maniac Mansion to the NES, which Nintendo insisted be considerably watered down 
The optional Robotic Operating Buddy, or R O B , was part of a marketing plan to portray the NES's technology as being novel and sophisticated when compared to previous game consoles, and to portray its position as being within reach of the better established toy market  Though at first, the American public exhibited limited excitement for the console itself, peripherals such as the light gun and R O B  attracted extensive attention 

Other markets
In Europe and Oceania, the NES was released in two separate marketing regions  The first consisted of mainland Europe (excluding Italy) where distribution was handled by a number of different companies, with Nintendo responsible for manufacturing  The NES saw an early launch in Europe in 1986 although most of the European countries received the console in 1987  The release in Scandinavia was on September 1, 1986, where it was released by Bergsala  In the Netherlands, it was distributed by Bandai BV  In France it was released in October 1987, while in Spain between late 1987 and 1988 through distributor Spaco  Also in 1987, Mattel handled distribution for the second region, consisting of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Australia and New Zealand  Mattel handled distribution for Nintendo in Canada as well; however, it was unrelated to the aforementioned European / Australian releases In Brazil, the console was released late in 1993 by Playtronic, even after the SNES  But the Brazilian market had been dominated by unlicensed NES clones – both locally made, and smuggled from Taiwan  One of the most successful local clones was the Phantom System, manufactured by Gradiente, which licensed Nintendo products in the country for the following decade  The sales of officially licensed products were low, due to the cloning, the quite late official launch, and the high prices of Nintendo's licensed products Outside of Japan, regions in greater Asia received an "Asian Version" of the front-loader NES despite the prevalence of imported Famicom systems  Due to import restrictions, NES consoles in India and South Korea were rebranded and distributed by local licensees  The Indian version is called the Samurai Electronic TV Game System and the Korean version is called the Hyundai Comboy  The console sold very poorly in India 

Later redesigns and bundles
For its complete North American release, the Nintendo Entertainment System was progressively released over the ensuing years in several different bundles, beginning with the Deluxe Set, the Basic Set, the Action Set and the Power Set  The Deluxe Set, retailing at US$179 99 (equivalent to $529 in 2022), included R O B , a light gun called the NES Zapper, two controllers, and two Game Paks: Gyromite and Duck Hunt  The Control Deck, first released in 1987, retailed at US$89 99 with no game, and US$99 99 bundled with the Super Mario Bros  cartridge  The Action Set, released April 14, 1988, for US$109 99, came with the Control Deck, two game controllers, an NES Zapper, and a dual Game Pak containing both Super Mario Bros  and Duck Hunt 
In 1989, the Power Set included the console, two game controllers, an NES Zapper, a Power Pad, and a triple Game Pak containing Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt, and World Class Track Meet  In 1990, a Sports Set bundle was released, including the console, an NES Satellite infrared wireless multitap adapter, four game controllers, and a dual Game Pak containing Super Spike V'Ball and Nintendo World Cup  Two more bundle packages were later released using the original model NES console  The Challenge Set of 1992 included the console, two controllers, and a Super Mario Bros  3 Game Pak for a retail price of US$89 99  The Basic Set retailed at US$89 99; it included only the console and two controllers, and no pack-in game  Instead, it contained a book called the Official Nintendo Player's Guide, which contained detailed information for every NES game made up to that point 
Finally, the console was redesigned for the Australian, North American and Japanese markets  As part of the final Nintendo-released bundle package, the product included the New-Style NES, or NES-101, and one redesigned "dogbone" game controller  In Australia, this version of the system was also available with a cartridge compiling Super Mario Bros, Tetris and Nintendo World Cup  Released in October 1993 in North America and 1994 in Australia, this final bundle retailed for US$49 99 and A$69 99 (A$79 99 with the pack-in game) respectively, and remained in production until the discontinuation of the NES in 1995 

Discontinuation
On August 14, 1995, Nintendo discontinued the Nintendo Entertainment System in both North America and Europe  In North America, replacements for the original front-loading NES were available for $25 in exchange for a broken system until at least December 1996, under Nintendo's Power Swap program  The Game Boy and Super NES were also covered in this program, for $25 and $35 respectively On May 30, 2003, Nintendo announced the discontinuation of the Famicom in September alongside the Super Famicom and the disk rewriting services for the Famicom Disk System  The last Famicom, serial number HN11033309, was manufactured on September 25; it was kept by Nintendo and subsequently loaned to the organizers of Level X, a video game exhibition held from December 4, 2003, to February 8, 2004, at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, for a Famicom retrospective in commemoration of the console's 20th anniversary  Nintendo offered repair service for the Famicom in Japan until 2007, when it was discontinued due to a shortage of available parts 

Hardware
Configurations
Although all versions of the Famicom/NES include essentially similar hardware, they vary in physical characteristics  The original Famicom's design is predominantly white plastic, with dark red trim; it featured a top-loading cartridge slot, grooves on both sides of the deck in which the hardwired game controllers could be placed when not in use, and a 15-pin expansion port located on the unit's front panel for accessories  In contrast, the design of the original NES features a more subdued gray, black, and red color scheme; it includes a front-loading cartridge slot covered by a small, hinged door that can be opened to insert or remove a cartridge and closed at other times, and an expansion port on the bottom of the unit  The cartridge connector pinout was changed between the Famicom and NES In late 1993, Nintendo introduced a redesigned version of the Famicom/NES (officially named the New Famicom in Japan and the New-Style NES in the U S ) to complement the Super Famicom/NES and prolong interest in the console while implementing cost reduction measures  For the redesigned NES, Nintendo opted to use a top-loading cartridge slot in to avoid reliability issues with the original console; the redesign also omitted AV output  Conversely, the redesigned Famicom offered such output while introducing detachable game controllers, though the microphone functionality was omitted as a result  The redesigned Famicom and NES models are cosmetically similar aside from the presence of a cartridge "bump" on the NES model, which the Famicom model lacks to accommodate its shorter cartridges as well as the RAM Adapter for the Famicom Disk System Sharp Corporation produced three licensed variants of the Famicom in Japan, all of which prominently displayed the shortened moniker rather than the official "Family Computer" name  One variant was a television set with an integrated Famicom; originally released in 1983 as the My Computer TV in 14-inch (36 cm) and 19-inch (48 cm) models, it was later released in the United States in 1989 as a 19-inch model named the Video Game Television  Another variant was the Twin Famicom, a console released in 1986 that combined a Famicom with a Famicom Disk System  Sharp then produced the Famicom Titler in 1989; intended for video capture and production, it featured internal RGB video generation and video output via S-Video while including inputs for adding subtitles and voice-overs 

Hardware clones
A thriving market of unlicensed NES hardware clones emerged during the climax of the console's popularity  Initially, such clones were popular in markets where Nintendo issued a legitimate version of the console long time after unlicensed hardware  In particular, the Dendy (Russian: Де́нди), an unlicensed hardware clone produced in Taiwan and sold in the former Soviet Union, emerged as the most popular video game console of its time in that setting and it enjoyed a degree of fame roughly equivalent to that experienced by the NES/Famicom in North America and Japan  A range of Famicom clones was marketed in Argentina during the late 1980s and early 1990s under the name of "Family Game", resembling the original hardware design  Thailand got Family FR brand famiclones, the Micro Genius (Simplified Chinese: 小天才) was marketed in Southeast Asia as an alternative to the Famicom; and in Central Europe, especially Poland, the Pegasus was available  Since 1989, there were many Brazilian clones of NES, and the very popular Phantom System (with hardware superior to the original console) caught the attention of Nintendo itself 

The unlicensed clone market has flourished following Nintendo's discontinuation of the NES  Some of the more exotic of these resulting systems surpass the functionality of the original hardware, such as a portable system with a color LCD (PocketFami)  Others have been produced for certain specialized markets, such as a rather primitive personal computer with a keyboard and basic word processing software  These unauthorized clones have been helped by the invention of the so-called NES-on-a-chip As was the case with unlicensed games, Nintendo has typically gone to the courts to prohibit the manufacture and sale of unlicensed cloned hardware  Many of the clone vendors have included built-in copies of licensed Nintendo software, which constitutes copyright infringement in most countries 

Design flaws
Nintendo's design styling for US release was made deliberately different from that of other game consoles  Nintendo wanted to distinguish its product from those of competitors and to avoid the generally poor reputation that game consoles had acquired following the video game crash of 1983  One result of this philosophy is to disguise the cartridge slot design as a front-loading zero-insertion force (ZIF) cartridge socket, designed to resemble the front-loading mechanism of a VCR  The socket works well when both the connector and the cartridges are clean and the pins on the connector are new  However, the socket is not truly zero-insertion force  When a user inserts the cartridge into the NES, the force of pressing the cartridge into place bends the contact pins slightly and presses the cartridge's ROM board back into the cartridge  Frequent insertion and removal of cartridges wears out the pins, and the ZIF design proved more prone to interference by dirt and dust than an industry-standard card edge connector The design problems were exacerbated by Nintendo's choice of materials  The console slot nickel connector springs wear due to design and the game cartridge's brass plated nickel connectors are also prone to tarnishing and oxidation  Nintendo sought to fix these problems by redesigning the next generation Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) as a top loader similar to the Famicom  Many players try to alleviate issues in the game caused by this corrosion by blowing into the cartridges, then reinserting them, which actually speeds up the tarnishing due to moisture  One way to slow down the tarnishing process and extend the life of the cartridges is to use isopropyl alcohol and swabs, as well as non-conductive metal polish such as Brasso or Sheila Shine Users have attempted to solve these problems by blowing air onto the cartridge connectors, inserting the cartridge just far enough to get the ZIF to lower, licking the edge connector, slapping the side of the system after inserting a cartridge, shifting the cartridge from side to side after insertion, pushing the ZIF up and down repeatedly, holding the ZIF down lower than it should have been, and cleaning the connectors with alcohol  Many frequently used methods to fix this problem actually risk damaging gaming cartridges or the system  In 1989, Nintendo released an official NES Cleaning Kit to help users clean malfunctioning cartridges and consoles 
In response to these hardware flaws, "Nintendo Authorized Repair Centers" sprang up across the U S  According to Nintendo, the authorization program was designed to ensure that the machines were properly repaired  Nintendo would ship the necessary replacement parts only to shops that had enrolled in the authorization program 
With the release of the top-loading NES-101 (New-Style NES) in 1993 toward the end of the NES's lifespan, Nintendo resolved the problems by switching to a standard card edge connector and eliminating the lockout chip  All of the Famicom systems use standard card edge connectors, as do Nintendo's two subsequent game consoles, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Nintendo 64 

Lockout
The Famicom as released in Japan contains no lockout hardware, which led to unlicensed cartridges (both legitimate and bootleg) becoming extremely common throughout Japan and East Asia  Nintendo tried to promote its "Seal of Quality" in these regions to identify licensed games to combat bootlegs, but bootleg Famicom games continued to be produced even after Nintendo moved production onto the Super Famicom, effectively extending the lifetime of the Famicom The original NES released for Western countries in 1985 contains the 10NES lockout chip, which prevents it from running cartridges unapproved by Nintendo  The inclusion of the 10NES was a direct influence from the 1983 video game crash in North America, partially caused by a market flooded with uncontrolled publishing of games of poor quality for the home consoles  Nintendo did not want to see that happen with the NES and used the lockout chip to restrict games to only those they licensed and approved for the system  This means of protection worked in combination with the Nintendo "Seal of Quality", which a developer had to acquire before they would be able to have access to the required 10NES information prior to publication of their game Initially, the 10NES chip proved a significant barrier to unlicensed developers seeking to develop and sell games for the console  However, hobbyists in later years discovered that disassembling the NES and cutting the fourth pin of the lockout chip would change the chip's mode of operation from "lock" to "key", removing all effects and greatly improving the console's ability to play legal games, as well as bootlegs and converted imports 
Original NES consoles sold in different regions have different lockout chips, thereby enforcing regional lockout (regardless of TV signal compatibility)  Such regions include North America; most of continental Europe (PAL-B); Asia; and the British Isles, Italy, and Australasia (PAL-A) Problems with the 10NES lockout chip frequently result in one of the console's most common issues: the blinking red power light, in which the system appears to turn itself on and off repeatedly because the 10NES would reset the console once per second  The lockout chip required constant communication with the chip in the game to work : 247  Dirty, aging, and bent connectors often disrupt the communication, resulting in the blink effect  In other cases, the console turns on but only displays a solid white, gray, or green screen 

Technical specifications
The console's main central processing unit (CPU) was produced by Ricoh, which manufactured different versions between NTSC and PAL regions; NTSC consoles use a 2A03 clocked at 1 79 MHz, while PAL consoles use a 2A07 clocked at 1 66 MHz  Both CPUs are second source variants of the MOS Technology 6502, an 8-bit microprocessor prevalent in contemporary home computers and consoles; Nintendo ostensibly disabled the 6502's binary-coded decimal mode on them to avoid patent infringement against or licensing fees towards MOS Technology, which was owned by then-rival Commodore International  The CPU has access to 2 KB of onboard work RAM The console's graphics are handled by a Ricoh 2C02, a processor known as the Picture Processing Unit (PPU) that is clocked at 5 37 MHz  A derivative of the Texas Instruments TMS9918—a video display controller used in the ColecoVision—the PPU features 2 KB of video RAM, 256 bytes of on-die "object attribute memory" (OAM) to store sprite display information on up to 64 sprites, and 28 bytes of RAM to store information on the YIQ-based color palette; the console can display up to 25 colors simultaneously out of 54 usable colors The console's standard display resolution is 256 × 240 pixels, though video output options vary between models  The original Famicom features only radio frequency (RF) modulator output, while the NES additionally includes support for composite video via RCA connectors  The redesigned Famicom omits the RF modulator entirely, only outputting composite video via a proprietary "multi-out" connector first introduced on the Super Famicom/NES; conversely, the redesigned NES features RF modulator output only, though a version of the model including the "multi-out" connector was produced in rare quantities The console produces sound via an audio processing unit (APU) integrated into the processor  It supports a total of five sound channels: two pulse wave channels, one triangle wave channel, one white noise channel, and one DPCM channel for sample playback  Audio playback speed is dependent on the CPU clock rate, which is set by a crystal oscillator 

Accessories
Controllers
The game controller for both the NES and the Famicom has an oblong brick-like design with a simple four button layout: two round buttons labeled "A" and "B", a "START" button, and a "SELECT" button  Additionally, the controllers use the cross-shaped D-pad, designed by Nintendo employee Gunpei Yokoi for Nintendo Game & Watch systems, to replace the bulkier joysticks on controllers of earlier gaming consoles : 279 The original model Famicom features two game controllers, both of which are hardwired to the back of the console  The second controller lacks the START and SELECT button, featuring a small microphone instead; however, few games use this feature  The earliest produced Famicom units have square A and B buttons; issues with them getting stuck when pressed down led Nintendo to change their shape to a circular design in subsequent units following the console's recall Instead of the Famicom's hardwired controllers, the NES has two proprietary seven-pin ports on the front of the console to support detachable controllers and third-party peripherals  The controllers bundled with the NES are identical and include the START and SELECT buttons, lacking the microphone on the original Famicom's second controller  The cables for NES controllers are also generally three times longer than their Famicom counterparts A number of special controllers are intended for use with specific games, though are not commonly used  Such peripherals include the NES Zapper (a light gun), R O B  (a toy robot),: 297  and the Power Pad (a dance pad) : 226  The original Famicom has a deepened DA-15 expansion port on the front of the unit to accommodate them Two official advanced controllers were produced for the NES: the NES Advantage, an arcade controller produced by Asciiware and licensed by Nintendo of America; and the NES Max, a controller with grip handles that featured a "cycloid" sliding-disc D-pad in place of the traditional one  Both controllers have a "Turbo" feature, which simulates multiple rapid button presses, for the A and B buttons; the NES Max has manually pressed Turbo buttons, while the NES Advantage offers toggle buttons for Turbo functionality along with knobs that adjust the firing rate of each button  The latter also includes a "Slow" button that rapidly pauses games, though this function is not intended for games that invoke a pause menu or screen The standard game controller was redesigned upon the introduction of the redesigned console  Though the original button layout was retained, the shape of the redesigned controller—nicknamed the "dog bone" controller—resembles that of the Super Famicom/NES  In addition, the redesigned Famicom adopted NES-style detachable controller ports The original NES controller has become one of the most recognizable symbols of the console  Nintendo has mimicked the look of the controller in several other products, from promotional merchandise to limited edition versions of the Game Boy Advance 

Japanese accessories
Few of the numerous peripheral devices and software packages for the Famicom were released outside Japan 
The Famicom 3D System, an active shutter 3D headset headset peripheral released in 1987, enabled the ability to play stereoscopic video games  It was a commercial failure and never released outside Japan; users described the headset as bulky and uncomfortable  Seven games are compatible with the glasses, with three of them developed by Square; two titles received worldwide releases as Rad Racer and The 3-D Battles of WorldRunner Family BASIC is an implementation of BASIC for the Famicom, packaged with a keyboard  Similar in concept to the Atari 2600 BASIC cartridge, it allows the user to write programs, especially games, which can be saved on an included cassette recorder  Nintendo of America rejected releasing Famicom BASIC in the US in favor of its primary marketing demographic of children : 162 The Famicom Modem connected a Famicom to a now defunct proprietary network in Japan which provided content such as financial services  A dial-up modem was never released for the NES after a partnership with Fidelity Investments 

Famicom Disk System
By 1986, the cost and size limitations of ROM chips used in the Famicom's ROM cartridges were apparent, with no new advancements present to address them  With this in mind, Nintendo looked at the personal computer (PC) market, where the floppy disk was gaining wide adoption as a computer data storage medium  Partnering with Mitsumi to develop a floppy disk add-on for the Famicom based on the latter's Quick Disk format, Nintendo officially released it as the Family Computer Disk System in Japan on February 21, 1986, at a retail price of ¥15,000 The advantages of the format (called "Disk Card") were apparent on launch: it offered more than triple the data storage capacity of the then-largest cartridge (used for Super Mario Bros ) and introduced game save capability while offering lower production costs compared to cartridges, which resulted in lower retail prices for consumers  The add-on also offered upgraded sound capability by adding a wavetable synthesis channel while including more space that developers could use for the Famicom's audio sample channel  Taking advantage of the disk's re-writability, Nintendo set up "Disk Writer" interactive kiosks at retail stores throughout Japan; at each kiosk, consumers could rewrite their disks with new games; new blank disks to write onto were also offered inside it : 75  Nintendo also set up "Disk Fax" kiosks for players to submit their high scores on special blue disks for contests and rankings, predating the online leaderboard by several years Although Nintendo committed to exclusively releasing games on the Disk System after its release, numerous external issues plagued its long-term viability  Just four months after launch, Capcom released a Famicom port of Makaimura (known as Ghosts 'n Goblins in the U S ) on a cartridge with more data storage capacity than what was possible on Disk Cards, nullifying one of the Disk System's major advantages by using discrete logic chips to perform bank switching  Nintendo also demanded half of the copyright ownership for each game it selected for release on the Disk System, resulting in developers electing to remain on cartridge instead as the latter gained functionality previously considered unique to the former  Developers additionally loathed the Disk Writer kiosks due to their lower profit margin, while retailers complained of their presence taking up valuable space as interest in the format waned : 78 Usage of a floppy disk-based medium brought about further complications; Disk Cards were more fragile than cartridges and were prone to data corruption from magnetic exposure  Their unreliability was exacerbated by their lack of a shutter, which Nintendo substituted with a wax sleeve and clear keep case to reduce costs; blue disks and later Disk Cards included shutters  The rubber belt-based disk drives were also unreliable, with cryptic error codes complicating troubleshooting; even when fully functional, players accustomed to cartridges were annoyed with the introduction of loading times and disk flipping  Furthermore, the rewritable nature of the format resulted in rampant software piracy, with Nintendo's attempts at anti-piracy measures quickly defeated Despite selling close to two million units for all of 1986, Nintendo only managed to increase the total to 4 4 million units by 1990, falling well short of internal projections : 76  By then, the Disk System was rendered obsolete due to advancements in ROM cartridge production: memory mapping chips for expanded data storage capacity, battery-backed SRAM for game saving, and declining overall production costs  While Nintendo alluded to a Western release for the Disk System, going so far as to successfully file a U S  patent for it and having the Famicom's cartridge pins used by its RAM Adapter for enhanced audio rerouted to the NES's little-used bottom expansion port, such a release never materialized due to its reception in Japan  Most of its games were re-released with workarounds on cartridge for both the Famicom and NES, albeit without the enhanced audio  Although the last game for the Disk System was released in December 1992, Nintendo continued to offer repair and rewrite services for it until September 2003 

NES Test Station
The NES Test Station diagnostics machine was introduced in 1988  It is an NES-based unit designed for testing NES hardware, components, and games  It was only provided for use in World of Nintendo boutiques as part of the Nintendo World Class Service program  Visitors were to bring items to test with the station, and could be assisted by a store technician or employee 
The NES Test Station's front has a Game Pak slot and connectors for testing various components (AC adapter, RF switch, Audio/Video cable, NES Control Deck, accessories and games), with a centrally-located selector knob to choose which component to test  The unit itself weighs approximately 11 7 pounds without a TV  It connects to a television via a combined A/V and RF Switch cable  By actuating the green button, a user can toggle between an A/V Cable or RF Switch connection  The television it is connected to (typically 11" to 14") is meant to be placed atop it In 1991, Nintendo provided an add-on called the "Super NES Counter Tester" that tests Super NES components and games  The Super NES Counter Tester is a standard Control Deck on a metal fixture with the connection from the back of the unit re-routed to the front  These connections may be made directly to the test station or to the TV, depending on what is to be tested 

Games
Game Pak
The NES uses a 72-pin design, as compared with 60 pins on the Famicom  To reduce costs and inventory, some early games released in North America are simply Famicom cartridges attached to an adapter to fit inside the NES hardware  Early NES cartridges are held together with five small slotted screws  Games released after 1987 were redesigned slightly to incorporate two plastic clips molded into the plastic itself, removing the need for the top two screws The back of the cartridge bears a label with handling instructions  Production and software revision codes were imprinted as stamps on the back label to correspond with the software version and producer  All licensed NTSC and PAL cartridges are a standard shade of gray plastic, with the exception of The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, which were manufactured in gold-plastic carts  Unlicensed carts were produced in black, robin egg blue, and gold, and are all slightly different shapes than standard NES cartridges  Nintendo also produced yellow-plastic carts for internal use at Nintendo Service Centers, although these "test carts" were never made available for purchase  All licensed US cartridges were made by Nintendo, Konami, and Acclaim  For promotion of DuckTales: Remastered, Capcom sent 150 limited-edition gold NES cartridges with the original game, featuring the Remastered art as the sticker, to different gaming news agencies  The instruction label on the back includes the opening lyric from the show's theme song, "Life is like a hurricane" Famicom cartridges are shaped slightly differently  Unlike NES games, official Famicom cartridges were produced in many colors of plastic  Adapters, similar in design to the popular accessory Game Genie, are available that allow Famicom games to be played on an NES  In Japan, several companies manufactured the cartridges for the Famicom : 61  This allowed these companies to develop customized chips designed for specific purposes, such as superior sound and graphics 

Third-party licensing
Nintendo's near monopoly on the home video game market left it with a dominant influence over the industry  Unlike Atari, which never actively pursued third-party developers (and even went to court in an attempt to force Activision to cease production of Atari 2600 games), Nintendo had anticipated and encouraged the involvement of third-party software developers, though strictly on Nintendo's terms  Some of the Nintendo platform-control measures were adopted in a less stringent way by later console manufacturers such as Sega, Sony, and Microsoft 
To this end, a 10NES authentication chip is in every console and in every licensed cartridge  If the console's chip can not detect a counterpart chip inside the cartridge, the game does not load : 247  Nintendo portrayed these measures as intended to protect the public against poor-quality games, and placed a golden seal of approval on all licensed games released for the system 
Nintendo found success with Japanese arcade manufacturers such as Konami, Capcom, Taito and Namco, which signed on as third-party developers  However, they found resistance with US game developers including Atari Games, Activision, Electronic Arts and Epyx refusing Nintendo's one-sided terms  Acclaim Entertainment, a fledgling game publisher founded by former Activision employees, was the first major third-party licensee in the United States to sign on with Nintendo in late 1987  Atari Games (through Tengen) and Activision signed on soon after 
Nintendo was not as restrictive as Sega, which did not permit third-party publishing until Mediagenic in late summer 1988  Nintendo's intention was to reserve a large part of NES game revenue for itself  Nintendo required that it be the sole manufacturer of all cartridges, and that the publisher had to pay in full before the cartridges for that game be produced  Cartridges could not be returned to Nintendo, so publishers assumed all the risk  As a result, some publishers lost more money due to distress sales of remaining inventory at the end of the NES era than they ever earned in profits from sales of the games  Because Nintendo controlled the production of all cartridges, it was able to enforce strict rules on its third-party developers, who were required to sign a contract that would obligate them to develop exclusively for the system, order at least 10,000 cartridges, and only make five games per year : 214–215  The global 1988 shortage of DRAM and ROM chips reportedly caused Nintendo to only permit an average of 25% of publishers' requests for cartridges, with some receiving much higher amounts and others almost none  GameSpy noted that Nintendo's "iron-clad terms" made the company many enemies during the 1980s  Some developers tried to circumvent the five game limit by creating additional company brands like Konami's Ultra Games label; others tried circumventing the 10NES chip 

Nintendo was accused of antitrust violations because of the strict licensing requirements  The United States Department of Justice and several states began probing Nintendo's business practices, leading to the involvement of Congress and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)  The FTC conducted an extensive investigation which included interviewing hundreds of retailers  During the FTC probe, Nintendo changed the terms of its publisher licensing agreements to eliminate the two-year rule and other restrictive terms  Nintendo and the FTC settled the case in April 1991, with Nintendo required to send vouchers giving a $5 discount off to a new game, to every person that had purchased an NES game between June 1988 and December 1990  GameSpy remarked that Nintendo's punishment was particularly weak giving the case's findings, although it has been speculated that the FTC did not want to damage the video game industry in the United States With the NES near the end of its life, many third-party publishers such as Electronic Arts supported upstart competing consoles with less strict licensing terms such as the Sega Genesis and then the PlayStation, which eroded and then took over Nintendo's dominance in the home console market, respectively  Consoles from Nintendo's rivals in the post-SNES era had always enjoyed much stronger third-party support than Nintendo, which relied more heavily on first-party games 

Unlicensed games
Companies that refused to pay the licensing fee or were rejected by Nintendo found ways to circumvent the console's authentication system  Most of these companies created circuits that use a voltage spike to temporarily disable the 10NES chip : 286  A few unlicensed games released in Europe and Australia are in the form of a dongle to connect to a licensed game, to use the licensed game's 10NES chip for authentication  To combat unlicensed games, Nintendo of America threatened retailers who sold them with losing their supply of licensed games, and multiple revisions were made to the NES PCBs to prevent unlicensed games from working 
Atari Games took a different approach with its line of NES products, Tengen  The company attempted to reverse engineer the lockout chip to develop its own "Rabbit" chip  Tengen also obtained a description of the lockout chip from the United States Patent and Trademark Office by falsely claiming that it was required to defend against present infringement claims  Nintendo successfully sued Tengen for copyright infringement  Tengen's antitrust claims against Nintendo were never decided Color Dreams made Christian video games under the subsidiary name Wisdom Tree  Historian Steven Kent wrote, "Wisdom Tree presented Nintendo with a prickly situation  The general public did not seem to pay close attention to the court battle with Atari Games, and industry analysts were impressed with Nintendo's legal acumen; but going after a tiny company that published innocuous religious games was another story ": 400

Game rentals
As the Nintendo Entertainment System grew in popularity and entered millions of American homes, some small video rental shops began buying their own copies of NES games, and renting them out to customers for around the same price as a video cassette rental for a few days  Nintendo received no profit from the practice beyond the initial cost of their game, and unlike movie rentals, a newly released game could hit store shelves and be available for rent on the same day  Nintendo took steps to stop game rentals, but did not take any formal legal action until Blockbuster Video began to make game rentals a large-scale service  Nintendo claimed that allowing customers to rent games would significantly hurt sales and drive up the cost of games  Nintendo lost the lawsuit, but did win on a claim of copyright infringement  Blockbuster was banned from including photocopies of original, copyrighted instruction booklets with its rented games  In compliance with the ruling, Blockbuster produced original short instructions—usually in the form of a small booklet, card, or label stuck on the back of the rental box—that explained the game's basic premise and controls  Video rental shops continued the practice of renting video games 

Reception
By 1988, industry observers stated that the NES's popularity had grown so quickly that the market for Nintendo cartridges was larger than that for all home computer software : 347  Compute! reported in 1989 that Nintendo had sold seven million NES systems in 1988 alone, almost as many as the number of Commodore 64s sold in its first five years  "Computer game makers [are] scared stiff", the magazine said, stating that Nintendo's popularity caused most competitors to have poor sales during the previous Christmas and resulted in serious financial problems for some 

In June 1989, Nintendo of America's vice president of marketing Peter Main, said that the Famicom was present in 37% of Japan's households  By 1990, 30% of American households owned the NES, compared to 23% for all personal computers  By 1990, the NES had outsold all previously released consoles worldwide  The slogan for this brand was "It can't be beaten" : 345  The Nintendo Entertainment System was not available in the Soviet Union 
In the early 1990s, gamers predicted that competition from technologically superior systems such as the 16-bit Sega Genesis would mean the immediate end of the NES's dominance  Instead, during the first year of Nintendo's successor console the Super Famicom (named Super Nintendo Entertainment System outside Japan), the Famicom remained the second highest-selling video game console in Japan, outselling the newer and more powerful NEC PC Engine and Sega Mega Drive by a wide margin  The console remained popular in Japan and North America until late 1993, when the demand for new NES software abruptly plummeted  The final licensed Famicom game released in Japan is Takahashi Meijin no Bōken Jima IV (Adventure Island IV), in North America is Wario's Woods, and in Europe is The Lion King in 1995  In the wake of ever decreasing sales and the lack of new games, Nintendo of America officially discontinued the NES by 1995  Nintendo produced new Famicom units in Japan until September 25, 2003, and continued to repair Famicom consoles until October 31, 2007, attributing the discontinuation of support to insufficient supplies of parts The NES was initially not as successful in Europe during the late 1980s, when it was outsold by the Master System in the United Kingdom  By 1990, the Master System was the highest-selling console in Europe, though the NES was beginning to have a fast-growing user base in the United Kingdom  During the early 1990s, NES sales caught up with and narrowly overtook the Master System overall in Western Europe, though the Master System maintained its lead in several markets such as the United Kingdom, Belgium and Spain 

Legacy
The NES was released two years after the video game crash of 1983, when many retailers and adult consumers regarded electronic games as a passing fad,: 280  so many believed at first that the NES would soon fade  Before the NES and Famicom, Nintendo was known as a moderately successful Japanese toy and playing card manufacturer, but the consoles' popularity helped the company grow into an internationally recognized name almost synonymous with video games as Atari had been, and set the stage for Japanese dominance of the video game industry  With the NES, Nintendo also changed the relationship between console manufacturers and third-party software developers by restricting developers from publishing and distributing software without licensed approval  This led to higher-quality games, which helped change the attitude of a public that had grown weary from poorly produced games for earlier systems : 306–307 The NES hardware design is also very influential  Nintendo chose the name "Nintendo Entertainment System" for the US market and redesigned the system so it would not give the appearance of a child's toy  The front-loading cartridge input allowed it to be used more easily in a TV stand with other entertainment devices, such as a videocassette recorder The system's hardware limitations led to design principles that still influence the development of modern video games  Many prominent game franchises originated on the NES, including Nintendo's own Super Mario Bros ,|: 57  The Legend of Zelda: 353  and Metroid,: 357  Capcom's Mega Man franchise, Konami's Castlevania: 358  franchise, Square's Final Fantasy,|: 95  and Enix's Dragon Quest|: 222  franchises 
NES imagery, especially its controller, has become a popular motif for a variety of products, including Nintendo's Game Boy Advance  Clothing, accessories, and food items adorned with NES-themed imagery are still produced and sold in stores 

Emulation
The NES can be emulated on many other systems  The first emulator was the Japanese-only Pasofami  It was soon followed by iNES, which is available in English and is cross-platform, in 1996  It was described as being the first NES emulation software that could be used by a non-expert  The first version of NESticle, an unofficial MS-DOS-based emulator, was released on April 3, 1997  Nintendo offers licensed emulation of some NES games via its Virtual Console service for the Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and Wii U, and via its Nintendo Switch Online service 

Re-release
On July 14, 2016, Nintendo announced the November 2016 launch of a miniature replica of the NES, named the Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition in the United States and Nintendo Classic Mini: Nintendo Entertainment System in Europe and Australia  The emulation-based console includes 30 permanently bundled games from the vintage NES library, including the Super Mario Bros  series and The Legend of Zelda series  The system has HDMI display output and a new replica controller, which can also connect to the Wii Remote for use with Virtual Console games  It was discontinued in North America on April 13, 2017, and worldwide on April 15, 2017  However, Nintendo announced in September 2017 that the NES Classic Mini would return to production on June 29, 2018, only to be discontinued again permanently by December of that year 

See also
History of Nintendo
Nintendo hard
Nintendo World Championships

Notes
Transliterations
Passage 5:
The Journal of Men's Studies
The Journal of Men's Studies (abbreviated JMS) is a peer-reviewed journal established in 1992 as the first  published by Men's Studies Press  As of 2015 the journal is published by SAGE Publications 

See also
Gender studies
Men's studies
Women's studies

External links
Official website
Passage 6:
Publishers Clearing House
Publishers Clearing House (PCH) is a direct marketing company that markets merchandise and magazine subscriptions with sweepstakes and prize-based games 
It was founded in 1953 by Harold Mertz to replace door-to-door magazine subscription sales by a single vendor offering multiple subscriptions by mail  It introduced its sweepstakes in 1967  In the early 1990s, the company was the subject of concerns and legal actions regarding whether consumers were misled about their odds of winning the sweepstakes and whether purchases increased their chances  By 2010, the company had reached settlements with all 50 states 
The company acquired search company Blingo in 2006, online gaming company Funtank in 2010, mobile marketing company Liquid Wireless in 2012, and internet news aggregator Topix in 2019 

History
Early history
Publishers Clearing House was founded in 1953 in Port Washington, New York by Harold Mertz, a former manager of a door-to-door sales team for magazine subscriptions  The company started in Mertz's basement with help from his first wife LuEsther and daughter Joyce  Its first mailings were of 10,000 envelopes from Mertz's home in Long Island, New York, and offered 20 magazine subscriptions  A hundred orders were received  Within a few years the company moved out of Mertz's basement into an office building and started hiring staff  When PCH moved its headquarters in 1969, its prior location was donated to the city and renamed the Harold E  Mertz Community Center  The company revenue had grown to US$50 million by 1981, and $100 million by 1988 In 1967 PCH ran its first sweepstakes as a way to increase subscription sales, based on the sweepstakes held by Reader's Digest  The first prizes ranged from $1 to $10 and entrants had a 1 in 10 chance of winning  After the sweepstakes increased response rates to mailings, prizes of $5,000 and eventually $250,000 were offered  PCH began advertising the sweepstakes on TV in 1974  It was the only major multi-magazine subscription business until 1977  Former client Time Inc  and several other publishers formed American Family Publishers (AFP) to compete with PCH after the company refused repeated requests by Time for a larger share of sales revenue from magazine subscriptions AFP and PCH competed for exclusive rights to magazines and for the better promotion and prize ideas  When AFP increased their jackpot to $1 million, and then to $10 million in 1985, PCH raised its prizes to match  $7 million in prizes were distributed by 1979, $40 million by 1991, and $137 million by 2000  In 1989, two members of its advertising team, Dave Sayer and Todd Sloane, started the Prize Patrol, a publicized event where winners are surprised with a check at their home  The idea was inspired by the 1950s television series The Millionaire  The two companies were often mistaken for each other, with Star Search host Ed McMahon and The $25,000 Pyramid host Dick Clark, the spokespeople for AFP, mistaken for representatives of the better-known PCH In 1992 thousands of discarded sweepstakes entries from contestants who had not bought magazine subscriptions were found in the company's trash, reinforcing beliefs that the company favored those who made purchases in selecting a sweepstakes winner  PCH said this was done by a disgruntled employee at their mail processing vendor  A class action lawsuit ensued, which PCH settled by giving discarded entrants a second chance to win 

Government regulation
In the 1990s PCH and its primary competitor, AFP, experienced a series of legal troubles due to concerns that their mailings misled consumers about their odds of winning and implied that magazine purchases increased their chances  This led to the Deceptive Mail Prevention and Enforcement Act of 2000, which regulates direct mail businesses  At the senate hearings regarding this Act, PCH said most consumers were not confused about their chances of winning or that purchases did not increase their chances  The company said that fewer than five percent of participants spend more than $300  Government officials from California said 5,000 local consumers paid more than $2,500 each in magazine purchases under the false belief that they were increasing their odds of winning the sweepstakes Industry sources estimated PCH's response rates decreased by 7 to 12 percent a its sales volume by 22 to 30 percent in response to the bad publicity from the lawsuits  In 2000, PCH laid off a quarter of its 800-person work force 

Lawsuits and settlements
In 1994 PCH sent mailings telling recipients they were all "finalists", which led to a lawsuit involving the attorneys general of 14 US states  Later that year, PCH denied wrongdoing, but agreed to pay a settlement of $490,000 and to change their practices  Under the agreement, PCH said it would define terms like "finalist" and disclose the chances of winning In 1997, a contestant of competitor AFP flew to Tampa, Florida thinking he had won, though he had not  The resulting publicity caused more lawsuits for both companies  PCH reached a $30 million national settlement in 1999  In 2000, another $18 million settlement was reached with 24 states, after the company sent mass mailings which said "You are a winner!" and used mock personalized checks  PCH agreed to avoid similar mailings in the future, and add a "sweepstakes fact box" to mailings State attorneys spoke out against the national settlement from 2000 and additional lawsuits were filed by individual states  Another $34 million settlement was reached in 2001 in a lawsuit involving 25 states, bringing the total settlements since 1999 to $82 million  As part of the settlement, PCH was required to avoid terms including "Guaranteed Winner," add disclaimers to mailings saying that the recipient had not yet won and that purchasing merchandise would not increase their chances of being a winner  PCH reached settlements with all fifty states and agreed to work with a "compliance counsel " PCH apologized in the settlement and said it would contact customers who had spent more than $1,000 on merchandise the prior year PCH also reached an agreement with Iowa in 2007  In 2010 the company paid $3 5 million to the attorneys general of 32 states and the District of Columbia to settle possible contempt charges that it had violated the terms of the 2001 agreement  The company denied wrongdoing, but agreed to work with both an ombudsman and a compliance counsel who would review its mailings quarterly In April 2014, an investigation by the Senate Special Committee on Aging concluded that PCH had "pushed the limits" of prior agreements and that additional legislation may be needed In late 2021 PCH was hit with another lawsuit  "Publishers Clearing House sells and rents mailing lists containing subscribers’ personal information to a variety of third parties, including data miners and list brokers, multiple new class action lawsuits allege  Five plaintiffs have filed separate class action lawsuits against Publishers Clearing House (PCH), with each claiming the publishing company monetizes its subscribers’ private information—including their names and addresses—without consent 

Online development
PCH began selling merchandise in 1985 with two products  After a Hershey's Chocolate Cookbook and a diet cookbook sold more than other products, the company began expanding into jewelry, media, collectibles, household products, and others  The company also shifted its focus online  It began selling magazine subscriptions and merchandise on PCH com in 1996  In 2006, it acquired Blingo Inc , an ad-supported metasearch engine that was later re-branded as PCH Search and Win  PCH ran contests on Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace  iPhone apps for slot games and trivia were developed  The company created online play-and-win sites like PCH Games (formerly Candystand) and PCHQuiz4Cash, with air-hockey and video poker games In December 2010, PCH acquired Funtank and its online gaming site Candystand com  In 2011, PCH promoted a "$5,000 every week for life" sweepstakes in TV ads and the front page of AOL com  The following year the company acquired a mobile marketing company, Liquid Wireless  The company utilized, then stopped then started again utilizing coregistration (through other websites) to expand its customer base In 2008, a PCH spokesperson said the digital properties were intended to attract younger consumers  By 2013, the internet had become PCH's primary channel of interaction with consumers  The New York Times described the digital transition as "part of an overall effort to collect information on Web users, show them advertisements and use the registration information for PCH’s mailing lists "In 2020, PCH acquired digital publisher Wide Open Media Group, publisher of websites Wide Open Spaces, Wide Open Country, and FanBuzz 

Products
PCH is a direct-marketing company that sells merchandise and magazine subscriptions and operates several prize-based websites  While best known for the sweepstakes and Prize Patrol it uses to promote its magazine subscriptions, the majority of the company's revenue is from merchandise  The company has been selling books, media, jewelry, and other consumer items since the 1980s  PCH operates eight websites, including PCH Search and Win, PCH Lotto, PCH Games, PCH Save and Win, and Candystand The company also sells magazine subscriptions at a discount and advertises subscriptions along with its sweepstakes  It's estimated that companies like PCH keep 75 to 90 percent of the fees from the original subscription, while publishers use the increased distribution to improve circulation numbers and revenue from renewals  PCH popularized the idea of using sweepstakes to sell magazine subscriptions in the direct-marketing market and became known by detractors as a producer of junk mail for advertising through mass-mailings  Documents filed with the New York State Department in 1993 said that year the company mailed 220 million envelopes  Frequent buyers can receive 30 to 40 mailings a year 

Sweepstakes
Although PCH advertises its sweepstakes along with magazine subscriptions, no purchase is necessary to enter or win  In 1995, PCH began the tradition of announcing winners of its $10 million prize just after the Super Bowl  As of 2012, $225 million in prizes have been distributed  Some of its larger prizes are for $5,000 a week for life, or $10 million  Prizes can also range from $1 Amazon gift cards to $2,500, $1 million or $3 million  The larger cash prizes are paid in installments, typically with a balloon payment at 30 years, reducing the present value of prizes to much less than their nominal values 

Odds of winning
According to the official rules, as of June 2020, the odds of winning "$5,000 a Week for Life" in Giveaway 16000 are 1 in 6 2 billion 

Prize Patrol
The Prize Patrol surprises sweepstakes winners at their homes, work, or other locations with cash prizes capturing the event on video  Since their introduction in 1989, these reality TV-style videos of prize-winners surprised at their doorstep with checks for $1,000 to $10 million have been used in widely broadcast television commercials, and, more recently, in the company's online acquisition efforts, websites and social media communications  In 2013, a $5 million television campaign modified the traditional prize patrol commercial by digitally altering video from classic sitcoms like The Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island to show the prize patrol visiting characters in the show  Major winners are never contacted in advance; any letters, telephone calls, and social media messages claiming that a person may have already won a major prize, or claiming that they need to pay a fee to collect the prize, are always scams The Prize Patrol has made in-person appearances or delivered prizes on TV programs including The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Price Is Right, and Let's Make a Deal  Their surprise winning moments have been spoofed by Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, and the cast of Saturday Night Live; woven into the plots of movies such as Let's Go to Prison, The Sentinel, and Knight and Day; and Early Edition  They have been the subject of cartoons 

Spokesperson
In the summer of 2020 Marie Osmond became a spokesperson for Publishers Clearing House with television and online advertisements as well as direct-to-home mailings 
In January 2021, Steve Harvey made his debut in television commercials as a spokesperson for PCH 

Charitable Giving
Over 40% of net profits are donated to charity 

See also
List of New York companies
Passage 7:
Legal Help Desk
Legal Help Desk (abbreviated as Legal HD) is a legal-consulting public affairs show that aired on CNN Philippines since November 26, 2012  It is hosted by Atty  Karen Jimeno 

See also
Nine Media Corporation
Solar Entertainment Corporation
Solar News Channel
Solar News and Current Affairs
Solar Daybreak
Solar Newsday
Solar Network News
Solar Nightly News
Solar Headlines
Passage 8:
Groove Games
Groove Games was a Canadian developer and publisher of video game  Established in 2001, Groove Games had published more than 20 retail game titles on the PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 2 platforms 
In December 2006, Groove Media Inc  launched an online software platform, SkillGround  It allowed visitors to download retail-quality games for free and play against competitors of similar skill levels for fun, or for cash  SkillGround hosted multiple genres including: first-person shooter, racing, sports and fighting 

Released games



ground_truth: Thaba Putsoa

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: In the King's Speech, who played the person who was the King of England in 1950?

The following are given passages.
Context 2: Passage 1:
Taylor King
Taylor Steven King (born May 30, 1988) is an American former professional basketball player   King played for the Duke Blue Devils, Villanova University Wildcats, and Concordia of the NAIA  where he played the forward position  King attended Mater Dei High School of Santa Ana, where he enjoyed a successful high school basketball career, posting the third highest career point total in California high school history with 3,216 points 

High school career
King established several school records while at Mater Dei: total career points (3,216), points in a single season (987 in 2007), career 3-pointers made (370), career rebounds (1,456) and rebounds in a single season (444 in 2006)  He participated in the ABCD Camp, a camp for the best high school players in the United States, in each of his 4 high school seasons (2003 to 2006) 

College career
King played for Duke his freshman year   He transferred to Villanova University following the spring 2008 semester   Per NCAA regulations, King did not compete in the 2008–09 season, but returned for the 2009–10 season, with three more years of collegiate eligibility 
During the summer of 2010, Taylor King left the Villanova men's basketball team for what a team spokesman said were "personal reasons " On August 11, 2010, it was announced that King had transferred to USC  However, shortly after, it was announced he would not be attending USC but actually the NAIA school Concordia 

Professional career
On October 21, 2011, it was announced that King had made the final 12-man roster for the National Basketball League of Canada's London Lightning   However, on January 17, the Lightning released him, leaving room for him to be signed by the Quebec Kebs on February 2 On September 17, 2014, King signed a one-year contract with Cheshire Phoenix of the British Basketball League, coached by John Coffino  
King made an instant impact, leading the league in scoring with an average of 20 1ppg in 33 games, which included a 36-point game against the Sheffield Sharks  King was also fifth in the league in rebounding, with an average of 9 5rpg 
After the 2017–18 season, King retired from basketball 
Passage 2:
The King's Speech
The King's Speech is a 2010 historical drama film directed by Tom Hooper and written by David Seidler  Colin Firth plays the future King George VI who, to cope with a stammer, sees Lionel Logue, an Australian speech and language therapist played by Geoffrey Rush  The men become friends as they work together, and after his brother abdicates the throne, the new king relies on Logue to help him make his first wartime radio broadcast upon Britain's declaration of war on Germany in 1939 
Seidler read about George VI's life after learning to manage a stuttering condition he developed during his own youth  He started writing about the relationship between the therapist and his royal patient as early as the 1980s, but at the request of the King's widow, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, postponed work until her death in 2002  He later rewrote his screenplay for the stage to focus on the essential relationship between the two protagonists  Nine weeks before filming began, the filmmakers learned of the existence of notes written by Logue that were being used by his grandson Mark and Peter Conradi as the basis of a book, and were granted permission to incorporate material from the notes and book into the script 
Principal photography took place in London and around Britain from November 2009 to January 2010  Hard light was used to give the story a greater resonance and wider-than-normal lenses were employed to recreate the Duke of York's feelings of constriction  A third technique Hooper employed was the off-centre framing of characters 
The King's Speech was a major box office and critical success  It was widely praised by film critics for its visual style, art direction, screenplay, directing, score, and acting  Other commentators discussed the film's representation of historical detail, especially the reversal of Winston Churchill's opposition to abdication  The film received many awards and nominations, particularly for Colin Firth's performance, which resulted in his first Academy Award for Best Actor  At the 83rd Academy Awards, The King's Speech received 12 Oscar nominations, more than any other film in that year, and subsequently won four, including Best Picture  Censors initially gave it adult ratings due to profanity, though these were later revised downwards after criticism by the makers and distributors in the UK and some instances of swearing were muted in the US  On a budget of £8 million, it earned over £250 million internationally 

Plot
At the official closing of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Stadium, Prince Albert, Duke of York, the second son of King George V, addresses the crowd with a strong stammer  His search for treatment has been discouraging, but his wife, Elizabeth, persuades him to see the Australian-born Lionel Logue, a non-medically trained Harley Street speech defects therapist  "Bertie", as he is called by his family, believes the first session is not going well, but Lionel, who insists that all his patients address him as such, has his potential client recite Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy while hearing classical music played on a pair of headphones  Bertie is frustrated at the experiment but Lionel gives him the acetate recording that he has made of the reading as a souvenir 
After Bertie's father, King George V, broadcasts his 1934 Royal Christmas Message, he explains to Bertie that the wireless will play a significant part in the role of the royal family, allowing them to enter the homes of the people, and that Bertie's brother's neglect of his responsibilities make training in it necessary  The attempt at reading the message himself is a failure, but that night Bertie plays the recording Lionel gave him and is astonished at the lack of stutter there  He therefore returns for daily treatments to overcome the physical and psychological roots of his speaking difficulty 
George V dies in 1936, and his eldest son David ascends the throne as King Edward VIII  A constitutional crisis arises with the new king over a prospective marriage with the twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson  Edward, as the supreme governor of the Church of England, cannot marry her, even if she receives her second divorce, since both her previous husbands are alive 
At an unscheduled session, Bertie expresses his frustration that, while his speech has improved when speaking to most people, he still stammers when talking to David, at the same time revealing the extent of Edward VIII's folly with Simpson  When Lionel insists that Bertie himself could make a good king, Bertie accuses Lionel of speaking treason and quits Lionel in anger  Bertie must now face the Accession Council without any assistance 
Bertie and Lionel only come together again after King Edward decides to abdicate in order to marry  Bertie, urged ahead by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, ascends the throne as King George VI and visits Lionel's home with his wife before their coronation, much to the surprise of Mrs  Logue when she comes upon Queen Elizabeth having tea at her dining room table  This is the first time that she learns who her husband's patient has been 
Bertie and Lionel's relationship is questioned by the King's advisors during the preparations for his coronation in Westminster Abbey  The archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang, brings to light that George never asked for advice from his advisors about his treatment and that Lionel has never had formal training   Lionel explains to an outraged Bertie that at the time he started with speech defects there were no formal qualifications and that the only known help that was available for returning Great War shell-shocked Australian soldiers was from personal experience  Bertie remains unconvinced until provoked to protest at Lionel's disrespect for King Edward's Chair and the Stone of Scone  Only at this pivotal moment, after realising he has just expressed himself without impairment, is Bertie able to rehearse with Lionel and complete the ceremony 
As the new king, Bertie is in a crisis when he must broadcast to Britain and the Empire following the declaration of war on Nazi Germany in 1939  Lionel is summoned to Buckingham Palace to prepare the king for his speech  Knowing the challenge that lies before him, Lang, Winston Churchill, and Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain are present to offer support  The King and Logue are then left in the broadcasting room  He delivers his speech with Logue conducting him, but by the end he is speaking freely  Preparing to leave the room for the congratulations of those present, Logue mentions to the King that he still has difficulty enunciating w and the King jokes back, "I had to throw in a few so they'd know it was me "
As the Royal Family step onto the palace balcony and are applauded by the crowd, a title card explains that Logue, who received the Royal Victorian Order for service to the Crown, was always present at King George VI's speeches during the war and that they remained friends until the King's death from lung cancer in 1952 

Cast
Colin Firth as King George VI
Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue
Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Elizabeth
Guy Pearce as King Edward VIII
Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill
Derek Jacobi as Cosmo Gordon Lang
Jennifer Ehle as Myrtle Logue
Michael Gambon as King George V
Freya Wilson as Princess Elizabeth
Ramona Marquez as Princess Margaret
Patrick Ryecart as Lord Wigram
Simon Chandler as Lord Dawson of Penn
Claire Bloom as Queen Mary
Orlando Wells as Prince George, Duke of Kent
Tim Downie as Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester
Eve Best as Wallis Simpson
Anthony Andrews as Stanley Baldwin
Andrew Havill as Robert Wood

Production
Development
As a child, David Seidler developed a stammer, which he believes was caused by the emotional trauma of World War II and the murder of his grandparents during the Holocaust  King George VI's success in overcoming his stammer inspired the young Seidler, "Here was a stutterer who was a king and had to give radio speeches where everyone was listening to every syllable he uttered, and yet did so with passion and intensity " When Seidler became an adult, he resolved to write about King George VI  During the late 1970s and 1980s he voraciously researched the King, but found a dearth of information on Logue  Eventually Seidler contacted Valentine Logue, who agreed to discuss his father and make his notebooks available if the Queen Mother gave her permission  She asked him not to do so in her lifetime, and Seidler halted the project 

The Queen Mother died in 2002  Three years later, Seidler returned to the story during a bout of creative work inspired by a recovery from cancer  His research, including a chance encounter with an uncle whom Logue had treated, indicated he used mechanical breathing exercises combined with psychological counselling to probe the underlying causes of the condition  Thus prepared, Seidler imagined the sessions  He showed the finished screenplay to his wife, who liked it, but pronounced it too "seduced by cinematic technique"  She suggested he rewrite it as a stage play to focus on the essential relationship between the King and Logue  After he had completed it, he sent it to a few friends who worked in theatre in London and New York for feedback In 2005, Joan Lane of Wilde Thyme, a production company in London, received the script  Lane started talking with Simon Egan and Gareth Unwin of Bedlam Productions, and they invited Seidler to London to rewrite the play again, this time for the screen  Together, Lane and Bedlam Productions organised a reading of the play in Pleasance Theatre, a small house in north London, to a group of Australian expatriates, among whom was Tom Hooper's mother  She called her son and said, "I've found your next project" Instead of trying to contact his agent, Lane asked an Australian staff member to hand-deliver the script to Geoffrey Rush's house, not far away from hers in Melbourne  Unwin reports that he received a four-page e-mail from Rush's manager admonishing them for the breach of etiquette, but ending with an invitation to discuss the project further  Iain Canning from See-Saw Films became involved and, in Gareth Unwin's words: "We worked with ex-chair of BAFTA Richard Price, and started turning this story about two grumpy men sitting in a room into something bigger " Hooper liked the story, but thought that the original ending needed to be changed to reflect events more closely: "Originally, it had a Hollywood ending     If you hear the real speech, he's clearly coping with his stammer  But it's not a perfect performance  He's managing it "

The production team learned – some nine weeks prior to the start of filming – of a diary containing Logue's original notes on his treatment of the Duke, which was in the process of being turned into a non-fiction book by Logue's grandson Mark and journalist Peter Conradi, titled The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy  Striking an agreement with the authors, they then went back and re-worked the script to reflect what was in the notes and the book  Some lines, such as at the climax, when Logue smiles and says, "You still stammered on the W" to the King, who replies, "I had to throw in a few so they would know it was me" were direct quotations from Logue's notes  Changes from the script to reflect the historical record included Michael Gambon improvising the ramblings of George V as he signed away authority, and the decision in the opening scene to dress the Duke in an overcoat rather than regal finery Seidler thought Paul Bettany would be a good choice to play King George VI, while Hooper preferred Hugh Grant, though both actors declined the offer  Once they met with Firth and heard him read for the part, Seidler and Hooper were convinced of his suitability for the role The UK Film Council awarded the production £1 million in June 2009  Filming began in December 2009, and lasted 39 days  Most was shot in the three weeks before Christmas because Rush would be performing in a play in January  The schedule was further complicated by Bonham Carter's availability: she worked on Harry Potter during the week, so her scenes had to be filmed during the weekend 

Location and design
The film depicted both regal opulence and scruffy, depression-era London  On 25 November 2009 the crew took over the Pullens buildings in Southwark and gave it the appearance of a street from 1930s London  Large advertisements for (among other things) Bovril and fascism were added to walls, and grit and grime to streets and buildings  To reproduce London smog of the time – thick enough that cars might need guidance from someone walking ahead – so much artificial smoke was used that fire alarms were triggered On 26 November, a week's filming with Firth, Rush, and Jacobi began at Ely Cathedral, the location used for Westminster Abbey  The production had asked for permission to film in the Abbey but were denied due to the demands of tourism  Though Lincoln Cathedral is architecturally a closer match to the Abbey, they preferred Ely, a favoured filming location  Its size allowed them to build sets showing not just the coronation, but the preparations before it Lancaster House, an opulent government-owned period house in London, was rented (at £20,000 per day) for interior scenes of Buckingham Palace  The 1936 Accession Council at St  James's Palace, where George VI swore an oath, was filmed in the Livery Hall of Drapers' Hall  The room, ornate and vast, met the occasion: the daunting nature of the new King's responsibilities was shown by surrounding him with rich detail, flags and royal portraiture The crew investigated Logue's former consultation rooms, but they were too small to film in  Instead, they found a high, vaulted room not far away in 33 Portland Place  Eve Stewart, the production designer, liked the mottled, peeling wallpaper there so much that she recreated the effect throughout the entire room  In his DVD commentary, Hooper said he liked Portland Place as a set because it felt "lived in", unlike other period houses in London  The scenes of the Duke of York at home with his family were also filmed here; showing the Prince living in a townhouse "subverted" expectations of a royal drama 

The opening scene, set at the closing ceremony of the 1925 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Stadium, was filmed on location at Elland Road, home of Leeds United, and Odsal Stadium, home of Bradford RLFC  Elland Road was used for the speech elements of the prince stammering his way through his first public address, and Odsal Stadium was selected because of the resemblance of its curved ends to Wembley Stadium in 1925  The crew had access to the stadium only at 10 pm, after a football game  They filled the terraces with inflatable dummies and over 250 extras dressed in period costumes  Live actors were interspersed to give the impression of a crowd  Additional people, as well as more ranks of soldiers on the pitch, were added in post-production with visual effects Other locations include Cumberland Lodge, Harley Street, Knebworth, Hatfield House, the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, Queen Street Mill Textile Museum in Burnley, and Battersea Power Station, which doubled as a BBC wireless control room  The final cut of the film was completed on 31 August 2010 

Dialogue
In developing his portrayal of George VI's stammer, Firth worked with Neil Swain, the voice coach for the film  His sister, Kate Firth, also a professional voice coach to actors, proposed exercises the King might have done with Logue, and made suggestions on how to imagine Logue's mix of physical and psychological coaching for the film In addition, Firth watched archive footage of the King speaking  In an interview with Allan Tyrer published by the British Stammering Association, Swain said: "[It] was very interesting while we were working on the film just to think tonally how far we could go and should go with the strength of George's stammer  I think a less courageous director than Tom [Hooper] – and indeed a less courageous actor than Colin [Firth] – might have felt the need to slightly sanitise the degree and authenticity of that stammer, and I'm really really pleased that neither of them did " In May 2011 Firth said he was finding traces of the stammer difficult to eliminate: "You can probably hear even from this interview, there are moments when it's quite infectious  You find yourself doing it and if I start thinking about it the worse it gets  If nothing else it's an insight into what it feels like "

Music
The film's original music is composed by Alexandre Desplat, which consisted of a sparse arrangement of strings and piano  The London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Terry Davies, limited orchestral score by only adding oboe and harp in one cut, to convey the character of the king, while also using single note to represent the stickiness of the King's speech  Old microphones extracted from the EMI archives, specially made for the royal family, had been used to record the score, to create a dated sound The use of the 2nd movement (Allegretto) of Beethoven's 7th Symphony, played during the broadcast of the 1939 radio speech from the film's climax, was played as a temp track added by editor Tariq Anwar  Desplat did not want to change the track and defended Anwar's suggestion, as the theme has a universal quality  Hooper further remarked that the stature of the piece helps elevate the status of the speech to a public event  The score album also featured Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Marriage of Figaro overture  The score was nominated for several awards, including Best Original Score at the Oscars, Golden Globes, and BAFTAs, winning the latter award  The score also won a Grammy at the 54th Grammy Awards 

Visual style
Hooper employed a number of cinematic techniques to evoke the King's feelings of constriction  He and cinematographer Danny Cohen used wider than normal lenses to photograph the film, typically 14mm, 18mm, 21mm, 25mm and 27mm, where the subtle distortion of the picture helps to convey the King's discomfort  For instance, the subjective point of view shot during the Empire exhibition speech used a close up of the microphone with a wider lens, similar to the filming technique used for one of the Duke's early consultations with a physician  In The New York Times, Manohla Dargis wrote that the feeling of entrapment inside the King's head was rendered overly literal with what she believed to be a fisheye lens, though in these scenes the wider lenses were used  Hooper also discussed using the 18mm lens, one he likes "because it puts human beings in their context" Roger Ebert noted that the majority of the film was shot indoors, where oblong sets, corridors, and small spaces manifest constriction and tightness, in contrast to the usual emphasis on sweep and majesty in historical dramas  Hooper used wide shots to capture the actors' body language, particularly that of Geoffrey Rush, who trained at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris and "is consequently brilliant in the way he carries his body"  Hooper widened his scope first to capture Rush's gestures, then full body movements and silhouettes  The approach carried over to Firth as well  In the first consultation scene, the Duke is squeezed against the end of a long couch framed against a large wall, "as if to use the arm of the sofa as a kind of friend, as a security blanket?" Martin Filler praised the "low-wattage" cinematography of Danny Cohen's, as making everything look like it has been "steeped in strong tea" At other times, the camera was positioned very close to the actors to catch the emotion in their faces: "If you put a lens 6 inches from somebody's face, you get more emotion than if you're on a long lens 20 feet away," Cohen said in an interview  Hooper sought a second subtlety while filming the first consultation room scene between the two men, having placed the camera 18 inches from Colin Firth's face: "I wanted the nervousness of the first day to percolate into his performances," he said Historical dramas traditionally tend to use "soft light", but Hooper wanted to use a harsher glare, which gives a more contemporary feel, and thus a greater emotional resonance  To achieve the effect, the lighting team erected huge blackout tents over the Georgian buildings and used large lights filtered through Egyptian cotton 

Historical accuracy
Several events in the film did not happen, or were exaggerated  The visual blog Information is Beautiful deduced that, while taking creative licence into account, the film was 74 4% accurate when compared to real-life events, summarising: "Some nips and tucks of the historical record, but mostly an accurate retelling of a unique friendship" 

Relationship with Lionel Logue
The filmmakers not only tightened the chronology of the events to just a few years but even shifted the timeline of treatment  The Duke of York actually began working with Logue in October 1926, ten years before the abdication crisis, and the improvement in his speech was apparent in months rather than years as suggested by the film  When he was dispatched to Australia to open their new Parliament House in Canberra in 1927, the Duke gave numerous speeches during the journey and performed well despite Logue not accompanying him on the trip  He wrote to Logue from the Caribbean, "You remember my fear of 'The King'  I give it every evening at dinner on board  This does not worry me any more " Of his speech opening Parliament it was observed that he spoke "resonantly and without stuttering" Robert Logue, a grandson of Lionel, doubted the film's depiction of the speech therapist, stating "I don't think he ever swore in front of the King and he certainly never called him 'Bertie'"  Andrew Roberts, an English historian, states that the severity of the King's stammer was exaggerated and the characters of Edward VIII, Wallis Simpson, and George V made more antagonistic than they really were, to increase the dramatic effect 

Politics
Christopher Hitchens and Isaac Chotiner have criticised the film for failing to indict the appeasement of the era or to portray Edward VIII's sympathetic attitude to Nazi Germany   The Guardian also corrected the portrayal of Stanley Baldwin as having resigned due to his refusal to order Britain's re-armament, when he in fact stepped down as "a national hero, exhausted by more than a decade at the top"  Stanley's grandson, Earl Baldwin, was particularly unhappy with this film due to its factual distortions and portrayal of his grandfather as a dithering fool who misunderstood Hitler's intentions Hugo Vickers, an adviser on the film, agreed that the alteration of historical details to preserve the essence of the dramatic story was sometimes necessary  The high-ranking officials, for instance, would not have been present when the King made his speech, nor would Churchill have been involved at any level, "but the average viewer knows who Churchill is; he doesn't know who Lord Halifax and Sir Samuel Hoare are "Hitchens and Chotiner also challenged the film's portrayal of Winston Churchill's role in the abdication crisis  It is well established that Churchill encouraged Edward VIII to resist pressure to abdicate, whereas he is portrayed in the film as supportive of the Duke of York and not opposed to the abdication  Hitchens attributes this treatment to the "cult" surrounding Churchill's legacy  In a smart, well-made film "would the true story not have been fractionally more interesting for the audience?", he wondered 

Realism
Martin Filler acknowledged that the film legitimately used artistic licence to make valid dramatic points, such as in the probably imagined scene when George V lectures his son on the importance of broadcasting  Filler cautions that George VI would never have tolerated Logue addressing him casually, nor swearing, and the King almost certainly would have understood a newsreel of Hitler speaking in German  Filler makes the larger point that both the King and his wife were, in reality, lukewarm towards Churchill because of the latter's support for his brother during the abdication crisis Commenting on the film's final scene on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, Andrew Roberts has written, "The scene is fairly absurd from a historical point of view – Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill were not present and there were no cheering crowds outside Buckingham Palace " However, Roberts praises the film overall as a sympathetic portrayal of the King's "quiet, unassuming heroism [   ] The portrayals by Firth and Bonham Carter are sympathetic and acute, and the movie's occasional factual bêtises should not detract from that "

Release
Cinema release
The film had its world première on 6 September 2010 at the Telluride Film Festival in the United States  It was screened at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, on Firth's 50th birthday, where it received a standing ovation and won the People's Choice Award  The cinema release poster was re-designed to show an extreme close-up of Firth's jaw and a microphone after Hooper criticised the first design as a "train smash"  Tim Appelo called the original, air-brushed effort, which showed the three leads, "shockingly awful" though the new one "really is worthwhile" The film was distributed by Transmission Films in Australia and by Momentum Pictures in the United Kingdom  The Weinstein Company distributed it in North America, Germany, Benelux, Scandinavia, China, Hong Kong, and Latin America  The film was released in France on 2 February 2011 by Wild Bunch under the title Le discours d'un roi 

Ratings controversy
The film was initially given a 15 certificate by the British Board of Film Classification, due to a minute-long scene where Logue encourages the King to swear, which he could do without stuttering  At the London Film Festival, Hooper criticised the decision, questioning how the board could certify the film "15" for bad language but allow films such as Salt (2010) and Casino Royale (2006) to have "12A" ratings, despite their graphic torture scenes  Following Hooper's criticism, the board lowered the rating to "12A", allowing children under 12 years of age to see the film if they are accompanied by an adult  Hooper levelled the same criticism at the Motion Picture Association of America, which gave the film an "R" rating, preventing anyone under the age of 17 from seeing the film without an adult  In his review, Roger Ebert criticised the "R" rating, calling it "utterly inexplicable", and wrote, "This is an excellent film for teenagers "In January 2011 Harvey Weinstein, the executive producer and distributor, said he was considering having the film re-edited to remove some profanity, so that it would receive a lower classification and reach a larger audience  Hooper refused to cut the film, though he considered covering the swear words with bleeps  Helena Bonham Carter also defended the film, saying, "[The film] is not violent  It's full of humanity and wit  [It's] for people not with just a speech impairment, but who have got confidence [doubts] " After receiving his Academy Award, Colin Firth noted that he does not support re-editing the film; while he does not condone the use of profanity, he maintains that its use was not offensive in this context  "The scene serves a purpose", Firth states  An alternative version, with some of the profanities muted out, was classified as "PG-13" in the United States; this version was released to cinemas on 1 April 2011, replacing the R-rated one  The PG-13 version of this film is not available on DVD and Blu-ray 

Reception
Box office
In Great Britain and Ireland, the film was the highest earning film on its opening weekend  It took in £3,510,000 from 395 cinemas  The Guardian said that it was one of the biggest takes in recent memory, and compared it to Slumdog Millionaire (2008), which, two years earlier, earned £1 5 million less  The King's Speech continued a "stunning three weeks" atop the UK Box office, and earned over £3 million for four consecutive weekends, the first film to do so since Toy Story 3 (2010)  After five weeks on UK release, it was hailed as the most successful independent British film ever In the United States The King's Speech opened with $355,450 (£220,000) in four cinemas  It holds the record for the highest per-cinema gross of 2010  It was widened to 700 screens on Christmas Day and 1,543 screens on 14 January 2011  It eventually made $138 million in North America overall In Australia The King's Speech made more than A$6,281,686 (£4 million) in the first two weeks, according to figures collected by the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia  The executive director of Palace Cinemas, Benjamin Zeccola, said customer feedback on the film was spectacular  "It's our No 1 for all the period, all throughout the country      I think this is more successful than Slumdog Millionaire and a more uplifting film  It's a good example of a film that started out in the independent cinemas and then spread to the mainstream cinemas "Of the film's net profit, estimated to amount to $30–40 million (£20–25 million) from the cinema release alone, roughly 20% was to be split between Geoffrey Rush (as executive producer), Tom Hooper and Colin Firth, who were to receive their bonuses before the other stakeholders  The remaining profit was to be split equally between the producers and the equity investors  The UK Film Council invested £1 million of public funds from the United Kingdom lottery into the film  In March 2011 Variety estimated that the return could be between fifteen and twenty times that  The Council's merger into the British Film Institute means that the profits were to be returned to that body 

Critical response
The King's Speech has received widespread critical acclaim, with Firth's performance receiving universal praise  Bonham Carter and Rush were also widely praised with both going on to win BAFTAs and receiving Academy Award nominations  Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 94% based on reviews from 297 critics; the film's average rating was calculated as 8 60/10  The website's critical consensus reads: "Colin Firth gives a masterful performance in The King's Speech, a predictable but stylishly produced and rousing period drama " Metacritic gave the film a weighted score of 88/100, based on 41 critical reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim"  CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film a rare "A+" grade  Empire gave the film five stars out of five, commenting, "You'll be lost for words " Lisa Kennedy of The Denver Post gave the film full marks for its humane qualities and craftsmanship: "It is an intelligent, winning drama fit for a king – and the rest of us", she said  Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film a full four stars, commenting that "what we have here is a superior historical drama and a powerful personal one " Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave four stars out of five, stating, "Tom Hooper's richly enjoyable and handsomely produced movie     is a massively confident crowd-pleaser "Manohla Dargis, whilst generally ambivalent towards the film, called the lead performances one of its principal attractions  "With their volume turned up, the appealing, impeccably professional Mr  Firth and Mr  Rush rise to the acting occasion by twinkling and growling as their characters warily circle each other before settling into the therapeutic swing of things and unknowingly preparing for the big speech that partly gives the film its title," she wrote  The Daily Telegraph called Guy Pearce's performance as Edward VIII "formidable     with glamour, charisma and utter self-absorption"  Empire said he played the role well as "a flash harry flinty enough to shed a nation for a wife " The New York Times thought he was able to create "a thorny tangle of complications in only a few abbreviated scenes"  Hooper praised the actor in the DVD commentary, saying he "nailed" the 1930s royal accent  Richard Corliss of Time magazine named Colin Firth's performance one of the Top 10 Movie Performances of 2010 

Allociné, a French cinema website, gave the film an average of four out of five stars, based on a survey of 21 reviews  Le Monde, which characterised the film as the "latest manifestation of British narcissism" and summarised it as "We are ugly and boring, but, By Jove!, we are right!", nevertheless admired the performances of Firth, Rush, and Bonham Carter  It said that, though the film swept British appeasement under the carpet, it was still enjoyable Slovenian Marxist philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek has incorporated the film into his critique of ideology by describing it as "reactionary," interpreting the king's stutter as evidence that he "displays a minimum of common sense, experiencing the stupidity of seriously accepting that one is king by divine will" and claiming that "the task of the Australian voice-coach is to render him stupid enough to accept his being a king as his natural property " Žižek thus interprets the king's stutter as a case of what is referred to in Lacanian psychoanalysis as "symbolic castration "Queen Elizabeth II, the daughter and successor of King George VI, was sent two copies of the film before Christmas 2010  The Sun newspaper reported she had watched the film in a private screening at Sandringham House  A palace source described her reaction as being "touched by a moving portrayal of her father"  Seidler called the reports "the highest honour" the film could receive 

Depiction of stuttering
The British Stammering Association welcomed the release of The King's Speech, congratulating the film makers on their "realistic depiction of the frustration and the fear of speaking faced by people who stammer on a daily basis " It said that "Colin Firth's portrayal of the King's stammer in particular strikes us as very authentic and accurate " The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists welcomed the film, and launched their "Giving Voice" campaign around the time of its commercial release Disfluency advocate Jonah Lehrer called the film "an inspiring tale" and praised its portrayal of the troubles suffered by Firth's character 
 However, Lehrer and other advocates criticized the film's depiction of stuttering as a result of emotional repression and childhood trauma  The treatment performed by Rush's character also drew criticism  Lehrer did admit it was a necessary artistic license: "[the film] would have been a rather tedious piece of entertainment if the climactic scene involved Logue telling the monarch that his primary motor cortex was to blame "Science journalist Jeremy Hsu wrote that the film "mainly succeeds by tackling the social stigma that surrounds stuttering " However, similar to Lehrer, he disapproved that it perpetuated myths about the condition, namely its relationship with childhood trauma and overly strict parenting Columnist Jane Ahlin praised the film as it "brings out of the shadows a common problem figuring into the lives of children and adults from every culture around the world " At the same time, she stated, "heartwarming though the movie The King's Speech is, as someone who married a stutterer and is the mother of a stutterer, I'm not sure it does anything to put myths about stuttering to rest " She criticized the depiction of family and social dynamics as causes of the condition, as well as the portrayal of stutterering as connected to emotional or psychological problems 

Awards and nominations
At the 83rd Academy Awards, The King's Speech won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director (Hooper), Best Actor (Firth), and Best Original Screenplay (Seidler)  The film had received 12 Oscar nominations, more than any other film in that year  Besides the four categories it won, the film received nominations for Best Cinematography (Danny Cohen) and two for the supporting actors (Bonham Carter and Rush), as well as two for its mise-en-scène: Art Direction and Costumes At the 64th British Academy Film Awards, it won seven awards, including Best Film, Outstanding British Film, Best Actor for Firth, Best Supporting Actor for Rush, Best Supporting Actress for Bonham Carter, Best Original Screenplay for Seidler, and Best Music for Alexandre Desplat  The film had been nominated for 14 BAFTAs, more than any other film  At the 68th Golden Globe Awards, Firth won for Best Actor   The film won no other Golden Globes, despite earning seven nominations, more than any other film At the 17th Screen Actors Guild Awards, Firth won the Best Actor award and the entire cast won Best Ensemble, meaning Firth went home with two acting awards in one evening  Hooper won the Directors Guild of America Awards 2010 for Best Director  The film won the Darryl F  Zanuck Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture at the Producers Guild of America Awards 2010 The King's Speech won the People's Choice Award at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, Best British Independent Film at the 2010 British Independent Film Awards, and the 2011 Goya Award for Best European Film from the Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España (Spanish Academy of Cinematic Art and Science) 

See also
Bertie & Elizabeth (2002), a television film which also addresses the stammering of the king (played by James Wilby)  It was a co-production of PBS (Masterpiece Theatre) and Carlton Television 
Passage 3:
Gunhilde
Gunhilde (or Gunnhild) (died 13 November 1002) is said to have been the sister of Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark, and the daughter of Harald Bluetooth  She was married to Pallig, a Dane who served the King of England, Æthelred the Unready, as ealdorman of Devonshire She is supposed to have been a hostage in England when she was killed in the St  Brice's Day massacre, ordered by Æthelred  Pallig is reported alternatively to have been killed in the massacre or to have provoked the massacre by deserting Æthelred's service Historians are divided about the strength of the evidence that she was Sweyn Forkbeard's sister  Ryan Lavelle is sceptical of the reliability of the later medieval sources, such as the Chronicle of John of Wallingford, which mention her  However, Frank Stenton described the claim as a "well recorded tradition", and considered that a desire to avenge her death was probably a principal motive for Sweyn's invasion of England in 1003, leading to the eventual conquest of England by his son Cnut 
Passage 4:
George VI
George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death on 6 February 1952  He was also the last Emperor of India from 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved in August 1947, and the first Head of the Commonwealth following the London Declaration of 1949 
The future George VI was born in the reign of his great-grandmother Victoria; he was named Albert at birth after his great-grandfather Albert, Prince Consort, and was known as "Bertie" to his family and close friends  His father ascended the throne as George V in 1910  As the second son of the king, Albert was not expected to inherit the throne  He spent his early life in the shadow of his elder brother, Prince Edward, the heir apparent  Albert attended naval college as a teenager and served in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force during the First World War  In 1920, he was made Duke of York  He married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923, and they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret  In the mid-1920s, he engaged speech therapist Lionel Logue to treat his stutter, which he learned to manage to some degree  His elder brother ascended the throne as Edward VIII after their father died in 1936, but Edward abdicated later that year to marry the twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson  As heir presumptive to Edward VIII, Albert thereby became the third monarch of the House of Windsor, taking the regnal name George VI 
In September 1939, the British Empire and most Commonwealth countries—but not Ireland—declared war on Nazi Germany  War with the Kingdom of Italy and the Empire of Japan followed in 1940 and 1941, respectively  George VI was seen as sharing the hardships of the common people and his popularity soared  Buckingham Palace was bombed during the Blitz while the King and Queen were there, and his younger brother the Duke of Kent was killed on active service  George became known as a symbol of British determination to win the war  Britain and its allies were victorious in 1945, but the British Empire declined  Ireland had largely broken away, followed by the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947  George relinquished the title of Emperor of India in June 1948 and instead adopted the new title of Head of the Commonwealth  He was beset by smoking-related health problems in the later years of his reign and died at Sandringham House, aged 56, of a coronary thrombosis in 1952  He was succeeded by his elder daughter, Elizabeth II 

Early life
Albert was born at York Cottage, on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria  His father was Prince George, Duke of York (later King George V), the second and only surviving son of the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra)  His mother, the Duchess of York (later Queen Mary), was the eldest child and only daughter of Francis, Duke of Teck, and Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck  His birthday, 14 December 1895, was the 34th anniversary of the death of his great-grandfather Albert, Prince Consort  Uncertain of how the Prince Consort's widow, Queen Victoria, would take the news of the birth, the Prince of Wales wrote to the Duke of York that the Queen had been "rather distressed"  Two days later, he wrote again: "I really think it would gratify her if you yourself proposed the name Albert to her "The Queen was mollified by the proposal to name the new baby Albert, and wrote to the Duchess of York: "I am all impatience to see the new one, born on such a sad day but rather more dear to me, especially as he will be called by that dear name which is a byword for all that is great and good " Consequently, he was baptised "Albert Frederick Arthur George" at St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham on 17 February 1896  Formally he was His Highness Prince Albert of York; within the royal family he was known informally as "Bertie"  The Duchess of Teck did not like the first name her grandson had been given, and she wrote prophetically that she hoped the last name "may supplant the less favoured one"  Albert was fourth in line to the throne at birth, after his grandfather, father and elder brother, Edward 
Albert was ill often and was described as "easily frightened and somewhat prone to tears"  His parents were generally removed from their children's day-to-day upbringing, as was the norm in aristocratic families of that era  He had a stutter that lasted for many years  Although naturally left-handed, he was forced to write with his right hand, as was common practice at the time  He had chronic stomach problems as well as knock knees, for which he was forced to wear painful corrective splints Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901, and the Prince of Wales succeeded her as King Edward VII  Prince Albert moved up to third in line to the throne, after his father and elder brother 

Military career and education
Beginning in 1909, Albert attended the Royal Naval College, Osborne, as a naval cadet  In 1911 he came bottom of the class in the final examination, but despite this he progressed to the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth  When his grandfather Edward VII died in 1910, his father became King George V  Prince Edward became Prince of Wales, with Albert second in line to the throne Albert spent the first six months of 1913 on the training ship HMS Cumberland in the West Indies and on the east coast of Canada  He was rated as a midshipman aboard HMS Collingwood on 15 September 1913  He spent three months in the Mediterranean, but never overcame his seasickness  Three weeks after the outbreak of World War I he was medically evacuated from the ship to Aberdeen, where his appendix was removed by Sir John Marnoch  He was mentioned in dispatches for his actions as a turret officer aboard Collingwood in the Battle of Jutland (31 May – 1 June 1916), the great naval battle of the war  He did not see further combat, largely because of ill health caused by a duodenal ulcer, for which he had an operation in November 1917 In February 1918 Albert was appointed Officer in Charge of Boys at the Royal Naval Air Service's training establishment at Cranwell  With the establishment of the Royal Air Force Albert transferred from the Royal Navy to the Royal Air Force  He served as Officer Commanding Number 4 Squadron of the Boys' Wing at Cranwell until August 1918, before reporting for duty on the staff of the RAF's Cadet Brigade at St Leonards-on-Sea and then at Shorncliffe  He completed a fortnight's training and took command of a squadron on the Cadet Wing  He was the first member of the British royal family to be certified as a fully qualified pilot Albert wanted to serve on the Continent while the war was still in progress and welcomed a posting to General Trenchard's staff in France  On 23 October, he flew across the Channel to Autigny  For the closing weeks of the war, he served on the staff of the RAF's Independent Air Force at its headquarters in Nancy, France  Following the disbanding of the Independent Air Force in November 1918, he remained on the Continent for two months as an RAF staff officer until posted back to Britain  He accompanied King Albert I of Belgium on his triumphal re-entry into Brussels on 22 November  Prince Albert qualified as an RAF pilot on 31 July 1919 and was promoted to squadron leader the following day In October 1919, Albert went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied history, economics and civics for a year, with the historian R  V  Laurence as his "official mentor"  On 4 June 1920 his father created him Duke of York, Earl of Inverness and Baron Killarney  He began to take on more royal duties  He represented his father and toured coal mines, factories, and railyards  Through such visits he acquired the nickname of the "Industrial Prince"  His stutter, and his embarrassment over it, together with a tendency to shyness, caused him to appear less confident in public than his older brother, Edward  However, he was physically active and enjoyed playing tennis  He played at Wimbledon in the Men's Doubles with Louis Greig in 1926, losing in the first round  He developed an interest in working conditions, and was president of the Industrial Welfare Society  His series of annual summer camps for boys between 1921 and 1939 brought together boys from different social backgrounds 

Marriage
In a time when royalty were expected to marry fellow royalty, it was unusual that Albert had a great deal of freedom in choosing a prospective wife  An infatuation with the already-married Australian socialite Lady Loughborough came to an end in April 1920 when the King, with the promise of the dukedom of York, persuaded Albert to stop seeing her  That year, he met for the first time since childhood Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the youngest daughter of the Earl and Countess of Strathmore  He became determined to marry her  Elizabeth rejected his proposal twice, in 1921 and 1922, reportedly because she was reluctant to make the sacrifices necessary to become a member of the royal family  In the words of Lady Strathmore, Albert would be "made or marred" by his choice of wife  After a protracted courtship, Elizabeth agreed to marry him Albert and Elizabeth were married on 26 April 1923 in Westminster Abbey  Albert's marriage to someone not of royal birth was considered a modernising gesture  The newly formed British Broadcasting Company wished to record and broadcast the event on radio, but the Abbey Chapter vetoed the idea (although the Dean, Herbert Edward Ryle, was in favour) 

From December 1924 to April 1925, the Duke and Duchess toured Kenya, Uganda, and the Sudan, travelling via the Suez Canal and Aden  During the trip, they both went big-game hunting Because of his stutter, Albert dreaded public speaking  After his closing speech at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley on 31 October 1925, one which was an ordeal for both him and his listeners, he began to see Lionel Logue, an Australian-born speech therapist  The Duke and Logue practised breathing exercises, and the Duchess rehearsed with him patiently  Subsequently, he was able to speak with less hesitation  With his delivery improved, Albert opened the new Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, during a tour of the empire with the Duchess in 1927  Their journey by sea to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji took them via Jamaica, where Albert played doubles tennis partnered with a black man, Bertrand Clark, which was unusual at the time and taken locally as a display of equality between races The Duke and Duchess had two children: Elizabeth (called "Lilibet" by the family, and the future Elizabeth II) who was born in 1926, and Margaret who was born in 1930  The close family lived at White Lodge, Richmond Park, and then at 145 Piccadilly, rather than one of the royal palaces  In 1931, the Canadian prime minister, R  B  Bennett, considered Albert for Governor General of Canada—a proposal that King George V rejected on the advice of the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, J  H  Thomas 

Reign
Reluctant king
King George V had severe reservations about Prince Edward, saying "After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself in twelve months" and "I pray God that my eldest son will never marry and that nothing will come between Bertie and Lilibet and the throne " On 20 January 1936, George V died and Edward ascended the throne as King Edward VIII  In the Vigil of the Princes, Prince Albert and his three brothers (the new king, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, and Prince George, Duke of Kent) took a shift standing guard over their father's body as it lay in state, in a closed casket, in Westminster Hall 
As Edward was unmarried and had no children, Albert was the heir presumptive to the throne  Less than a year later, on 11 December 1936, Edward abdicated in order to marry Wallis Simpson, who was divorced from her first husband and divorcing her second  Edward had been advised by British prime minister Stanley Baldwin that he could not remain king and marry a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands  He abdicated and Albert, though he had been reluctant to accept the throne, became king  The day before the abdication, Albert went to London to see his mother, Queen Mary  He wrote in his diary, "When I told her what had happened, I broke down and sobbed like a child "On the day of Edward's abdication, the Oireachtas, the parliament of the Irish Free State, removed all direct mention of the monarch from the Irish constitution  The next day, it passed the External Relations Act, which gave the monarch limited authority (strictly on the advice of the government) to appoint diplomatic representatives for Ireland and to be involved in the making of foreign treaties  The two acts made the Irish Free State a republic in essence without removing its links to the Commonwealth Across Britain, gossip spread that Albert was physically and psychologically incapable of being king  No evidence has been found to support the contemporaneous rumour that the government considered bypassing him, his children and his brother Prince Henry, in favour of their younger brother Prince George, Duke of Kent  This seems to have been suggested on the grounds that Prince George was at that time the only brother with a son 

Early reign
Albert assumed the regnal name "George VI" to emphasise continuity with his father and restore confidence in the monarchy  The beginning of George VI's reign was taken up by questions surrounding his predecessor and brother, whose titles, style and position were uncertain  He had been introduced as "His Royal Highness Prince Edward" for the abdication broadcast, but George VI felt that by abdicating and renouncing the succession, Edward had lost the right to bear royal titles, including "Royal Highness"  In settling the issue, George's first act as king was to confer upon his brother the title "Duke of Windsor" with the style "Royal Highness", but the letters patent creating the dukedom prevented any wife or children from bearing royal styles  George VI was forced to buy from Edward the royal residences of Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House, as these were private properties and did not pass to him automatically  Three days after his accession, on his 41st birthday, he invested his wife, the new queen consort, with the Order of the Garter 

George VI's coronation at Westminster Abbey took place on 12 May 1937, the date previously intended for Edward's coronation  In a break with tradition, his mother Queen Mary attended the ceremony in a show of support for her son  There was no Durbar held in Delhi for George VI, as had occurred for his father, as the cost would have been a burden to the Government of India  Rising Indian nationalism made the welcome that the royal party would have received likely to be muted at best, and a prolonged absence from Britain would have been undesirable in the tense period before the Second World War  Two overseas tours were undertaken, to France and to North America, both of which promised greater strategic advantages in the event of war The growing likelihood of war in Europe dominated the early reign of George VI  The King was constitutionally bound to support British prime minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler  When the King and Queen greeted Chamberlain on his return from negotiating the Munich Agreement in 1938, they invited him to appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with them  This public association of the monarchy with a politician was exceptional, as balcony appearances were traditionally restricted to the royal family  While broadly popular among the general public, Chamberlain's policy towards Hitler was the subject of some opposition in the House of Commons, which led historian John Grigg to describe George's behaviour in associating himself so prominently with a politician as "the most unconstitutional act by a British sovereign in the present century" 

In May and June 1939, the King and Queen toured Canada and the United States; it was the first visit of a reigning British monarch to North America, although George had been to Canada prior to his accession  From Ottawa, George and Elizabeth were accompanied by Canadian prime minister Mackenzie King, to present themselves in North America as King and Queen of Canada  Both Mackenzie King and the Canadian governor general, Lord Tweedsmuir, hoped that George's presence in Canada would demonstrate the principles of the Statute of Westminster 1931, which gave full sovereignty to the British Dominions  On 19 May, George personally accepted and approved the Letter of Credence of the new U S  ambassador to Canada, Daniel Calhoun Roper; gave royal assent to nine parliamentary bills; and ratified two   international treaties with the Great Seal of Canada  The official royal tour historian, Gustave Lanctot, wrote "the Statute of Westminster had assumed full reality" and George gave a speech emphasising "the free and equal association of the nations of the Commonwealth" The trip was intended to soften the strong isolationist tendencies among the North American public with regard to the developing tensions in Europe  Although the aim of the tour was mainly political, to shore up Atlantic support for the United Kingdom in any future war, the King and Queen were enthusiastically received by the public  The fear that George would be compared unfavourably to his predecessor was dispelled  They visited the 1939 New York World's Fair and stayed with President Franklin D  Roosevelt at the White House and at his private estate at Hyde Park, New York  A strong bond of friendship was forged between Roosevelt and the royal couple during the tour, which had major significance in the relations between the United States and the United Kingdom through the ensuing war years 

Second World War
Following the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, the United Kingdom and the self-governing Dominions other than Ireland declared war on Nazi Germany  The King and Queen resolved to stay in London, despite German bombing raids  They officially stayed in Buckingham Palace throughout the war, although they usually spent nights at Windsor Castle  The first night of the Blitz on London, on 7 September 1940, killed about one thousand civilians, mostly in the East End  On 13 September, the couple narrowly avoided death when two German bombs exploded in a courtyard at Buckingham Palace while they were there  In defiance, Elizabeth declared: "I am glad we have been bombed  It makes me feel we can look the East End in the face " The royal family were portrayed as sharing the same dangers and deprivations as the rest of the country  They were subject to British rationing restrictions, and U S  First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt remarked on the rationed food served and the limited bathwater that was permitted during a stay at the unheated and boarded-up Palace  In August 1942, the King's brother, the Duke of Kent, was killed on active service 

In 1940, Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain as prime minister, though personally George would have preferred to appoint Lord Halifax  After the King's initial dismay over Churchill's appointment of Lord Beaverbrook to the Cabinet, he and Churchill developed "the closest personal relationship in modern British history between a monarch and a Prime Minister"  Every Tuesday for four and a half years from September 1940, the two men met privately for lunch to discuss the war in secret and with frankness  George related much of what the two discussed in his diary, which is the only extant first-hand account of these conversations Throughout the war, George and Elizabeth provided morale-boosting visits throughout the United Kingdom, visiting bomb sites, munitions factories, and troops  George visited military forces abroad in France in December 1939, North Africa and Malta in June 1943, Normandy in June 1944, southern Italy in July 1944, and the Low Countries in October 1944  Their high public profile and apparently indefatigable determination secured their place as symbols of national resistance  At a social function in 1944, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Field Marshal Alan Brooke, revealed that every time he met Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, he thought Montgomery was after his job  George replied: "You should worry, when I meet him, I always think he's after mine!"In 1945, crowds shouted "We want the King!" in front of Buckingham Palace during the Victory in Europe Day celebrations  In an echo of Chamberlain's appearance, the King invited Churchill to appear with the royal family on the balcony to public acclaim  In January 1946, George addressed the United Nations at its first assembly, which was held in London, and reaffirmed "our faith in the equal rights of men and women and of nations great and small" 

Empire to Commonwealth
George VI's reign saw the acceleration of the dissolution of the British Empire  The Statute of Westminster 1931 had already acknowledged the evolution of the Dominions into separate sovereign states  The process of transformation from an empire to a voluntary association of independent states, known as the Commonwealth, gathered pace after the Second World War  During the ministry of Clement Attlee, British India became the two independent Dominions of India and Pakistan in August 1947  George relinquished the title of Emperor of India, and became King of India and King of Pakistan instead  In late April 1949, the Commonwealth leaders issued the London Declaration, which laid the foundation of the modern Commonwealth and recognised George as Head of the Commonwealth  In January 1950, he ceased to be King of India when it became a republic  He remained King of Pakistan until his death  Other countries left the Commonwealth, such as Burma in January 1948, Palestine (divided between Israel and the Arab states) in May 1948 and the Republic of Ireland in 1949 In 1947, George and his family toured southern Africa  The prime minister of the Union of South Africa, Jan Smuts, was facing an election and hoped to make political capital out of the visit  George was appalled, however, when instructed by the South African government to shake hands only with whites, and referred to his South African bodyguards as "the Gestapo"  Despite the tour, Smuts lost the election the following year, and the new government instituted a strict policy of racial segregation 

Illness and death
The stress of the war had taken its toll on George's health, made worse by his heavy smoking, and subsequent development of lung cancer among other ailments, including arteriosclerosis and Buerger's disease  A planned tour of Australia and New Zealand was postponed after George developed an arterial blockage in his right leg, which threatened the loss of the leg and was treated with a right lumbar sympathectomy in March 1949  His elder daughter and heir presumptive, Elizabeth, took on more royal duties as her father's health deteriorated  The delayed tour was re-organised, with Princess Elizabeth and her husband, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, taking the place of the King and Queen 
George was well enough to open the Festival of Britain in May 1951, but on 4 June it was announced that he would need immediate and complete rest for the next four weeks, despite the arrival of Haakon VII of Norway the following afternoon for an official visit  On 23 September 1951, he underwent a surgical operation where his entire left lung was removed by Clement Price Thomas after a malignant tumour was found  In October 1951, Elizabeth and Philip went on a month-long tour of Canada; the trip had been delayed for a week due to George's illness  At the State Opening of Parliament in November, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Simonds, read the King's speech from the throne  The King's Christmas broadcast of 1951 was recorded in sections, and then edited together On 31 January 1952, despite advice from those close to him, George went to London Airport to see Elizabeth and Philip off on their tour to Australia via Kenya  It was his last public appearance  Six days later, at 07:30 GMT on the morning of 6 February, he was found dead in bed at Sandringham House in Norfolk  He had died in the night from a coronary thrombosis at the age of 56  His daughter flew back to Britain from Kenya as Queen Elizabeth II From 9 February George's coffin rested in St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham, before lying in state at Westminster Hall from 11 February  His funeral took place at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on the 15th  He was interred initially in the Royal Vault until he was transferred to the King George VI Memorial Chapel inside St George's on 26 March 1969  In 2002, fifty years after his death, the remains of his widow, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and the ashes of his younger daughter, Princess Margaret, who both died that year, were interred in the chapel alongside him  In 2022, the remains of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, were also interred in the chapel 

Legacy
In the words of Labour Member of Parliament (MP) George Hardie, the abdication crisis of 1936 did "more for republicanism than fifty years of propaganda"  George VI wrote to his brother Edward that in the aftermath of the abdication he had reluctantly assumed "a rocking throne" and tried "to make it steady again"  He became king at a point when public faith in the monarchy was at a low ebb  During his reign, his people endured the hardships of war, and imperial power was eroded  However, as a dutiful family man and by showing personal courage, he succeeded in restoring the popularity of the monarchy The George Cross and the George Medal were founded at the King's suggestion during the Second World War to recognise acts of exceptional civilian bravery  He bestowed the George Cross on the entire "island fortress of Malta" in 1943  He was posthumously awarded the Order of Liberation by the French government in 1960, one of only two people (the other being Churchill in 1958) to be awarded the medal after 1946 Colin Firth won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as George VI in the 2010 film The King's Speech 

Titles, honours and arms
As Duke of York, Albert bore the royal arms of the United Kingdom differenced with a label of three points argent, the centre point bearing an anchor azure—a difference earlier awarded to his father, George V, when he was Duke of York, and then later awarded to his grandson Prince Andrew, Duke of York  As king, he bore the royal arms undifferenced 

Issue
Ancestry
Notes
Passage 5:
Raymond Márquez
Raymond Márquez (born 1930), a k a  "Spanish Raymond", is an American criminal  He was the "king" of the illegal numbers racket in Harlem from the 1950s until his retirement in 2001 

Early years
Márquez's parents moved from Puerto Rico to New York City in the late 1920s and settled in the Harlem section of Manhattan  He was born and raised in Harlem; there he also received his primary and secondary education  His father was able to establish a grocery store; however, the family economic situation was not a good one and when Márquez graduated from Textile High School in 1947, at the age of 17, his parents were unable to send him to college 

Harlem numbers racket and legal battles
In 1947, Márquez looked upon people who were prosperous, well dressed and involved in numbers activities as his role models  He began his career in the Harlem numbers racket as a pickup boy  As a pick up boy, he would go around Harlem, gathering the betting slips from the runners  The runners are those who solicited the wagers from the betting customers  Márquez would then turn in the slips to a regional controller and eventually the listed slips would end up at the headquarters of the gambling organization, known as a bank  Márquez branched out for himself within a year and gained a reputation for paying winning customers promptly Márquez had few legal scrapes during his early years  By 1958, law enforcement authorities publicly identified him as an underworld kingpin  and that is when an investigator from the New York Police Department (NYPD), nicknamed him "Spanish Raymond", a moniker which has stood since then  Also in 1958, Márquez was accused in a killing related to his gambling activities  A grand jury failed to indict him for the murder  Márquez acknowledged bribing the police in the 1950s and 1960s to prevent raids on his illicit network  Márquez also was believed to have paid a percentage of his profits to Mafia boss Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno  Márquez denied that he did business with the Mafia, and said that while he was friends with Salerno he was not a business partner 

First conviction
In 1969, Márquez was arrested by the FBI on Federal gambling and extortion charges  He was convicted and sentenced to concurrent terms of three and five years imprisonment  He served a total of five years from 1970 to 1975  In 1975  he was released and continued in his former activities  This was during the post Knapp Commission era in which the NYPD was the focus of a scandal arising from pervasive corruption and the crackdown on the numbers racket was sidelined due to a moratorium on numbers gambling resulting from concerns that systemic corruption of the NYPD would continue to flourish  Protection payoffs to the police were no longer necessary Two years after his release from prison, in 1977, Márquez was briefly kidnapped, and was freed after payment of $8,100 in jewelry as ransom by his wife  He was found in the trunk of his car in Flushing, Queens  Márquez was identified in The New York Times as allegedly running a $25 million a year numbers racket Márquez received attention in the late 1970s, when a New York State Supreme Court justice, Andrew Tyler, was convicted of perjury for allegedly lying about a meeting with Márquez in 1975  The conviction was overturned in 1978 

Controversial investments
In April 1994, he was arrested on state gambling charges  Prosecutors claimed that he had amassed a small fortune by illegal means and that therefore said fortune should be confiscated  The indictment led to a legal battle over attempts by city authorities to seize $6 5 million from him in unpaid taxes from wealth that they say was generated by illegal activities from 1990 to 1993  The prosecutors contended that Márquez and his organization handled about $30 million a year in wagers that were made at 41 parlors and that his organization faxed the reported earnings to his wife's yacht  His wife, Alice, also pleaded guilty to a gambling charge Márquez claimed that his wife had accumulated a fortune, including three motels, a 63-foot yacht and a home in Great Neck, New York, through legitimate investments  It was later shown that the home, the yacht and motels had all been acquired prior to 1990 In 1995, Márquez was indicted on 221 counts of running a criminal enterprise  The charges were reduced to two counts, a "C" felony for attempted enterprise corruption and "E" felony for promoting gambling 

Dramatic arrests
On January 13, 1995, 500 NYPD police officers raided 69 locations, including nearly a dozen money banks, which were allegedly under the Márquez family's control  Police arrested 75 employees on felony gambling charges, confiscated over $100,000 in cash, and seized over a dozen keys to safety deposit boxes According to a law enforcement official, the operation was managed by his two nephews, Peter and Robert Márquez Jr , grossed between $25 and $30 million per year, and was headquartered in a row of four contiguous buildings on St  Nicholas Avenue and 113th Street which were connected by a series of doors, tunnels and trapdoors  Robert and Peter Márquez were arrested, along with their sister, Christine, and father Fernando 

An ill-advised plea bargain
In April 1996, Márquez pleaded guilty after making an agreement with the District Attorney's office to forfeit $1 million and to serve a 90-day jail sentence with four years and nine months of probation However, it was discovered by the Appeals Bureau at the D A 's office that a split sentence with a "C" felony was reserved only for those with a narcotics conviction, thus making the deal invalid  Márquez's lawyer sought to withdraw the guilty plea, which was denied by the court  Márquez was sentenced to five years' probation and a $1 million fine In 1998, Márquez and three associates were indicted on 52 counts and charged with running a criminal organization, in the culmination of a year-long NYPD investigation  The prosecution built a case on circumstantial evidence consisting of recordings of Márquez's cell-phone conversations and numerous surveillance videos and photographs of him driving by reputed gambling parlors  Márquez, who was represented by his son, claimed that he was doing research on his autobiography and that was the reason that he showed up on the surveillance tapes  He and three co-defendants were all acquitted after a three-month trial 

Lawsuit against New York City
In 2001, Márquez sued the City of New York for $15 million, claiming that he contracted bladder cancer caused by the secondhand cigarette smoke he inhaled at Rikers Island and the Tombs while confined there for 29 months in the 1990s  Márquez admitted he smoked for three decades before quitting in the 1970s  His son and lawyer, David Márquez, maintained that he had not inhaled deeply when he smoked, that the ventilation system at Rikers Island was inadequate, and that by the time he went to Rikers he hadn't smoked in 23 years  In 2008, a jury rejected the claim after a trial in New York State Supreme Court 

Retirement
Márquez announced his retirement in 2001, saying that he was fed up of being targeted by the office of Manhattan's District Attorney Robert M  Morgenthau  In an interview with the New York Daily News, Márquez described the numbers game as "a source of entertainment to the people" and professed his innocence to the various criminal charges that had been leveled against him over the years  Prosecutors responded that Márquez's "saint act doesn't ring true" and that numbers rackets enforce their control through violence Márquez runs and manages hotels in Commack, Long Island, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida  In 2011, Márquez was targeted by New York City authorities for owing $1 6 million in unincorporated business taxes, making him one of the city's top scofflaws  His son said Márquez would never pay it, saying that Márquez was judgement-proof 

See also
List of Puerto Ricans

Further reading
Gangsters of Harlem by Ron Chepesiuk; Publisher: Barricade Books; ISBN 1-56980-318-8; ISBN 978-1-56980-318-9



ground_truth: Colin Firth

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: What is the abbreviated name of the exclusive platform of the video game named for the league with a halftime event just before the publishers clearing house sweepstakes drawing.

The following are given passages.
Context 4:  Parker Brothers acquired Magie's patent to The Landlord's Game but although both patents had the same name they covered different claims  The substitution or confusion of the early patent for the latter is still commonplace 

See also
Ralph Anspach's Anti-Monopoly
Bertell Ollman's Class Struggle
Passage 8:
Nicholas Eftimiades
Nicholas Eftimiades is an American government official, author, and educator best known for his work Chinese Intelligence Operations (1994)  He currently resides in the Tokyo area  He is a current professor at Penn State Harrisburg 

Education
Eftimiades graduated from George Washington University with a B A  in East Asian Studies and the National Defense Intelligence College with a M S  in Strategic Intelligence   He also did undergraduate and graduate work in Asia   He is a Visiting Research Fellow at King's College, War Studies Department, London, United Kingdom 

Government career
Nicholas Eftimiades' 30 year government career includes seven years at the National Security Space Office leading engineering teams designing "generation after next" national security space capabilities  He was also Senior Technical Officer in the Defense Intelligence Agency, Future's Division, and Chief of DIA's Space Division  He served as DIA's lead for national space policy and strategy development Mr  Eftimiades has provided numerous briefings and testimony on national security, technology, and space exploration issues to senior policy officials and the U S  Congress  He testified before the President's Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy   He has sponsored and chaired international conferences on U S  and foreign defense policy issues   He is a frequent lecturer and public speaker on future technology and societal changes and national security issues 

Chinese Intelligence Operations
Eftimiades first came into public view in 1994 with the publication of his book Chinese Intelligence Operations (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland , March 1994)  The book is an examination of the structure, operations, and methodology of the intelligence services of the People's Republic of China  The book received worldwide recognition with the Chinese government declaring Eftimiades "an enemy of the people" in the People's Daily newspaper  To date, the book remains the only scholarly analysis of China's intelligence services and operational methodology Chinese Intelligence Operations gained worldwide attention when one of the Chinese companies identified as having a relationship with China's intelligence services was identified as a donor to the Bill Clinton presidential campaign through the Democratic National Committee  This revelation resulted in Eftimiades appearing on TV, radio, and being quoted in newspapers   He appeared on CBS Evening News with Connie Chung, Dateline NBC, ABC's Day One, BBC America, National Public Radio and many other television and radio broadcasts    Some organizations protested the CBS news broadcast as being racist  Eftimiades testified before the U S  Congress on several occasions 

Science Fiction
Eftimiades' most recent work is a political and philosophical satire entitled Edward of Planet Earth   The book is influenced by authors such as Alexander Zinoviev and Ignazio Silone—names not normally associated with science fiction   The story takes place 200 years in the future and centers on a man, his computer friends, a female companion and their quest to communicate with God 

Non-Profit Activity
In 2001, Eftimiades founded a non-profit educational organization entitled the Federation of Galaxy Explorers to inspire youth interest in science and engineering   Students in the Galaxy Explorers program attend after school "Mission Team" meetings where they participate in hands-on lessons that support National Science Education Standards  Mission Team members are rewarded for participation and achievements with ribbons, patches, medals, and certificates   In addition to Mission Teams, Galaxy Explorers also have Summer Camps, Star Parities, and the Battle of the Rockets Competition 
Passage 9:
Stephen Henry Parker
Sir Stephen Henry Parker  (7 November 1846 – 13 December 1927) was a lawyer and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Western Australia from 1906 to 1914 

Biography
Early life
Stephen Henry Parker was the second son of Stephen Stanley Parker (1817–1904) and his wife Elizabeth, née Sewell  He was the grandson of Stephen Parker (c  1795 – 1879), a pioneer settler in York, Western Australia  Parker was educated at the Bishop's School, Perth, and was called to the bar in 1868 

Career
He became a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council and advocated responsible government for the colony  In 1878 he moved for the introduction of a bill to amend the constitution, but this motion was defeated  A constitution bill for responsible government was passed by the Legislative Council on 26 April 1889, but was met with some opposition in the British House of Commons  It was suggested and agreed that a delegation consisting of the retiring governor, Sir Frederick Broome, Sir Thomas Cockburn-Campbell and Parker should go to London to see the bill through the British parliament  The delegation was able to give a good answer to all objections raised, and subsequently the bill was passed and became law 
He served as colonial secretary in the John Forrest ministry from October 1892 to December 1894 when he retired  He was also chairman of the Perth City Council from November 1877 to 1879, for a few months in 1880-81 and Mayor from February to October 1892  In 1881, he joined with his brother George to form the well known law firm Parker and Parker (which in 1997 merged with the Perth office of Freehill Hollingdale & Page) 

Personal life and death
He married Amey Katharine Leake, daughter of George Walpole Leake on 27 July 1872   She died in 1914   They had four sons and seven daughters who reached adulthood  Their second son Hubert Stanley Wyborn Parker (1883-1966) was the member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for North-East Fremantle in 1930-33, and of the Western Australian Legislative Council for Metropolitan-Suburban province in 1934-54  He was attorney-general for two months in 1933 and chief secretary in 1948-50 
Parker, and his brother George, were heavily involved with the East Perth (now known as Perth) Cricket Club in the W A C A  Competition  He was club President from 1899 to 1903 
He died on 13 December 1927 

See also
Judiciary of Australia
Passage 10:
Elizabeth Blanchard (educator)
Elizabeth Blanchard (1834–1891) was an American educator who was the seventh president of Mount Holyoke College (as Principal and Acting President) 
Blanchard graduated from Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1858, and taught there for twelve years before becoming the Associate Principal from 1872-1883   She served as Principal from 1883-1888   When Mount Holyoke Female Seminary received its collegiate charter and became Mount Holyoke College, she served as Acting President from 1888-1889 

See also
Presidents of Mount Holyoke College
Passage 11:
Elizabeth Gertrude Britton
Elizabeth Gertrude Britton (née Knight) (January 9, 1858 – February 25, 1934) was an American botanist, bryologist, and educator  She and her husband, Nathaniel Lord Britton played a significant role in the fundraising and creation of the New York Botanical Garden  She was a co-founder of the predecessor of the American Bryological and Lichenological Society  She was an activist for the protection of wildflowers, inspiring local chapter activities and the passage of legislation  Elizabeth Britton made major contributions to the literature of mosses, publishing 170 papers in that field 

Early life and family
Elizabeth Gertrude Knight was born on January 9, 1858, in New York City, one of five daughters, to James and Sophie Anne (née Compton) Knight  Her family operated a furniture factory and sugar plantation in the vicinity of Matanzas, Cuba, and she spent much of her childhood there  In later childhood, she attended a private school in New York before attending Normal College (later, Hunter College)  She graduated from Normal College in 1875, at the early age of seventeen  On August 27, 1885, she married Nathaniel Lord Britton, an assistant in geology at Columbia College who shared her growing interest in botany  The couple had no children 

Career
After graduation in 1875, Elizabeth Knight joined the staff of Normal College as a critic teacher  She joined the Torrey Botanical Club in 1879, and in 1881 she published her first scientific paper in that organization's Bulletin, reporting observations of unexpected white flowers in two species of plants  She also observed the presence of a curlygrass fern, Schizaea pusilla, in Nova Scotia  In 1883, she became a tutor in natural science  It was at this time that she began to specialize in bryology and her first paper concerning mosses appeared  Britton collected fertile specimens of Eustichium norvegicum in Wisconsin and wrote the first description of its fruits  Although known since 1827, the plant had hitherto been known only in a sterile condition  Her Observer articles were models of popular scientific writings on plants which had “fanciful” titles like “The Humpbacked Elves” and “The Brownies ”After her marriage in 1885, Britton resigned her teaching position at Normal College, and took charge of the moss collections at Columbia in an unofficial, unpaid capacity  She served as editor of the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club from 1886 to 1888; in 1889, she published the first of an eleven-part series of papers titled Contributions to American Bryology in that journal  Her catalogue of the mosses of West Virginia appeared in 1892, and the first of eight articles titled How to Study the Mosses for a popular magazine was published in 1894  These papers "sufficed to place Mrs  Britton in command of the bryological field in America " She worked with her husband to acquire for Columbia the moss herbarium of August Jaeger of Switzerland; Britton persuaded wealthy friends to contribute the necessary $6,000 
Britton, along with her husband, was one of the Torrey Botanical Club members who spurred the establishment of the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG)  The couple also travelled to England in 1888 where Nathaniel was performing research at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew  At Kew Nathaniel worked on the Bolivian botanical collections of Henry Hurd Rusby, a gift to Columbia; meanwhile, Elizabeth worked on mosses at the Linnean Society of London  Inspired by the quality and quantity of Kew's herbarium, library, and gardens, the couple set about organizing an institution of comparable stature for New York  A Club meeting was held in October, 1888 where rich and prominent citizens were recruited as incorporators  The Botanical Garden was established by act of the state legislature in 1891  Britton was important in the efforts to raise funds for the organization in the 1890s  Her husband became the first director of the Botanical Garden in 1896, whilst she volunteered there  It was largely through her interest that the collection of liverworts and mosses of William Mitten was acquired for the NYBG in 1906  In recognition of her service, Britton was named Honorary Curator of the Mosses in 1912, a post which she held until her death Britton enumerated the ferns in the Rusby collection in 1888 and she published her examination of the Rusby mosses in 1896 

Britton travelled to various locations in the United States to collect botanical specimens, including the Great Dismal Swamp, the Adirondack Mountains, and the mountains of North Carolina  She accompanied Nathaniel on 23 of the 25 trips he made to the islands of the Caribbean and West Indies  Under her own name, she published her findings in the Bulletin in 1913–1915  Britton wrote the chapters concerning mosses for Nathaniel's Flora of Bermuda and The Bahama Flora Britton worked with organizations to promote the study of mosses, especially by women scientists and she chaired the division of Bryophyta for the (Women's) National Science Club (NWSC) in 1897 As part of her unofficial position at Columbia, Britton acted as advisor to doctoral students, including James Franklin Collins and Abel Joel Grout  Together, in 1898 Grout and Britton founded the Sullivant Moss Chapter of the Agassiz Association  By 1908, it was known as the Sullivant Moss Society (and after 1949, as the American Bryological and Lichenological Society)  Although relations between the two researchers later became chilly, Britton continued to participate in the Society, contributing articles to The Bryologist, its journal, and serving as its president from 1916 to 1919 Britton continued to study plants other than mosses  She published A Revision of the North American Species of Ophioglossum, the adder's-tongue ferns, in 1897  With Delia West Marble, she collected the type specimen of Thelypteris brittonae, a species of maiden fern, in 1906  Britton collected the type specimen for the orchid now named Britton's shadow witch (Ponthieva brittoniae) 

In the first decade of the 20th century, Britton began to devote her time to the conservation of wildflowers  A gift of $3,000 by Olivia and Caroline Phelps Stokes to the NYBG spurred the creation of the Wild Flower Preservation Society of America  The first meeting was held on April 23, 1902 where Frederick Vernon Coville was elected president, Charles Louis Pollard was elected secretary, and Britton was elected to the Board of Managers  Other members of the board included Charles Edwin Bessey, Liberty Hyde Bailey, William Trelease, Charles Frederick Millspaugh and Alice Eastwood  Britton went on to serve as secretary and treasurer of the organization  The Society established numerous local chapters  It was incorporated in the state of New York in 1915, then reorganized as the Wild Flower Preservation Society in 1925, with Percy L  Ricker as its head  Britton promoted the cause for nearly 35 years, by publishing, lecturing, and conducting correspondence; her efforts led to adoption of legislation in various states, as well as local conservation activities in garden clubs and public schools  She published fourteen articles in the NYBG's Journal under the series title of Wild Plants Needing Protection 
In 1925, as chair of the conservation committee of the Federated Garden Clubs of New York State, Britton successfully led a boycott campaign against the common practice of harvesting wild American holly for use as a Christmas decoration  As a substitute, she promoted the propagation of the plant by cuttings for commercial use 
All told, during the period 1881 to 1930, Britton published 346 papers, of which 170 dealt with mosses  She wrote descriptions of six families of mosses for the New York Botanical Garden's Flora of America  Marshall Avery Howe described Britton as "a woman of extraordinary physical and mental energy—the possessor of a remarkably quick and brilliant intellect  She has left an enduring record in the literature of science, and her well-directed activities have had an outstanding influence in the conservation of the native flora of the United States "

Wild Plants Needing Protection
Wild Plants Needing Protection, written by Britton, is a New York Botanical Garden journal comprising fourteen articles  In the journal, she gives an in depth description of different wild plants and their importance to their environment  Each plant section included an illustration of the plant described, while also giving descriptions of both the scientific and historical background of the plants  This is shown in Britton’s journal of “Spring Beauty”: 

“The Spring Beauty was named by Linnaeus in 1753 in honor of John Clayton, an American botanist, and correspondent, who wrote, in 1743, a flora of Virginia " Britton then goes over how there are about twenty-five species of Claytonia plants  Her Journal entry of “Wild Pink” is an example of her descriptions which is conveyed within the writing when she states:“before the trees cast much shade, while their greens are still so exquisitely fresh and varied, a bright flash of color will attract the eye to the Wild Pink, growing in hilly places on rocks or often in their cracks and crevices with the Saxifrage "

Recognition and legacy
In 1893, Britton was the only woman among the 25 scientists nominated for charter membership in the Botanical Society of America  In 1905, she was one of three bryologists appointed to the nomenclature committee that would report to the 1910 meeting of the International Botanical Congress in Brussels  In 1906, Britton was one of only nineteen women listed in the first edition of American Men of Science  Her entry was marked with an asterisk: this "starred" listing was limited to the top 1,000 scientists in the book, as determined by the editors  Britton was starred in the five editions of the book that appeared through 1933 The moss genus Bryobrittonia is named for Elizabeth Britton, as well as fifteen species of plants and one of animals Mount Britton, a double peak in El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico, honors both of the Brittons In 1940, a memorial plaque in honor of Britton was installed in the new Wild Flower Garden of the New York Botanical Garden  A gift of the New York Bird and Tree Club, it is mounted on a ten-ton boulder of Bronx schist, and its text reads, "Let those who find pleasure in this garden remember Elizabeth Gertrude Knight Britton, lover of wildflowers and ardent advocate of their protection"  The garden is now known as the Native Plant Garden, and the boulder as Britton Rock Today, the Elizabeth Gertrude Knight Britton archive is held by the NYBG Mertz Library  It includes personal papers, manuscripts and published research, artwork and photographs, and printing plates  The archive documents Britton's teaching career at Normal College, as well as her participation in the Torrey Botanical Club and the NYBG  Her field notebooks can be found in the New York Botanical Garden Collectors' Field Notebook collection The character of Alma Whittaker in the 2013 novel The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert, is modeled in part on Britton 

Later life and death
Elizabeth Britton died at her home at 2965 Decatur Avenue in The Bronx on February 25, 1934, following an apoplectic stroke; her husband Nathaniel survived her by four months  Although she was nominally a member of the Episcopalian faith, she was buried in the Moravian Cemetery on Staten Island, where her husband's ancestors had been early settlers and he held property 

Selected publications
See also
The Britton Cottage
Timeline of women in science
Passage 12:
Mary Gaunt
Mary Eliza Bakewell Gaunt (20 February 1861 – 19 January 1942) was an Australian novelist and writer  born in Chiltern, Victoria  She also wrote collections of short stories, novellas, autobiographies, and non-fiction  She published her first novel Dave's Sweetheart in 1894  Gaunt visited many countries in her life and she wrote about her experiences in five travel books 

Early life and education
Mary was the elder daughter of William Henry Gaunt, a Victorian county court judge and Elizabeth Gaunt, née Palmer (c  1835–1922), and was born in Chiltern, Victoria  She was educated at Grenville College, Ballarat and the University of Melbourne, being one of the first two women students to be admitted there 

Career
She began writing for the press and in 1894 published her first novel Dave's Sweetheart  In the same year she married Dr Hubert Lindsay Miller (a widower) of Warrnambool, Victoria  He died in 1900, and, with only a small income, Gaunt (now also known as Mrs Mary Miller) went to London intending to earn a living by her writing  Gaunt left Melbourne on 15 March 1901 and never returned 
Gaunt had difficulties at first but eventually established herself, and was able to travel in the West Indies, in West Africa, and in China and other parts of the East  Her experiences were recorded in five pleasantly written travel books: Alone in West Africa (1912), A Woman in China (1914), A Broken Journey (1919), Where the Twain Meet (1922), Reflection - in Jamaica (1932)  In 1929 she also published George Washington and the Men Who Made the American Revolution  Between 1895 and 1934, 16 novels or collections of short stories were published, mostly with love and adventure interests  Three other novels were written in collaboration with John Ridgwell Essex  A collection of interviews with Mary were published in the 1925 Girls' Own Annual under the headings "Pioneering for Women" parts I, II, and III, and "Strange Journeys I Have Made" 
From the early 1920s, Gaunt lived mostly at Bordighera, Italy  In 1940 she fled Italy and died at Cannes in 1942  She had no children 
She had a sister Lucy, and brothers Cecil, Clive, Guy and Ernest; Guy and Ernest were both admirals of the Royal Navy, and Guy later became a Conservative Member of Parliament 

Bibliography
Novels
Dave's Sweetheart (1894)
Kirkham's Find (1897)
Deadman's: An Australian Story (1898)
Mistress Betty Carew (1903)
The Arm of the Leopard: A West African Story (1904) [with John Ridgwell Essex]
Fools Rush In (1906) [with John Ridgwell Essex]
The Silent Ones (1909) [with John Ridgwell Essex]
The Mummy Moves (1910)
The Uncounted Cost (1910)
Every Man's Desire (1913)
A Wind from the Wilderness (1919)
As the Whirlwind Passeth (1923)
The Forbidden Town (1926)
Saul's Daughter (1927)
The Lawless Frontier (1929)
Joan of the Pilchard (1930)
Harmony: A Tale of the Old Slave Days of Jamaica (1933)
Worlds Away (1934)

Novellas
Bingley's Gap (1888)
Down in the World (1893)
The Other Man (1894)

Short story collections
The Moving Finger (1895)
The Ends of the Earth : Stories (1915)
The Surrender and Other Happenings (1920)
Life at Deadman's : Stories of Colonial Victoria (2001)

Autobiography
Alone in West Africa (1912)
A Woman in China (1914)
A Broken Journey: Wanderings from the Hoang-Ho to Saghalien (1919)

Non-fiction
Where the Twain Meet (1922) - travel
Peeps at Great Men : George Washington and the Men Who Made the American Revolution (1929) - children's
Reflection in Jamaica (1932) - travel

Notes and references
Sources
E  Archer, 'Gaunt, Mary Eliza Bakewell (1861 - 1942)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 8, MUP, 1981, pp 632–633  Retrieved 30 October 2008
Serle, Percival (1949)  "Gaunt, Mary"  Dictionary of Australian Biography  Sydney: Angus & Robertson  Retrieved 30 October 2008 
Auslit Gaunt, Mary  (birth name: Gaunt, Mary Eliza Bakewell ) (a k a  Miller, Mary )

External links

Works by Mary Gaunt at Project Gutenberg
Works by Mary Gaunt at Project Gutenberg Australia
Works by or about Mary Gaunt at Internet Archive
Passage 13:
Pangasinan School of Arts and Trades
Pangasinan School of Arts and Trades, also referred to as PSAT, is a government institution of technical vocational education and training higher learning located in Alvear Street, Lingayen, Pangasinan, Philippines  PSAT is duly registered by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority  All PSAT programs are accredited by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) 
History: 
Pangasinan School of Arts and Trades (PSAT) is an outgrowth of the intermediate school organized by American Roy E  Blackman in 1904   It served as a normal training department for teachers who intended to teach shopwork in the different municipalities of Pangasinan   Through the late Provincial Governor, Hon  Isabelo Artacho, the Pangasinan Trade School building was constructed in its present site in 1907 
Mr  Jorge Garcia was the first Filipino principal and was succeeded by Martin Mendoza   It was during the incumbency of Mr  Mendoza in 1923 that the first year high school level of the trade school was introduced 
In 1920 the first batch of students of the four-year trade curriculum graduated   The shop courses offered then were Woodworking, Building Construction and Automotive 
In 1929 – 1930, the Pangasinan Vocational High School emerged as an offshoot of the merger of Home Economics Education, Normal Training Department and Trade Courses Program 
In 1935 – 1936, the Pangasinan High School and the Pangasinan Vocational High School were fused into one high school known as the Pangasinan Secondary School 
In 1939 – 1940, the Pangasinan Vocational High School became known as Pangasinan Trade School, an entirely separate entity from the Pangasinan High School of which it has earlier been a part 
On August 15, 1945, the Pangasinan Trade School was temporarily opened at Dagupan City due to the construction of the buildings in Lingayen 
On March 14, 1953, by virtue of Republic Act 704, the Pangasinan Trade School was converted into a National School of Arts and Trades and named as Pangasinan School of Arts and Trades (PSAT) whose curricular offerings were expanded to include Master of Arts in Vocational Technical Education, major in Practical Arts   This gave PSAT the distinction of being the only vocational school offering graduate studies, in Region I 
In 1987, the offering of post-secondary technical-vocational education was retrieved from the Pangasinan State University which brought with it all post-secondary courses upon its conversion as a state university in 1978 and only the secondary courses were left with PSAT 
In 1990, PSAT  was elevated as a Higher Technical Education institution by virtue of Republic Act 7078 
In 1995, PSAT was transferred t the administrative supervision of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) by virtue o Republic Act 7845  It was, however, only in 1997 that PSAT became a full-fledged CSI (CHED-Supervised Institution) 
On April 25, 2000, by virtue of CHED-TESDA Memorandum of Agreement, PSAT was transferred to the administrative supervision of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) 
On May 10, 2000 the Joint CHED-TESDA Memorandum Circular  No  1, s  2000, the Implementing Guidelines on the Transfer of CHED-Supervised Institutions (CSIs) to Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) was issued  Dr  Geronimo S  dela Cruz, Sr  was the first Vocational School Superintendent of PSAT under TESDA supervision 
On April 1, 2001, Dr  Lina C  Alcantara took over as the Officer-In-Charge   It was during her term when eleven (11) of the school offerings were registered under UTPRAS   Three courses (Garments, Computer Technician and Hotel and Restaurant Technology) were registered WTR and seven (7) courses were registered NTR 
On August 3, 2005, Manuel A  Jaramilla, Ph  D  assumed the position of Officer-In-Charge   It was during his term when Short-term courses were first offered which eventually boomed    It was also during his term when 16 courses were registered under WTR status in June, 2007   Technology Trainers were also granted Trainers’ Qualification I (TQ I) in support of the Competency Based Training Delivery 
On June 1, 2008, Clemencia T  Ibarra, CSEE and Civil Service Commission Local Scholarship Program – Masteral Degree Program and University of the Philippines Scholarship recipient assumed her post as Vocational School Superintendent I 
Her leadership and administration shall anchor in the full implementation of Competency Based Training Delivery, registration of short-term courses under WTR Status, institutional application and accreditation by Asia Pacific Accreditation and Certification Commission (APACC), improvement of school facilities, Instructional and Administrative Staff Development and Welfare Benefit Program, efficiency and transparency on school’s communication, financial, administrative, and supplies management, systems and processes, and institutionalization of income generating project 

Program Offerings
Junior & Senior High School
Automotive Servicing NC II
Bread and Pastry Production NC II
Commercial Cooking NC II
Computer Hardware Servicing NC II
Consumer Electronics Servicing NC II
Dressmaking NC II
Electrical Installation and Maintenance NC II
Food and Beverage Services NC II
Front Office Services NC II
Hairdressing NC II
Housekeeping NC II
Shielded Metal Arc Welding NC II
Trainer's Methodology Level I

External links
TESDA Accredited Assessment Centers – Pangasinan School of Arts and Trades
Passage 14:
Arthur Kroker
Arthur Kroker (born 1945) is a Canadian author, editor, educator and researcher of political science, technology and culture 

Life and career
He earned a PhD in political science from McMaster University in 1975  In addition to being a professor of political science at the University of Victoria, Kroker serves as director of the Pacific Centre for Technology and Culture (PACTAC), located at the university  Kroker was appointed to the Canada Research Chair in technology, culture and theory in 2003  He is the editor for the online academic journal CTheory, an international journal of theory, technology and culture 
Kroker has been an outspoken critic of the transformation of the early internet into a consumer-driven system ("virtual class")  Austrian magazine Monochrom interviewed him about his political motivations in 1996 He was married to Marilouise Kroker from 1971 until her death in 2018 

Bibliography
Books
Technology and the Canadian Mind: Innis, McLuhan, Grant (1984)
The Postmodern Scene: Excremental Culture and Hyper-Aesthetics (1987) (with David Cook)
Panic Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Postmodern Scene (1989) (with David Cook and Marilouise Kroker)
The Possessed Individual: Technology and the French Postmodern (1992)
SPASM: Virtual Reality, Android Music, and Electric Flesh (1993)
Data Trash: Theory of the Virtual Class (1994) (with Michael A  Weinstein)
Hacking the Future (1996) (with Marilouise Kroker)
The Will to Technology and the Culture of Nihilism: Heidegger, Nietzsche and Marx (2004)
Body Drift: Butler, Hayles, Haraway (2012)
Exits to the Posthuman Future (2014)
Technologies of the New Real: Viral Contagion and Death of the Social (2021) (with Marilouise Kroker)

As editor
Body Invaders: Panic Sex in America (1987) (with Marilouise Kroker)
The Hysterical Male: New Feminist Theory (1991) (with Marilouise Kroker)
The Last Sex: Feminism and Outlaw Bodies (1993) (with Marilouise Kroker)
Digital Delirium (1997) (with Marilouise Kroker)
Life in the Wires: The CTheory Reader (2004) (with Marilouise Kroker)
Critical Digital Studies: A Reader (2008) (with Marilouise Kroker)
Passage 15:
Poptropica
Poptropica is an online role-playing game, developed in 2007 by Pearson Education's Family Education Network, and targeted towards children aged 6 to 15  Poptropica was primarily the creation of Jeff Kinney, the author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series  As of 2015, he remains at the company as the Creative Director  The game primarily focuses on problem-solving through game quest scenarios, called "islands"  Islands all center on a problem that the player must resolve by going through multiple obstacles, collecting and using items, talking to various characters, and completing goals  All islands, upon completion, award "credits," which are non-negotiable currency that may be used to buy costumes and special effects in the Poptropica store 
In 2011, Poptropica was listed on Time magazine's list of "50 Websites that Make the Web Great", where it was described as "an inventive megasite for kids with a wholesome and slightly educational bent"  By 2012, the game had grown to have over 75 million registered users, with 35 million in the 15-25 age group  Versions of the game have been released on Nintendo DS and 3DS, iOS, and Android mobile devices  In May 2015, it was announced that Family Education Network was sold by Pearson to the interactive-education venture capitalist Sandbox Networks, and that Poptropica had "over 3 2 million monthly unique users in 200 countries and territories" In 2015, Poptropica was sold to educational-technology investment group, Sandbox Partners In 2020, because of the discontinuation of Adobe Flash, Poptropica began porting their old islands that were built on Adobe Flash over to an HTML5 format  As a result of Poptropica's utilization of varying Flash engines, a number of islands were unable to be ported immediately, and were effectively removed from the game  Fan archivists later made 35 islands available once again via the Basilisk browser within the Flashpoint program In April 2022, Poptropica announced that some of the old islands would return as part of a bundle on Steam  Though delayed by a day, the game was eventually released on May 26, 2022, and includes seventeen islands and Poptropica Realms 

Gameplay
When it first launched in 2007, Poptropica only had one island, titled Early Poptropica Island  By 2017, it had 58 islands to be explored, all with a different theme: examples include Back Lot Island, where the player helps produce a movie, and Super Power Island, where their goal is to defeat six super villains  Each island had its own quest, for which a player could receive an island medallion as well as 150 credits to spend in the in-game Poptropica Store  Starting July 6, 2011, Poptropica allowed players to replay islands without creating a new account, while still keeping track of all the Medallions the player had earned 

Advertisements
In addition to the available island quests, advertisers contract for temporary mini-games that appear on the site, sometimes targeted to players of a certain age group or gender  Regular advertisers have included Disney, Kellogg's Froot Loops, Lego toys, and various animated movies and DVD releases  Advertisement mini-games normally appear only during a two-week period  If the player completes an advertisement mini-game, they receive a temporary prize, usually related to the media being advertised 
A few Poptropica islands are themed after certain book series: these include Big Nate, Timmy Failure, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Magic Tree House  These islands are permanent, and can be played at any time  In 2015, a total of seven of these islands became members-only 

Mini-games
Poptropica features different mini-games that users can play with other people  These include Switch, Sudoku, Hoops, Sky Dive, Paint War, Star Link, Balloons, Soupwords and Pathwise  The game keeps track of how many times the player wins or loses a certain mini-game 

Spin-offs
Poptropica Adventures
In 2012, in partnership with Ubisoft, Poptropica released a video game for the Nintendo DS, titled Poptropica Adventures 

Poptropica: Forgotten Islands
On September 5, 2013, Poptropica launched Poptropica: Forgotten Islands, an iOS game, which allows players to meet new characters and discover story elements about Poptropica by finding artifacts littered throughout the game  It was also released on the Nintendo 3DS system through Ubisoft in 2014  It has been replaced on iOS and Android with a mobile version of the desktop Poptropica game 

Poptropica Worlds
On January 11, 2017, Poptropica announced via their blog that they were introducing another game called Poptropica Worlds, developed in Unity  It was released in spring 2017  Poptropica Worlds has new features, such as redesigned characters, customizable homes, and new islands  Returning players are able to port over their avatar's look and name to Poptropica Worlds  Poptropica Worlds can be played on both the web and mobile  If membership was bought for Poptropica, it carries over to Poptropica Worlds, and vice versa 



ground_truth: NES

Family Computer

Famicom

Nintendo Entertainment System